There´s something strange about leaving your home, where you grew up, where you have years and years of memories, to go to another a place that you also call home. All six of us left our home here in the DR to go to our homes in the U.S.A to be with our families for Christmas. With that trip we left a little part of our hearts at the Hogar. Even just for a month it was hard to leave our job, our students, our lives here, but there is no way to describe the feelings of coming back. The first day we saw our students, it felt like we hadn´t seen them in years. They were all bigger, talking more, acting like little adults; now I think we must all know how our parents felt watching us grow up.
The nice thing about a break, is that it allows you to clear your mind and reflect on the past and plan for the future. We came back with more fire, energy and new ideas to finish our last 5 months here stronger then we started our year. Whether it was new teaching strategies, finishing up started projects or starting something completey new, we want to give these last months everything we´ve got.Our first work day back we had a teaching workshop (let me just say I think that was probably the first one in Hogar history and it was so needed). It was a perfect way to start out our new year.The workshop touched on the idea of how we can better teach our students, and gave us a new understanding of what is best for them and for us.
We are continuing with our english classes in the pre-school and the upper school, also the reading/writing classes in the deaf school, and the after school special ed class. We have started some new projects as well, such as an English Honors program with juniors in high school, as well as a new reading program for Kindergarten and first graders.
I will leave you with a quote:
¨You will never be completely at home again, because part of your heart will always be elsewhere. That is the price you pay for the richness of loving and knowing people in more than one place.¨
