Today was the 110th day of school. The school year is more than half way over and there are 19 days till my 3 week long spring break. My co-teacher and I are in a panicky calm because of the amount of assessing we need to do in LESS than 19 days for report cards.
Yet in the middle of all this, I found myself staring at our morning routines. It seems like so long ago when I was teaching the kids how to do the morning jobs and report back to the classroom and wondering if I had bitten off more than I could chew. Mandy and Erica had made this process seem so effortless in the MAC room. Now, my kids can run the whole morning routines by themselves. I'm so proud of them, but now, as I look towards the upcoming school year, I think, I should have taken notes on the beginning of the school year so I could remember what my co teacher and myself did to get them to this point.
Surprisingly though, I was also day dreaming about how my classroom is going to look when we will be able to use ALL of our available space. Maybe we could get an extra table to have two guided reading groups going during centers! The possibilities are endless!
I'm ready for the school year to be over so I can reflect, process, prepare more, take more PD and get ready for next year. And though I am excited, I know, for all the trouble that they are, for all we have gone through, I will miss my students, even the behavior issue ones.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
Hablo español, punto final.
All through my academic schooling English was the one and only language I used, except for when I took Spanish classes, and now finally I feel like Spanish is finally taking its rightful place in my life. It feels silly writing about this, but teaching in Spanish, me learning more about the Spanish language and Latin heritage feels so right and fulfilling.
My Spanish vocabulary is expanding and I am learning how to discern where an accent is needed.
Yesterday it was my day to be with my "favorite" friend, and I was sitting next to him while the kids had a lesson about strategies they could use if they are getting distracted given in English by their Physical Education teacher. The teacher was called away and asked me to take over the class. I began talking in English but it felt so weird! I never speak to my students in English! I don't know if they sensed my discomfort, but after I asked a question in English, my students responded in Spanish and I reverted back to Spanish asking more questions in Spanish and basically teaching the rest of the time till the teacher came back in Spanish.
I feel like I sound odd speaking to students in English now, my voice does not sound like my own. Isn't that strange?
We celebrated the 100th day of school today and all the classes from K-2 visited all the classrooms where they did a 100th day activity. It was a great experience, but I feel I am able to more fully express myself in the dual language classrooms, with the students who speak both in Spanish and English. I guess I feel a comfort in speaking in my first language that I have, I feel, often struggled to retain, but I also have comfort in the knowledge that I can say a word in English and have the students help me remember or learn the word in Spanish, thus both of us are the teachers and both of us are the students, my ideal teaching situation.
My Spanish vocabulary is expanding and I am learning how to discern where an accent is needed.
Yesterday it was my day to be with my "favorite" friend, and I was sitting next to him while the kids had a lesson about strategies they could use if they are getting distracted given in English by their Physical Education teacher. The teacher was called away and asked me to take over the class. I began talking in English but it felt so weird! I never speak to my students in English! I don't know if they sensed my discomfort, but after I asked a question in English, my students responded in Spanish and I reverted back to Spanish asking more questions in Spanish and basically teaching the rest of the time till the teacher came back in Spanish.
I feel like I sound odd speaking to students in English now, my voice does not sound like my own. Isn't that strange?
We celebrated the 100th day of school today and all the classes from K-2 visited all the classrooms where they did a 100th day activity. It was a great experience, but I feel I am able to more fully express myself in the dual language classrooms, with the students who speak both in Spanish and English. I guess I feel a comfort in speaking in my first language that I have, I feel, often struggled to retain, but I also have comfort in the knowledge that I can say a word in English and have the students help me remember or learn the word in Spanish, thus both of us are the teachers and both of us are the students, my ideal teaching situation.
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