History Week

These last two weeks have brought much happiness and excitement, including many new things, to my already jam-packed life. I'm so grateful for God's blessings in allowing me so many different experiences.

Last week was our last week of school before spring break. March 10-14th brought the Smith family of Virginia to our little American-Portuguese-Canadian-Korean-German-Russian-
Brazilian-Angolan-Nepalise school. This family of 5 came to interactively teach our students and the students of our neighboring Christian school, the International School of Cascais, more about American history. Each morning saw the students embark on a journey back through time to experience first-hand the workings of different time periods in American history. Each teacher or pair of teachers was set up at various learning stations where we would each educate the students on different facets of those periods of time.

Monday was Colonial Day in which I got to pretend I was a slave and teach the students who filtered into my little kitchen (complete with a hanging kettle full of potatoes) about what life was like for a slave during the Colonial period and what it was like for them to choose sides during the Revolutionary War.

Tuesday brought to us Civil War Day where I worked with Lindsey Smith to teach about 100 students what first aid was like in the mid-1800s.

Wednesday we concentrated on the different regions of the United States and I was placed in the Mid-West to teach about what life would have been like for a cowboy. I got to dress up and play a game with the younger kids to help them understand the hardships a cowboy would face and how important it was to care for the cattle.

Thursday brought the Great Depression. We did not do learning stations this day, rather, things were set up in a huge game. Each of the students received an identity which told them their income, how many were in their family, their occupation, whether they save their money in the bank or under their bed, and other such information. We played the game in rounds- they began before Black Friday. They went to the bank to collect their income, then came to a Financial Advisor (I was one of these) to get advise on what kind of car they could afford or type of house they could live in. This determined whether they were upper, middle or lower class. They would then proceed to the grocery store where they could buy what groceries they could afford, then back to their “neighborhood” to eat and await the next round. As time went on, we listened to speeches by the president saying things were fine, we listened to the announcement of the stock market crash, and then eventually all of them lost their jobs and the bank closed. The point was that each of the students would eventually, because of lack of money, have to end up in the lower class or even homeless. The funny part about running this game with missionary kids is that, due to their upbringing, in the first round each of them purchased cars and homes far below their income and so they all saved up everything they had and ended up with money in the end. As a financial advisor I even tried encouraging spending toward the end of the game, telling them it would boost the economy, and they still saved! They have been trained well!

Friday was by far my favorite day – Espionage Day. We all dressed up as spies, set up the learning stations again, and taught them different facets of espionage. I was at the Armed Combat station with another teacher, Mr. Schlener who we lovingly call “The Colonel” due to his retired air force status. We had nerf guns, Frisbees, balls, short range target practice, long range target practice, shooting on the run, and all sorts of fun stuff. There was a self-defense class, a fingerprinting station, and an interrogation room. Each of the students again were given new identities, their cover stories. Little 6 year old Joao was supposed to be a 38 year old chef from Italy! The kids memorized their covers for when they were sent to interrogation. The first part of the day was training. The second part of the day, we played a huge game where each of the students had to make drops in the market place. They were part of either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. They worked in pairs to make the drop, pick up the package and deliver it to safety without being caught by a third team which was INTERPOL. It was amazing to watch the craftiness of some of the students!

All in all, history week was a huge success. I don’t know if there are plans to try and pull it off again in the following years, but I hope so because I probably had more fun than the students!