Books, books, and more books....

I wanted to do a blog about how much the books and supplies you all donated, and helped us ship to our school has really been helping the kids and helping us to be better teachers for them! Sara and I keep small libraries in our classroom for the kids to use. So far, we've been keeping the books in cardboard boxes, but hopefully soon, the school will be able to build shelves in the classrooms for us, or so they say......

This is the very first time any of the kids have been able to read books, other than textbooks, in school (these textbooks are all too high in reading level for the majority of the kids). Offering them various books at different reading levels, and on a range of different topics, has really allowed the kids to explore reading in a new and exciting way! All of our kids are always excited about choosing new books to read! Sara and I have been more successful in teaching important elements of reading like characters and setting, which have also helped the kids' reading comprehension to improve, this has been a huge problem the school faces. We've also recently been allowing the kids to check out books for our classroom libraries, and take them home with them. This unleashed a completely new kind of excitement in the kids, and they were so eager to be able to take books home!

Sara and I have also been able to read aloud many books to the kids. Our kids love this! For many of them, I know this is one of the few times, if ever, that they are read to in English. And again, it's gives us another chance to build on their vocabulary and comprehension!

Before and after school, I've been tutoring kids. The picture above shows Marlon, he is in my second grade class, and we've been working together to build on his reading comprehension and to improve his writing. Using the books we were able to send over everyday has really helped him to improve in school! Like I mentioned before, the textbooks are very difficult for a lot of our kids to read and understand. So by reading one-on-one with him twice a week, using the books at his reading level, has given him a lot more confidence in his ability to read!

This picture below is of Marieli and I. She is in first grade, and attends another bilingual school in Tela. I work with her after school about 3-4 times a week. Other than helping her with homework, we also work on building reading comprehension and vocabulary. During my time with her, I bring along many books from our school. The first time I opened my bag and showed her all the books she could choose from to read, her face completely lit up! She even asked if she could take one of the books home to read more!

Unfortunately, our school wide library hasn't been progressing as fast as we would like. We have all the higher level books, encyclopedias, magazines, and read long tapes, upstairs in the all-purpose room. Some are in a bookshelf, but most others are on the floor and on tables. The picture below shows this. Our goal is to be able to help set up the school's first official library before we leave in June. We want to teach the kids how to choose books right for them, and how to check-out books and return them safely. As of right now, the lack of bookshelves, and a space to set up the library has put this plan to a halt. The school's founder, Graciella, promised us that they are in the process of building shelves in this all purpose room for the library, and that will be the first step. Vanessa, another teacher at the school has been looking into getting tables, chairs, and rugs to be able to use specifically for the library. So hopefully sooner rather than later, the school library will be coming together! I'll keep you updated as that project comes together!So really, I can't say thank you enough for helping us get these books and supplies here!! Sara and I are lucky enough to see how much it helps our kids everyday, and I hope this little blog helps you to see at least a little, what part you all had in that!! :)