A Whole Bunch of Stuff

    

     It has been a crazy week….I have learned so much and have done so many new and different things tin this one week than I think I have ever done or learned in one full year. It’s also been a hard week. I’ve had a lot of ups and downs with my internship, people, getting enough sleep, and learning to manage my time and money. My internship at Place Bridge Academy started out pretty rough. I felt like I wash’t needed there. I’ve never worked with children in a school setting. It has always been on a basketball court, a soccer field, or a fun babysitting job where my love for children has grown. Also, I have NEVER imagined myself growing up and becoming a teacher…school just isn't my thing. So my first day at PB was interesting, trying to find the balance between fun, loving Katie and Miss Katie, the teacher. I hated it. Honestly, I left my internship in tears that day, just so fearful that it was going to be a long miserable three months of sitting in a classroom teaching for eight hours a day, three days a week. 

That next day was full of fear of getting up and having to go to my internship. But, my second day at Place Bridge was nothing like the first. Immediately after I arrived at the school, one of my co-teachers asked if I would be willing to help her teach English that day. I quickly said yes because I was longing to be apart of something, and to feel needed. So Mrs. Bouchra and I pulled to of our students to help them with English. Fatma and Abdul ar e two of the fourth graders in my joint class of fourth and fifth grade students that I help out in the mornings. Both Fatma and Abdul are from the middle east and are what the school calls “newcomers”. This means that they have just recently moved to America and have just been enrolled at the school. This also means that they have yet to learn English. Can you imagine being taken out of the comforts of your home and your surroundings, and being thrown in a completely different country with all new people, sights, smells, and languages? Imagine no one being able to understand you, and for you to not have the ability to understand anyone around you. That’s how Fatma and Abdul felt when they were thrown into a new school in a completely different country.   But these two kids have been working so hard with their English. Bouchra tells me that they both practice their alphabet flash cards every night, and that they improve more and more every day. “It’s amazing how quickly they pick up on the English language”, Bouchra said the other day, “these kids have the desire and ability to learn English as quickly as possible”. 

These children also have one of the best teachers to help them learn. Bouchra is a young, Muslim teacher from Morocco who has one of the biggest hearts known to man…Not only does she love these children so much, but she desires success for them more than anything. It’s amazing to watch her go through the flashcards with Fatma and Abdul and to see her excitement when they remember a letter and the correct sound it makes. Bouchra and I have quickly become friends. She invited me to her house after on Thursday to have tea with her. She knows that I love studying cultures and she figured it would be a great way to learn about her own. Bouchra taught molly and I all about the Moroccan Muslim culture, fed us homemade bread, tea cake, and green tea. She shared stories of growing up in Morocco, her travel experiences to America, and how she met her husband. I learned more about her culture and the Muslim faith during those couple of hours spent with Bouchra compared to anytime spent in class. 

I apologize for the super long post this week, too much just happend in the past seven days to not share. Thank you all for the prayers, texts, and phone calls!