first week of teaching

So, I have my first week of teaching complete!! It is definitely draining at the end of the day because you have to keep your energy up, make the kids engaged and have them speak english!!! It is frustrating sometimes when I have to constantly say, "English Only!!" But, its okay. It gets them in the habit and helps them! The kids all call me Miss. Madison and its so cute.

Tuesday, I taught Level 2. School starts at 3:30 and at 3:27 there was only ONE kid in my class. He actually wasn't even supposed to come to Level 2, cause he's level 3 but he wasn't going to be in class on Wednesday because he was going to Poland. His name is Mose and he is one of my favorites! He speaks FIVE different languages. Italian, Polish, Lithuanian, Russian and English! When he told me that I was so impressed! Anyways, finally a little after 3:30 more kids showed up! I had Ignas, Sofia, Nicole, Max, Alex, and Mose. If there is not more than 8 kids, the other elementary teacher and I do not split the class and do the rotation. We just stay in one classroom, I teach my lessons and then she goes. We have 5 minute breaks in between every 2 lessons. I taught Spelling and Language Arts. Spelling is 25 minutes and then language arts is 50 minutes. For spelling, I have to give them words, we learn how to spell them, say them, and practice them. We came up with sentences to put them in also. Then, we played a game with banana grams where they had to find/create as many spelling words as they can and they LOVED it. They got so excited when they found some words! I also have to give them homework. Which is basically, writing the words 7 times or writing them in sentences. For language arts we go right by the teacher handbook that we have and just give the lesson out of there. We read a book about a Dragon, and had to discuss and predict and infer. It is pretty easy because I just teach right out of the text book and sometimes we do little games to make it a little easier. But, the main focus isn't just getting them to learn about Dragon. It's about being able to understand the words they're reading in english, read in english, write in english, and talk in english. The kids were insane. I had a lot of crazy boys. Ignas is a handful. He is cute, but a handful. Max was good, but asked a lot of weird questions. Alex is straight up so cute! He is so smart. Well, all the kids I taught were so incredibly smart! But, I had to separate Max and Ignas because they weren't listening. I'm actually not supposed to discipline them but I can move them around. However, if they're really not listening, I have to go get Alma. She is a worker here at the ILP school. Doesn't speak any english really, but I have Nicole (Dima's daughter) translate for me. I give them warnings and say "okay if you're not listening one more time I am getting Alma." And guess what happened? I had to get Alma! haha but its okay cause they came back in and quickly apologized.

Then I had my adorable Prelanguage kids. Leo is honestly one of the cutest kids you will ever see. He barely speaks english but says "Hi hi!" and "bye bye" and "mama". He actually whispers "mama" which can be a little creepy hahahahaha but he is so cute so it makes up for it. Yava is adorable. She is so tiny and loves hugs. She speaks really well also! Micholas is again, so cute, and makes the cutest faces ever. We just play different games with them.

Wednesday I taught Level 1. They are probably my favorite. All girls except one little boy named Lukas. WHO GAVE ME A FLOWER POT MADE OUT OF TISSUE PAPER. He comes into class, comes up to me and says "what's your name?" I look at him and say "Miss. Madison! what's yours?" Pulls out the flower pot, hands it to me and says "I'm Lukas!" SO CUTE!!!! He has a little man bun/pony tail. All the other kids in my class are so cute. One girl I had a tough time with though. She has never ever been in regular school. Her name is Bruite and she's 7 years old. I guess that's normal here, to hold off putting your kids in school!? She had a hard time understand how much work we had to do. For example, every thing I write on the board, I have to make sure they write down on their papers and I told them that too! Every single time I wrote something down, she would say "do we have to write all of that?" "yes, everything I write, you write down too." I THINK I SAID THAT ABOUT 100 TIMES THAT DAY. I kept my calm, but she couldn't grasp that and kept saying "oh my goodness, thats so much writing" and I told her "well that's what happens when you move up to elementary level! You've improved so much that work is going to get harder." Anyways, besides that, it was a great class! I'm probably not supposed to have favorites from each group but, I do. Toma and Varvara are my favorite. We did spelling and I did the same thing with banana grams and instead of doing it on their own, I had them work together, and they loved it. We then moved onto Math and we learned addition and subtraction. I made them 100 charts to use it. They also loved that! All hands on learning really helps them. They are rockstars! Then for Language Arts we made "Things I like to do books" and they loved those also. They got to color, and write everything down themselves. Then for word skills we learned about phonics and sounding out different words that rhyme. Finally I taught listening comprehension where I just read them a book and asked them questions! During breaks we took pictures and they LOVED that. They loved asking me all these questions too, like how old I am, and how many brothers or sisters I have too. Pre-language was good too. Just lots of playing :) A new kid came named Daniel but its not pronounced like Daniel, its pronounced "Da-neel", its weird. He BARELY speaks english. He knows a few words, like bye bye and what the. His mom sits in on the class and he acts out, touches kids, draws on walls and chairs and his mom doesn't do a thing. I'm just so confused because I am not sure he is understanding anything I am saying and so when he acts out his mom just sits there and laughs. ALSO, he almost said the F-word. He goes "what the fu" and I was so shocked and his mom just laughs. Like, excuse me WHAT?! But, the f-word just isn't a bad word here which is strange. Their swear words aren't the same as ours. Culture is definitely different.

Thursday I taught Level 2 again, but only 3 kids showed up!! Sofia, Nicole and Ignas. So Saffron and I, taught in the same class together. I taught Writing and Language Arts. We practiced writing to a pen-pal that they will have next week from America. One of the previous ILP teachers from Lithuania is actually an elementary teacher back in the states and she thought that might be a great idea! Which I think so too! Then we discussed more about the story we read in class on Tuesday. I also had to collect their homework for spelling, grade it, write down the grade and give it back. They also had a spelling test today! It wasn't that exciting. Its hard teaching with 3 kids because sometimes they don't always talk. But, we started this ticket thing where if they say something correct in english, spell it correctly, all get 100% on spelling homework/tests or just answer a question in english they will get a ticket in the cup I have. Then, when they reach a certain amount of tickets, we will have a party. They really loved that idea and it definitely motivates them to try harder and learn more. Then, in Pre-language class, we only had 3 kids. Daniel, Leo and this other little girl and I cannot remember her name for the life of me. But, we had a little accident in class. We were building a puzzle and Leo is learning how to potty-train and well... I think you can guess what happened. He peed his pants hahahaha. It was SO MUCH. It went every where. Not just in his pants. Out of his pants, on the floor, on the foam puzzle pieces too. The best of all is, his mom LEFT. Usually she is there and stays to watch outside in the hall cause she has a daughter in another class. But, nope. She left to go somewhere. So, he had to sit with Alma while she called her. Poor kid didn't even mind and was so content and didn't even really know what was going on I think.

Earlier on Thursday we had Russian Language class which was... interesting. The woman is actually a legit Russian teacher. But, ff thats how the kids we teach feel in english class, I feel so bad! hahaha She barely spoke any english and it was good but I just wrote down what it sounds like to me, and what it means. hahahah It was really interesting to see and hear it all from a native speaker though!

Today, I taught level 1. We did language arts again and science! For science, we learned about clouds. We made clouds out of cotton balls and glued them on paper too. It was really fun and they enjoyed it a lot! We also did Language Arts. I love my level 1 kids. Again, it was all girls and one boy! Poor kid was all by himself. He is very quiet but super smart! He also has never been to school before. So, he's not used to doing all this work of writing down things. But he has great handwriting and can spell things really well!! This one girl started bawling today in class because she just didn't want to write it all. She has never been to school other than english school. So, its a hard adjustment but I told her she's smart and she can do it! They loved making the clouds out of cotton balls. Apparently they don't have cotton balls here in Lithuania only in America. So the kids had no idea what they were but they were OBSESSED with them. In Pre-language the kids and I made paper plate jelly fish. I love my pre-language kids. Yava is my favorite. She is so cute and always wants to give me hugs. Today she said "I love you!" to me so many times. After we all got done, we went out to sushi to celebrate our first week of teaching complete!

I don't know how you teachers do it in America, I can barely handle 4 hours of it! I give you major props. It's exhausting and draining but I honestly love it here. I love the kids. I love helping them. I love love love Lithuania. I'm learning so much and I'm helping little children further their education and hopefully help them somehow with their futures. I miss you all and wish I could eat a big piece of steak. One thing I'm having a hard time adjusting to is the food. But, I'm trying!!

welp, remember you're loved and be grateful you can flush your toilet paper down the toilet!!

One of the meals I had. Its beet soup (i didn't eat it) and some kind of meatball.

First Day of Teaching : DONE!

Well, today we had our first day of teaching! I was definitely nervous for it. I teach elementary level 1, 2, 3 so basically I teach 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade. But, the kids only come twice a week. Level 3 comes Monday and Wednesday (I only teach 3rd Mondays), Level 2 comes Tuesdays and Thursdays and then level 1 comes Wednesdays (I solo teach that day) and Friday. The kids are in the levels not based on age, but based on ability. So, I have some 9 year olds in my first class on monday's and some 13 year olds. I team teach with this girl in my group named, Saffron. We split all the level 3 kids in half and then switch half way through. We do that for every day except wednesdays, where like I said earlier, I solo teach ALL level 1 kiddos :) Today she taught them writing and language arts. I taught spelling, math, and word skills! Dima's daughters were in my classes today and I loved it! They are my favorite. Sofia, the blonde one always asks me if I can come over and hang out with them at their house hahahaha it's so cute!

My first group of kids were tough. Not that they were crazy but they would NOT talk!!! They were incredibly quiet. I teach a lot like a traditional teacher in the way I go over words, and I teach them and I teach actual school subjects. But, I teach what the words mean because honestly they don't know what a lot of the words mean. I teach from 3:30-6:30 and then the last hour I teach pre-language kids which are kids that are 2-3 years old. We just play different things with them for 15 minutes because their attention span is not that long hahaha. It was cute! We first did a puzzle, then colored, then play dough and finally made little bracelets!!! The kids barely speak any english except one little kid named Micholas kind of like Nicholas but with an M had really good english for 3 1/2 years old!

It was funny during my second group of kids, one of our rules here is "English Only" but whenever we as teachers walk past one of the workers we have to say "Laba Dienna" because thats polite and they think its incredibly rude if we don't say hi first even though they won't say hi first hahaha kind of weird. Anyways, two of the kids in my group, brothers actually, named Simon and Mose say to me after I said "Laba Dienna" to someone, "MISS MADISON ENGLISH ONLY!!!" The kids are super cute here and I get so happy when they get excited when they say or write an english word correctly. The way their face lights up or their huge smile honestly makes my whole entire day.

Dima, our local coordinator, came into my class for the last lesson and I got super nervous hahaha, but afterwards he came up to me and said that I did perfect and he is so grateful I am teaching elementary level. Also, my head teacher shelbi said I did awesome too which made me feel great cause I definitely was super nervous!

After everyone got done and we were cleaning up Dima decided to buy us all pizza as a way to celebrate our first day teaching! So we cleaned up, and headed back to the apartment. So, we got salami pizza which is basically their version of "pepperoni pizza" and chicken and pineapple which is like hawaiian pizza. It was so so yummy! Dima is hilarious. I apparently talk really fast but he said he loves it and loves me so thats good right?! I can't wait to see what my level 2 kiddos are like tomorrow! I love the kids so far and am excited for the rest of the semester here :)

Smiling Faces and Familiar Hymns

Today was the first sunday here in Lithuania! Funny start to my morning... Annie and I probably stayed up way too late, okay, we did, anyways I get woken up by Annie telling me "Madison its 12:37 we need to get up." Half asleep, I didn't believe her and said "no you're joking" because we had to leave in less than an hour for church hahahaha. Anyways, I was so excited cause we got to go to the Lithuanian branch here. It takes about 30 minutes to get there. 20 minute walk, 10 minute bus ride. I was excited because A) I've never been to a branch before and B) I've never been to church where I'd have to listen with headphones while one of the missionaries interpreted for you!!

The branch building where we met was a tiny little red building. We walk up and immediately see two smiling faces! Can you guess who that was? The senior missionary couple! It was so nice to see someone who actually smiled back at you... AND spoke amazing english!! The branch was tiny. We walked in and I immediately didn't feel like I was somewhere unfamiliar. I mean sure, I had to use a headset to understand everything. But anywhere you go, the church will be the same. I found a lot of comfort in that as I've been here and its been a total culture shock/adjustment.

The hymn books were in Lithuanian of course, but I knew exactly what songs they sang by the tune! We all tried to sing it in Lithuanian because, we didn't wanna be the only ones singing in english hahahaha. The talks were about education and one person spoke actually in english (wooho0!!) and about BYU-Idaho and the pathway program!!! (REPRESENT!!) We didn't stay for all three hours this week because we had some stuff to do. But, next week for sure I'll experience all three hours!! :)

After church we came back, got some lunch, worked on some lesson plans and decided to go explore this lake near our apartment! It's about a 10-15 minute walk. Let me just say...the women here do not care what they wear at the beach. They rock the bikini if they want to. It was nice to just lay down in the sun and relax a little bit.

Then later that night I skyped my family for a bit! :) It was nice to see them and talk to them over facetime! So grateful I have wifi here that lets me do that!

Overall, I've had an amazing time so far in Vilnius! I love it here. I love the buildings, the cobblestone paths in Old Town, my roommate Annie and all the other girls, Dima, my bed, and everything! I still can't really fathom that I'm here for four months, but I can't wait to have all these amazing experiences and memories :) I start teaching tomorrow (Monday) and I can't wait! I'm a little nervous but mainly excited!!

videos are fun

My dad sent me with his little canon camera to take with me here to Lithuania. So, I decided it would be fun to take some little clips of the Old Town and post them together. I'm no videographer and I'm not trying to be. I'm just trying to capture the memories here in Lithuania any way I can :) So, here is the video I made and I hope you enjoy it! Sorry if the camera's a little shaky! Like I said, I'm no professional :)

*watch in HD and full screen!!! *

nun's shake their booty's?

So, today was fun, but we not as fun as last night to be honest! It was still great though. For some strange reason, Annie and I woke up at SIX AM. We didn't go to sleep till about 1 something so we got 5 hours of sleep. It was probably because the sun was shining right in our eyes through the window cause we forgot to close the blinds... haha ooooops! So, we just kept trying to go back to sleep but did that work out? NO.

Annie and I aren't the only ones who live in the apartment, up until today it was us two, and then two other teachers from spring semester. But they left today! ANd our Head Teacher and two other girls moved into the apartment with us. Its a little complicated to explain but basically Annie and I finally got to unpack today and move into our room we share. The other girls came, unpacked and then we met up with two of the other teachers who live in Host Families! We all went to Maxima, the local grocery store just a 5 min walk from our apartment, to get lunch. On Saturday's and Sunday's the kindergarten doesn't feed us, and so we get to decide our own meals! Annie and I weren't really hungry cause for breakfast we had left over mac n' cheese and hot dogs... hahahaha sounds so gross, but it wasn't, we promise. We aren't even sure if they were actually hot dogs...I mean you gotta deal with what you get! Anyways, we got this bomb garlic bread, some fruit, and milka chocolate. If you have never had milka chocolate, I will bring you some home. JUST TELL ME AND I WILL. Seriously. Your life will be changed forever. Please tell me cause I want to change your life and make you the happiest person in the world.

After lunch we all talked and got to know each other a bit more. Then we moved onto the boring, yet fun stuff in a weird way... Lesson Planning! We don't start teaching till Monday but we need to plan everything and make sure we are ready to go Monday at 3:30! We teach Monday-Friday 3:30-7:30! I teach Elementary Level kids. There's actually 3 levels that I'm going to teach... oh boy. Level 1, 2, 3! I actually am teaching them spelling, math, science, grammar, writing, language arts, the whole big bang. It's a lot. It's easier than I thought, but it's just a lot to take in. The first week will be a little crazy and overwhelming but once we actually get into it, it'll be fine. We did that for a while cause our awesome sweet head teacher Shelbi, met with each girl and helped them learn how to make a lesson plan. She is honestly the best. I got soooo incredibly lucky with her being my head teacher! After all the lesson planning, two of the girls who live in Host Families hadn't been to Old Town yet so we decided to go there again, explore and grab some dinner too.

We literally ride the bus every where and its very nice and cheap too! Well, everything's cheap here. We got dinner at this thai "fast food" restaurant. It was THE BOMB. They thankfully spoke english there. Then, we walked some more and Annie and I got the best sorbet in the world. Oh my lanta. Apple and Mango flavor makes my taste buds do the happy dance. Also, I realize that I got this already yesterday but since its sorbet, it makes it healthier....right? Speaking of eating ice cream/sorbet, apparently american's eat very weird according to our friend Edgar, so watch how you eat people. You probably look disgusting. I'm kidding you're probably great looking. I mean who doesn't look beautiful while eating???? After we walked some more, Annie saw these girls selling cotton candy for 2 euros. So of course, she got some! I mean, it was HUGE cotton candy too! We then walked around this park and sat down to watch a water fountain show and guess what I saw... NUNS. I have never seen them before in real life... I got so stoked. Then, music started playing and one of them started dancing and shaking her booty!!!!!!! uhm, excuse me is that allowed?!?!? I get excited about the weirdest things...like seeing Nun's in real life. After that we were all so tired and ready to just relax. We have walked every where today and we're all still adjusting to the time difference. Tomorrow, we get to go to a Lithuanian branch and I am so so sooo stoked!

aren't we the cutest?

"Laba Dienna"

Well, I've officially been here for two days! Today we had our welcome meeting, orientation and more training. It was a lot of information to take in, but I'm excited! We start teaching the kids on Monday! I will be working with the "elementary" level kids which is about 2nd-3rd grade ages but they could also be up to age 11. It honestly all depends on their level, not their age.

The food I had today was good, but I mean not the greatest. It was definitely different. Very small portion sizes and loooooots of butter on food. We eat food at the kindergarten school and the cooks don't speak a lick of english. They're very scary Russian women. Annie and I walked in, and say "Laba Dienna" which means good day. They just stare at us.... we grab the food and its bland oatmeal, a banana and these coconut croissants (which are actually the BOMB. SO GOOD!!!) We ate it cause we were starving but, honestly it wasn't bad. 

Then, we went to the school and had a bunch of information given to us about training, lesson plans, the kids, everything. We got to meet the other girls in my group too! They're the sweetest. Dima, our local coordinator is the best. He is SOOOO funny and so incredibly sweet too. He was showing us where the bathrooms were, to Annie and I, and he goes "do you have medicine?" and we were confused and said "what?" and he says, "you know, for stress medication, shock, you know, cause the bathrooms are very ugly. If you don't come back in 30 minutes we will go find your bodies"..The bathrooms were scary, but it was totally fine! It was better than our apartment bathroom with the fact that you could flush the toilet paper down the toilet!!! Yes, in my apartment I live in, the pluming is so bad that we cannot flush ANYTHING down the toilet. Yuck, I know. But, hey, you gotta live with what you are given! I am just grateful I am here!! We also learned more about the culture here and everyone basically hates you unless you say hi to them first. So we have to say Hi, or "Laba Dienna" to everyone or they'll think we are stuck-up and rude. It is a very different culture here that is for sure! 

Then it was lunch time and we went to the kindergarten again to get food. Annie and I were so nervous to see the women again after our experience at breakfast. I especially was so awkward that I just kept saying "Laba Dienna" "Laba Dienna" "Laba Dienna" and forgot to say thank you which is pronounced like "achoo". So, the cooks just kept saying it back and laughing at me. I basically just kept saying "Hi hi hi hi". Then our friend goes "say thank you!!!!" So for lunch, we had this soup that was just straight up butter and potato shavings. I didn't eat any soup. Then we also had potatoes and meatballs which were delicious!!!! After that we had a break so we went back to our apartment and just hung out. Later on we went to the school and watched the concert they were putting on from the previous semester, it was so adorable and fun! They sang all these different "american songs". After that we met up with these kids who's parents are friends with Dima, our local coordinator. They took us around to city center and old town.

City Center and Old Town is soooooo beautiful! We just walked around and all the buildings and colors are just so pretty! I love it. We got dinner at this pizza cafe place which was, THE BOMB. Also, everything is incredibly cheap here. I got a pizza that had peaches on it... weird I know but, it was so delicious!!!!! Then we got ice cream at this ice cream shop and it was so good too. I got apple and mango sorbet. It was the bomb. My mouth was in heaven. All we did was walk around, talk and take pictures  It was just a fun day and I loved it :) I can't wait to see what we do today!