So I have been slacking, yes I know. Nothing TOO exciting has happened recently. Life is just flying by but I am SO happy and things are going very well. The last few weeks have been great. At school, class has been going wonderfully and I'm just loving it. Only 9 weeks left of school, how crazy is that? I'm going to miss these kids so much and I can't believe they are going to be in 6th grade next year! I've had some interesting times in school recently though. In English class at school, we teach about American History. They get Salvadorian history in Spanish. It's been challenging to teach it because they have ZERO background knowledge on it. Right now, we have been talking about the 13 original colonies and when and where they were founded. To tell these kids....Massachusetts was founded here, Georgia was here means nothing to them. They are familiar with the names of the states but have no idea where they are located. Florida is the only one they know because of Miami and Orlando because of the vacations that they take there. It's been a good challenge and very eye opening for me, it's been fun.
Outside of school I've been trying to save money and haven't been doing much on the weekends. I'm going on a big spring break trip with some other people from the complejo. We are going to Utila, Honduras. It's an island just off the coast. Roatan is the more famous one but Semana Santa is going to be such a busy week at all of the touristy places so we decided to go to one that would be a little less wild. I'm excited, I've heard it's beautiful! So on the weekends I've been just hanging around with other friends here mostly which has been nice. I've become such good friends with so many people here that its nice to just catch up with them on the weekends. I've realized also how NOT-emotional I am. Sometimes I feel like I am the go-to person for everyone's emotions just because I can sit and listen :) For some reason, people have been having lots of emotional things happen recently so I've felt like a counselor at times. I'm not so good at expressing my own emotions or talking about things myself but I'm really good at listening to other peoples.
This next week should be pretty normal. I'm down 4 kids because now our kids are off to Virginia for the Exchange program. That means I will only have 18 this week but too bad it's all of my best students that left. Well I hope things are going well for everyone at home and the weather starts to warm up a bit, I've heard it's still pretty chilly. I'm available to skype anytime. I'm an hour behind most of you now because we are too good for Daylights Savings time here so we don't change our clocks :) Love and miss you all!
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
First Weekend feeling like a Queen
Diego and I.
So my student has been asking me week after week to go to his lake house and then the mom was asking me too. Things kept coming up and I was unable to go but I decided that I needed to stop saying "another time" and go! So I said I would go and they said that I could bring a friend. I made my friend Andrea go with me for moral support.
Lake Coatepeque-a crater lake. GORGEOUS!
So we left Saturday morning around 11am and went to meet them at their amazing city house which is actually very close to the complejo. So the mom rode down with Andrea and I just in case we got lost and separated from them. We drove down and Andrea and I were thinking we probably wouldn't spend the night just because that's a lot of time for me to spend with my student haha. We got there around 12:15 and the house was BEAUTIFUL.
House at the lake...no big deal.
Once we settled in and got a tour of the house, they took us for a tour around the lake on the boat. Well, actually the helper man that lives there who drives the boat for them took us out on the boat. I forgot to mention that there is one maid that lives in a smaller house next to their house on the property and her and her husband watch over the house during the weeks. They also brought another maid with them from the city. It gets better....
So after the trip on the boat, we sat on the dock and watched the boys wakeboard and jet ski while the parents, Andrea and I just relaxed and chatted. There was constant food, service and drinks. I felt a little overwhelmed with all of it. Well after some time in the sun, the mom said they were going to take a nap and the boys were playing video games so she told us we should watch the sunset from the 2nd floor balcony and lay on the lounge chairs. She brought us a blanket and asked if we needed anything to eat or drink.....treating us like queens.
Watching the sunset from the terrace.
After the sunset, we showered and got ready for dinner. There was fondue for dinner which was again served to us by the maids. I felt so strange having people doing everything for me but that is how life is for these kids, that's all they know. After dinner, they had made up a room for us because we decided we were going to stay. It was like a hotel...sample size bottles of shampoo, conditioner, body wash, towels and wash cloths. There was a candle lit in the room and they had turned on the A/C for us. They showed us to the room and made sure to close the curtains and also the darkened curtains so that no sunlight would come in and wake us up in the morning. We had a full breakfast in the morning and took one more trip on the boat before we took off around 11. They wanted us to stay for lunch but we needed to get back to the city and get ready for work tomorrow.
It was such an amazing weekend. I can't believe it! My student was so funny too because he was SO excited that I was there and kept saying "Miss Marissa, watch this" "Miss Marissa, did you know this?" haha and he was filling me in on all of the gossip of the 5th grade and tattling on kids that do things at school that they think I don't know about. I then told him that I was going to talk to those kids on Monday and he said "NO! Miss Marissa you can't tell them that I told you!" haha it was too funny. Overall, it was a really great weekend and I'm interested to see how he acts this week and he will be so proud and rub it in to all of the other students that I went with HIM to HIS lake house haha. Hope everyone else had a great weekend and has a great week.
First Reading Week
So this past week was Reading Week at school. We spent the week doing different activities to celebrate reading. On Thursday, the assistant principal asked me and 2 of the other 5th grade teachers to be the "Mystery Readers" which meant that we had to read a book over the intercom in the morning and then the students had to guess who we were. All of the 5th grade classes except one were able to guess it along with a few 4th grades. It was super fun and the kids had a great time with it. On Friday, all of the 5th grade teachers decided to dress up like the characters from the Wizard of Oz.
I was the Good Witch. We performed a shortened version of the play for the students and they had no idea we were going to do it. A few parents also came in throughout the week to be Guest Readers. Some of them were very nervous and it was so cute. The kids enjoyed listening to someone else rather than me all the time and most parents brought some kind of treat which was a plus! The rest of the week was pretty standard and same old same old. I felt like such a performer though between the reading over the intercom and acting out the play haha. On Wednesday, one of my students asked me to go to his lake house for the weekend so that leads me to my next first....
I was the Good Witch. We performed a shortened version of the play for the students and they had no idea we were going to do it. A few parents also came in throughout the week to be Guest Readers. Some of them were very nervous and it was so cute. The kids enjoyed listening to someone else rather than me all the time and most parents brought some kind of treat which was a plus! The rest of the week was pretty standard and same old same old. I felt like such a performer though between the reading over the intercom and acting out the play haha. On Wednesday, one of my students asked me to go to his lake house for the weekend so that leads me to my next first....
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
First "too many emotions" moment
So last week was the arrival of the exchange kids from Virginia. They arrived Monday morning and were with us for a very eventful day. The morning was going fine, they went to specials and then around 11 the emergency siren started going off and we were not warned ahead of time that this was going to happen so I had to rush over to the art room, get my kids, and have them sit in the field outside. The kids from Virginia were freaking out because they didn't know what was going on and were only used to tornado and fire drills. I had no idea what was going on either but I did my best to comfort them (counselor moment #1 of the day). The rest of the day went smoothly, with 4 extra kids in class, until the end of the day when I had to pass out progress reports. So I had 3 kids in my room crying after school about their low grades so I had to comfort them for a while (counselor moment #2). Next, I was getting ready to leave school at 4 and got an email from a parent saying that the principal had told her son that he could not go on the exchange field trip the next day because of his grades. Well needless to say I had to comfort her and the student (counselor moment #3). So i had put up with enough emotions for one day.
When I got home, the complejo drama began. All of the single people who have had guests spend the night got an email saying that no salvadorian is allowed to stay the night in the complejo, EVER. Well, obviously people with salvadorian boy friends or girlfriends or just friends in general were very upset about this and so I had to spend the evening talking to a few friends who were very upset about this new rule and restriction (counselor moment #4). At this point, I had had enough emotions for one day so just had to call it a night.
The rest of the week went smoothly and we had an Institute day on Thursday which was somewhat productive. We just listened to different teachers present on things that they had seen presenters about when they were at a conference, pretty low key.
The beach where we had lunch and hung out for the afternoon.
I spent the weekend at the beach mostly. Friday I went for the day with a few friends and came back around dinner time. Saturday morning I went to a different beach to spend the night with a big group of friends, there were 8 of us. It was a hotel right on the beach, it was very nice. We didn’t do a whole lot, just relaxed, ate some good food, played some Uno, kayaked and laid around on the beach.
Colleen and I at the beach.
This week is off to a great start. My kids are back on track and things are going well. I've realized that sometimes I think the best ideas in teaching come from nowhere. I'll be mid teaching and then think of a great way to explain something. Today we were talking about the orbit of the earth and seasons and things in science and the kids were so into it, it was awesome! It was so strange to talk about seasons with them though because they really only have 1 temperature year round. This week is also reading week so we are doing lots of extra reading activities and parents are coming in throughout the week to read to the class, it’s lots of fun. Thursday morning, the assistant principal asked two of the other 5th grade teachers and I to be the “Mystery Readers” so during homeroom time we will be reading over the loud speaker for the students to guess. I wonder how many classes will guess it correctly? Hope everyone else is having a great week and hopefully the weather continues to warm up for you! Miss and love you all!
When I got home, the complejo drama began. All of the single people who have had guests spend the night got an email saying that no salvadorian is allowed to stay the night in the complejo, EVER. Well, obviously people with salvadorian boy friends or girlfriends or just friends in general were very upset about this and so I had to spend the evening talking to a few friends who were very upset about this new rule and restriction (counselor moment #4). At this point, I had had enough emotions for one day so just had to call it a night.
The rest of the week went smoothly and we had an Institute day on Thursday which was somewhat productive. We just listened to different teachers present on things that they had seen presenters about when they were at a conference, pretty low key.
The beach where we had lunch and hung out for the afternoon.
I spent the weekend at the beach mostly. Friday I went for the day with a few friends and came back around dinner time. Saturday morning I went to a different beach to spend the night with a big group of friends, there were 8 of us. It was a hotel right on the beach, it was very nice. We didn’t do a whole lot, just relaxed, ate some good food, played some Uno, kayaked and laid around on the beach.
Colleen and I at the beach.
This week is off to a great start. My kids are back on track and things are going well. I've realized that sometimes I think the best ideas in teaching come from nowhere. I'll be mid teaching and then think of a great way to explain something. Today we were talking about the orbit of the earth and seasons and things in science and the kids were so into it, it was awesome! It was so strange to talk about seasons with them though because they really only have 1 temperature year round. This week is also reading week so we are doing lots of extra reading activities and parents are coming in throughout the week to read to the class, it’s lots of fun. Thursday morning, the assistant principal asked two of the other 5th grade teachers and I to be the “Mystery Readers” so during homeroom time we will be reading over the loud speaker for the students to guess. I wonder how many classes will guess it correctly? Hope everyone else is having a great week and hopefully the weather continues to warm up for you! Miss and love you all!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)