La Primera Semana

The first week of classes is complete!  It feels so good to be back teaching.  Even though summer was a fantastic time of traveling and visiting friends and family, it feels so good to be back here and to be doing what God has called me to.  Two of the biggest highlights from the first week were seeing students again and getting to do math again.  

Seeing students again

Being a teacher, it's sometimes easy to lose track of why you do the job you do.  Ultimately, the students are any teacher's first priority.  Being at a Christian school, the role we play in the students' lives is somewhat magnified and it is something that I take seriously.  Last year, in the excitement of living in a new country, making new friends, restarting as a teacher with new curriculum, and many other distractions, relationships with students wasn't always my main focus.  This year, without all the distractions of new things, I hope to refocus my efforts on the students.  I hope this year to do my best to adjust my classes and lessons to my students.  More importantly, I am hoping to focus on being a role model and encouragement to my students.  I want to work hard to meet both the academic and spiritual needs of my students.  I am still working through all the things that this might mean, but it is something I can use prayer for.  

One of the ways I am hoping to achieve this is through my elective.  Each semester, high school teachers get to teach one elective course in addition to their four main classes.  Not always, but usually the teacher has the choice of what this elective will be.  This semester I have chosen to teach a course on the Gospel in pop culture.  Next week, I hope to tell you more fully about this course, but for now I will just let you know that we are watching The Chronicles of Narnia in class this week.  It is a great joy to have a job where I get to watch awesome movies as part of my work.  

The Senior class of 2014.  From left to right: Oscar, Katja, Skyy, Danitza, Rodolfo, Abigail, Jose Pablo, Isabella

 IAS Staff 2013-2014 during our school year opening ceremony.

Doing Math again

This is now my fifth year teaching math (kind of unbelievable).  Each year it takes a day or two to shake off the rust from the summer.  This year, things have gone smoother than ever.  This will be my second year teaching four different contents-Geometry, Algebra 2, Pre-Calculus, and Calculus.  I enjoy all  areas of math, although some more than others.  I have to admit that teaching Geometry was not my favorite last year.  While the students were incredible, I find definitions and theorems can get a little bit repetitive.  This year, I am hoping to take advantage of not having to write new lessons plans every night for four classes and intend to look for more exciting methods and activities.  

Math class.  Don't worry, this is from before classes started.  The white board is on the wall now.

This student did their homework in their notebook so they couldn't hand it in.  Their factoring is good though.

Housing update:

I am still staying at Casa Latina, but that will be changing soon.  As of tomorrow I will be putting a deposit down on an apartment in the building I lived in last year.  I will be in a two-bedroom apartment for September and October before moving into a one-bedroom apartment in November.  I am looking forward to having my own place again.  

Prayer Request:

This year our school has adopted a new theme.  "Jesus es verbo, no sustantivo."  In English, "Jesus is a verb, not a noun."  Our focus is transforming the world as Christians.  Our goal is to encourage students in what it means to live like Christ with a focus on being active agents of change in our society.  There are obviously a great number of needs in Guatemala (or any country).  As Christians we can meet some of these needs.  I think that these things are all true and am excited to see our school encouraging our students to work toward being and fighting for solutions to problems like poverty, illiteracy, hunger, and disease.  Pray for our school that we will be effective in this goal and that students will be receptive to the idea and be active in their communities.  Perhaps more significantly, pray that as a school our focus will always be grounded in the Bible and the power of the gospel.  Our social activism cannot stand alone.  It is God alone who has the power to change lives and the world around us.  Pray that, in our chapels and our classes, the gospel would be put ahead of good deeds and charity.  Pray that students' hearts would be changed first and foremost.  And that this change will yield socially concerned teenagers who are hungry to further God's kingdom in the world around us.   

Thanks so much for reading.  More on my elective soon.  God bless!

¡Bienvenidos!

Hola!  Bienvenidos a mi blog.  Welcome to my blog.  I hope to use this blog as a place to share the many exciting things that are going on in my life while I am here in Guatemala.  I am so extremely thankful for the countless people in my life who have shown me love and support so abundantly through the years.  I hope that this can be a small way to return thanks and keep everyone informed with the amazing things that God is doing in my life.  If you have any questions/comments/suggestions for the blog please feel free to contact me via email at smanchester85@gmail.com.  Thanks for taking the time to visit. I hope you enjoy it.  

I thought I would start with just a little bit of information about how I got here and what I am doing while I am here.  After teaching for three years in New York, I was working with the youth ministry at Main Street Baptist Church in 2011.  In December we went on a missions trip to Nicaragua.  The leader of our trip, Mike Najjar, and I were talking about my teaching career and the possibility of me returning to it and maybe even doing so in another country.  A couple of months later he sent me a link to a job opening at the school his son was about to attend.  I applied on a bit of a whim and God pulled things together very quickly and easily for me and it was clear that I was about to change directions in my life.  In August of 2012, I flew down to Quetzaltenango to restart my teaching career.  This time in a very different location here in Guatemala.  

Working with the youth group October 2011

In Nicaragua December 2011

This week I will begin my second year as the high school Math teacher at Inter-American School (IAS) in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala (known locally as Xela).  We have spent the last week preparing classrooms and curriculum getting ready for students to return on Tuesday.  This will be my fifth year teaching math and I am very excited for students to return and to get back into it.  Being the only high school teacher here at IAS means that I teacher Geometry, Algebra 2, Pre-Calculus, and Calculus.  Four separate preps was a lot to handle last year, but I am very excited to start this year with a much higher comfort level in content and preparedness.  I am hoping to spice lessons up this year and make things a little more exciting for the students.  I am always looking for and open to suggestions for fun things to do in the classroom.  

A brief update on my living situation:

Currently I am living at Casa Latina.  Casa Latina is a boarding house associated with one of the many Spanish schools in Xela.  I share an apartment with three other persons who are here studying Spanish at the school downstairs.  We each have our own bedroom but share the kitchen and bathroom.  The apartment I am is nice but I am very much ready to move out into my own apartment.  

Casa Latina from the outside

My bedroom

The bathroom

The kitchen

There is much more information to fill you all in on but I just wanted to start by giving a brief update and thank you to everyone who has supported me.  My family, friends, and everyone at Main Street Baptist Church who have supported me and poured so much into me over the years.  Thank you so much for encouraging, counseling, and guiding me through everything over the years.  There is absolutely no chance I would have made it here without all of your love and support.  Thank you.  

One of the best ways that you can continue to support me while I am here is through prayer.  There are so many things that I can use prayer for.  Here are just a few:

- focus in preparation for school

- renewed and newly established relationships with my students

-pray for the staff/students of the school

- a new apartment

There is so much more that I look forward to sharing with you over the coming months.  Stay tuned for more soon.  Thanks for stopping by, but mostly, stay classy.