Thursday, December 10

Normal classes today with PE, but Mr. Lara wasn’t at school; therefore I had to take his math class. I’m thankful that he’s taken my math class and I’m willing to cover for him when his administrative duties call, but I had NO idea he was going to be gone today and found this out when math class came along. The lack of communication here once again frustrated me. My kids worked pretty well though on their work without him there, so I was free to go around and help those who needed it. Some of the kids who understood the concepts also helped their classmate who didn’t, which was great. I had practice with girls the last hour of school; I only had one hour with them today for it because on practice on Wednesday I felt they did a really good job and didn’t need to fix many things, just run through it to remind them. Well, that hour didn’t go well; they were very active and wanting to go see other kids dances. I reminded them we needed to practice only one hour because they were doing so well on Wednesday, but that today they weren’t showing me that. So I was frustrated at the end of the day. I also think there has been some drama among the girls in my class; that they’re becoming a little more cliquey. Some of them have been telling me so and so said this about me or one of my family members. I also caught them making something for what looks like a club of sorts, which I don’t know what that entails. I don’t exactly know how to approach that if I should just let it go and keep an eye on it and how they treat each other, or say something to them now. I remember in 5th grade there are still the ‘popular kids’ and the ‘not as popular,’ all that stuff. I remember and I understand; I just don’t want that to lead to division in my class and hurt feelings.

Anyway after school I had tutorials, which was slightly frustrating because the kids kept goofing off. The practicality and effectiveness of tutorias once again crossed my mind; if each teacher had another person to help in tutorias I feel like it would be more effective because there would be a smaller ratio. I headed home after that and we had tamales for dinner made by our neighbors for really cheap. We haven’t had any gas for our stove the last few days so it worked out great. We resumed Bible study with Mrs. Laurelais tonight and there was more dialogue this time instead of just hearing what she thought. Some of things she was sharing with us we didn’t agree with and I think that bothered her because she felt like our opinions weren’t based on the Word; she kept saying, “It’s just so clear here,” when it wasn’t clear to us. Therefore we asked questions as to why she interpreted the Scripture that way and gave our opinions; I think it flustered her a little bit and while she kept saying she understood, I think she is very set in what she believes, which is a good thing until one doesn’t want to even entertain the idea of asking questions or hearing others people’s questions or ideas. So….we’ll see if Bible study continues!