Back to loving my job...

I haven't had a day (granted I've only been back two!) where I just loved teaching like I had there for a stretch around Thanksgiving.

However, today was a really good one!  If I hadn't been tired still, I probably would've loved it.

This morning, there was no lingering student to let me in the gate, so I had to climb the hill in front of the school to get in.  Luckily that gate was left unlocked.  When Hernán saw me, he said he had passed by the bus stop gate to see if I had arrived three times.  Nice thought.  He had asked me to bring him a keychain from Nashville, so I gave him the Titans helmet keychain I had found and he was extremely grateful ("Tank you berry much").

I got my lesson prepared for second grade (they're approaching a test day, so I made a sign to announce the day of the test and got extra materials for class: posters and music) and took off for their classroom, wondering if they'd be finished with their exams.  As I approached, I saw their door and windows closed.  I guessed that meant no.  I poked my head in and saw tests on each desk.  I asked Rocio if they needed to finish their exams or if we'd be having English.  She said they needed to finish.  Okay.  Today was the last day, so I dealt with it.  Starting next week, though, I mean business!  We have a lot of ground to cover!

I made myself comfortable in front of my gmail account and chatted with some friends who chided me for not working, as usual.  As my fourth grade time slot approached, I went to see if we'd be having class or if they'd be testing.  I knew they had been testing earlier.  They were still testing, but they begged to have an English class break, so I taught.  I gave them the letters from the Spanish club at Lockeland and they were ecstatic!  I asked them to work in groups to write a return letter.  The requirements were 5 English sentences and an undetermined amount of Spanish sentences.  (My thought is that while it's a great exercise for our students to write in their second language, it will also be beneficial to read letters in their second language as well.  I also thought they would have an easier time and better fluency in their native language.  We shall see.)

This took the whole class.  Ashley is planning on visiting me in February, so I plan on sending the letters then (and maybe Megan and Yuri will have another set with them to send with her by then).  Then we can do it again in March when Mom and Jack come to visit.  After that, I hope to plan a "field trip" (doesn't exist here in Culiacán, or at least not at my school) to the mall (where there's a secure and strong internet connection) to video conference with the Spanish club at Lockeland.  It will take lots of planning and probably some permission slips (on the Lockeland side since the US has more issues with things like this), but I hope it works.

After recess (we had a long and irrelevant faculty meeting during which the third grade teacher, Ulises, watched my video footage from driving in Nashville and Lockeland), I taught 5th grade.  This was a very easy lesson.  Yesterday I only had half of the fifth graders (this explains what Sandra was telling me about 1st grade) because of testing.  Since their class sizes are so big, they only test half of the kids at a time.  This allows all students to have their own desk and cuts down on cheating!  I taught the same lesson two days in a row to two different sets of fifth graders.  

I went to the computer lab to change my teaching materials for 6th grade, and they were in there!  They all bombarded me with, "¿Teacher, cuándo nos va a dar? (Teacher, when do you teach us?)"  I told them that it was English time and they were excited.

Sandra sent them back to their room and many of the girls asked when we'd get to dance again.  I'm so glad that is something they'll never forget.

Since this was a test day, many of them had forgotten their books.  That was fine, because I could review without books.  Also, I needed to discuss with them how quickly we were going to have to move this semester.  I was only on unit TWO and needed to be on unit 5....

I also told them that the cultural stuff was more important to me, but that we would have to wait until after a test to do more dances.  I also added that I might cook some "American cuisine" for them.  If you have any ideas (so far I've got mashed potatoes), hit me up.

I left school glad I had been there.  Not ecstatic like some of those days in November, but definitely content.