Well nothing and a lot all at once it seems.... tomorrow is my birthday, I've travelled to Xalapa and Coatepec this past weekend, I'm doggy sitting a friends pug, I tutored 2 boys twice this past week and I've been cooking, cleaning and getting massages. Next week I'm tutoring again, making 300 pesos an hour! woo hoo!! and the week after that, 1 week before I have to go back to work I'm starting work.... yup, exactly. I've been asked to teach a one week summer course to all the Spanish teachers at my school. That should be fun, I'll be teaching teachers..... Apparently they're excited to have me teaching and it is extra money so we'll see what happens.
That's pretty much it. Oh, my husband and i are looking for another house. Our contract with this one is up in November and it's really far too small in every way for our needs. I mean my kitchen is like 2 ft wide by 6 ft long.... it's not a kitchen it's a damn hallway. So we're moving. We looked at a house yesterday on the same street as ours just a block over. Nice big house, normal sized kitchen, bigger back yard with a mango tree. Airconditioners and fans installed. right now ours has neither and let me tell you, that sucks. a lot. So moving.
Now that's it.
Friday, July 20, 2012
Saturday, July 7, 2012
summer holidays!
Well It's July 7th. I haven't been on this thing in months and months and that is due to my crazy new life!
About 2 months ago I officially started teaching at Colegio Americano De Veracruz! I was teaching fifth grade for the last two months of the school year. I gotta say this was an interesting group to start my professional teaching career with! They were attitude filled, crazy, disobedient tazmanian devils but I loved each and every one of them! I was the third teacher that these groups had in one year. From what I heard the first teacher was lazy and didn't care what happened in class, the second teacher treated them like children and then there's me. Strict, loud, and mean. I expect fifth grade students to sit and do the work assigned. I mean I also expect loud, screaming and some fighting but nothing could have prepared me for this.... Even the English director wished me luck. So somehow i managed to muddle through. The students did most of the work, did decently on the exams and thanked me at the end of the year. My grades were similar to the previous terms and they also matched the Spanish teachers grades.
Maybe I should explain how the school works... well it's a very expensive private bilingual school. It runs from a maternal program (almost new borns) to grade 6. There are 3 kinder grades and a pre first. Pre first is an option for parents. The course is only in English, so each child receives an extra year of English classes if they choose to take pre first. Starting in first grade half the day is in English and half is in Spanish. The Spanish and English teachers work in partners, so I work with one Spanish teacher. Between the two of us we have two groups, Each group is assigned a letter. For example this year I taught 5A and B. When A is in English, B is in Spanish. The Spanish teacher and myself share a support teacher. The support teachers job is to..... well.... support us... She is in charge of classroom decorations (if I want to do it myself I can, or she can provide as much assitance as needed), takes the students to their extra classes (gym, art, music, religion, etc.), assists me with discipline, and takes over the class if I have a meeting or need to to use the bathroom. It's actually pretty awesome to have her around.
So in English I teach them English(reading, writing, listening, comprehension), science, math, social studies, and some history and geography is woven into the course. Instead of terms we have bimesters. Each bimester is 2 months and covers 2 units. What I love about this program (sistema uno) is that each subject is linked by a theme, so if we are reading about space travel and star navigation in English we learn about the solar system in science and in math we talk about atoms and molecules. It's a pretty cool way to lay out a course. Sistema Uno is also connected to Ipads. Each student has an Ipad (which stays at the school at all times) and the whole program is on it. I can do whatever I want on the ipads with the kids. I can choose which apps to load and use. I have a lot of freedom with this school and program. Basically I'm told "here is the book, you have two months, at the end of the book the students should know this" How I teach is my business, if I want to play games or do projects or make them copy endless notes it's my choice. It's pretty awesome for me. I love that I have the freedom to be me.
I also love the team of people I work with. The English director is amazing. She's always there to talk to for whatever we want, even if all we want is to bitch! She listens to any ideas we have, she's more than willing to let us do what we want and is always open to new ideas. I really think I lucked out with her. The other teachers are great too. We talk, hang out, and consider ourselves friends. We spend time together outside of school, eating, drinking and at the rare time exercising. I really really got lucky with this job.
So now i'm on summer holidays... And all I can do is think of what I wanna do next school year! I will be teaching either fourth or fifth grade and I go the ok from my boss to decorate my class any way I want! So my plan is a forest theme! complete with a reading fort! I keep reading other teachers blogs and looking at ideas on pintrest. I am really excited to start next year with a new group and have them from day one!!
So that is the long explanation as to why I haven't been updating. I shall strive to update more over the summer!
About 2 months ago I officially started teaching at Colegio Americano De Veracruz! I was teaching fifth grade for the last two months of the school year. I gotta say this was an interesting group to start my professional teaching career with! They were attitude filled, crazy, disobedient tazmanian devils but I loved each and every one of them! I was the third teacher that these groups had in one year. From what I heard the first teacher was lazy and didn't care what happened in class, the second teacher treated them like children and then there's me. Strict, loud, and mean. I expect fifth grade students to sit and do the work assigned. I mean I also expect loud, screaming and some fighting but nothing could have prepared me for this.... Even the English director wished me luck. So somehow i managed to muddle through. The students did most of the work, did decently on the exams and thanked me at the end of the year. My grades were similar to the previous terms and they also matched the Spanish teachers grades.
Maybe I should explain how the school works... well it's a very expensive private bilingual school. It runs from a maternal program (almost new borns) to grade 6. There are 3 kinder grades and a pre first. Pre first is an option for parents. The course is only in English, so each child receives an extra year of English classes if they choose to take pre first. Starting in first grade half the day is in English and half is in Spanish. The Spanish and English teachers work in partners, so I work with one Spanish teacher. Between the two of us we have two groups, Each group is assigned a letter. For example this year I taught 5A and B. When A is in English, B is in Spanish. The Spanish teacher and myself share a support teacher. The support teachers job is to..... well.... support us... She is in charge of classroom decorations (if I want to do it myself I can, or she can provide as much assitance as needed), takes the students to their extra classes (gym, art, music, religion, etc.), assists me with discipline, and takes over the class if I have a meeting or need to to use the bathroom. It's actually pretty awesome to have her around.
So in English I teach them English(reading, writing, listening, comprehension), science, math, social studies, and some history and geography is woven into the course. Instead of terms we have bimesters. Each bimester is 2 months and covers 2 units. What I love about this program (sistema uno) is that each subject is linked by a theme, so if we are reading about space travel and star navigation in English we learn about the solar system in science and in math we talk about atoms and molecules. It's a pretty cool way to lay out a course. Sistema Uno is also connected to Ipads. Each student has an Ipad (which stays at the school at all times) and the whole program is on it. I can do whatever I want on the ipads with the kids. I can choose which apps to load and use. I have a lot of freedom with this school and program. Basically I'm told "here is the book, you have two months, at the end of the book the students should know this" How I teach is my business, if I want to play games or do projects or make them copy endless notes it's my choice. It's pretty awesome for me. I love that I have the freedom to be me.
I also love the team of people I work with. The English director is amazing. She's always there to talk to for whatever we want, even if all we want is to bitch! She listens to any ideas we have, she's more than willing to let us do what we want and is always open to new ideas. I really think I lucked out with her. The other teachers are great too. We talk, hang out, and consider ourselves friends. We spend time together outside of school, eating, drinking and at the rare time exercising. I really really got lucky with this job.
So now i'm on summer holidays... And all I can do is think of what I wanna do next school year! I will be teaching either fourth or fifth grade and I go the ok from my boss to decorate my class any way I want! So my plan is a forest theme! complete with a reading fort! I keep reading other teachers blogs and looking at ideas on pintrest. I am really excited to start next year with a new group and have them from day one!!
So that is the long explanation as to why I haven't been updating. I shall strive to update more over the summer!
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