A little bit of everything

You may ask yourself "what's with the title?" Well, I will just come right out and say that this entry is going to include little bits of everything.

I recently read a blog post of a friend of mine who is student teaching in Indonesia. Her entries were filled with contemplative and precise descriptions.I thought to myself..."what are my blog entries like?" So, here I am about share not only my adventures, but thoughts as well because those will probably give you a better understanding of how things are going for me down here.

Middle school has been going quite well. It has amazed me to see how different students are after two years. Some things that I love about this age group are:
- They can be so childish and yet so grown up at the same time
- They are more responsible for themselves than 5th graders are
- They are funny and easier to relate to than I imagined!

But, there are also some things that are more challenging with this age:
- They can be so childish and yet so grown up at the same time.... :)
- It can sometimes be difficult to get them to pay attention and listen to my authority
- There are sometimes attitude issues to deal with, although nothing major has come up during my time here

As far as lesson planning goes, it has been more challenging for me than it was in 5th grade. I have only planned the lessons for Latin American History so far, but the text book is not good so I have had to research most of the information on my own. This also led to the issues of what to do with the information. I had to evaluate what I was learning and discern what the students should know and how they are going to learn it. All of my education courses kind of came upon me at one time as dealt with this challenge. The irony of it all, is that I will probably be planning in a similar fashion at SPH next year. It is another one of those things that God has put in my life to prepare me for the next step. Learning is never easy.

One thing I noticed when I researched Peru was my love for learning. I was so excited about Peru and all the information I had gathered about it. I almost had a desire to write a research paper or something with all of the information I found. Three and a half years of college must have done this to me. :) I never thought I would miss learning. But, in a way, I will always be learning because so much of teaching is also learning. It can just be overwhelming when you have to learn new information and then immediately teach it to a class full of kids. Gotta love school.

As much as I love to share my thoughts and experiences, the clock is ticking and I need to tell you a bit about my weekend before moving on to my lesson plans.

I had the wonderful opportunity to visit a new part of Nicaragua this past weekend. I went along with two families to Matagalpa which is a city in the North- west mountains of Nicaragua. We left on Friday and drove for 2-3 hours into the hills and country side. Our destination was a coffee farm. The owners had a separate building with guest rooms for visitors. I shared a room with Katie, my "little sister." On Friday night we were warmly welcomed with a fresh Nica meal. We ended up hitting the hay pretty early because everyone was tired.

The next morning we went down to breakfast and had a delicious meal complete with rice and beans (gallo pinto), tortilla's, eggs, and fresh fruit juice. We also got to taste the best coffee I have ever had. They had roasted their own beans and made the coffee fresh that morning. I also put some milk in my coffee that had come from the cow that morning. The farm has a bunch of milk cows that provide fresh milk and cheese. I have never experienced fresh dairy before, so this was a treat!

After breakfast we set out up the mountain. One of the workers took us for a hike up to the coffee plants. The road took us higher and higher into the cooler mountain air, which was a treat for us. The vegetation was beautiful and different than anything I have seen before. The coffee plants are actually quite small, so they grow under all of the bigger trees in the forest. On our hike, the kids found cool things like huge grasshoppers, beetles, and butterflies. I loved being outside and experiencing God's creation.

We came back down the mountain after the hike and had another wonderful meal at the ranch house. The owner told us that a calf had been born in the morning, so we went down to the cow area to check it out. The calf was really cute and was still getting used to it's legs. Much to our delight, the ranch hands were doing the milking when we stopped by. It was cool to see the milking in person. The older kids got a chance to try the milking too. I really wanted to try, but we were already slowing down the milking by having the kids try it out, so I will have to try some other time. If anyone has a diary, let me know when I can come by and try milking a cow!

After the milking we packed up the car and headed down the mountain and into the city of Matagalpa. We were actually quite pleased with the atmosphere and feel of Matagalpa. It is not as dirty and big as Managua, which is a nice change. It is always nice to get another picture of Nicaraguan culture, so this trip definitely helped in that area. We came back to Managua in the day light which was nice because we got to see the scenery on the way.

Sunday morning I awoke bright and early to go biking with Aimee and Carey. We did a solid 20km bike ride which included a few major hills. Besides Holland, this was the furthest I have ever biked. Although, I can probably just leave Holland out since it is flat. :) We took a right turn out of the compound and headed in the direction of the beach. It was nice to be out early in the cool of the day and see Nica people get ready for their daily activities. We did get to see one thing that made us laugh. One of the homes along the road had a U-haul as an addition to their home! The back was nicely fitted into the brick wall. If there is a will, there is a way.

Well, I guess this is the end of my ramblings for today. I am leaving for spring break to Costa Rica on Saturday, so this will probably be my last entry for a few weeks.

Until next time,

Michaela