Inspirations

            After my first day teaching two lessons by myself, I left the school exhausted but with a huge sense of accomplishment. Like I said in my last blog, getting up in front of the entire class is terrifying. What if they don’t understand? What if I mess up? What if the teacher doesn’t like me? These are just a few questions that race through your mind when you start walking up there. After today’s lessons, all these questions disappeared, and the teacher asked me to prepare something for the next day.

            Next week the students have final exams, so this week we did a lot of reviewing. Ms. Gutmann and I asked the teacher, Madame Lillian, if she would like us to write a practice exam. She was all over the idea, so we ended up making practice exams for English, phonics, spelling, reading, and math. Each was about 50 questions and filled with all of the subjects on the exam. They are handwritten and then copied, which is how the majority of the LOAMO tests are made.

            Being here really makes you think. These teachers are so compassionate and such great teachers, yet they get paid hardly anything and deserve just as much, if not more, than an American teacher. Krissy and I were talking with the teacher in my class, and she told us about her 2 kids and her husband. She said that after she had her first child, she had been 8 months pregnant. She started to feel pains and knew something was wrong, so she went to the hospital. There, she delivered her baby, but it was stillborn. She was still in a lot of pain, and the doctors were extremely confused. After running some tests they realized that she was having twins, and there was another baby. She delivered the baby, but due to it being so premature, it died a few hours later. For her to go through something like that and still come out as an amazing person and teacher is a true testament to how incredible she is, and I am honored to help her and teach her class.

            Also, today Nikko, Evan, Keelin, Lisa Marie and I went on a home visit. We went to the house of Benard, who is a 4^th grade student at LOAMO. His dad died and his mom couldn’t provide for him, so his aunt took him in. After living with her for a few years, he found a job at a school doing chores and cleaning. All of his money went to his aunt. A teacher at the school named Richard noticed how hard he worked everyday and began to wonder why the kids in his class had the opportunity to learn, but Benard didn’t get the chance to go to school. Richard talked to him, and eventually Benard ended up moving in with him because his aunt couldn’t provide for him. They talked to the headmaster of LOAMO and worked out a plan with him to send Benard to the school. Richard said something to us that really stuck with me and impacted me. He said, “Your success is not what get but what you give”. I think this is the most inspiring and humble thing someone in his circumstance could’ve said. I aspire to be more like him and open my heart for so many people, like Richard has.