Reality Check

I am now finishing up on third full day on the island. After getting over the jet leg and the life style change everything is starting to hit me. Today our day was filled with classes on teaching. To be honest it was super overwhelming for me. Most of the volunteers that came on this trip have zero background in being a teacher. So I can only imagine the feelings they are feeling. We got the opportunity to see test scores from the previous year of school in all of the test results of my eighth grade students had not one student in the advanced section. As a teacher that shows that this is going to be an up hill battle. All of us have big aspirations for being that teacher that turns the class around but reality check. You cannot change a classroom in a year.

Tonight I had a conversation that was quite interesting. We were talking about all the fears we had about our upcoming school year and how we were going to deal with these fears. The girl I was talking to then said we have remind ourselves that to these schools we are making a difference. They are in a high need of teachers and we are helping them have enough teachers. Just by being in the classroom we are benefitting the students. Having this conversation changed my perspective on this upcoming school year.

After our overwhelming day in the classroom I was trying to decide what I wanted to do for the rest of the night. One of the many transitions I have had to make since moving here is giving up my social media. Even though I have Internet we can’t go on social media because its blocked on the schools Internet. So I have been on what you could call a social media detox. In reality I really don’t miss it all that much. It has been really nice just doing whatever and not being attached to my phone all the time. It also gives me a lot more free time, which in reality is kind of sad. So tonight I decided it was time to get back into shape. I have been quite lazy this past year so I was a little worried about this. A group of us decided to do a forty-five minute insanity work out. I was very thankful for the sea breeze because lets just say the workout was not as easy as it once was for me.  Hopefully, by the end of this school year I am hoping to be in shape!

One week until I get to see my house!