Week 2

This was the verse of the day on Thursday, and these come up on my phone everyday at seven am, and this was just struck me.

It is 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

Well week two has come to an end, and I feel that it went by way faster than the first week. I think it is because I knew my routine for the week. This week I focused on learning all the children’s names in all my programs and building relationships with them.

Teaching

For the kindergarten class I still have trouble communicating. It seems that they don’t understand that I can’t understand them. By the end of the week they started to realize that I spoke a different language then them, but it seemed like a completely foreign concept to them, which was quite funny. I feel I had still made progress in my relationships with them. I know all of their names so I am able to greet each of them in the morning. I also learned a lot of the actions to the song they sing to begin the class, so I have been able to help them learn some of the actions and they seem pretty impressed that I know what to do.

This week we have been practicing a specific song for the Mother’s Day celebration we had today. I have no idea what the song actually says but I can gather what it is saying by the actions we do. The performance today went really well, you could tell the kids were excited and proud of themselves it was great to see.

Being here has given me a whole new perspective as to how my international students were feeling while I was teaching them on my practicum.  Those students come to Canada not knowing the language all that well. They are separated from their friends and families and living with people they have never met before. This is exactly what I am doing here in El Salvador, and let me tell you it is not easy. But not only do I have an understanding for how they feel but I have also gathered an understanding of how important visuals and hand gestures can be when I am teaching.

I have been able to get around the last two weeks using visuals and hand gestures only pretty well, and if the people here didn’t do that for me I would be way more lost than I already am.

I have also realized how easy it is to completely zone out of a teaching when you only understand a few words, and there are no visuals to help you understand what they are talking about. I have found myself zoning out a lot here.

It was been a huge learning curve for me s a student and as a teacher. I have a whole new outlook to teaching international students and now I have to try and determine what some of the best strategies I can implement in my classroom to help me ensure I am reaching every student.

My Journey

I came here unsure of what the Lord wanted from me here, and I feel I am learning a lot. I have had a lot of time to spend time in the word, and reflect on it which I never make time for at home.  I have had to rely on the Lord a lot here, and it has been comforting know everyone has been praying for me. Today I got to share the Gospel for the first time ever in front of almost 80 mothers, for our Mother’s Days celebration. I was so scared, but I felt a peace. I wasn’t nervous but I was scared I would miss something. But the Lord provided me with the words to say. I feel this was such a great experience for me as it makes me realize how much joy there is in sharing the Gospel with people. I used to be afraid to share because I was scared people would judge me but now I see that I shouldn’t be worried about that. People will judge but the only judgement that truly matters is Jesus Christ’s, and I want to be able to share the Good News with everyone. If a person never hears the Gospel then they will never know God’s love, which is greater than any love there every could be. I feel my faith has been strengthen here and I look forward to what the next week has in store for me.