A
(Belated) Mother’s Day Thank You
(17
May 2015)
Scrolling
through my newsfeed, I am reminded how far away I am from others. Pictures of
food that make my mouth water. Complaints seem like pity. Throughout the last
couple months adorable baby pictures have infiltrated my pages. High school
friends showcases their beautiful baby boys and girls, and announcing future
special editions to their families. Today, the day that we celebrate all types
of Mothers, I smile as my mom and grandmothers’ pictures light up on my chat
box, read all the messages dedicated to mothers, and see throw back pictures to
honor the mothers in our lives.
Weekly
I get asked if I have children. (You’d think after living here for 7.5 months
and not seeing any kids with me they would stop, but guess not.) I know they
are asking about being a mother, but I think of the students I claim as “mine”
before answering that I do not have children. They always follow up this
question with: Why not? Depending on who it is I refer to different answers: 1.
I am young. 2. I am not married. 3. I am working in Ethiopia. But those answers
could be debated. I know that young people can make great parents. I know some
people wait till after they are parents to get married. I know that working in
Ethiopia is not a birth control plan. I am not a mother because that isn’t
where God has led me. But He has led me to learn and appreciate mothers so much
more this year.
This
is the first Mother’s Day that I have been out of the country. Unlimited text
and call to family has always connected me to Mom if I couldn’t be with her
that specific day. After 10.5 months I am really starting to miss this gift
that phone services provide Stateside. But I’ve also realized when I want to
get a hold of my mom the most. When I am sick and needing her to make some of
Grandma’s chicken noodle soup. When I can’t figure out a lesson plan and need
her creative juices. When I get lost and hear her tell me it’s just an
“unexpected adventure.” When I feel so alone and just want a hug.
My
mom has always been there. Even when I was a bratty teenager and didn’t want her
to be, she never gave up on me. She didn’t let me be less than my best. She
encouraged me to be goofy on spirit days, dedicated to studies and sports,
courageous to trust the unknown to a known God, patient to wait, persistent on
to-do lists, eager to find joy in all the little things and to hold people
above materialistic objects. She played school with me before I was old enough
to go, then opened up her classroom for me to help in when I got older, to
develop my love of teaching. She gave me books of far off lands and encouraged
me to go there (sometimes accompanying me on the way). Recipes are guidelines,
cheese and crackers can count as a meal, pink is the best nail polish, and
always start your day off with the Bible.
Mom
isn’t here. I am 11 time zones away trying to figure out how to make stirfry
like she does, and craving chunky peanut butter with Oreos. But she isn’t less
supportive, encouraging, comforting, honest than when we were a phone call away
from each other. I treasure the letters she writes, and check facebook as often
as I can to see if she’s responded. She’s the role I try to follow in my
classes making lessons fun, engaging and informative. The teacher who knows her
students strengths and weaknesses and plays towards those. The woman who would
always stop and talk no matter the number of errands that needed to get done.
The one who could make cootie catchers to stop children crying in church and
would be energetic to get the shy kids to participate at YoungLife.
Mother’s
Day isn’t just about appreciating what mothers have done for us, but also how
they are impacting our lives today. Thanks to my mom I am a strong, confident
woman of Christ. I am a pro at filling time and keeping kids from being
“bored.” I enjoy filling my little free time with Jane Eyre or kids. I
don’t give up. I’m sarcastic. I don’t always need to know the baseball scores.
But this isn’t just one generation of thanks or morals.
I
know my mom is (partially) who she is from her mom. Being able to live with my
Grandma for three summers during college was a blessing that let me realize and
appreciate the traits that are pure and stay all the way through. God is the
center of every Sunday and every day. Good food brings family together around
one table. Reading is an addiction, as is finding second-hand books at sales.
Exercise is important. Always have a garden with extra to can (never forget the
cabbage for sauerkraut). Sibling relationships are the most important. Sure
there are some things that skipped a generation from my grandma to me (ex.
embroidering, swimming, an obsession with mystery books/shows), but those are
all superficial in the larger scheme.
Being
away I have encountered many mothers showing their love to me in different
ways. They are there making buna ceremonies and inviting me in. Those that help
get me the forms, doctors and medicine I need when they see me looking half
lost at the health clinic. Those that check to make sure I am okay when they
haven’t seen me in a while. Those that let their children run to me for twirls
and then a quick chat. Those that are back in the States that are sending love,
prayers, and letters my way. I feel adopted and loved by some many amazing
women.
Today
is a day to celebrate all mothers -
grand, great and otherwise--to appreciate what they have done and
continue to do. Those that are blood and those that take us in and care about
us as their own. To realize that someday I will be a mother, but that I don’t
need to worry about that as I’ve had great examples before me. So, Happy
Mother’s Day to all the mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers out there!
Mother’s Day playlist: “Like My
Mother Does” by Lauren Alaina, “Who I Am” by Jessica Andrews, “Never Grow Up”
by Taylor Swift
Been (19 May 2015)
Have
you ever written a word over and over again till its absurdity causes you to
question what word you are writing? I just did with the word “been.” This past participle of be, doesn’t get much write up in
dictionary.com with just a couple outreaches of “been around,” and the cliché
of “been there, done that.” Yet, this week, as I kick off the last unit of the
textbook (12!) I find myself writing been,
been, been, been over and over again on 1/32 of a piece of light yellow
paper.
I
have been introducing grammar with “sentence cards” since Unit 1. Subjects are green, verbs dark blue,
suffixes pink, and punctuation red.
It started really simple with simple present tense: Subject + Verb 1+
Punctuation. The joy of this system is that students didn’t need to know all
the words to start with. They just needed to keep the color pattern the same.
This led them to succeeding and building confidence. We’ve progressed though
verb tenses: present continuous,
present perfect, simple present, simple future, simple past, and past continuous.
Once students get the sentences made I have them move the punctuation over, and
they fill in whatever detail they want as classwork. For example: He is
playing_____. (soccer, basketball, etc.)
They
have been improving with every tense. In the beginning of the year, I just made
7 groups and worked with that. I gave groups envelopes of the color-coded words
and a time frame to get it done. It took a long time for them to make six
sentences (one for each pronoun subject card). After cutting and labeling 84
“been” cards, I made sure that each of the 14 group envelopes has 6 pronouns, 4
have’s, 2 has’s, 6 been’s, 6 verbs,
6 –ing suffixes and 6 periods for
present perfect continuous tense. I also added in 3 for’s and 3 since’s so
students had to practice adding time expressions onto sentences. I have to make
so many groups because students want to be involved and more groups means more
participation. Even without a color-coded guide on the board and many words to
work with, students got sentences made faster than ever. The verbs are all
familiar even though I have been adding new ones in each time. We have been
battling the wind long enough to know how to hold everything down and close
everything up for this exercise.
We
have been doing lots of fun new things as this semester ends that I marvel at
their improvement. Vocabulary has been a weekly occurrence in our room. Usually
I give a weekly spelling words (even though I utterly despised these when I was
in school) and then a test on Friday. On Monday, I posted key vocabulary around
the room on half sheets of paper that required students to get up to see them
all. The allowance to move about the room and talk, lead students to smile and
get vocabulary into exercise books at an alarming rate. We also talked about
disability and discrimination. These are tough issues, but students got the
hang of them. When I gave them the difference of walking out of the room if it
was designated as “all Habisha,” students stated that that wasn’t right. We
have been growing together as a group that separation seems unfair and unjust.
Just like discrimination.
I
have been looking over this last semester’s work and smile at how much we’ve
done. They wrote letters to American students stating their opinions on
Ethiopian holidays, food, and drinks with reasons, when many couldn’t write
their name at the beginning of the year. They’ve identified human and animal
body parts, new animal names, and can distinguish between nouns, verbs,
adjectives, prepositions and adverbs.
They can tell you determiners for non-count and countable nouns. No one
needs to be reminded to write their name on a test. Superlatives and
comparatives are easy to use as well as distinguishing between fact and
opinions. They don’t like writing in passive voice or reported speech, but can
do it if assigned. They know which verbs have to have an –ing ending if they come after another verb or have to be used in
infinitive (Ex. I enjoy (verb)ing or I
want to_(verb)_. They know sequencing and time expressions to have a
story make since using during, while,
for, since and ago. Neither goes with nor, Either with or and both with and when giving information of nouns. All and Every, No and None are distinguished between singular
and plurals nouns and some quantities are only for noncountable nouns. Articles
a and an are pretty easy, but have some exceptions like university and hour. The is used if
there is only one or the subject is already identified.
What
is strange about been is that it’s
something that connects the past with the present. It tells us the event
started at some point in the past, but is still going on now. It also preludes
the fact that there isn’t a foreseeable future without the action. Outside of
school this could be applied to many things. I have been battling cockroaches and a myriad of flies in my room. The sun
has been ridiculously hot causing
sunburns to form again. I have been developing
friendships with more people. I have been
developing great arm strength twirling kids. We have been having salty water. Oh the trouble with been.
This
semester I have been learning more lessons than I could adequately articulate.
I’ve been learning that:
•
Students are teachers, but they don’t have a textbook for the multitude of
knowledge they share
•
1st semester cannot be wasted. Start clubs and project then, as second semester
is hectic with so many holidays, vacations, exams, etc.
•
Some days you might seem like a burden to the community – you don’t really fit
in, but you have to hold out for the few students who remind you that you are
impacting their lives.
•
Time is flexible, but will sail by. Make the most of the time adequately and in
a way you don’t regret your actions.
•
Experimenting with food can lead to some yummy new favorites. If all else
fails, popcorn counts as a meal.
•
Forgiveness is hard to do once much less 7 x 70 times, but there is peace when
it is done.
There
have been many lessons learned in and outside of the classroom. We will be
having more lessons to learn that I can’t even begin count. As the school year
winds to a close (though the actually end date is still up in the air), I’ve
been counting the blessings this first year of teaching has given to me. I have
no idea what this summer or next school year will hold, but I hold out for more
lessons that lead me to say “been there, done that.”
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