Assistance

Posed, but also a teaching moment.  This will likely be used for TRA.

Luis

Martha (pronounced Marta)

Carolina

Yay for names!

Sophia Smith is a third grade teacher at Lockeland.  She is very involved with the Reading Association at both the state and national level.  This summer, she approached me (or maybe it was in the spring?) about letting the Tennessee Reading Association (TRA) "adopt" Yuri and me.  Apparently they have some international goals and they were willing to donate $200 to the cause, asking only for a book swap in return.  This is the project my fourth graders here are doing to share with the 4th grade club at Lockeland.  I'm hoping it will spawn other long-distance collaborations between our schools.

Kathy is the name of my contact.  Her email puts her at Tennessee Tech.  I don't know much more than that about her.  She emailed me shortly before I left, but my life was chaotic to say the least at that point.  I didn't get back to her, and once here, her email shuffled to another page of my inbox and I completely lost track of it.

This week, as I was starting the books, I realized it was a good time to get back in touch with her.  I emailed her to let her in on our progress (Lockeland clubs started, and I believe finished their books a few weeks ago).  We ended up exchanging about four emails.  She has a meeting with the board on Monday and will be presenting some of my information to them.  Even better, she wants to meet Yuri and me in January.  And the best news of all is that she wants to try to get some donations for me: books, school supplies, who knows what else!

I'm excited to see what all I'll be bringing back to Mexico with me (and where it will all go!).