Phonics

After teaching school for 17 years, 15 in the public schools in Oregon, I knew that I would want to homeschool my own children. Part of it was the fact that we never had time to do the fun stuff (I distinctly remember seeing the idea for a big wall mural of ocean animals one year while teaching half day kinder), part is that the best part of teaching is seeing the kids' eyes light up when they finally understand something and why would I want to give that up to someone else? However, the biggest part is the teaching, both what is being taught, as well as the methods. 

Our oldest is newly 5 and finishing up Junior Kindergarten with Memoria Press (side note, I love what I've seen and used of their curriculum!). We recently received the boxes with the kindergarten curriculum for next year and it's so amazing! I feel like it's a breath of fresh air after the way I was required to teach my last decade in the public schools. 

I was taught to read with phonics, mostly because I begged my mom to teach me before kindergarten (I think she was desperate to get me to stop bugging her and maybe I could entertain my little sisters if I knew how), so she taught me the letter sounds and how to blend them together, because that's how you read. I then went to a private school that taught phonics. It wasn't until I was in junior high or high school before I realized that there was another way out there that people were taught. When I started signing up for my elementary teacher education courses, I was excited to see how to teach all the subjects I'd enjoyed as a kid, as well as how to make math more enjoyable for my future students. It was very disillusioning to me when, after completing a course, I was no closer to knowing how to teach a subject than when I started it. 

My math for elementary teachers was heavy on the "new" way of teaching that was supposed to get students who did not have high math intelligence (based on the multiple intelligences theory, that has since been debunked, as I understand it), to use their intelligence in math. This basically turned into having the students write a paragraph explaining what they were thinking when they solved the problem. I would have been considered to have high verbal/linguistic intelligence and this style was geared towards people with my intelligence. I hated it! It took what felt like a million times longer to solve one problem and seemed to make it infinitely more complex. It didn't help me solve the problem better, just took longer. There were also "new" ways to solve the problems, that were supposed to work better for students who were not math minded, rather than the traditional algorithms. This annoyed me to no end because the new methods seemed more clunky, took longer, and didn't make sense. Perhaps I was more math minded than I thought, but the traditional algorithms seem faster, easier, and make sense. 

All I remember from my social studies for elementary teachers class was creating a simulation (not what it was called, since this was back in 2002, but it was that idea). The teacher/professor was one of my favorites in the Ed department, but I don't remember anything about how and when to use primary sources or even if primary sources were even discussed! Looking back, this seems like a bit of a glaring omission!

Reading for elementary teachers was a dud as well. We spent the time working on penmanship (the one useful thing we did!), as well as how to use a book to connect to other subjects and "extend the learning". Absolutely nothing about how to actually teach a student to read! It appeared to me as if our professor assumed that we'd all be in upper elementary classes with students who were at grade level or above. I remember thinking about what to do if I ended up working in the lower grades. 

When I got my first job it was in a dual language school and I muddled through, since I'd never actually been taught how to read in Spanish, other than learning the letter names and sounds when they differed from English. The curriculum we had more or less taught Spanish phonics. I say more or less because there were plenty of sight words thrown in (I have a whole rant about the non-necessity of sight words in Spanish and how ridiculous the idea is, but I'll throw that out here later), but this was my first introduction to Spanish sílabas or syllables. The basic idea is that you teach the vowels first, then add a consonant, usually m, and make syllables with it (ma, me, mi, mo, and mu), then put the syllables together to form words. Amo a mi mamá. (I love my mom.) is often the first sentence a Spanish speaking kid learns to read. Then you the next consonant and its syllables and so on until you have all the simple syllables, then blends, etc. My third year teaching I was introduced to another kinder teacher who'd started a whole program that systematically taught Spanish reading to the kids and taught the parents how to help their children. My students took off! I loved it because it made sense and worked. The majority of my students had great success with it. It was nothing like what I'd been prepared for in college, it was much better. When I came back from Ecuador I was in a district that said they taught phonics, but somehow it never seemed to stick with the students. I wasn't sure why. Then I moved back to my original district and the curriculum had changed, there wasn't the systematic program as an option. It was a very different experience, and not in a good way! Two of the 4 years I taught there were in kinder and if felt like an uphill battle to teach phonics to my students. I even had the same assistant as at my previous school when my students did so well. We tried to implement as many strategies as we could from before, but it felt as if that was a problem. While I was gone, there had been a huge shift in accountability to the rest of your grade level team, so that everyone was no longer doing their own thing, but they planned together and then implemented the plan in their individual classes. Before, as long as we were getting the students to the standards, there didn't seem to be much caring as to how. This new change sounds great in theory, but it depends on your team. I worked with some very nice ladies who didn't know put an emphasis on phonics. They would say they taught it, but it was light and general, not a focus. Our reading units were based on a book for the week. The curriculum had activities that went along with the book, but we had to choose and adapt them for our school/classroom. This worked a little better in English, but was the complete opposite of a phonetic approach for Spanish. I remember one week we read Snowy Day and made up a booklet to show comprehension of it. The sentences were simple in English (The coat is red. or something like that), but not at all in Spanish (La chaqueta es roja.) and the word coat was left out and the students had to fill it in. In all of the sentences the word left out was a much more phonetically complex word than in English. This was supposed to be a whole class activity, but I knew my students would struggle with it being a mostly independent activity. I chose to do it in a small group setting and the other teachers were not pleased. We were all frustrated! I realize now, those teachers had never been taught phonics, so the disconnect was understandable. Two of them were very likely not taught to read phonetically, but with whole language (sight words), and all three attended teacher college after me, but well before the science of reading became a thing. I finally realized what the difference between the previous school and this one was. When I taught kinder before, it was half day and the majority of the time was spent on centers where the kids would practice math and letter sounds/reading while my assistant and I would meet with small groups working at different levels. Before this time we'd have a math lesson and a bit of a reading comprehension lesson, but it would be shorter than the math and not the focus of the day. I used it to interest the kids in reading and books, but it wasn't my focus of the day. This other school was flipped. The majority of the reading block was to be spent on reading comprehension and just a little bit on phonics. No wonder my students had a hard time! The focus wasn't on learning how to read, but what to do with reading. Kind of hard to know what to do with reading when you can't read! That's not to say listening comprehension isn't important, it is, supremely so! However, it isn't what teaches you how to read, phonics does that. 

So, back to opening up my new kinder curriculum we're going to use, it has the focus on teaching phonics, with read aloud/listening comprehension and integral part, but not the majority of the time, nor the main focus! It's such a blessing to be able to go back to the method I know works and be able to use it for my boys.

It's About Time

 It's been 15 years since I last posted anything on here and nearly a decade since I last looked at this blog! Lots has changed in my life since I was on here last time, but the biggest is that I'm no longer living in Ecuador, but back in the States, and am married with kids. My husband was asking me something about teaching the other day and I had a whole monologue answer for him (not sure he knew what he was getting into asking me that question! ;) ). He said I should start a blog, which reminded me of this site. :) So, here goes...

Shell, Ecuador

Just after Easter a lady from Oregon came down to help teach English for 2 months, to finish out the year.  She's pretty active and adventurous, wanting to see as much as she can before she goes back.  One weekend we decided to go to Shell to see the Nate Saint house.  I always thought, from the first time I heard the name, years ago, that Shell was a really weird name for a town in Ecuador, because 1 it's not anywhere near the beach and 2 it's an English word in a Spanish speaking country!  As I read more about the town, though, I realized that it was named after the Shell Oil Company and you can see there logo in a number of spots around there.  A random (seemingly) bit of US culture in Ecuador, not sure if it's better or worse that seeing McDonalds and Pizza Hut in Quito, Cuenca and Guayaquil!  Anyway, Shell's only about 3 hours or so from Macas, depending on if you drive yourself or take a bus and if you take a bus how fast the driver goes and how often the bus stops to pick up and drop off people.  We wanted to go for the historical aspects of it, to see where Nate Saint and Jim Elliot and their group were based in the 50s for their mission to the Waorani.  The Saint house is still standing and used as part of the MAF (missionary aviation fellowship) offices.  It was really cool to see how much is still preserved!  Not all of the house is the same, since last fall it was renovated.  The guy who showed us around showed us some of the wooden beams that had to be replaced, they were completely hollow, having been eaten by termites.  Essentially they almost completely replaced all the beams and boards, only able to rescue some of it.  The kitchen was the same and some of the boards were able to be used, so the inner walls were an interesting mix of painted and stained boards, the painted ones being original from somewhere in the house.  One of the coolest things, for me, was seeing the original basked they used to send presents to the Waorani, from the airplane.  It was recovered when they found the plane.  In an interesting small world connection the wife of the missionary couple that I know in Guayaquil is the daughter of some of the original missionaries in the Macas/Macuma area and her dad led the rescue/recovery mission when Jim Elliot and Nate Saint went missing.  I love how small the world can really be! :)  They also had a little gift shop sort of thing, since different Shuar and Waorani often bring handcrafts to them, knowing that they get a lot of visitors, so that they can sell them.  The mission doesn't receive any money from them, it all goes to the people themselves.  One of the things that was there were some wooden crosses.  The guy showing us around told us that they were made from the original wood from the house, by the grandson of the guy who speared Nate Saint.  On the one that I bought it has the word Itota, which is the Waorani word for Jesus.  I love the  symbolism in that little cross!  So, some pictures. :)  And just for fun a picture of a day when I quite willingly washed the plates. ;)

Busy

So life's been insanely busy, either with school or visiting friends (officially supporting and encouraging the seminary students from the church in Macas ;) ).  So, here's a few videos and pictures of what I've been up to lately.  The first one is of the younger sister of a couple of my students.  My friend Andrea walked over to the mom and asked to hold her.  Well, of course, I wanted my turn!  I got her during the singing, she was adorable!  The 2nd video is of an adorable kitten that wandered into Andrea's new apartment.  Tragically she doesn't really like cats, so does anyone want one?? :) staff retreat pics  Easter weekend  Enjoy!

Classes

I can't believe we're 2/3 of the way through the school year already!  2nd trimester exams are in a couple weeks, then just 2 months and school's over.  Granted, then I have another few weeks of summer school/VBS to teach, before getting to meet my niece and see my nephew again (oh, and all the rest of my family and friends), but it's starting to sink in that the end is in sight.  Which has the lovely effect of making me really excited and sad all at the same time. :)

I love teaching the younger classes.  Part of this is because they're who I have more experience with, but also because they're more respectful and willing to learn.  Plus, they're just adorable. :)  But my favorite part was when I started teaching 4to a week ago (9 years old, or so) and the students told me that we needed to start the day with a prayer.  Great, I thought, they're already in that habit, awesome!  Then, they about put me into tears, when they said that they wanted to pray, in English, and several volunteered for it!  I love listening to them try to talk in English, but it was even more incredible when they pray in English.  Definitely cool! :)  Of course, there's still days when I'm tempted to pull all my hair out in frustration, usually because they can't figure out how to close their mouth.  The worst part is, it's not on purpose, it's not something they're thinking of, so it's harder for them to stop and it's so distracting!

My older kids are about ready to drive me crazy.  I've discovered that teaching junior high and high school isn't my gifting so much. :)  That and, either I remember it completely differently than it really was, or my classmates and I were saints, because I don't remember too much whining and groaning when we were given assignments.   Sure, every once in awhile, or as a joke, but we'd be complaining as we pulled out our papers to work.  Here, they seriously whine at least double what the little ones do!  At times I feel like the kindergarteners and 1st graders are more mature!  It doesn't help that I've yet to discover the word whine in Spanish, I've never heard anyone use it or talk about that tone of voice, or anything.  In English, it's everywhere, but in Spanish, it either doesn't exist or is very uncommon.  Well, it doesn't exist as a word, the action definitely does!  I'm so used to telling my kids that they have to use a regular voice, that whining doesn't work with me, but, without the word in Spanish, it's much harder!  You can kind of translate it as quejarse, which is the same as complain, but whine and complain are totally different!!!!!  (well, at least they SOUND different) :)

But, with all the frustrations I have with behavior, it's all worth it when former students come up and hug me and tell me they miss me (even some of the high schoolers have been known to do that) or when I hear them pray in English, or give a speech in English.  Or, I have days like last Friday.  My high school class had been practicing a couple plays in English and I'd talked with the 3ro teacher about them.  So, Friday, I brought my high schoolers to my 3ro class and the high schoolers put on their play.  The 3ro kids loved it so much that they wanted to see it again!  The teens were willing, so they put it on again.  It was awesome to watch the faces of the little kids as they saw these big teens playing Little Red Riding Hood in English. :)  Afterwards, back in the high school classroom, I asked them how they felt.  They loved it too!  The ones that hadn't gotten to perform in front of the little kids were asking when it would be their turn, a huge switch from before, when no one wanted to perform for the little kids! :)

Ironic

As I was making cookies this morning, I got to thinking about the differences between cookie making in Oregon and cooking making in Macas, which led to the lovely rabbit trail of ironies in my life.
~I live where chocolate is grown, but yet the only chocolate I can find is either as processed as the most fake stuff in the States or homemade and really bitter.  And the only way people make chocolate here is either the powder for hot chocolate or chocolate bars.  Living in a chocolate producing country does not mean more chocolate chips!
~I, who loves to have the windows open whenever it's above 45 or 50 degrees, now lives where the temperature would seem to indicate that I could have the windows open year round, all day long, but yet I rarely open them.  Of course, this probably has more to do with not letting bugs and dust in, but still, it seems strange.
~I love to go barefoot everywhere, I've been known to wander around in my parents field barefoot (although only the mowed parts, I have no desire to meet a snake, even nonpoisenous, or a stickerbush barefoot), but here, where it's much warmer and people traditionally went barefoot, I wear shoes.  It might have something to do with the dust and bugs, but who knows. :)
~Here, in a place with no fast food, aside from street stands, I probably eat more "fast food" than I did in Oregon.  Well, most of that is food I make, but it's still not meals like I used to make.
~Seattle's about 4-5 hours from Salem and I've only been there probably 4 or 5 times in my life, because it's so far away, but yet, I think nothing of taking the bus 8-12 hours from Macas for a weekend, to visit friends.
~Friends and students don't quite know what to do with me, because for the most part, they know more about US pop culture (movies, music, etc) than I do!  Of course, that happened in the States, too, but it's even funnier here.
~I feel like I speak more English in Macas, than I did in Salem.  I've still learned more Spanish and become more fluent, because the Spanish I speak here is with a wider variety of people, but still, it's less than in Salem (or so it seems).
~I think I have more friends my age in Ecuador, than I do in Salem.  Of course, I have "a few" more family members in Oregon!  And friends of other ages, too. :)
~In high school I used to wear shorts (granted with a sweatshirt) once the thermometer hit 60.  Now, I'm shivering in jeans and a coat if it even gets close to 70 or less.  Next year will be interesting!
~This weekend in Carnaval, Ecuador's version of Mardi Gras, so we have a 4 day weekend.  Instead of going and hanging out with friends, I'm staying at home, making cookies, cleaning and looking for materials for class online.  What happened to being lazy on vacation?!
~It's easier  to find the ingredients to bake healthy food in the States, even though most things here are made from scratch.  Almost nothing is made with whole wheat or real butter, it's all white flour and margarine.  I guess, though, I could change the way I eat and eat a lot of meat, since that's fresh and plentiful here and soups, etc are all made with totally natural ingredients. :)

I'm sure there's more, but these are the things that stuck out to me. :)  (I seriously need to do stuff where I can take pictures, I'm slacking for sure on that!)

Amazon rain

A number of years ago I heard a song on the radio called He Reigns.  It talks about people all around the world worshipping God in all sorts of different environments.  I loved the idea that even though people's situations are different, they still praise the same God that I do.  My favorite line, though, was "it's the song of the forgiven, drowning out the Amazon rain."  Every time I heard that, it reminded me of being here, in Macas, in church services with the rain pouring down so hard on the metal roof, that you could hardly hear the preacher preach, but the singing, that you could hear. :)  I kept thinking, I've been there, I've done that!  It makes me want to experience the rest of the  song, praise God with my brothers and sisters in other parts of the world, too.  Then I think, that the song is also a bit of a foretaste of Heaven, where we'll worship God with people from every tribe and language.  I can't wait to talk to people from all over, from all different cultures and times, to ask what it's like where they're from, how did they learn about God, what was life like.

It was pouring here, earlier.  Macas is in a valley in the Andes' foothills and normally you can see all the mountains on either side, but when it really rains, the mountains disappear and all you can see is Macas.  This morning was hot and sunny, but a few hours after I got home from church, I started hearing rain.  I looked out the window and Quilamo (the closest hill/mountain) had disappeared and the  rain was coming down in sheets.  The streets were starting to turn to rivers, hiding the cobblestones and washing all the dust down the drains (either that or making mud).  I just sat and listened to the rain on the roof, there's nothing compared to the sound of the rain on the roof for relaxation, and watched the rain was the down clean.  After remembering the song, it brought back childhood memories of Oregon rain.  Whenever it would rain really hard, the living room window would turn to a waterfall and we'd bring out the legos and make Noah's Ark, joking that we were going to need it soon.  I realized that I need to soak these things in, I'm going to miss them next year!  Thankfully it rains a lot in Oregon, too. :)  And there's snow there!  I'm determined to enjoy and be content where I'm at, at least most of the time. :)

Seasons

I've been thinking about this for quite awhile, over a year now.  Seasons are important to me.  I've always known they were, but never realized HOW important they were until I moved to a place that didn't have them.  Granted, if you go to different websites about Ecuador, they'll all tell you that Macas is in the Oriente, in the jungle and here there are 2 seasons, the wet season and the dry season.  My friends and family were asking me what the seasons were like down here, which is why I was looking at that portions of the websites, and I wanted to know how to answer them.  When was Macas' dry season and when was the wet?  The problem I ran into was that some sites said the wet season was from June-December, while others said October-July and still others said other durations.  I quickly realized, that if I averaged the information out, Macas was in a perpetual wet season, from January-January!  I remembered the administrator's wife telling me, the first summer I was down here, that they were ending their wet season then, in July, but after reading those websites, I was curious as to how I would perceive it, as well as how others would describe it.  So I got here in August of 2009 and it didn't rain much until about November or so, the entire time everyone told me that we were in a drought and it wasn't normal to be that dry and hot at that time of the year.  As I started to hear more and more about the weather, and talk to different people about it, I realized something.  People here don't consider their seasons wet and dry, but winter and summer.  However, they think nothing of having winter Sunday-Wednesday and summer coming in on Thursday and having Saturday be winter again!  Summer and winter here don't actually correspond to seasons, but to weather.  Whenever it's rainy and cold (and yes, my body thermometer has gotten completely messed up down here, next year should be entertaining!) it's winter and when it's sunny and hot, it's summer.  Theoretically, you could have 2 seasons in 1 day, and I think I've actually had days where different people have told me the season, but 1 said summer and the other winter!

The seasons here don't bring a sense of rhythm to people's lives.  Maybe I'm too much of a country girl, although, I really only ever technically lived in the country 1 year, my senior year of high school, it seems to define me better than city girl!  I've always looked to the seasons to help me relate to things and get ready for events and things that happen year after year.  For example, as the weather gets colder, the leaves start to fall, it rains a lot more and I know that Thanksgiving is around the corner.  Once we celebrate Thanksgiving, it's time to prepare for Christmas.  After Christmas comes my birthday (and now both my nephew and niece also have birthdays then!!!!) and then spring.  With spring comes Easter and my sister's and brother-in-law's birthdays and my mom's, too.  Then it starts getting a lot warmer, school gets out and we have summer, with my other sister's birthday and then school starts.  Then my dad's birthday and it starts getting colder, which means that it's time for Thanksgiving.  I realized, last year and this year, that without seasons, it's as if my body's in limbo, there's no passage of time and the calendar has no meaning, so Christmas really snuck up on me both years.  I have no frame of reference, aside from the seasons, that's enough to get it sunk into my head that it's time to prepare for Christ's birth!  Oh, people here decorate for Christmas and give presents, albeit, not as many presents as is typical in the States, but the tradition is still here, but even with seeing all of the decorations up and getting ready for the big Christmas program, it still surprised me when it happened and I, to this day, have a hard time convincing myself that it's actually passed.

I was trying to figure out why this was and the only thing I could come up with is that my mental annual rhythm is set to the seasons and I need them to help me mentally prepare.  It reminds me of the difference in how I celebrated Easter the few years that I didn't go to my church's Good Friday service.  A friend of mine's dad is a pastor and she asked me if I wanted to help them out on Good Friday, when they had their Easter service, since the building they met in they rented and was occupied Sunday mornings, so they couldn't meet then.  I said sure and had a lot of fun playing with the kids and celebrating Easter with them.  But, come Easter morning, the service didn't hold nearly as much meaning for me.  The first year I couldn't figure it out, just figured it was my mood or something, but after the 2nd year, I realized what was happening.  One year, the pastor was talking about why we celebrate Good Friday and said that without mourning, the celebration doesn't have as much meaning.  If we don't remember what was so horrible about Good Friday, how can we celebrate how good Easter is?  I realized that, for me, I needed that reminder on Good Friday, of why Easter was so special.  So the next year I went to the Good Friday service and really enjoyed Easter that year.  I'm beginning to think that I need seasons, in the same sort of way.  The change in seasons helps me anticipate what's coming next, so that I can mentally prepare for it and have Christmas (I noticed it most with Christmas and Easter) in my thoughts, so that when it comes, I've thought about it and remembered what it is that we celebrate then.

Plus, I like the cold, so it'll be nice to experience that again, even if I'll need a few more layers than I did 2 years ago!

Guayaquil and Christmas

I just got back from spending Christmas weekend in Guayaquil, with some friends of mine.  Ivan and Tannya are students at the Alliance Seminary there and invited me to spend Christmas with them, since all of their family is here, in the Amazon region and they like to spend time with me (well, for Ivan it's more of a desire to tease and matchmake for me!) :)  I had tons of fun,  even though it was a shorter visit than I would have liked.  If I had been able to stay another day, we would have gone to the beach and gone swimming (something I'm still not used to, swimming, OUTSIDE, in December)!  But I had to be back at school and really had a ton of stuff to do to get ready for January, so it wasn't TOO bad. :)  I didn't actually take any pictures, aside from when I went with Tannya and Ivan to the youth group that they're interns in, it was a weekend of watching movies, eating, hanging out and sleeping!  (oh and talking with my family on Christmas morning, my nephew's a goof!)  The strangest part, aside from not being with my family, oh and not getting my presents yet (it's not the getting of presents that I want, but to know what they are, surprises drive me crazy, if I know they're coming!) was the weather.  I'm used to cold and rainy, wishing for snow, aside from one Christmas in the early 90s when it was warm and sunny and I wore a t-shirt outside.  Guayaquil's definitely in the southern hemisphere, which means that December is the warm time of year!  Although, it makes me laugh, since Ecuador's on the tropics, people don't really know what summer and winter are really about and call any time that it's raining winter.  And, since December is also the beginning of the rainy season on the coast, it's called winter, even though it's much hotter and more humid with the rain!  It actually wasn't as bad as I was led to believe the weather would be, there were a couple time I felt drenched in sweat from the humidity, but it was actually pretty comfortable, well, while wearing shorts and a tanktop! :)

So for some reason, I wrote this and never posted.  Oops! :)  Well, here it is now.

Random

Some random thoughts, sights, or questions I've had recently...

Is it bad that, while cleaning, I'm happy about the fact that there were more cockroaches in my kitchen than in my bedroom?

Am I sadistic to enjoy watching a cockroach squirming around on its back and not squish it, but kill it much slower with bug spray?  Those things are creepy!!!

A lady was walking down the sidewalk, the other day, carrying several chickens by the legs, not so odd to think about, but then, as she readjusted them in her hands I realized that they were alive, as at least one started squirming and flapping its wings.  I guess she wanted really fresh chicken! :)  (Normally people carry them in a sack, plastic if dead and woven if alive.)

The other night a squad from the fire department was marching down the street, at about 9:30pm or so, and chanting, like I've seen the military do in movies.  At least, I assume they were the fire department, the police, soldiers and firefighters all wear camo, but in different colors, the police in blue, soldiers in green and firefighters in red, and I think they were wearing red, although that late at night, it's kinda hard to tell. :)

I found chedder cheese at a new store in town!!!  Life is great! :)  Although, it's more mild than I prefer, it still has a slight cheddery taste, yum!