Diá́s CINCO

A little down time on day 5.  We wanted to know more about the history of Nicaragua and how it came to be.

Started out at about 9AM and went first to see the only building that was not destroyed in the earthquake of 1972.  A former leader was having it refurbished but the current leader stopped the work and it still stands in ruins today.  Doesn't look like it from this angle but it was very heavily damaged.

Right across the plaza was the National Museum. 

Once inside, we had a wonderful English speaking guide that gave us a comprehensive tour of the first floor.  The pictures are not as good as I would have liked them to be because they were taken through glass and had natural light shining on them.

The picture above was done after 9-11.  You can see the buildings burning at the top of the picture.  It represents the desire for unity and peace between countries and ethnicities.  There are actually two paintings very similar to each other but with people of different ethnicities in each one.

These are actually burial jars.  They represent the mother's womb since it was thought that human's return to the womb once they die.  First, they would be buried in the ground and then after several years, the body would be dug up and cremated to be put in a jar such as this.

This footprint of a human was from the time 4 million to 8 million years before Christ.  Proof that man was here and moving around the earth.

Trivia:  As the continents formed, Nicaragua was the last piece to rise from the ocean making a bridge between Central and South America.

The upper part of the museum is a library divided into two parts. One part for adults and one part for children.  This would have been interesting but was not included in our tour. ☹

Next stop:  The White House

This used to be the president's house and contains a prison.  Most of the short tour consisted of revolutionary persons and how people were tortured and put in prison.  Interesting to see how the country has evolved through its leadership.

On the other side of the road and probably more popular is the Canopy tour.  Included is a picture of the lagoon.  Muy bonita!

On to the Masaya Volcano, National Park.  Once inside the parkwe drove for quite awhile and passed many people walking to the volcano area.

The first thing we saw was a warning.

We heeded the warning so..... took a pass on climbing the steps (see below) for a better view. Might have exceeded the 20 minute limit. I had never seen an active volcano before.

Lunch was at the Masaya Lagoon.  Beautiful and picturesque.  There were benches to sit on and just enjoy the view.  Horses to ride....I took a pass after my earlier experience in October.  

Our food was delicious and sizzling hot as you can tell.

Now shoppiong in Masaya for some souveniors.

Long day- fun but tiring.  Stopped at the orphanage for dinner and a closing ceremony.  

Back at the hotel to get ready to leave and check on a shuttle for the morning!

Such a wonderful and enriching experience here.  The people are very generous, accepting and friendly.  Everyone watched out for us and helped us along the way.

God's hands were all over this trip to NICA.  What will His plans hold for the future?  Only HE knows!

Blessings!!

Diá́s QUATRO

If it is Thursday, it must be a green shirt day.  We have found that all the Verbo teachers have polo shirts of different colors for each day of the week.
Monday- beige
Tuesday - yellow
Wednesday - blue
Thursday - green
Friday white

We tried to match as best we could but their colors were usually more intense then our shirts were.  It was summer to us so we brought along our "summer" shirts.  Anyway- it is easy to differentiate the days  of the colors of shirts.  Made picture posting easy!

Today was our last day of teaching.  On one hand we are glad to be done but on the other hand we have made such good friends and had such a postive experience that it is hard to say good-bye.  ☹


Joan spent a good part of today explaining different strategies for working with difficult students.  The Verbo teachers asked many good and thougthful questions regarding how to handle students with behavior and focus problems.  Joan was very clear that it was everyone's responsibility and not just the teachers'.  Parents, principals and even the students need to be involved in the solutions.  Lots of agreement nods on that one.

We created several behavior charts and talked about the implementation of the charts.  There is concern because every subject is given 40 minutes of classtime and then they move to another subject.  So if a teacher is moving from class to class, how can they do a chart?  Lots of good discussion on that one.

To break the day up we worked on the "What Is it?" exercise.  This was an interesting exercise and it took some re-explaining as the teachers were not familiar with the concept that any idea is a good idea and all must contribute to the answers.  But when they caught on---what interesting ideas were formulated.  The "What is it?" is a dot and you are to "think outside the box" and come up with what "it" could be.

How creative...an eclipse of the sun, an ant from far away, a person when you look at earth from outer space, ....and they wanted to keep sharing their ideas.  NEAT!  We concluded by talking about how an exercise like this helps students encourage each other, accept all ideas, and create a level playing field for all in the group.

 A lunar eclipse

 An ant on the beach

 a dot on a question

a person as you look from space to Earth

More behavior talk and behavior charts before lunch.

One more free association exercise about using an old car as playground equipment.  How would you use it...use the lights to light a basketball court, use the car itself for a slide, use the tires for swings, take the doors and use them as shields in paint ball....

Passed out the Brain Break books published in Spanish...Thanks, Dave!  They loved having the books and have them so professionally done.  We ran over a few breaks they had questions about and handed the DVD to the Asst. Principal for everyone to share.  Sorry to not be doing more Brain Breaks...they were a big hit.  The last one we did was the wave with patterns--everyone was in stitches trying to do it and keep it straight...so much teasing going around the room!

 You should do 1 clap not 2!

Who goofed that time?

Shopping-- Shopping--Shopping--  This was something that was fun and yet humbling to me.  As I mentioned earlier, we had brought down T-shirts, bookmarks, flash cards, squeeze balls...etc.  Things we might have sitting around because we had it for a meeting but now what do we do with it.  When we held up the bag with everyone's name in it, several members of the class would call out "shopping" and smiles would break out.

I was teased one day.... I had my computer near the shopping wall...that they would go shopping and pick my computer.  Another day, I had my cameras on the table and they decided it might be time to go shopping... some teasing back and forth and had a good laugh about it.

Would we trade this week...NOPE!  God was present every step of the way and His presence was felt each time we started and ended the day.  These teachers are very dedicated and really want to make school a better place for their students.  They were willing to come and sit in the open 4 days this week in 90〫weather, from 7:30 - 3:30 to hear what we had to offer.  Many had gotten up at 4AM or 5AM and ridden 2 buses in order to get to the site by 7:30.  DEDICATION in capital letters.

We have made 18 new and lasting friends this week.  We have the emails of all who have emails and will keep in contact.  Our Spanish can only get better and our friendships deeper.

 Will we return?   I'm planning on it.  Got some math ideas to share!

I'll include some photos from Verbo school that I took last October when I was down the first time.

Grade 6

                    

Grade 2

Grade 3

Grade 5 class

GArd 4 class

                           Computer Lab














             Sharing computers

                                                    Waiting our turn for a computer.

                                                                            Going Home

Diá́s TRES

How do you like my Spanish?  Can you tell by the title that I'm really learning new words?  Actually, I am and am better able to communicate even if it is with one or two words.

We have had such a good time these last three days and with one more teaching day to go, we will work tonight to revise our plans.

I do not know how many ways to say WOW!  God has shown up in our work here in a big way.  The teachers are so appreciative of the ideas and strategies that we are bringing and sharing with them.  I'm sure that for them it is difficult because they have to listen to what we have to say in English and then hear it in Spanish.  Sometimes, Joan and I have to rethink what we are saying as it does not translate well into Spanish.

If that is the hardest thing we have to overcome, we are on easy street.

We did the Rock, Paper Scissors, Math Brain Break this morning to get us started and energize our brain.  Such laughter as they tried to say "roca, papel, tijerá, mathemáticas as fast as they could in order to complete the Brain Break.

We settled down and got to know more about each other with an exercise of 3 stories.  Since the teachers have just been on their "summer break", we asked them to tell 3 stories of something that happened while they have been away from school.  Some stories were very sad as we listened to accounts of sickness in several family members.  Some were comical and yet sad- as Francisco told of how he did not have enough money for he and his wife to ride the bus.  As he was standing and waiting, he was kicking the ground and there he discovered 20 cordobas.  Enough for he and his wife to ride the bus and even some left over!  His wife said it must have come from God.  Reminded me of the Isrealites and the manna from heaven.  ONLY GOD!

We moved from the stories to a problem solving exercise.  The teachers were to use linker cubes to solve a problem in cooperative learning style.  Meaning each group had a reader, a material handler, a recorder and a reporter.  You can see by the pictures that they took this very seriously and worked hard to solve the problem.  (I had to go back to my computer and refresh my memory of the solution before they started asking me questions.)

 Reading the problem!

 Puzzled!!!

Checking for Understaanding

Solved it!!!

This activity lead us into critical thinking and deeper quesitoning.  Bloom's taxonomy anyone?  We talked about the importance of having students answer with more than YES and NO.  One way to really know if students understand what is being taught is by asking good questions.  We rewrote questions using the FLIP BOOK of Bloom's questions.  If groups were done, they were given another task to categorize the type of quesiton they had created and possible write another question.

As we have found with everything that we have offered, the focus was intense.

The afternoon was spent learning about different products that could be used with students to check for the understanding of their learning.  Some products were unfamiliar to the teachers, such as: flip book, Haiku, diorama.  As Joan was working through the list of suggestions, there were many side conversations about how the product might be used.

Our first indication that what we are doing is making a difference was from William, who teaches Social Studies.  He told us that he will be able to use all the things we have been teaching in his Social Studies class this year.  YEAH!!!

Throughout the week, the teachers have enjoyed the slide show and seeing themselves on the screen.

 The smiles are the same all around the world!!!!

And we have our mishaps along the way!  A little coffee on the floor.

On Friday, we will be taken to other areas of Managua as well as the Messiah Market.  It will be interesting to see more of the country and get a flavor for the local people.

MAS MAÑANA