February 22 "Unicorn starts with YOOOOOOOU!"

Hallelujah! The power came back on! I’ve been waking in the middle of the night a lot, but it was nice to see that the power was back at least, since I had to wake up. I’m glad that we didn’t have to go without refrigeration for too long again! Today was the first day that we implemented our split tutoring. We’ve given each child on campus 2 and ½ hours a week with us and we’re focusing on mainly English, and a little bit of math. The split time worked extremely well for management and there was so much more time on task. J For English, today was the first split class, too. T is teaching the higher level learners the lesson and I have the lower ones, and we flip flop the groups for reading and conversation. Yay differentiation! We began reading a Mozambican novel today; I will become as educated as my learners through this book, that’s for sure! Our lessons this week are focusing on church, and since we teach in the church, props were aplenty! Over lunch which included the Mexican cheese curls from Zambia, we planned afternoon tutoring, which will also be split. This week’s theme is parties/celebrations, so of course I had to write a story about my fake birthday party this week. J We didn’t get to it today, but I know they are excited for it because we learned the vocab today. After the first group, T and I split up higher and lower again; she worked with the two high school girls and I worked with a little girl named A. It was an intense hour and fifteen minutes. I don’t know if I’ve ever repeated letter names so often. She gets three letters of the five in her name incorrect, so I sat there repeating myself over and over and having her repeat, too, so hopefully she will remember for next time. I did get her to successfully go through all the alphabet flashcards we have and say “_______ starts with ______” or “heart starts with h.” It seemed to go so much better this morning. but that’s the difference between a 3^rd/5^th grade group and a 2^nd grader. Differentiation is definitely the key here. T and I counted up today that with the 9 wives we’re teaching and 28 children, we have nine different levels of English learners to plan for each day/week, and that’s being generous. But it’s a challenge we gladly accept! After classes today, we walked to the market to buy goodies for the kids for tomorrow/Thursday. J They’ll love us even more! The night was pretty low-key with quick lesson planning and some R&R after Mrs. A’s delicious dinner for us. She goes way above and beyond, with is especially key to note right now because she is also taking care of twenty men who are applying to the LBI all this week! What a big task! I sure am glad she takes care of us, though. J