Kindergarten Update

Things have been wonderful in my classroom.  After coming back from the states in October, I started back to school with a new outlook.  I lowered my expectations a little bit and my students rose to meet those expectation.  I am less concerned about everything flowing "perfectly" and everything being 100% organized at all times.  Now don't get me wrong, I still expect the students to learn, obey my rules, participate, and do their best.  However, I realized that making sure the kids are having fun and loving school each day is just as important as making sure they get all their work done.

Since the students and I both made changes, we have been a much happier classroom.  I don't put as much stress on myself for everything to be perfect.  I give the kids a little more wiggle room with their behavior.  I've been tweaking my behavior management plan, and it has been more effective for a lot of the kids.  In general, there has just been more joy in everything that we do in the classroom.  This year has been as much of a learning experience for me as it has been for my students.

I still get frustrated sometimes, and I still end all of my days completely exhausted of all energy, but I'm thankful that my students and I have fun together.

School Nurse

Most days I am a teacher.  Some days I act as "assistant principle", and on days like today, I am the school nurse.  I don't know why, but today was just one of those days in which lots of kids had small medical problems.

First thing in the morning, I noticed that Colo (a pre-k student) came to school with his head freshly shaved, revealing several pus sores on this head.  So, I took care of him and at the end of the day I sent him home with a small tube of Neosporin.  No big deal, just something to keep an eye on.  Throughout the course of the day, I had three students come to me with upset stomach, one with fever, and two needing cough medicine.  If they had all been from the same class, I would wonder if they were faking, but they were all from different grades.

At the end of the day, a teacher brought a crying 2nd grade boy to my classroom.  "Can you take care of him, Miss Katie?  His finger is hurt."  Apparently while playing soccer on the church grounds, he fell and got his finger stepped on.  His knuckle was pretty swollen and he was unable to bend his finger.  He began crying at the slightest touch.  So, Mr. Nickson drove him home and his parents agreed that he should go to the clinic and get checked.  At 3 o'clock, I thought my nursing duties were finally over for the day, but I was wrong.  Two boys came to me when school let out and asked me to look at their toes.  Both boys had toes with the skin ripped off and one also had athlete's foot.  Because the boys had been wearing sneakers to school every day, the toes were not healing.  I had them soak their feet and then I cleaned them up and sent them home with flip flops that they are supposed to wear until their toes scab over.

None of the problems (aside from the finger) were severe, just basic first aid.  I do often wish that was a nurse, or that I had some type of medical training.  Thankfully, I have a close friend who IS a nurse so I can text message her throughout the day when medical questions arise.  I don't mind doing what needs done.  It makes life more interesting.  That is one thing that I love about Haiti: basically, if you are there when something needs done, that makes you qualified to do it.  

I'm thankful that I have Miss Kattiana as an assistant in my class so that she can cover for me when I have to go off and play "nurse" for a few minutes.

Milk Mustaches

I love when Madame Jacqueline serves milk and cookies to the students for snack because they always get the cutest milk mustaches!

Youloveto somehow managed to get not only a milk mustache but also a milk soul patch!

Cholera

I find it humorous listening to my kids at lunch time.  They say things that I would NEVER hear kindergarteners in the U.S. say.  For example, "Miss Katie, get that fly off your rice!  It will give you cholera!"  or "Youloveto, don't put your cookie on the bare table because you might get cholera!" and my favorite line was from Makarios.  He smelled his orange juice at lunch and said, "Oh!  My juice smells like cholera!"  I assure you, it smelled like regular orange juice.  Madame Jaqueline, the school cook, was a little offended when she heard him say that, ha!

I'm sure very few kindergarteners in the states have even heard of cholera before.  Yes, my students are great at making sure to avoid spreading cholera.  However, that doesn't keep them from picking their noses, forgetting to cover their mouthes when they cough, or sticking their fingers in their mouthes.  I guess I need to teach them more about germs!

Christmas time is here!

I know that most of you in the states are probably gearing up for Christmas.  Although it is strange for me to be somewhere so warm during Christmas time, we are also getting into the Christmas spirit here in Haiti.  It is hard for me to grasp the fact that it is December since the weather is still in the high 80's and low 90's.  Where I come from at this time of year it is usually ice cold!  I was here in Haiti last December, too.  However, I flew back to the states the second week of December.  This year, I will not be flying home for Christmas until December 23rd.

My church here has the advent wreath up and a few poinsettias.  Some of the larger stores here in Port even put up Christmas lights and Christmas trees.  For me nothing beats Christmas in PA, but it is kind of fun experiencing the "Christmas season" here in Haiti.  I admit, I like being away from the "shop, shop, shop, buy, buy, buy" frenzy in the states.

Speaking of shopping, Mr. Nickson has been working hard for the past two weeks doing lots of Christmas shopping for our students.  The students' sponsors donate money towards Christmas gifts.  So, Mr. Nickson has the big job of finding and purchasing gifts for all 87 students.  That would be an overwhelming undertaking even in the states, but it is even more difficult here in Haiti!  Each of the students get one or two small toys, flip flops, some toiletries, and a nice outfit (dress/skirt for the girls and dress pants and button down shirt for the boys).

From what I am told, in previous years the gifts were put into a gift bag for each student.  However, this year the price of gift bags has gone up.  Nickson decided that it would be most cost efficient for us to gift wrap ALL the gifts!  I think it will be more exciting for the students to unwrap multiple gifts, but that means LOTS of gift wrapping for me!

If I had to wrap 100 gifts by myself, I would be doing that everyday from now until Christmas.  So, I invited a bunch of my American friends over after church for a "gift wrapping party".  Nine of my friends came over and we ate brownies, listened to Christmas music, and wrapped gifts.  With so many people helping, we wrapped over 100 gifts in about one hour!  Nickson is not finished shopping yet, so there is still a lot more to go.  But, I couldn't be more thankful to my friends for helping out!

Mr. Dieusel put the Christmas tree up today, the gifts are wrapped, and the students are singing Christmas songs...I'd say its beginning to look a lot like Christmas here in Haiti!