Teacher for the Day

Last Thursday I was the substitute for the class that I help in during the week. Miss Ali the teacher was going to Ecuador with of the other volunteers, who had to take a trip out of the country to renew her passport. She had planned work for all of kids to do in the notebooks for Thursday and all I had to do was watch them. Friday we were going to be having school outside or ´playing´.
Thursday my morning started at 5.40 a.m. when a rolled out of bed. I would have plenty of time to have breakfast, walk the other kids to school at 6.50, get stuck outside having not realized before I left that the doorbell was broken, have devotions, eat breakfast, and get my things together before school started at 7.30. Oh, I found out that morning that 3 of my 9 students were going into town and for a doctor’s appointment. They ended up coming for the second half of school.

So they file in and we start with some songs. Rocio who is 14 was a great help about figuring out what I was trying to say and then interpreting to the rest of the class. The last song was I Can Only Imagine, which the kids are learning in English. I had Rocio read Ephesians 6.10´20 which is about the Lord´s armor. I had the armor drawn on the white board and we went over the different pieces. Devotions closed in prayer and then the kids grab a book for about half an hour. The problem is only three of them can read so I grabbed a book and read to the others. The kids did a lot of copying of words and sentences and then math problems. Some of the kids worked hard others not so hard! Junior could not seem to do his addition problems on anything but my fingers! When he used his fingers that meant he had to count with his chin and then he couldn´t see and so would miss a finger and get the wrong answer. Now Kevin sat quietly in the front of the class, I always assumed he was working hard. But when it came to the math there was a sequence he had to fill out like 344, 345, ..., ... 346 ect... every time I went by his desk he was still on the same number that I had last helped him with. July was fun I didn´t think I was capable of explaining prime numbers in Spanish, but I think she understands is now. Unless you help Marita she puts random numbers at the end of all her addition problems. I really was not able to help Rocio with her word problems though they always used to be my favorite in English. Italo is great. He loves math and works hard but can´t remember how to write certain numbers. So sure, there were little behavior issues but really the day was pretty smooth. Oh, well Marita writing on the white board with a fabric marker was not fun, but I pretty much got it off.



Friday was really more of a difficult day being outside the kids just do their own thing. It started out great with devotions and then math problems that I had prepared for each of them with sidewalk chalk outside. When we were done with that, I looked down and it had only been an hour.



My mind dwells upon my salvation. My heart is covered by Jesus´ righteousness. Faith is my shield against the enemy’s darts. The belt of truth holds me together. My feet are carrying the Gospel of Peace. The sword of the Spirit will penetrate many hearts. Most importantly God will hear my prayers.