September

Hello!!! Welcome to Fall in the Dominican! I will add photos under the Photos Table. 🙂 We are not experiencing much relief from the heat yet, but hope it cools off soon!

We have now completed 5 weeks of teaching online! We have hit many roadblocks, but also encountered many successes. I can not thank you enough for your donations towards class books! I was able to purchase several boxes of books. These books are picture books that model inclusion, diversity, kindness, culture, world issues, beauty, and humour. I have labeled each book “To Doulos Kindergarten; From ___” with your names inside! Thank you again! I can not wait to introduce these books to our children. For now, when teaching online, I have been recording videos of myself reading these books to children. They have watched these Read Aloud from home and LOVE them!!! It is an incredible segway into deeper conversations and learning. Some of you also graciously donated Math manipulatives and learning tools for our class. THANK YOU!!!!!

Matt has completed a few weeks of online Science teaching, and LOVES it! He has a coach that works with him through lesson planning, marking, teaching strategies, etc. We are starting to get into the rhythm of both working full time, something we were not anticipating when moving here. The boys are beginning to adjust to their Nanny, who has immersed them in Spanish and in Dominican culture.

Our Covid numbers have decreased slightly, and our government recently extended our curfew hours from 7pm to 9pm. We have enjoyed taking our kids to the river, driving to surrounding cities, and exploring the mountains. We’ve slowly been making friends here, and joined a Bible study. We have stayed healthy thus far!!! Praise the Lord!!! Matt and I have still struggled to sleep well at night with the heat, the noises, and the new bed.

In the coming weeks, please pray for continued adjustment to the culture and the community here. Pray for our hearts to be opened to building new friendships and growing deep roots. As well, please continue to pray for health and rest for our family! 🙂

A few humorous facts about our lives/time here:

The neighbour dog climbs to the top of the roof each night, and around 4am he HOWL CRIES at the moon until the sun comes up. Needless to say, we are ready for him to have a new home. 😛

Of all the things to wake us up at night (aside from The Dreaded Dog and roosters), it’s the BATS!!!! Their high pitched squeaks fly right by our open windows and they are SO LOUD and SO HIGH PITCHED!!!!!

Our favourite activity is walking down our gravel road to the Colmado (fruit stand) to buy eggs, fruit, and corn.

What teaching online looks like: Matt and I arrive on campus at 7:25 each day. We have staff prayer time in the amphitheater until 7:45. I grab coffee from our Cafe on campus, and open my computer in my class at 8. I open my daily plans, prepare my materials, and set up for my first Live Class. I open up a Live Class on Google Classroom at 8:20, where my assistant and I greet and chat with students for 10 minutes. Our goal here is to create as much community as possible. At 8:30 I mute all students’ devices, and we begin with singing a song together. Students dance and sing from their houses. 🙂 We proceed to work through Literacy “stuff” until 8:50. Lessons each day look different. Direct teaching (me talking the entire time) is worst practice, so we play many interactive games. For example, as we work through learning different letters, sounds, words, and parts of speech, students use their whiteboards and markers to SHOW what they know. We practice together, learn from each other, and grow.

Similarly, for our Math Live Call, I send manipulatives (learning tools) home each week that each student has at their screen during our Live Calls. This way I can show, model, teach, and explain, while they participate with their tools. For example, we have been working on counting to 10. Each student was given 10 Bingo Chips and 10 Linking Cubes (blocks). During our Live Call, I modelled counting WHILE touching, one item per one number counted (yes, this is a taught skill). Students worked together with me to practice. From here, I differentiate as best as I can. Students who find this task easy, are encouraged to count from 10, to 20. Or they are asked to count them in Spanish/English after. Students who find this quite difficult switch to 3 or 4 Bingo chips, and I work with them on doing a few at a time.

Because we do not encourage a full day of screen time for our 5 year olds, I only meet with them live for two 20-minute chunks. The remainder of the day, for me, is spent preparing take-home packets and materials for them to further deepen their learning. It is also spent planning the upcoming week, meeting with my supervisor, meeting with my assistant, photocopying take-home work (dominican photocopiers make the job take HOURS), recording videos for student learning, and contacting parents and students. Outside of our Literacy Live Call and Math Live Call, I record instructional/musical/modelling videos for each subject area. These videos are NOT just “delivering information,” which makes them challenging, but closer to best practice. These videos prompt students, question students, read to students, etc., so that THEY are then motivated and inspired to continue their own learning.

Matt’s day looks different, yet similar. Because High School is a different world all to its own, he spends many hours recording instructional videos, explaining assignments, and communicating with students. He also teaches online live, for 1 hour at a time. His “free time,” when not on Live Calls, is spent planning for upcoming weeks, assessing, communicating with students, explaining, and researching content.

In addition to “regular online teaching,” we fight hard to integrate and centre our teaching on Biblical concepts. We teach perseverance, faith, humility, honesty, and compassion through each lesson. We guide students in daily devotions, learn scripture with them, and challenge students to dig deeper into their faith journey. One of Doulos’ primary goals is to disciple children, even online. We have loved watching our students grow in their faith and in their relationships with Christ.

We both try very hard to LEAVE our work here, so that we can fully parent when we get home. This is HARD. We have agreed that this is our most difficult parenting season. We come home HOT, exhausted, and mentally drained. Our boys meet us at the door also HOT, exhausted, and mentally drained. Matt and I have tried to develop routines of heading to our favourite Smoothie stand after school, walking to the Colmado, or hitting up a river or pool for some family FUN.

Weekends are spent WITH OUR KIDS– trying to do FUN and intentional activities with them to just help them relax, rest, and be free.

We are so hoping that in one week we can welcome my sister and her husband to the DR for a 2 week visit!!!! They have been having as much difficulty booking flights as we did, as they keep getting cancelled.

Thank you all for your support and encouragement along this journey. I will post pictures under the Photos tab soon! XOXO Lisa.