The kids make it all worth it :)

My experience in the schools so far has been quite different than I thought it would be. My mentor teacher is almost the complete opposite of me, and it's been kind of rough because I don't always agree with how she handles things. Today, however, I was pretty much in charge of "teaching" the whole day. I didn't know this until I got to school, but her class runs on very little planning, so it wasn't too hard to take it over. Even though she was still in the room, I loved being able to try things out "my way." Granted, it didn't always work as it should (these kids are used to very different management techniques), but, hey, you live and you learn.

Even though my expectations for my mentor teacher will most likely never be met, my students continue to exceed my expectations every day. They truly make it all worth it! And they make me laugh all the time. One girl was having a hard time remembering words correctly: When talking about the Christchurch earthquake, she said a lot of people had to "activate" their homes instead of "evacuate." Then a little later, she asked if she could go get a "book-tionary" to look up a word instead of a "dictionary." Oh, and they always ask me if I'm married. I've told them many times before, but every time I remind them that I'm not, they get a real kick out of deciding which one of the students I should marry. Apparently, in their little 6 year old minds, age doesn't matter. haha!

This little boy in front is one of my little Samoan boys. Unfortunately he is one of the worst behaved, but he is just so stinkin' cute. This isn't even a very good picture of him, but he was moving and unrecognizable in every other one I had!

These girls (yes, they're both girls) were so excited to tell me they were playing teacher. It was so cute to see them write the schedule up on the board and give points to students who were doing well. As a side note, I had a really embarrassing moment with the girl on the left because on the first day there were some students trying to convince me she was a boy and some trying to convince me she was a girl. I really had no idea, guessed that she was a boy, told Mrs. Eka, and all the teachers laughed as they told me that Laine and her sister just got big haircuts. Whoops! Too bad the uniform couldn't give me a hint!

This was the first picture I took of them eating lunch when only a few of them realized I had a camera in my hands...

...and this is the second picture when everyone realized I had a camera in my hands and everyone wanted to be front and center :)