First Day Teaching

Today I finally got to teach and the 4th grade kids at Interamerican were more excited than I was! We have exams next week so we spent half the day reviewing for their tests. Math is definitely tough for them it takes a lot of drilling and repetition but after today they seemed to finally grasp long division. The afternoon we dedicated entirely to preparation for Wednesday's Spelling Bee that will have all the school's 4th, 5th, and 6th graders in it. This means my class is already at a disadvantage being the 10 youngest participants. However I like our chances because I've never seen 10 kids more excited about spelling. Literally jumping out of their seats just to have a chance to be the first one to spell "awkward." I can already tell I am going to love this experience and I am praying that it will last a long time because I'm already learning so much from these kids!
I had lunch duty today and what that means is make sure the kids don't kill each other as they run around for 30 minutes since they already ate their lunches during recess. (it seems really backwards doesn't it?) As I sat there all the kids not in my class would stop in their steps when they saw me. At first I though it was probably because I was the new teacher but then I realized the obvious answer. I am the only white person in the entire building. It was really humbling. I've never been in a situation where I was alone like that yet every time after they stopped they would come up and talk to me to show off their english skills! Everyday before school the teachers meet up to pray. Today they started to pray in Spanish, looked at me, smiled, and changed to English. I honestly could have cried right then and there. Every one from the students to the teachers to the bus drivers have been more than accommodating and more than excited about my arrival at the school. Feeling this welcome makes me realize that I'm going to love waking up every morning more than I ever have before.