The past two weeks have felt like a whole year's worth of school and no one warned me how crazy life would get once 200 students arrive at school. The first day both Kate and I were thrown straight in the deep end. The principle told us at 7.30 in the morning that I am teaching grades 4, 5 and 6 reading and spelling and Kate has all of grade 2's lessons. We had nothing prepared and have never really taught before; yet they still seemed to have faith in us.

I survived the daunting first lessons and was welcomed by the students eagerly and excitedly. Having a white blonde girl as a teacher seemed very new to many of them as almost immediately they were surrounding me, stroking my hair. After two weeks I cant quite say im the best teacher and I want it to do it for the rest of my life, but I really do love standing infront of the children and attempting to teach them something useful.

I've discovered many things about myself and the honduran culture through teaching. I definitely struggle being the strict teacher and spend most of my lessons laughing and joking with the children. This means that it can be very hard for me to make them quieten down as they see me as more of a big sister than an authoritative figure. My grade 6 class have told me however that I'm the best reading teacher they've ever had, which is always nice to hear! The students really are what makes it so enjoyable. None of them have bad attitude or are disrespectful to me. Instead, they are all very loud and talkative. I end up having a real soft spot for the naughty students as they're so cheeky and often make me laugh. Nearly all of the students are very touchy feely and love hugs and even come up to me during the lesson to hug me or hold my hand.

A big shock I have found from working in the school is there seems to be very little structure. For the first week I wasn't given a schedule so had to plan extra lessons so that I was prepared for any lessons thrown at me. The students also don't have any books yet so this makes it difficult for them to actually contribute in the lesson. Im struggling quite a lot with the curriculum they stick to as it seems so boring and meaningless, suggesting comprehension questions about god rather than the actual text. Although I do like the whole chilled attitude in Honduras, I really respect the education system in england. Lessons often go over time and teachers walk in randomly to my lessons and disrupt the lesson by talking to students. I was even asked by grade 5 if I could be their cover teacher as no teacher had turned up for them.

I do feel bad whenever I complain as I am enjoying what im doing so much and wouldn't want to be doing anything different, even if it does mean I'm spending all my spare time coming up with exciting ideas for lessons.

Tomorrow is children's day so they have a half day and in the morning play games and watch films. Looking at the large amount of pinatas around the school, im guessing they'll be also having a lot of fun with these. In the morning Ive been forced into performing a short play to the students, with me being little red riding hood. Im hoping I wont embarass myself too much.

That's it for now because im exhausted!

Hope

Xxx