Dominican Connection : Back to the Caribbean!

I made it safely back to the DR, just before the next “polar vortex” hit, so that has made me rather happy. I was definitely not a fan of the cold weather while I was home in New York, although it has been rather “cool” here as well (getting into the low 70s at night). I jumped right back into my routine at school, teaching the very next day after I had arrived. Thankfully, my students must have missed me or something because they were very well behaved and it was an easy first week back. Also, I have been very thankful to have more supplies for my students and they love them too. My sixth graders, although they are very low at reading and comprehension, love the fact that we are reading a Magic Tree House book and this week have been asking me several times if we are going to read some more of it. One student even wrote down the title, so she could go home and ask her parents to get it for her in Spanish and English. For the younger kids, I was able to bring back little file folder activities that I made with Velcro stickies to practice basic phonics and grammar things, as well using them to spell out our vocabulary words for the week. My students definitely prefer these over boring worksheets. They even like the fact that the new dry erase boards have different color borders, so they can choose which one they want! The school has also changed a lot since I have been back and we now have a newly organized library and computer lab. My first week back was also the missions conference for my church here in the DR and the speaker was really good. Eliseo Gomez was the speaker and he is a missionary in Spain who is originally from Mexico. He challenged us to live an extraordinary life, one dedicated to God, where we make it our primary goal to know and adore our God. My first week back I was also able to be blessed and go to a local sugar cane village called Concho Primo on Saturday and work alongside with some of my missionary friends as they are starting up a new kids club there. I had been there a few times last year and I was so excited to be able to return and see the kids again, some of the kids even remember me. And for only 5 pesos I was able to buy a little tube of ice cream one of the little girls was selling and so far I haven’t gotten an amoeba from it! (we weren’t really sure what type of water they would have used)

Here a couple pictures of my students who got a 100 on their vocabulary tests.