He’s a She!

I just had my official FULL week of school in a Guyanese school. Phew, it was a lot of work! I spent most of the time doing diagnostic testing with letter sounds to grades 1,2, 3, and 7th. I am finding that I have a lot of work ahead of me. The good news is that the children are really eager to learn. They respond so well to positive encouragement (which is something I have been giving a lot of!) I also did a lesson for a few second graders and it went really well. The children were so ecstatic to learn about the /S/ sound!! I was also so excited to get a package from my dear Kent State professor this week. She has to be the sweetest person of all time, guaranteed. I emailed her previously asking if she could send me some attachments to help make teaching literacy a little bit easier. (It stunk because I left all of my good information that I obtained from her class at home). She not only sent me attachments, but she mailed me three books about teaching literacy. I almost cried. It is so expensive to send things, and these books were like a God send. I am going to be using them to death!
I am also working in the library. We have been doing so well (me and a couple of the 6th grade students). We have been finding all sorts of creepy and crawly bugs! Plus enough rat poop to smother a cat! It feels good though to see the progress. I still want to try and get a grant so that the children have more books to read. We came across some broken books (ones that started at page 56, or ended with 40 pages missing, etc) and so I put those books in a pile to throw away. One of the girls said, “Miss? Can we take one of those books home?” I was like, “of course!” They were so excited! They went after those books like it was there only source of food all week. It made me really want to find more quality books for them to read. It’s amazing how much we take books for granted in the U.S., so DON’T! Go enjoy a book at the library sometime.
This week, a couple of the volunteers and I are putting on a “Reading Comprehension” workshop for teachers at about 6 different schools. Alicia and I are going to do 2 schools (mine and hers) and Seth and Jason (the other two PCV’s) are doing 2 schools. Tomorrow we are all doing one together. So wish us luck! Hopefully, the teachers will be excited to use some of the strategies we have compiled.
So to explain the title of the blog…
My neighbor was over helping me set up the gas tank we have to connect to our oven/stove. As she was leaving, she picked up Odie (my 8 week old pup). She said, “This is a slut dog.” I was like, “What?!” I guess a slut dog in Guyana means, “a girl dog” probably because they are always pregnant! But, I was still like, “What?!” When we first got HER, I thought she was a girl, but when we got home, one of the neighbors said that SHE was a boy…so I trusted her because I have never had a dog when it was a puppy…so I guess I never looked at “the goods.” haha I have been calling Odie a boy for 4 weeks now! I am trying so hard to say, “good girl, good girl” but it feels so weird! My mind is so twisted right now! Now I understand how the children on Mrs. Doubtfire felt after they found out she was their dad! But good news is that I can get her pink things and treat her like a princess. But now I am also like, “Stay away Aldie!” (the other dog) I don’t want this puppy to be a slut!
Anyways, another week has come and gone. I am excited to be going into the next one. I hope everyone reading this blog is also excited to start their week. Do what you love. Love what you do. :)