Open House

      This week was busy at school, but the classroom is getting more comfortable as I come to know the students and procedures. Kelsey and I are working on getting a Spanish tutor after school once a week, so hopefully that will happen soon. We are also looking at taking an intensive Spanish course over the Christmas break so we maybe we will understand what is going on next semester!


What time I have to show up in the morning...

     The week was mainly dominated by preparations for Open House on Thursday. Though I didn't have all the parents, there were probably 25 who came. I had a slide show and notes that I talked from (hopefully slowly enough) and I think it went pretty well! It was curious to note that the parents dress in very fancy clothing to attend these type of school events and here I was in "teacher clothes". I have two "room moms" who will organize all of the parties so I don't have to worry about those! Many of the parents came over to talk to me after the spiel as they are very involved in their children's education. They are adamant about checking my weekly updates to the classroom site and reviewing their children's grades that I post on Fridays.


The View From Preschool

      Now I have to share a very amusing story about one of my students this week.  This particular little boy and I have quite the communication problems as he refuses to speak to me in English! He has no internal voice so I can never tell if he is talking to himself or to me as he maintains a running commentary on life throughout the day in Spanish. During the week, we had a few issues him doing anything that I said even with hilarious hand motions on my part. On Friday, he told me at least 20 times that he had forgotten his folder (or something to that effect) for the first 10 minutes of class. My assistant regaled me with this story during dismissal on Friday, which had me in tears laughing and tops the chart for this week! So, the class had just come in from second recess and this little boy had to use the bathroom. After a few minutes my assistant went in to check on him and found him standing there with no shoes, no socks, no pants, no underpants, in fact, he was in nothing except for his little blue glasses framing this innocent looking dark brown eyes. "What in the world?" Ms. Cuty exclaims in Spanish, "Oh my dear, you cannot do this! You must get dressed!" "But I have to take off all my clothes when I go poo, " he replies serenely, not bothered in the slightest to be found in such a state. Not only did she find him almost completely naked, but also standing in the trash can. Apparently the floor was wet with water and he certainly didn't want his feet to get wet! I can just imagine his little round face and dark eyes clearly confused by her lack of understanding as to the rationality of his situation. Thankfully, she had him cleaned up and out of there before I could even finish the storybook!


Where The Wild Things Are -
Sequencing Activity

      It is a good thing we don't have school tomorrow because my voice in nearly gone. But after school on Friday the PTO fed us all an enormous and delicious meal of gringas (chicken and cheese tortillas). This week I skyped with Steffi and Beccah together somewhat successfully, but it was great to hear from them! Plus Lara and I had to exchange school stories and college news (=gossip) as I missed singing with the SAI ladies who returned to classes at CMU this week.