Moments.

1.14.13

Happy Mondayyy (ew).  Although, I'm lucky.  It's almost over here.

Today was actually pretty good, as Mondays go.  I just never seem to cross as much off my to-do list in one day as I mean to (i.e. all of it).  I have no idea why I have such an affinity for procrastination.

I think I may be coming into some luck on the clases particulares front-- cross your fingers for me.

These are some funny things I witnessed or noticed at school today (my day with the primary kids):

In a class of 10-11 year olds:
- "Profe, sabes quienes son novios? Carlos y Silvia." (Teacher, know who's dating?)
- Teacher & I smile/shake our heads/chuckle. Class stares at Carlos and Silvia.
- Carlos & Silvia immediately blush furiously and stare intently at notebooks. Silvia can't help but smile a bit.
- Awkward silence.
- Cue fart noise by Alex.

- Chaos ensues (resumes).

In a class of 8ish year olds:
-Eyy, Andrea, quieres callarte??? (Hey, Andrea, d'you wanna shut up??)
[Teachers say this all the time!! I guess it must not be as inappropriate/harsh as "shut up" in American classrooms. I've told this teacher a few times that it really sounds better to say "be quiet," but I think she forgets.]

-In the world of a 6-8 year old Spanish child, every word that begins with an "h" is probably "how" (followed by "are you," of course).
Gahh I need to break them of this... They're too used to only reciting dialogues.


One of the high points of my day was getting to do a couple lessons actually on my own with the secondary school (middle school) kids.  HOWEVER, the teacher for this class always wants to "improvisar" (improvise), so I had no idea what the lesson would be about, what materials I would have access to, or what prior knowledge the students had of the subject until I was standing in front front of them, about to improvisar (fly by the seat of my pants).  I think I did OK, given the situation, but it could have been so much better!  All I need is for this teacher to tell me what the plans for the coming classes are; I email her every week asking about the following week, but she always just says "don't worry" and "we'll improvise" -__-  Sigh.  Someday I will have my own classroom.  And it will be awesome.

Hah.  I do believe that was my first vent session on here... Discúlpame.

Here's a small piece of sunshine to make up for it:

I think the library at school is buying/has bought some new books.  I saw this one on my lunch break. Stellaluna <3 I loved it as a child. I can still hear Mom's voice reading it :)

Also: I think I'm going to be able to start taking (free) gallego classes in April! :D  And tomorrow the secondary students are going to start reading/memorizing some poems for some kind poetry day that is coming up... Jeje.  Thaaaat should be interesting.  I'm bringing in a bunch of Robert Frost's shorter and simpler poems.  I see this as a good time to maybe touch on a bit of American culture, but so little interests the students that my hopes are not high.  I don't even know if I could pique their interest with an edgy or popular song... Although that might be worth a try.