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!