Professional development workshops

This weekend I had the honor of traveling to the neighboring city of Villavicencio to teach professional development workshops to around 15 preschool teachers from Christian schools. “Preschool” is considered pre-jardin (4 years old or preschool), jardin (5 years old or kindergarten) and transicion (6 years old or first grade.)

I traveled with my teacher aide and the kinder teacher. We had a great time sharing ideas, discussing the importance of discipline and routines as well as making materials to take back to the classroom.

Our first session was on using common materials as learning tools. We gave the participants eggs cartons, paperclips and brads to make spinners and straws. Here are some of their creative ideas!

A boat with numbers to put counters into.

Matching shapes

Straws to make numbers for simple equations.

A crocodile with a mouth for more than and less than… or inside and outside.

Making pictures with different sized straws.

Part of this adventure was teaching a workshop for around 120 parents where we focused on working with the heart of the student, not just their behavior. We used the book “Shepherding a Child’s Heart” as the basis of our talk. During the parent workshop we shared strategies for understanding small children and helping them make good choices. We emphasized the consistency and discipline is very important.

Parent workshop- I’m speaking and my aide is translating (She’s a rock star!)

Saturday morning we went to look around at a Christian school in the area. It was fun to see the classrooms and environments the teachers in our workshops work in.

The Kinder room at one school.

 

The first grade room.

We ate some delicious food! Talk about a plate of meat!

Here’s the school that hosted our classes.

The second session we spent time discussion classroom routines and gave tips to help their days go smoother. We also taught a few songs in English. The last activity was making big books to use in the classroom.  They made books about creation, animals, the alphabet, time, friendship and several other creative ideas.

The kinder teacher and I kicking back.

My teacher aide and I loving some sandwich!

Over all this was a great experience. I was able to grow in my Spanish, as well as gained many ideas from other teachers for activities in the classroom. I was reminded how blessed I am to work in a Christian school where our values are the same. I hope the teachers involved were blessed through this time of learning and sharing!

Creation unit #1

For the first quarter of school we decided to learn all about creation and the wonderful things God created. Each week we have been focusing on a day a creation and learning about the specific things God created on that day. It’s been fun to see students engage with the world and explore all the wonderful things God created. It’s been 4 weeks now and here are some of the highlights:

 

Each week we have learned about a color. Our first week was yellow for light and dark. Look at all that yellow!

When we learned about day two we finger painted with mud. Some were very excited, while others were not so sure…

We learned about sun moon and stars and we drew with sidewalk chalk outside!

My favorite part of this unit so far has been the growing mural in the font of the class. Each week we add to our mural. This is at the end of day four and we have: light and dark, water above and water below. Land and plants. Sun, moon and stars. I am so excited to see the final project!!!

Staff retreat!

“So the last will be first and the first will be last.” Matthew 20:8

This year our school is focusing on service and will be unpacking this idea with students from PreKinder-12th grade throughout the year. However, before we can teach students we as staff must begin to understand as well.

This past weekend, Ed and I joined about 80 other staff members for a spiritual retreat. We headed out of Bogota on a two five hour bus ride (thank you construction zone!) to a small town. There we relaxed, played in the pool, and were challenged to understand God’s command of service at a deeper level.

One of the things that stood out to me most was the understanding that in order to serve, we must know who we are- sons and daughters of God. We looked at Jesus’ life and focused on the fact that in order for Jesus to be the ultimate servant (who died on the cross) he had to know that he was the son of God and that his Father had a purpose in his life on earth. In order for us to be able to really serve others, we must be focused on the Father and our relationship with him.

Besides teaching and learning- we also got to play a bit too. One of the highlights was seeing the collaboration of groups as we all wrote and performed songs outlining what we learned about service. Our group parroted the “We will rock you” song and switched it up to “we will serve you”. Ed and two of his groupies rocked it and now are considered rock stars in the ECA staff world.

We are excited about Colombia!

Just a little fighting...

And a lot of eating!

As well as rock starring

and naturizing

and maybe a little goofy-izing!

I can!

Our first unit in pre-kinder was labeled “I can”. During these two weeks we learned about all the things we can do in school. We read the book “All by myself” (Mercer Mayer) and played with lots of tin cans (yes, pun intended). We all learned how to say “I can…” as the first setence in English. Here are all the things we can do!

I can PAINT

I can PLAY OUTSIDE

I can SCULPT

  

I can PRETEND

 

I can RACE CARS

 

I can EXPLORE WITH MAGNETS

I can DO A PUZZLE

I can CLEAN UP

I can SLEEP

Pre-Kinder 2013 set up!

Well it’s been almost a full week of school. So far we have spent a lot of time learning routines, procedures, and more routines. The nerdy teacher part of me is pretty excited at how the classroom is set up, so I’d thought I’d share some pictures.

Teacher corner- I call it the brain of the classroom!

Dramatic play- For now it's a house

Library

Art and math/science center

Now class, this is where we hang out back packs

Carpet area!

Stars to help us line up in order

Classroom as a whole. I was super happy with the colored fabric on the ceiling!

Caught in between

I live in a place of constant tension.

I am very happy to call Bogota my home and I love serving at El Camino. I love the challenge of speaking Spanish, navigating Bogotian culture and not always understanding how to do simple tasks. At the same time I have moments where I long to be back in Oregon with my family and friends. Where I can read cultural cues, speak the language with only a small amount of confusion, and everyday tasks don’t consume my time.

I am happy where I am, but constantly wonder what my life would like life if I didn’t decide to follow Christ to Bogota.

I think this tension is healthy. I am here and there. I live in the present and yet long and wonder about the future. I think God placed me in this place to understand him and his purposes more. We as followers of Jesus are considered citizens of Heaven; the earth is not our home. We are placed on this beautiful ball of once-perfect creation to know and love him in the present. Yet at the same time we long for heaven and being in eternal worship of our savior- but he has said “NOT YET; I have work for you”.

Pslam 96:2b-3 says: Proclaim his salvation day by day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples.

If that is not a clear command of why we are here on earth, I dont know what it. Our job is to speak of salvation. Act as if we are saved from the sin of this world. Have an attitude that we are redeemed.

We may be citizens of heaven, but our residency in this time is here on earth. I can understand. I can live this.

First day of school!

Well, it’s here. The new school year. Every year our first day includes 2 hours with the students and a picnic afterwards with all the families. It was so fun to see parents of my students from last year as well as begin to meet the new ones. This year my class is 13 boys and 8 girls. If today is any indication, it is going to be a talkative, energetic group! Ed was able to hang out with all of his students as they checked out books and met the new teachers.

Earlier this week my co-teacher shared with me some verses that God had given her about our role as teachers. Proverbs 31:8-9

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,
for the rights of all who are destitute.
Speak up and judge fairly;
defend the rights of the poor and needy.

She said that a bit part of our job is to be a voice for our students to their parents and to the school. This has stuck with me this week as we prepare. A reminder that in order for me to speak up for someone I have to know them- their strengths and weaknesses. My prayer is that I can know my children the same way that Christ knows them. One day at a time. Listening. Watching. Caring. I am excited to see how I can serve these students and love them as Jesus does.

On a lighter note, here are some pictures:

Ed looking snazzy!

Pre-Kinder team 2013! Pre-Kinder door   

Panorama of the pre-kinder classroom

Hello, my name is…

Every culture has a way of naming people. In Mali last names were important as they identified a person with their “name family” which gave them status and joking rights (bean eaters was a common insult). In Colombia there is also a different systems of names which has lead to confusion and some very awkward moments in my life.

Here are two key differences between Colombian and North American methods of names:

1. When a woman marries, she does not change her last name.

2. When a child is born, the child is given two last names: the first last name of the father and the first last name of the mother. For example, if I was Colombian, my name would be: Sarah Silberstein-Mayfield.

Since our school is American-based, up until a few years ago, the policy was in place that Colombian female staff were to follow the North American tradition of a wife taking a husband’s last name. For example if a teacher’s legal name was Sofia Cardoza-Rodriguez*, and her husband’s name was Luis Mendoza-Gutierrez*, her school name would be Mrs. Mendoza. This was to (attempt) to clarify family names and follow the model of the wife identifying with the husband. However, on all legal documents they would keep their legal name, like in this case Sofia Cardoza-Rodriguez. This is why my Colombian facebook friends have different last names than I knew from school.

Now our school has slowly allowed teachers and staff to choose which name they would like to identify themselves. For some staff they like having the choice to identify with their husband in that way. Others know that the students are used to their married names and keep it to avoid confusion. Still others are changing to their legal names. Many of the Spanish teachers have been allowed to use “profe” in front of their first name to avoid any confusion at all.

Now since I am North American and have decided to legally change my name to my husbands, this has caused some interesting moments outside of our school. A few weeks ago when we checked into our hotel on the coast, the receptionist wanted to confirm with me that the bed in our hotel room was a double bed, not to singles. Finding that assurance a bit strange- after all I am married- I laughed and we proceeded to check in. Only an hour later it dawned on me that because Ed and I have the same last name, it was assumed we are brother and sister- not husband and wife. Once I realized the misconception we laughed at how awkward our check in must have been for that poor receptionist.

Little by little we learn to understand and grow in Colombia. Names are such a small thing, but really do make a difference. I am just glad for gracious people who are able to understand both cultures and help us all out with the complexities of living side-by-side.

*All names are fictional for the sake of illustration