Things I have learned in my first week as a teacher.1. I am not nearly as organized as I need to be.
2. I will not have time to create all my lesson plans, labs, and exams from scratch, even if the book is boring, it is so nice to have.
3. 5 minutes extra to thoroughly explain the instructions will save you 30 minutes during the activity.
4. Did I mention I need to get better organized?
5. If you let them, all 24 students will ask the same question in a row.
6. I am so sorry I talked so much in class, I had no idea how obnoxious that was.
Thank God I work in such a beautiful, peaceful place. The cows are daily visitors. I will get more pics once I get my camera fixed. I got this one from a friend.
The rest of the pics show some of the wonderful things that I doubt many teachers get to experience their first week of school.
1. Microfutbol games with the school staff. Microfutbol is like soccer, but on a smaller (and concrete) court, and with a smaller ball. Since I don't know much about soccer, I can't really compare any further than that. I can say that I immensely enjoyed it, and will be playing every weekend with a mix of Colombian and American female teachers. We also watch the boys' regular soccer games on the same days, and they come to support our team. Afterwards, beers are drank by all. :)
The pics are the whole team together on the court, and then me and my 6th grade partner, Katie, suiting up for the game.
2. TGIF / "We made it through the first week" - Sangria Party. Last friday almost all the secondary school teachers (which they consider every grade from 6th-12th) went on a bus directly from school to the art teacher's coffee farm for a sangria party! It started off very calm, and I was very nervous to have any sangria since both my principal and the director of the school were there. But as the evening went on, I did have a couple cups of sangria, and many people, including secretaries, teachers, and my bosses had a few more than I did! It was a lot of fun, and it definitely sealed the bonds between all of us!
The sangria party pics are as follows: us on the bus from school, us on the bus after the beer stop, a group of us dancing about half way through the sangria party!!!
Sorry the blog is short, but I am so tired from all the new situations! I am really having to learn on my feet! As of now, I am up at 5:30 every morning to get ready to school, have 4 classes almost everyday. The kids are already wanting to stay and study math during recess and after school (I don't remember that when I was growing up!) and so I don't get home until 5pm. And after that I still have hours of planning to do. I think maybe I am assigning too much homework if the kids are having to do this much extra already. I may decide to slow things down a little next week. I just want them to learn so much! I've still got high hopes of jumping grade levels this year for my students!!! I've always felt kids will live up to the expectations you set for them, but I don't want to burn myself out either!!!
Until next time....pray for me!!!
