How Was The First Week of School?

Some Of My Week One Statistics

-# of students who earned and served detention: 1

-# of students documented in my handy Demerits notebook for failing to meet expectations set for the class: 27

-most common infraction: not following teacher directions the first time

-# of students documented in the same notebook for exceeding expectations and earning a Merit: 5
-# of times a room full of Honduran teenagers heard my self disclosure which explained that I'm lucky to get to teach them: 3
-# of times I erroneously responded to an infraction with a conversation instead of issuing a demerit like I should've done: several!
-# of days that passed before I remembered that action (issuing a demerit, which involves a bit of "pain" for a student) speaks louder than words (telling students their behavior is unsatisfactory, which costs the student nothing at all): 2

A message I sent out to the new teachers encouraged them not to be afraid to show the kiddos who's boss by giving them a negative consequence when their behavior has earned it! Now is the time for us to set the tone for how our classrooms will be run.

Making An Entrance

Each year, the senior class receives permission to arrive late to the morning assembly that always kicks off first day of school. This happens for a specific reason:

the 12th graders have the privilege of choosing their own unique way to make their entrance into senior year as everyone else waits for them in the auditorium at the end of the assembly.

This year's seniors had me grinning from ear to ear and bowing down to them in my heart a little bit because they chose to ride in ON HORSEBACK!

Now I was born a country boy, and I'm a little bit of a cowboy at heart, so the horseback entrance was about the greatest thing I've ever seen.

Not to mention the fact that the 12th graders were also escorted by a drum line that provided theme music for them. With the way I'm basically made of music, I can't think of anything better to couple with riding in a horse.

And I agreed with one of the other teachers who said, "I wish my first day of senior year was that awesome!"

A Lovely Thing Happened On The Way Home From School

I made a stop at the waterfall near school this afternoon.

It was just me and two horses - one white, the other white and brown. I honestly felt like continuing on the road home instead of lingering there on the bridge, but I knew my soul was starved for an extended nature moment of some kind.

Of course, the desire to leave instead of being still was probably restlessness that stemmed from going too long since the last exposure to nature.

Being there watching the falls and hearing the babbling and pouring sounds of the water reminded me for a moment of a video I saw recently. The video was made by the company Nature Valley - check it out:

Step One: Admitting You Have A Problem

My life is more of what it should be if no more than several days pass before I'm back on the bridge near school, watching the waterfall below...or back in a hammock looking up at the sky above mountains...

When I let so much time pass without being still in the presence of nature, it's like my soul is holding its breath over a long period.

Life has been sending me messages about this for the past few years, hoping I'd learn the lesson.

I made progress during summer vacation by scheduling time weekly to let my soul breathe deep. School starts Monday, and I'm making sure nature & stillness have a space on my schedule for the academic year.

Visiting one of the hammocks near my neighborhood.

Dessert

Thankful today for warm churros
(filled with my choice of chocolate or caramel)
now being sold by a street vendor in town!

"If You Haven't Got Your Health, You Haven't Got Anything."

Woke up yesterday with a sore throat, so I emailed the boss and stayed in bed!

Right away, I started taking zinc lozenges that you should look into if you don't know about them already.

These things'll shorten the life of your cold!

So I slept, rested, and took zinc all morning. I think this is the first time I've stayed home from a workday here.

When I woke and ate lunch feeling better, please believe I turned up the stereo and let some jams BLAST! There I was at home grooving to the music while the other teachers were stuck at orientation.

Your Next Vacation

You are coming to visit soon, aren't you?

In the meantime, you can watch this Copan Ruinas video I stumbled across.