09.19.07
Posted at 7:19 pm by Becky
Today during Spanish time we were making posters about conserving natural resources (we read about them in Social Studies and the poster project is my attempt to make it more meaningful/interesting). As I walked around the room, I saw on one boy’s poster that people should protect animals, and one of the ways is by not marrying them. Now, true as that may be, I was pretty sure that was not what the kid meant to write. It turns out the words for marry and hunt only vary by one (crucial) letter in Spanish–casar (to marry) vs. cazar (to hunt). The kid corrected his poster. Good times.
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09.18.07
Posted at 8:13 pm by Becky
You should know that tomorrow, September 19th, is Talk Like a Pirate Day.
We thought you should know that.
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09.15.07
Posted at 9:47 pm by Becky
Week 2 ended much better than week 1. For starters, the kids seem to have realized that I am actually in charge, and they are not. Big improvement!
As I mentioned before, we went to see High School Musical performed by a children’s theater. It was a pretty fun trip. The little girl sitting next to me said “I don’t understand a lot of the times when you were laughing.” I wanted to reply, “Well, that’s because they just referenced A Streetcar Named Desire so that the grownups in the audience wouldn’t want to lobotomize themselves”, but instead made up some teachery junk about reading and being culturally literate. There were a few extremely cheesy moments, but what can you expect from a play whose main message was “We can all be friends”.
One of my students brought me a dozen farm fresh eggs on Monday. They were from her own chickens! Apparently apples are out, eggs are in.
SPECIAL SCHOOL PROJECT ALERT! We are studying the United States in social studies. I’m hoping to get a postcard from each state describing the geography/culture/important stuff about the state. That’s where you come in, gentle benevolent reader! If you would like to help out, please reply either in the comments or send me an email and I can email you the school’s address. Thanks!
And now for non-school news. On Friday evening I went to hear a knitting humor author speak. Yes, there is such a thing as knitting humor. Yes, only knitters get it. It was very entertaining to sit in a room with at least a hundred other knitters and laugh at jokes about maurading crocheters. That’s pretty much the moment at which I realized that we’re a bunch of freaks. At least we have a good time. I’ve been inspired to start knitting socks. There is a sock class starting in December, which apparently teaches you to knit two socks at once on the same set of needles! I am intrigued. If I’m successful, you can probably guess what everyone will be receiving for Christmas next year. 
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09.12.07
Posted at 8:05 pm by Becky
School has started. I am tired. I’m thinking of going to bed as soon as I finish this, AKA 8 pm. Sad.
I’m still in the middle of culture shock, I think. The kids are very different, and it’s taking more to whip them into shape than it took in Chicago. I’m a bit incredulous. Seriously, folks, listening to the teacher should not be new information. And kid, don’t you dare ask me why the room isn’t more decorated.
The Spanish part of the day is… a challenge. It’s either mind-numbingly boring or way over their heads, with very few in between. Whee.
It feels like I’m brand new at this and I don’t like that. I’m a good teacher, dang it!
Sorry I’m too tired to be clever. Perhaps I can write a witty review of our trip to see High School Musical another time. We’ll see.
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09.03.07
Posted at 8:52 pm by Becky
The key to a good first day is feigning confidence. I’m currently feigning so well that I’ve even convinced myself I know what I’m doing! Well, I do know what I’m doing for the first half of the day, for the Spanish afternoon portion–anybody’s guess. I’m sure I’ll figure something out (see, there goes the fake confidence again! Whee!). If nothing else, I have cookies for them, so they’ll like me. And probably go berserk from all the sugar at the all-school first day assembly, making me look like I can’t control a class. Maybe I’ll rethink that one.
In other news, Jamie and I have all but bought a new car. He’s having it checked out by a mechanic tomorrow and giving the guy a check and then I’ll get to drive a new car to school Wednesday! We’ve named it Albus.
Today I cleaned the house (it feels like I won’t have time for such things for a really long time, but I keep forgetting there’s such a thing as weekends and boundaries–not letting work take over my life) and Jamie and I took a walk around Greenlake. It was delightful–very good people/dog watching.
Now I think it’s bedtime. Unfortunately, First-Day-of-School-Eve is a lot like Christmas Eve–I lay in bed knowing I’m tired but can’t sleep. Sigh.
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