Time for School!

School has started and one of my first tasks was setting up the classroom libraries with each teacher and ended up doing a little activity with the kids to help with keeping the books nice and library organized. I absolutely love walking by the classrooms and always seeing students getting new books to read. In one classroom the teacher has set up a nice area with the marley and other homemade resources making his very own "integrated learning center." I have yet to take a picture of this, but soon, soon.
After the libraries I started testing reading levels, again using the MICO Diagnostic Reading Assessment. Compared to last year I must say the comprehension levels have improved. I have some Standard I students I'll be working with for sure but other than that, maybe only a few other students. My goal is to show the teachers the importance of the results of testing so they will be interested in learning how to give the tests themselves by the end of the year, then they can help when we need to retest, even though it didn't take me near as long this time.
Other library news, the National Library Service is still interested in helping to convert our school library into a community library, just communication is an issue but that problem may have been solved by giving out Mr. Chub's number. Another issue is trying to set up meetings during rainy season which can be difficult. I just keep telling myself, "It will happen."
Yes, that will happen, and electricity coming to the village!! Crazy, I know! There's a high school further down the road and the government has just approved sending current out that way starting the work in November. The first village to get electricity would be Santa Teresa and the last place that has it is only 2 miles away, so who knows if/when it will come about, but crazy to think it's a possibility.
Back to school, after the reading tests I will start spending time in the classrooms. I hope to set up a schedule and just plan to be with each teacher once every two weeks. I have six teachers so I could alternate weeks using Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday mornings. This way I could help with Language Arts and Mathematics. I feel like this would allow me to really co-teach at times and hopefully get in on some of the lesson planning. And speaking of co-teaching, the Education Project through Peace Corps has been advised and the first of the three goals is co-teaching. The second is youth activities as in school clubs, and the third is formal teacher training through university, sending those volunteers with more experience to work with studying teachers. It was nice meeting with the Ministry of Education and seeing how we can work smarter if we work together. Mr. Reyes never made it up to the meeting in Belmopan, but we did have a meeting with him last week and his quote this time was, "Peace Corps Volunteers tend to give and contribute selflessly." What a great thing to hear!
Other future school project ideas include a gardening club with help from a community volunteer, Paulina, a music club, using those music recorders from Bernard, and a math club which would just be extra math help after school one day. Oh! And I'm wanting to start a book buddy reading club, matching upper division students with the younger ones. We'll see how it all comes together. Wish me luck! Loves and hugs!