NY Teacher

Voting Begins

2012-01-22T13:19:00.000-05:00

I'm supposed to tell you that voting ~~starts today~~ started yesterday for Most Fascinating Teacher Blog of 2011. There are 100 nominated blogs! Wow! (Especially surprising since I got a $25 gift certificate for being nominated.) Out of the 100 blogs I only recognized one on the list (besides mine). Definitely out of the teacher blogger loop these days.

Hello, Anyone Out There?

2012-01-19T15:11:00.000-05:00

It's been quite a while since I've written here as it's been over a year and a half since I moved to Beirut to teach at an international school (and subsequently started a new blog about my life there). Imagine my surprise then when I received an email this week saying:

"An article you wrote in 2009 titled Field Trips, Good and Bad has earned your blog a nomination for a Fascination Award: 2011's Most Fascinating Teaching blog."

I reread the email carefully again and yes, they did realize that I wrote this "fascinating post" back in 2009, and a follow up email even mentioned the new blog about Beirut. Huh. Well, I've accepted my nomination, so there you have it. I am nominated for "Most Fascinating Teaching Blog of 2011" for a blog that hasn't been updated in a year and a half. Very fascinating indeed. (My apologies to those who have currently fascinating blogs on the subject of teaching who weren't nominated.)

While I'm over here in the world of Teaching in NYC, I will make this comment: I just saw this video about P.S. 19 in Brooklyn (very close to home, I must add) and it just makes me breath a sigh of relief that I am not in this type of teaching environment anymore. My school may not be perfect but watching this just reminds me of how peaceful it is teaching overseas without all of this talk and threat of testing, school closures, unions, merit pay, accountability, teacher evaluations, progress reports, and on, and on. That is all.

A Day of International Inspiration!

2011-05-09T15:20:00.000-04:00

I am working with Missy Gluckmann of Melibee Global to put on an exciting seminar sure to inspire.

"A Day of International Inspiration" at Purchase College, SUNY on June 8th.

Come hear from four very inspiring speakers who will present on global citizenship, Muslims in America, spirituality and the environment, and the joy and challenges of serving abroad. There will also be a screening of the documentary BUDRUS (called the "must see documentary of the year" by Nicolas Kristof of the NY Times).

This will be a great opportunity to network and meet other globally minded educators.

For full program information: http://melibeeglobal.com/seminar/

Teacher's Day

2011-03-09T10:18:00.000-05:00

Today is Teacher's Day in Lebanon and guess what we get? THE DAY OFF!! Now *that* is how you appreciate teachers!

Oh yeah, and we get a night of dinner and dancing in a swanky hotel restaurant. Usually our school holds it the night before our day off but for scheduling reasons we're having it the week after Teacher's Day this year.

It's a Different World Over Here

2010-09-08T10:29:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was New Teacher Orientation at my new school in Beirut. Wow! is pretty much all I have to say. We're not in NYC public schools anymore, Toto!

We started the morning with an introduction from the HR director. She said that this morning she was reminded of herself being a new hire four years ago and all the excitement she felt to be working at this school. Then a few months later the excitement and newness started to fade and she wondered where it went. Then she asked herself where else she would want to work other than here and her answer was nowhere else. The room of teachers and administration new and old cheered. (Then she cracked a joke about asking the same thing about her husband: Who else would I want to be married to? And the answer was always the same: (dramatic pause) George Clooney.

Next the President got up and spoke about all the schools he had worked at in the world and how this was the best school in the world. OK, he might be a bit biased, but still, can you imagine working at a school that could even proclaim to be the best in the world? Then, person after person got up and while introducing themselves gushed about how much they love the school and couldn't imagine being anywhere else. It was pretty amazing.

We had tours of the school campus which is gorgeous. My friend's fifth grade classroom has a wall of windows where you see nothing but the sparkling blue sea! (I'm a tad jealous I must say!) After the tour we took a bus ride up to the satellite campus in the mountains which has an even more gorgeous view of Beirut and the sea. After a presentation from the HR department we had a catered lunch of Lebanese food before heading back down to Beirut.

Beautiful campus aside I was just struck by the excitement of all of the staff that we met. The president said when he was speaking, "I have complete confidence and faith in each and every one of you. You've all been brought here to work at the best school because you are the best." And you really felt that he meant it. What a breath of fresh air coming from NYC where as a teacher you feel as if you aren't trusted to do anything without being micro-managed.

Today the foreign-hire teachers (there are eight of us) had a meeting with the President where he talked about life in Lebanon: politics, religion, emergencies, personal safety, and basically anything we needed in getting adjusted to life in a new country. He made us feel really secure in knowing if anything dramatic were to happen in the country we would be taken care of. He was also on top of any sort of requests that we had. No wireless in your apartments? We're on it. Furniture in some of the apartments is old and dingy? We will replace it by the end of next week. The shipping company didn't do a professional job? Thanks for alerting us, we'll get a new one. Honestly I can't imagine anyone being more responsive. After our meeting we were taken out to lunch by the president and his wife and we all just chatted and got to know each other better.

Needless to say I am loving my school so far and feeling a little more than spoiled. Being an international school teacher definitely has its perks!

Beirut

2010-08-31T06:17:00.002-04:00

I have arrived in Beirut and am loving it! New teachers report to work this Friday, the rest of the teachers return on the 13th and then school starts on the 23rd. Yes, we have THAT much time to prepare! Take that NYC!

I've started a new blog about my life in Beirut so I won't be blogging here anymore (not that I have in ages anyway. ha). If you are interested in following me to my new blog you can find me here:

http://thepresentperfect.wordpress.com/

Hope everyone has a great start to the new school year!

Snow Day Tomorrow

2010-02-09T18:18:00.003-05:00

I never thought I'd see the day that a snow day was called *in advance*. Remember last year we were all hoping for a snow day that wasn't called until 6 am after many teachers and students had already left for school. I was just out of the shower when a friend from school texted me to tell me the good news. Later, the mayor had the nerve to go on TV and say, regarding the people who complained he called it too late, that any "intelligent" person could look out their windows and see the amount of snow and *know* that schools would be closed.

So, we must be getting a heck of a lot of snow tomorrow. But at this point, it doesn't really matter how much it snows; we already got our snow day. Can't take it back now :)

I for one am prepared for tomorrow. I went grocery shopping today and I plan to enjoy my day off tomorrow. I'm gonna sleep in, watch some movies, and cook. Pancakes for breakfast, tomato soup and grilled cheese for lunch, and roast chicken for dinner. I can't wait!

You guys, I'm going to Beirut!

2010-02-06T19:53:00.002-05:00

That's right, I got the job! The one I wanted so badly. The one that last August I knew I wanted and just assumed I would apply to and get so I could go back to Lebanon. The one that later seemed SO impossible to get with all the candidates that were going to be at the fair. But it really did happen. I got the job in Beirut!

I'm going to be teaching middle school ESL/ELA. It's going to be a HUGE change for me. I'm definitely going to miss the little ones but I think a change will do me good. The school year starts in September but I'll probably try to get there sometime in August so I can enjoy a bit of the Lebanese summer before work starts.

I am so, so excited!

It's Time

2010-02-04T11:10:00.002-05:00

So, here I am on the bus to Boston for the international school fair. I'm full of anticipation for the coming days. I've been thinking seriously about working at an international school for more than five years and now it is so close to happening. I've read up on the job fairs and how the work and recounted the information to untold numbers of people over the years and now here I am about to experience it for myself.

Over the past couple of weeks I've had time to research some of the schools a bit so that I have an idea of my options once I get to the fair. The second day of the fair there is a mad rush to schedule interviews with schools and you have to be strategic about who you interview with and when. If you have no idea which schools are going to be there it just makes the process that much more confusing. While looking at the schools that will be there I've managed to work up some excitement about schools not in the Middle East. Ecuador, Singapore, and Switzerland are just three places, for example, that have openings I could potentially interview for that sound exciting. Lebanon is still by far my first choice and I would take almost any teaching job to go there but I am starting to feel excited about other possibilities too. The tricky part will be deciding which of my back up ideas to choose if my first choice doesn't come through. Then again, if I don't find anything I like I can always stay in NYC. I have a job, an apartment, and I like my life.

International School Update

2010-01-18T22:28:00.002-05:00

So I am officially attending the job fair in February! I am nervous and excited all at the same time. Beirut is definitely where I want to go and there are two schools there that I can apply to (I applied today actually!). If I were to get either a classroom or ESL position at either of those schools I would take it in a heartbeat. I will also consider going to other countries and parts of the world but I will have to put a lot of consideration in to my decision to go anywhere else. I have a LOT to think about in the next two weeks!

A Decade In Review (or How I Got To Where I Am Today)

2009-12-30T01:05:00.004-05:00

Looking back on the last decade I can see that I organize my years on travel. I can always remember what happened to me in a particular year by remembering where I traveled. Italy has obviously been a huge part of my life and I probably wouldn't be teaching English in Brooklyn with out it.

2000:

-I start off the year, and the decade, by studying abroad in Italy. I'd already been to Italy twice but could not wait to finally LIVE there. I finish the spring semester studying abroad and decide to stay in Italy for the summer and perhaps the fall semester.

-I spend the summer traveling with friends around Europe and working in the leather market in Florence. By August I realize that staying in Italy to study for the fall semester isn't going to work out so I quickly book a ticket home and am back at Arizona State within a week.

-I continue taking classes for my architecture major during the fall semester (minus the studio classes since I am behind from studying abroad) but all I really want to do is go back to Italy.

-November. I suddenly have a realization that if I change my major to Italian I'll have an excuse to go back and study in Italy. Don't know what I'll do with a degree in Italian but that doesn't matter.

-I go the the International Programs Office and tell them I want to do an exchange in Italy and just my luck, they tell me the director is in Florence that very day working out an agreement with the University of Florence!

2001:

-Spring semester at college.

-I'm off to Europe to visit some friends in Italy and then work in Greece for the summer. I've been to the Pink Palace several times in my travels and this summer I'm going to be there all summer working at the reception desk.

-Fall semester at college.

2002:

-My last semester at ASU (since I'll be spending my last YEAR of college in Florence)! While I'm waiting to schedule my classes with the guidance counselor I see a sign on the wall for Arabic 101. I remember a good Jordanian friend of mine in Italy jokingly saying that I couldn't learn Arabic because it's too hard. I register for the course on a whim since if fits perfectly into my already packed schedule putting me at 19 credit hours for the semester.

-My first summer since 1998 that I don't travel for the summer. Instead I work like crazy to save up to go abroad.

-Back to Italy! I arrive at the beginning of September and start to learn to navigate the mess that is the Italian university system.

-I fly home for Christmas with my family.

2003:

-I return to Italy to study for exams. I study for a month solid! Ah, the joys of the Italian universities.

-New classes start. I do some traveling during the breaks. July comes and it's time to study for exams again but it's sooo much harder in the summer than in the winter!

-I go back to work in Greece for two full months during August and September!

-I get back to Italy in September. I'm so happy to be back in Italy and I want to stay indefinitely but I'm finished with university now and job options are limited without a work visa. I've already worked in the leather market and as a waitress and neither of those are sustainable. I decided to go home at the end of September and sort out my credits (so I can officially graduate) and my life!

-Back home. What will I do next? I'm living with my parents and working at a restaurant. My parents "force" me to buy a newish car and I cry in the dealership as I'm signing the papers. This really makes it hard for me to just pick up and take another trip or do something random. Boo to car payments and responsibility.

-Still, I'm thinking about what to do next. I have a little file folder where I've been collecting information on possibilities: Peace Corps? Teach For America? AmeriCorps? Study French at a language school in Paris? So many possibilities but what makes sense?

-December. College graduation! After a long fight with the History department to accept my American History class that I took at the University of Florence I am finally able to graduate! I have a Bachelor's degree in Italian and a minor in Urban Planning and no idea what to do with my life!

2004:

-An idea finally comes to me. I will get a TEFL (Teaching English as Foreign Language) certificate so I can teach English abroad. The best part of my plan is that I will take the month long class in Florence (so that I can spend more time in the place that really feels like home to me) and then teach in Morocco (since I've always wanted to go there AND I can try to put some of my Arabic studies to use). I've already been saving money but now I kick it into full gear so that I can save up enough to pay for my car and student loan payments for 6 months while I am gone.

-June. Just 8 months after I left Italy I'm on my way back for a whole month!

-I don't end up getting a job in Morocco so I get a job with an Italian summer camp organization and spend the summer traveling all around Italy working at different camps.

-In September I get a job working at a language school in Sardegna and at the beginning of October I'm on a plane to start another year in Italy. I've only saved up for six months of my car payments and since I know I won't be needing it anytime soon I put it on my parents to sell it. (It's the last car I've owned.)

-Home for Christmas.

2005:

-I return to Italy to continue working in Sardegna. By February I realize I'm tired of living on an island. I want to either go back to the mainland of Italy or maybe try out another country. Egypt perhaps? I've been keeping up my Arabic studies so that seems like an exciting idea. The only problem is I don't make much money so don't have much money to move.

-I remember my file folder of possibilities and think of Teach For America. If I could do that program it would give me two years teaching experience and certification which would allow me to teach abroad later at an international school which could be a real job with a real salary! I check the website and find out and the application is due in a week!

-I get called for an interview with TFA and in March I'm on a plane to NYC for the very first time. I love it just as much as I thought I would! My mom convinces me to change my placement preferences to New York as top choice (because it's where I really want to be) from what I'd originally put (which was Phoenix so that I could be near my family for two years).

-April. I find out that I've been accepted to teach ESL in NYC. I am so excited! Now I just have to tell my boss I'm going to be leaving a month early. I start a blog to chronicle my experiences in TFA and teaching.

-May/June. I return to Phoenix for a month to work and get ready to leave for NYC.

-July. My life as a TFA Corps member begins! Induction in Philadelphia is just as intense as they said it would be.

-September. I start teaching ESL in Brownsville. Yeah, the first year teaching is rough.

2006:

-I finish the teaching year! Sadly I don't have enough money to travel during the summer. Instead I go to a week-long workshop in Philadelphia, get paid to attend a week-long workshop in NYC, and visit my family in Phoenix.

-I start my second year teaching at a new school where there are many more ESL students for me to teach. The school isn't perfect but it's a HUGE improvement over my old school.

2007:

-Graduation! Grad school is finally over. My parents come to visit me in NYC for the first time to celebrate.

-Summer. I finally have enough money to travel! I decide to take a trip to Guatemala and take a little Spanish class while I'm there.

-New school year. I'm still teaching ESL though I'd asked to have my own class teaching a self contained grade. I start thinking about international schools again and put the job fairs on my calendar for early next year.

2008:

-The job fairs come and go. I realize I'm just not ready to leave New York.

-July. I get a job working with a study abroad company in Florence for a month. I've wanted this job for a couple of years now and I'm SO excited to be going back to Florence.

-August. I travel around Italy, Greece, and Switzerland visiting friends from previous trips.

-Fall. I start my fourth year teaching. I remember being in Italy and thinking that two years in the States would be *SO* long. now I've doubled that time.

2009:

-I start thinking about summer plans. I toy with a couple of ideas including going back to Italy and going to the Middle East. I decide it's finally time to go to the Middle East. I've been studying Arabic for long enough now and wanting to go for even longer.

-I plan to go to Syria for two full months to study Arabic. After two weeks in Syria I take a side trip to Lebanon and fall in love with it. I decide to change up my plans and stay in Lebanon for the whole second month.

-Fall. I start my fifth school year really itching for a change. I really want to go back to teach in Beirut at the American International school there but if that's not possible I'd be willing to go to another country too. As much as I love NYC now might finally be the time to make a change.

-December. I register for the job fairs to find an international school to work at for two years beginning in the fall.

So, in conclusion, what started out as me not having any clue about what I wanted to do at the beginning of the decade has all sort of started to fall into place and make sense. Things build on each other and one thing leads to another until it all seems meant to be. Maybe next year I will be at an international school (in who knows what country) and that will be the start of a whole new chain of events. Or, maybe not. We'll just have to wait and see.

Could this year be the year?

2009-12-14T20:24:00.003-05:00

I've been thinking about it for a *long* time. Could this year finally be the year that I decide to work at an international school?

I have wanted to work at an international school since before I started teaching. At first I thought I'd teach two years in NYC and then immediately apply to work abroad. I quickly realized I'd need at least three years to be ready to leave New York (both financially and mentally). At the beginning of my fourth year I even had the international school fairs on my calendar but by the time they rolled around I knew I still wasn't ready to leave. Now it's my fifth year and I think I'm finally ready. In part my travels in the Middle East this summer have inspired me to go abroad and do something exciting again. Especially since I fell in love with Beirut (like I knew I would) and even visited the two American schools there. Lebanon has been my first choice for teaching abroad for a long time. Another factor has been my boredom with school lately. At the end of last year I started feeling that I was getting into a rut and it came right back at the beginning of this year. I need a new school, a new environment, just *newness* to keep me interested. Five years in the same city and with the same job is a really long time for me.

For the job fairs you have to specify three regions that you would be willing to go to (and by "regions" they mean continents). My first choice will be Lebanon (followed by elsewhere in the Middle East), then Europe or South America.

I took the first step yesterday and started an application to go to an international school job fair at the beginning of February! Today, I even brought it up to my principal. I need her (and two others to be references on the application). She was really excited for me and the realized it would be "really sad" to not have me at the school next year. She said it would be hard to replace me. (Awww!) Now I just have to line up one more reference and submit my application.

I feel like things could start happening quickly.

Moving Along in October . . .

2009-10-23T18:02:00.002-04:00

The Kindergarteners and newcomers continue to be my most challenging groups to teach this year. The "Kindergarteners" I should start off by saying are actually a group of Kindergarteners *and* first graders. Even in my mind I keep thinking of them as just Ks, sometimes forgetting that there are first graders in the mix too. I'm trying to build in parts of my lesson where I push the first graders to do more than the Ks (especially in writing) but some of the first graders are *at* at Kindergarten level anyways. The squirrely behavior at the end of the day has been really frustrating and I want to try to come up with more fun things we can do in the classroom so that we're learning English but not necessarily always reading or writing. It's just a lot to ask of these little ones at the end of a long day. On a positive note though, the last two days have been almost miraculously good in terms of their behavior. I've been rewarding them early and often with stickers and Skittles (maybe one or two Skittles per student for the entire period). And of course lots of praise for the kids doing the right thing. It's working and I'm so relieved. I'm starting to feel like now we can start getting to work!

The newcomers have also been improving slightly in the last couple of day. There are two boys in the group who are non-stop talking, calling out, jumping out of their seats, etc. There are another three who are easily pulled into all of that who then compound the situation. When any of them are gone things run much more smoothly but when they're all there it's really out of control. I finally started calling parents which is really hard for me because I don't speak Spanish so I need to get a translator to call home for me. In addition to the phone calls I've been trying to break up the group a little by having two or three students go off to a center to work on something while teach to the rest of the group. The students who are off at the center are enjoying being independent and doing something hands on while the students who stay with me are much calmer in the smaller group. It's only been a few days but I'm hoping that this system will continue to work out.

New Year, New (and Old) Classes

2009-10-03T11:15:00.003-04:00

Last year I didn't have any Kindergarten students but the year before they were my *favorite* group of kids. They were just so cute, eager to learn, and they followed directions beautifully. This year the Kindergarteners are SO not my favorite group. Maybe it's because no group of students could compete with the Kindergarteners from two years ago (who were also my favorites last year in first grade and again this year in second grade), or maybe it's because they are just so squirrely, talkative, and immature (for lack of a better way to describe a bunch of five year olds). To be fair I do pick them up at the last period of the day when surely they must be exhausted (I know I am). In their regular classrooms they would be having "choice time" where they could choose to play with blocks, play in the kitchen center, or something else hands on. Instead, I'm picking them up and asking them to sit quietly and listen to a story and then go to their desks and draw a picture about their favorite part. Still, I don't have as great an affection for these students as I did for my other students who made me think I wanted to be a Kindergarten classroom teacher.

The groups that I am loving this year are my second graders, third graders, and fourth/fifth graders. These groups are all made up of kids that I've been teaching for three or four years now. I know all of them and they all know me. From the first day that I picked them up for ESL this year it was like we were just continuing from where we left off at the end of June. I didn't have to teach them class rules and procedures, I just made sure that I was very structured in implementing them. They know my classroom so well that they actually were reminding me of some procedures that to be honest I hadn't really used in over a year. One third grader raised her hand with three fingers to make a "W" and said, "Ms. M, I remember we ask to get water like this." Um, actually we haven't done that for two years (mainly because *I* slacked off on implementing the procedure) but OK, I guess we can start doing that again.

The group that I'm still on the fence about is my Newcomer group. Newcomers have always been my favorite to teach. There's nothing more rewarding than seeing a student go from not speaking a word of English at the beginning of the year to talking up a storm just a few months later. This year I got five Newcomers from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, all in fourth and fifth grade. Add them to the mix of Newcomers I got last year who are now in second, third, and fifth grade, and I have a nice mix of grades and abilities for this group. The thing is, four of the five new students are boys who are rowdy and silly during class (not at all typical of the Newcomers I've gotten in the past who are so sweet and quiet). They're still a good group, I'm just having to work a lot harder than I'm used to for a Newcomer group.

2009-09-07T10:34:00.003-04:00

It's the last day before Back-to-School and I'm sitting here on my couch enjoying a French Press and some morning talk shows.

I'm feeling good about going back to school tomorrow. The other day I was talking to one of my friends from school and she was lamenting the end of summer vacation. I got back from nine weeks of traveling in the Middle East on Monday so for me I feel like vacation is already over anyway. This past week has sorta just felt like killing time. I guess that's why I wasn't at all bothered by going into my classroom two days last week to start getting set up. I was in fact excited to do it. This is going to be my fifth year teaching and there have been summers where I went in early and summers where I didn't. This year it just felt right. I spent about eight hours total in my room and it's already looking fabulous. Teaching gets easier every year, and I guess so does setting up your room. I completely rearranged the set up of my room this year but it took no time at all (probably because I'd been imagining it since the middle of last year). I stopped by the dreaded "Teacher Store" and quickly picked up exactly what I needed. I now know exactly what to buy and where to find it. I was even smart enough this year to go before the crazy crowds and avoided waiting in line for more than an hour like usual. I think it's going to be a good year.

Tomorrow I get to start the fun part which is figuring out which kids tested out of ESL and which kids will be coming in. It's a long process but it's my favorite part of the year.

Now the real challenge: getting to bed early tonight so I can wake up at 6am! Ugh.

2009-08-25T08:22:00.003-04:00

Ok, so I know this is totally wrong to say and I'm SURE I'll be regretting it soon, but . . . I'm actually sorta looking forward to going back to school a little.

(Please, don't hurt me for saying it.)

I've been having a fabulous vacation (better than I could have imagined) but I'm also looking forward to getting back to real life. Like my apartment, my friends, the city, and yes, even school.

It's going to be an interesting year with our assistant principal-turned-principal. I'm looking forward to seeing all of my little ones (especially my babies in the first grade who will now be second graders!!). And I love all of the beginning of the year organizing: my classroom, my schedule, finding out who's new to ESL this year and who tested out.

I'm sure come October 1st I'll already be counting down to summer break, but for now I'm reveling in the last days of summer and thinking about the year to come.

Flat Stanley in Syria

2009-08-05T07:15:00.000-04:00

July 29, 2009

Guys, I have some big and exciting news to share with you! Ms. M. and I are leaving Damascus and moving to Beirut, Lebanon. Yes, it’s true! Now I think we will have to rename this book “Flat Stanley’s Syria AND Lebanon Journal.” Im very excited to see Lebanon. It’s a very tiny country but there us so much to see and do, Our very first weekend in Lebanon we are going camping in the mountains, I can’t wait! (I’ve never been camping before!)

Flat Stanley in Syria

2009-08-05T07:14:00.000-04:00

July 24, 2009

This weekend Ms. M and I did some traveling around Syria. We took a bus to Aleppo (it took 5 hours!) to meet some friends and see the city. Aleppo is smaller than Damascus but still very big. We saw the citadel which was amazing!! It was so big. I thought, Oh wow! So cool! Who built this?? The souk was also very interesting. It was similar to the souk in Damascus but the alleyways were narrower and it seemed like a maze. We saw lots of children in Aleppo. They all said, “Hello. What’s your name?” in English. Of course I said, “Hello, my name is Flat Stanley. What’s yours?” They had names like: Ahmed, Mohammed, and Emad.

After a few days, we left Aleppo and went to another city called Hama. It had big water wheels that used to be for making electricity. They were so pretty. Then we took a little side trip to see the Roman ruins of Apamea. There we saw the longest road from Roman times. The street was lined with tall columns. Some of them were broken but most of them were standing tall.

On the last day of our trip we went to see a huge castle called Crac de Chevalliers. It was so big! We climbed all the way to the top of the command post where you could see the whole castle from above. I was imagining that the enemy army was coming to attach the castle and I had to defend it! It was cool!

Flat Stanley in Syria

2009-07-23T10:21:00.001-04:00

July 10, 2009

Wow! I can’t believe we have been in Syria for 10 days already! Time really flies when you are having fun. In the past week Ms. M and I have been learning our way around Damascus. At first it seems really confusing but after a while you learn how to get around. Now we even know the short cuts! We have also been meeting a lot of new people. Syrians are so nice and everyone tries to help us wherever we go. Everyone on the street says “Welcome!” in English when we walk by. We have also met a lot of students who are studying Arabic just like Ms. M and people who are traveling all over the Middle East. Many people come from Turkey and then to Syria. After, they go to Jordan, Lebanon, and sometimes Egypt. I want to visit all those places too! When people talk about them they all sound like so much fun! Ms. M says we will probably get to go to Jordan and Lebanon. I can’t wait!

Love,
FS

Flat Stanley in Syria

2009-07-23T10:09:00.001-04:00

July 3, 2009

Wow! The last two days have been so exciting! Yesterday was our first day in Damascus. (In Arabic it looks like this دمشق). When we first left the hostel I wondered where Ms. M had taken me! The streets were narrow and dirty and the buildings were brown and falling apart. Then we turned a corner and saw a long beautiful street called the “Straight Street.” It was filled with people and all kinds of shops. Then we got to the market. The famous. Middle Eastern souk. (In Arabic it looks like this سوق). There was so much to see I didn’t know where to look first. Instead I let my nose guide me. I smelt exotic spices, strong coffee, and sweet candy. There were all kinds of people in the market too: kids, adults, women in head scarves and some without, tourists, and men in traditional Arab dress. The strange thing was that Ms. M didn’t even take any pictures. She said she knew we’d be back and just wanted to take it all in the first time.

Today we took our first day trip. We went on a car ride with our new English friends Sam and James. They were so nice. Sam was really funny because he kept forgetting my name! He called me Flat Eric once! So anyways, on the trip we went to a place called Bosra to see an ancient theater. You really have to see it to understand how cool it was so I’ll let you see the picture of me there. At Bosra we even saw a camel!

Oh, and I forgot to tell you one other cool thing about our day. To leave our hostel we had to climb down a ladder from the balcony. The hostel is built into the old city walls so going down the ladder is the quickest way out. It was really fun and I wasn’t even scared!

Love,
FS

Flat Stanley in Syria

2009-07-01T03:08:00.003-04:00

I think I have mentioned before that I have been doing the Flat Stanley project with my students. I am taking Flat Stanley on my trip to Syria this summer so that I can share my experiences with the students when I get back. I made a little book called "Flat Stanley's Syria Journal" so that Stanley can write to the kids. I thought I'd publish his journal on my blog so that I can share my experiences traveling with you all as well.

July 1, 2009

Hi guys! It's me, Flat Stanley. I've been waiting to go on this trip to Syria with Ms. M for so long and I can't believe it's finally here! Right now we are at the airport in Dubai. Do you know where that is? It's in a country called the United Arab Emirates (or U.A.E. for short). Ms. M and I left New York yesterday morning and had a 13 hour flight! It was so long! We ate two meals, watched three movies, and tried to sleep as much as possible. The next flight to Damascus, Syria is only 3 hours. I can't wait to get there.

Oh, one important thing about our trip: we are traveling to countries where they speak Arabic instead of English. Ms. M has already studied some Arabic but I haven't. I learned my first Arabic word today. It is "marhaba" and it means "hello." In Arabic it looks like this: مرحنا. Cool, right? I can't wait to learn more!

Love,
FS

The End of the Year is Finally Upon Us!

2009-06-25T22:29:00.002-04:00

I've been saying all of June that it doesn't feel like school is ending soon. I think it's due to the rainy and cool weather that we've been having in NYC. Normally it is sweltering and all I can think is: IT'S SUMMER!! WE SHOULD NOT BE IN SCHOOL! (And yes, in my head it is a scream.) But this year I haven't had that feeling at all. That is until this week. This week I am just done. I spent this week finishing up odds and ends with the students and cleaning up my room. As of yesterday there is nothing left to do: room's clean, all final assignments are finished. I'm ready to turn in my keys and say goodbye to my classroom and students until September.

The best news of the week was that teachers don't have to come back to school until AFTER Labor Day! This is especially good news for me because I am returning from my big trip to Syria on August 30th. I knew it would kinda suck to get back just two days before reporting back to school but I really wanted to maximize my time traveling. Now I have an ENTIRE week off before we go back to school. I leave June 30th!

Really?

2009-06-16T17:22:00.005-04:00

New organization sheets came out yesterday and as usual we got them the very last 5 minutes of the school day. It wasn't stressful at all for me because I didn't even try to switch out of ESL this year to get my own class, but there were a lot of stressed teachers Monday, let me tell you. All in all we lost two teachers (they had been told in advance) and most if not all of our school aides.

The big upset came when the principal told us that she was not satisfied with our extended time schedule. (This year we had switched from after school four days a week to before school five days a week.) Her reasoning was that she "caught" (and yes, she actually used air quotes) teachers eating breakfast, coming in late, and "cutting things for student art projects." Even though she spoke to these teachers, they continued to do it, she claimed. So therefore the schedule had to be switched back to afternoons. I can not tell you how furious this made me (and many other teachers too). To claim that we are not working and that is the reason she is changing the schedule is just ridiculous! And how dare she put the whole staff down like that! We have a hard working staff at my school and if there are one or two or however many teachers doing the wrong thing the solution is not to change the extended time schedule which is working beautifully! (Teachers have not complained about it at ALL this year.)

First of all, I'm sure that is not the real reason she wants to switch the schedule. Second, if the problem IS teachers not working, will the work any harder AFTER school? And third (and perhaps most important), she will not even be at the school next year. She's "retiring." So is this all her last ditch effort to torture us as much as possible before leaving the building for good? Sounds like it.o

P.S. Do you think she won anymore people over to attend her retirement party with this showing??

I don't think so

2009-05-23T00:02:00.003-04:00

The other day I was talking with a teacher at my school who is helping to organize the retirement party for my principal in September. It's going to be a big to do with drinks, dinner and dancing (like a wedding I was told). And, it's going to cost $110 to attend. I was asking this teacher if she thought a lot of teachers from our school would attend. She said they were passing out the flyers to see how many might attend. I mentioned that I definitely wouldn't. "$110 is a lot of money," I said. (Especially for a party honoring someone you don't like all that much.)

"What??" She replied. "Even if you save up ALL summer??"

"I don't want to save up all summer. I'm going traveling* I have other things to save up for."

She was truly shocked that I wouldn't want to go. Seriously, by September she will be so far from my mind. Why would I want to bring her back? June 26th we say addios for good.

*I'm going to Syria for the summer! I just booked my ticket. I'm going to be studying Arabic and doing some traveling in Jordan and Lebanon. I've been waiting for this trip for a LONG time!

It's Starting to Happen . . .

2009-03-31T18:39:00.003-04:00

A little over two months ago, I wrote about a new student from the DR who came to me speaking no English. She had a rough start, but quickly started feeling more comfortable in class. She has been trying so hard to follow along, copy from her neighbors, and come to me to give her more instruction when she doesn't understand.

Just two weeks ago we had parent-teacher conferences and her dad, who speaks perfect English told me that he was concerned her English wasn't progressing as quickly as he'd hoped (or as quickly as her older brother). He said he had to think about it, but her classroom teacher had suggested she may benefit from being held over a year. (Newcomers can't be held over in the first two years without the parent's request). I tried to assure him that her eagerness to learn along with the great support she is getting at home will go a long way towards helping her progress in her English and other subjects. I told him how hard she has been working and even gave anecdotes about "Willy" and his younger brother who had a similar situation and in two years have sprinted forward to the top of their classes. He seemed slightly reassured.

And all the sudden last week, it started happening. The first thing that I noticed was when she raised her hand to participate in class she said more than her usual irrelevant "boy" or "girl." Then I started noticing she was really able to understand me without translation from the other kids and could ask for help in sentences. When we learned new vocabulary related to "transportation" she mastered the words just as quickly, if not quicker, than the other students. Today, she came up to me to tell me something that another kid in the class needed help with (and that kid *speaks* English). Literally two weeks ago she could not have done any of these things. I was just telling her dad that children learning English often go through a "silent period" where they are not saying much, but taking it all in, and before you know it they are speaking up a storm. I literally saw her turn that corner this week. This is why I love teaching ESL, for these kids. They make it all worthwhile.

Snow Day!

2009-03-02T08:18:00.002-05:00

I am still in shock that we actually have a snow day. Everyone knows that NYC does not get snow days. Even when I woke up and saw lots of snow on the ground I knew that we would still have school. (We even had a 7:30 am faculty meeting and our principal hadn't emailed to say that it was canceled.) Of course, I couldn't even check the news to make sure because my roommate just moved out and took the TV with her. I quickly thought the fastest way to find out out if there was a snow day or not would be to check Facebook as all my teacher friends' statuses would either be cheering or grumbling. One teacher from my school had written that she couldn't believe the mayor would have thousands of students traveling to school on buses while urging city residents to take mass transportation to school. So that meant there WAS school. I texted her to ask if at least there was a two hour delay and got in the shower. Just as I was getting out, my phone rang and it was her. "We don't have school! Don't you watch the news??" Still not believing her I said "No! I don't have a TV!"

That was a little over two hours ago and I am thoroughly enjoying my snow day so far. I drank my coffee, surfed the internet a bit, watched an episode of Friday Night Lights on Hulu and am now making a cooked breakfast. It's hard to believe school would have just started by now. As for the rest of my day I am planning a nap, more FNL, and some homemade soup for lunch that I made last night! Ahh, I want this happy day to never end! (And it is still snowing!)

Field Trips, Good and Bad

2009-02-12T22:26:00.003-05:00

Last week I took my second and third graders on a wonderful trip to the Met to see the Egyptian art (we had just gotten our Flat Stanley back from Egypt a few weeks prior and were all pumped to learn more about mummies, tombs, and hieroglyphics). Julie came along to help chaperone and she was a wonderful help. The kids were super impressed at the beauty and scale of the museum and they loved seeing the mummies, coffins, and especially the reflecting pool around the Temple of Dendur. Many of them have told me they want to go back and are even pressuring their parents to take them back over Mid-Winter Break next week with the free family passes the museum gave us. Highly successful trip, if I do say so myself.

Today all of the third grade classes took a trip to Toys'R'Us and McDonalds (in Times Square). Yes, that is right. They went to look at toys and eat Happy Meals. I talked to my students who attended the trip and they said that the teachers told them nothing about Times Square except to point out the NYE ball. (All of these kids said they had already been to Times Square with their families anyway, so it's not even like the trip was exposing them to a part of the city they wouldn't normally get to see.) I was so outraged at this pointless trip. There are so many wonderful (and FREE) places to take students in this city that are also educational! How trips like this get approved by our administration is beyond me.

Watching the Inauguration at School

2009-01-20T22:41:00.001-05:00

We had major technical difficulties with the internet connection/streaming today at school and I almost missed the whole inauguration. It was (almost) very traumatic.

All of the classes were down in the auditorium by 11:30 and the inauguration was already being projected onto the big screen. (I was impressed that they had gotten everything set up with they way our computer teacher had been running around on Friday trying to figure things out.) We watched until about 11:50 and then the screen went blank. The internet connection was lost and they couldn't get it back. Various teachers were offering up suggestions about finding an actual TV or trying a different news channel. Meanwhile, time was ticking away. Then I saw a second grade teacher making a bee line for the door with her class. I heard her say that it was working on the computer in her room. I followed them up to their room and Obama had just started his speech when we got up there (we missed the actual swearing in). We all huddled around the computer and watched silently as the volume wasn't that great. The cutest part was when the kids joined in singing the national anthem. The whole thing will definitely be an experience I remember forever.

Baby Steps

2009-01-11T13:02:00.003-05:00

My new student from the Domincan Republic had a pretty good first day. She seemed to be alert and really trying to figure out what was going on in class so she could follow along. She repeated words the other kids were repeating, moved her mouth like she was reading when the class was doing shared reading, and copied off her neighbor to get something on her paper during writing. Then the second day happened and I think it really hit her that she is now in a new school where everyone speaks English and she has no idea what is going on.

In the morning during our extended time period (where I have a group of only newcomers) she started crying. I tried to get the other kids to ask her in Spanish what was wrong. Finally in between huge sobs she told them she was crying because she didn't speak English. The boy sitting right across from her was new in September and now speaks just a little English but understands quite a bit. I told him to tell her how he didn't know any English in September and now he knows a lot of English. He translated in Spanish and another boy (who arrived just a few months ago) shouted in English frantically, "Me too! Me too!" "Tell her in Spanish," I told him. Then I told Willy to tell her that two years ago he didn't speak any English either. He told her even though he felt a little embarrassed about doing so. She listened to them all and even though she still looked distraught I felt like it was important for her to hear.

The next day (her third in the school) she was still upset at breakfast before coming up to class. Her parents sat with her for a while and then finally brought her up to the class. I decided she needed a little fun and got out the "Go Fish" cards, which the other kids were thrilled about too since they love it when we get to play games in class. At first I played her hand having her repeat everything after me: "Willy, do you have a tropical fish?" Halfway though the game she knew all the kids names and how to say "Do you have?" KC, another first grader with tons of personality was having so much fun making jokes and silly faces at the "go fish" pile when she didn't get the right card. The new girl totally picked up on that and by the end of the game all the kids, including new girl, were laughing hysterically and having the best time. Ever since that day she has been totally fine in class, no more crying.

New Newcomers

2009-01-06T20:39:00.000-05:00

I got another new student today. She's a first grader who just arrived from the Dominican Republic and doesn't speak any English (yet). That brings my newcomer group up to eight students! I don't know what it is about this year but four new newcomers in one year is more than I have ever had. The other four students range from two to two and a half years here, so even though they are all "newcomers" there is still quite a range in the abilities of the students in the group. (Especially when you account for some of the being very strong in their native Spanish while others are very behind.) The newcomers are my favorite group to teach so I'm thrilled to be getting a new student. I can't wait to see the students who were brand new at the beginning of the year sort of graduate up to become the students who are translating and helping the new girl.

And speaking of moving up, I've been meaning to write about one student, "Willy," for a little while now. He came to me in the first grade from Ecuador two and a half years ago. At the time he didn't speak a word of English and was incredibly shy to top it off. In the last two and a half years he has learned so much English and grown about a level and a half each year in reading that he's on his way to being almost unrecognizable as an ELL at first glance. He's not there yet, to be sure, but I can really see his progress towards that. It's interesting to see how he fits (or doesn't fit) in the two groups that I see him in. Twice a day he is in my newcomer group working on basic English vocabulary and sentence structures, etc. He can often be heard saying "This is easy!" or predicting what we are about to do and jumping ahead of us on exercises. But still, he needs work building this foundation and each day he does learn new vocabulary and sentence structures that strengthen his academic English. Then, later in the day, I will see him in his grade-level group (with mostly long-term ELLs who are also in third grade) and after the mini-lesson he will immediately say, "This is too hard. I can't do it." With a little extra support and confidence building though, he can. Willy is a very bright student and it's interesting to see him straddle these two groups, one in which he is very confident and another in which he is very unsure of himself and his skills. I love that I have the flexibility to be able teach him in both of these groups because I feel that by working to both strengthen his basic English foundation while challenging him with his academic English, the gap between the two will close rather quickly.

I'm pretty sure that having this big group of newcomers to teach is part of what has made me much more content in my position as the ESL teacher (rather than a classroom teacher) this year.

Snow in the City!

2008-12-20T00:42:00.004-05:00

I had a meeting in Lower Manhattan today and the snow started falling just before our lunch break so I was able to get out and catch some of the newly-fallen snow.

There's always some sort of emergency around here

2008-11-17T22:53:00.003-05:00

We have an "emergency" faculty meeting tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m. Rumor has it that it's to discuss the budget. Do other schools have "emergency" faculty meetings? And if you call them "emergency" is it then okay for them to break our union contract by having them, a) more than the regular once per month, and b) before our contractual working hours which begin at 8 a.m.? (Oh, wait, we ALWAYS have our faculty meetings at 7:30 a.m.) I think this is already our second or third emergency meeting of the year.

2008-11-12T17:41:00.000-05:00

Email me at my new email address: nyteacherblog@gmail.com

Just say no to Joel Klein as Secretary of Education

2008-11-11T22:51:00.002-05:00

Sign the petition. Pass it on.

Election Reaction

2008-11-06T20:14:00.002-05:00

My whole school was buzzing about the election yesterday. From Kindergarten up through fifth grade all the kids were aware of what had happened and very excited. In the halls kids were heard shouting "Obama rocks!" and one particular first grader walked up to everyone he saw to tell them "Obama is the new president of the United States!" In my morning "extended day" period I had just two students (a first and a fourth grader) who don't speak much English yet. I tried asking them if they saw the election last night. The fourth grade boy looked at me with a puzzled face that said "I have no idea what you are talking about." Then I said "McCain, Obama." The boy's face lit up with recognition and the little girl perked up and said "Obama!!" with a huge smile. So cute.

Throughout the rest of the day I gave each group of students a chance to say what they saw on T.V., what they thought, or to ask any questions. Almost all of the students had a lot to say. More than half of them said their parents or someone they knew had voted and some even got to go with their parents to see what it was all about. In talking with my students all of them knew that Obama would be the first African-American president. Some other tidbits from the day:

-A second grade girl said "His dad is from Africa, and I'm from Africa too."
-A fifth grade boy wanted to know why McCain was motioning with his hands during his speech. (I explained how he didn't want people to boo when he was congratulating Obama.)
-Many students wanted to know if McCain was mad that he didn't win.
-One of my newcomer ELLs asked "What happened to the girl who was always with Obama before?" (Hilary Clinton)
-I was impressed when one third grader knew that the donkey was for the Democrats and the elephant was for the Republicans. Many more students knew the colors, probably from watching the map the night before.

After spending most of each class talking about the election, I made a web of things we had talked about and had the students do a "quick write" for five minutes about the election. (Our first QW of the year.) They all wrote for a solid five minutes and had good things to say based on what we had talked about.

I was very excited for the whole day and I had a great time talking about the election with all of my kids.

I voted!

2008-11-04T07:00:00.000-05:00

The "Spelling Chip"

2008-10-22T21:43:00.002-04:00

Today I tried a new strategy with my first and second grade classes that I adapted from a video I saw in PD this week. In the video the teacher explained how when she did centers/guided reading with her students she was getting a lot of questions from students that they really could answer themselves. It was getting to the point where she couldn't do her small group instruction because of the interruptions so she came up with a system where each group of students got a "question chip" in which they could use once during the 90 minute centers time to ask a question. This made me think of my lower grade classes and how all of the students are constantly asking me how to spell words that are on the word wall or that in any case they could be attempting on their own. I sometimes tell them to try on their own and other times end up helping three kids spell words simultaneously. It was getting out of hand.

Today I introduced the "Spelling Chip." Each student got a chip (really a math counter) that they could use to ask me how to spell a word. I explained how they could only use it once so they should try to save it for a really tricky word. We reviewed the different ways they could try to spell a word if they didn't know how (word wall, stretch it out, look around the room, ask a friend) and I stressed that even if they didn't spell the word correctly I would be very happy to see that they tried.

It worked like a charm. Only two (TWO!!) students asked me to help them spell a word because they were so interested in "saving" their chip. I still went around the room helping the students with their writing and in some of those cases helped them with spelling and sounding out words, but for the first time I didn't have a huge mob of seven year-olds around me asking me how to spell every single word.

I'm hoping that it wasn't just the novelty that was exciting for them and that we can keep this system going. (It's nice because the tangible aspect of it keeps me on track too.)

I Love My Little Ones

2008-09-26T23:06:00.004-04:00

One of my favorite students, a first grader, asked me this week why I take another boy in her class three times a day but her only once a day. She loves me and coming to ESL class so she was very serious in trying to figure out this huge injustice in her six year old life. I tried to explain to her that her classmate only spoke a little English so he needed extra help so he could learn. She was very understanding, "Yeah, he only speaks a little bit English. Not that much." The she added in a whisper, "He said that you play games with him," hoping to dispel his rumor. "That's true. You can learn by playing games too," I told her. Then she said very sternly, "To learn you have to do a lot of *homework*! Not play games!!"

I don't know what's funnier: that a first grader reprimanded me for playing games in class or imagining two six year olds discussing coming to my class and what they do there.

Updated Blog Roll!

2008-09-21T14:13:00.003-04:00

I was looking at my blogroll and realizing that I really haven't updated it much since I started blogging in 2005. It was so out of date that practically none of the blogs were being updated anymore. Since I started using a reader I don't ever look at the list of blogs on my page anymore. I went through and added most of the blogs that I actually read from my Google Reader. I made new categorizations: NYC Teachers, International School Teachers, Other Teachers, and ED Policy. I'm hoping to add more blogs to the International School Teachers list this year as I start to think about applying for one myself. If you know of and good ones I'd love the recommendation.

Seriously?? (Yes, seriously.)

2008-09-15T22:46:00.005-04:00

Today at school we had an "emergency staff meeting" during our morning extended time in which our principal revealed our letter grade from the city. She stressed that the information was to remain embargoed until the scores were officially released but I will say that it was not an A nor a C and it was an improvement of our last year's grade of a D.

We were oh so close to an A she said and that was due to our hard work with the students. And we could have reached that A if the 94% of teachers who filled out the survey hadn't trashed and attacked both the school and the administration we were told. And to think of all the Unsatisfactory ratings she could have handed out yet didn't. And all the times we teachers asked to go home early or have a day off and she NEVER said no. Hopefully we would think about all of these things next time we filled out the surveys.

Seriously. I can't make this stuff up.

**

Oh, and PS, I have been teaching students for over a week now! Yeah, between my super organization from last year and a lot fewer students to test for ESL I finished my admin stuff in one week rather than the three it has taken me every other year. I'm kinda liking it.

Back to School . . .

2008-09-01T14:56:00.003-04:00

tomorrow!

Actually, ever since last Friday I am kind of excited to go back. I'm excited to see my students (though I won't be teaching them for a few more weeks), to put the finishing touches on my classroom, and to organize and plan my schedule for this year.

Getting my groups organized is my favorite part of getting ready for the new year. Friday I printed a report that showed me how my students did on the NYSESLAT last spring. From that I can see which of my students will be returning, who moved up a level in proficiency, and who tested out of ESL. So far it looks like I'll have a very small group of kids in the upper grades (just 4 fourth and fifth graders). I have many more second and third graders than in the past so that group may become two either based on grade level or proficiency depending on the students. As for Kindergarteners, I have no idea yet what that will look like.

My big task for Tuesday will be going through all of the new admits to see who is eligible to take the test to enter the ESL program. After I do that and then test the students I will finally know which students will be in the program and then I can start to make my schedule. I usually have five groups of students (based on proficiency and grade level). The tricky part is organizing my schedule so that it doesn't conflict with the prep schedule, lunch schedule, math classes, etc. As of last year I've sort of taken a more relaxed attitude toward planning my schedule. I have 40+ kids to organize into 5 teaching periods a day and all the obstacles of the lunches and preps to get around. I can only do what I can do with my schedule. Not all the teachers will be happy with when I am taking their students out and not all students will get their full mandated time, but I am just one person with a tight schedule and I can't make everyone happy. My schedule was much more consistent and organized with this new attitude that I took last year and I plan to do the same this year.

Big Suprise at School Today

2008-08-28T20:36:00.004-04:00

In our first PD of the morning my AP starts going on about the guided lending library and how you can check out books to use with your classes.

Huh? What? Where?

"Wait, what about the library? Where is it now?" I asked. "In the closet. Ms. X moved all the boxes and spent a lot of time labeling it." Replied the AP. *Me mildly panicking inside.*

After the meeting I went to go look at the closet and to my surprise it looked beautiful! It's in the closet that I originally wanted it and it looks great. The labels are actually the check out cards that I made. Since they cut them to be labels I'll have to come up with a new sort of check out system but it's OK because I understand why they had to do that to make them fit. I'm very happy. Check it out:
(Just a portion of the library.)

In other news, my principal came up to me this morning before the beginning of her meeting and said with a big smile, "A lot of things may change. We know what you want." Referring to the fact that we now have two coach vacancies so classroom teachers may get put in those positions thus opening a lower grade class for me. Why would she say that?? We still wouldn't have and ESL teacher so I'd have to stay. If she really wanted to give me what I wanted she would have looked for an ESL teacher to replace me over the summer. Just why? Why would she bring that up again when it is not going to happen. And now even if she did offer it to me--hello, I just spent all day organizing and decorating my room. Aargh.

Well, over all it was a decent day. Look at all the supplies I got from our basement.

Not Going in Early

2008-08-26T18:24:00.003-04:00

I was going to start this post by saying that this is the first summer since I started teaching that I have absolutely no desire to go into work early and start getting my classroom ready but in looking back on my old posts, I was feeling EXACTLY the same way on this day a year ago. I only got back from Italy eight days ago so I haven't had any time to have my lazy summer days or the get in that summer productiveness that comes with all that time off. I was literally gone from the day school let out so I didn't have any time to be home. I certainly wasn't going to give up one of those days to be in my classroom. Again, maybe if I were going to have kids in my room on the first day of school I'd be energized to get a head start on things, but it'll be the end of September before that happens.

I was reading some blogs this morning and saw that the other Ms. M was also not feeling going in to school early but was getting pressure from her administration and coaches to do so. Other commenters said they were getting the same thing. I wondered if maybe the same was going on at my school so I checked my DOE email for the first time since June but didn't find any such pleadings. No doubt on Thursday when we go into school our principal will publicly thank the teachers who did come in early but I will be content knowing that I enjoyed my last days of summer and won't have even an inkling of guilt.

Summer Planning?

2008-08-23T11:16:00.004-04:00

It's the last week of summer and as Nancy says "everyone has planning on the brain." Everyone except me that is. I've never been a good long-term planner. Beginning from my first summer before teaching I just couldn't sit down and plan. Then it was because I had no idea what my ESL pull-out teaching assignment would look like or what would be expected of me. While all my TFA colleagues were home planning their hearts out I just couldn't as much as I wanted to.

Now that I've had three years experience I still am no good at planning. My current excuse is that I want my lessons to support what the students are doing in their regular classrooms so I wait to see what they are doing with their teachers and plan accordingly. Usually that means that I plan on a week by week basis. Also, I have six grade levels (K-5) that I have to plan for. That really doesn't lend itself very well to long term unit planning for each class. Lastly, when it comes to summer planning, I'm just not under pressure like the other teachers are to get things ready for day one. On September 2nd our building will fill with students anxious for their first day. Teachers will be setting the tone for the year, introducing routines and procedures, and generally trying to make it though the day. I on the other hand will stroll in five minutes before the bell rings and get down to paper work and administrative duties. Three weeks in when teachers are really starting to know their classes and summer had faded to a distant memory I'll be picking up my kids for the first time. Needless to say, I'll have some time to think about what I want to teach for my first week of class.

I wish that I were more like Nancy and that I loved to plan, but so far I just haven't hit that groove. I'd love to think that with a different teaching position or a more supportive school environment that I'd be able to do it, but maybe I just don't have it in me.

So here I am in the last week of summer. School's just a distant thought in my mind. Before I know it I'll wake up and it'll be back to work, the summer a yesterday away.

It's been a busy vacation and I am so not ready to go back to school.

2008-08-19T22:26:00.006-04:00

The Library That Never Was

2008-06-18T19:57:00.007-04:00

It was a year ago this week that I presented my idea to create a guided reading lending library for my school to the assistant principal. She loved the idea and we immediately started working on putting it together after the last day of school. Many teachers were paid per-session rate ($40/hr.) to help me collect, organize, and level the books. I also planned a whole PD session on how to do guided reading. In September I bought supplies to hold the books and created a check-out system. I was given an empty classroom to set everything up and I spent many lunch periods and preps putting the finishing touches on everything. Additional books were needed to fill in the gaps so I wrote out a huge book order. The library was ready for teachers to come in and check out books! Here is a picture of what it looks like . . .

Now here's the sad part of the story: Not a single teacher ever got to use the library.

As I worked to finish the preparations at the beginning of the year I tried to set a date with the principal to introduce the library and how to use it as well as to give the PD that I'd planned. She picked some date in October but it didn't work out. Then she suggested I give it at the Election Day PD. "November will be here before you know it." Well, turned out we had district people talking to us about data that whole day so it got pushed back again. And so on and so on until we all practically forgot about it. After the ELA I pushed to introduce it again because "Book Clubs" were the focus in the upper grades and that would be perfect for the teachers to have sets of books to check out. Still didn't happen. Finally it started getting to the point where the year was wrapping up. Is anyone even *teaching* guided reading now (if they ever were)? I just didn't feel motivated to bring it up again.

Now it is the last week of school. Half of my book order arrived last week. Today I integrated them into the library. And still not a single teacher has been able to take advantage of the library and all of the time, effort, and money that has gone into putting it together. I fear for the fate of the library next year. The classroom that the books are housed in will go back to being an actual classroom. The books could fit in a large closet but the proper shelving would have to be installed to make them fit and be accessible. Half of my books can't be ordered until next year's budget "opens up."

I still can't figure out why they dropped the ball on this one. All the work was done. All the effort put in. Plenty of money spent. A simple workshop and set of keys was all I needed.

Still trying to negotiate that self-contained class

2008-06-17T19:08:00.004-04:00

Today was our end of the year meeting/celebration for my ESL study group. It was the most fabulous meeting I have ever been to. It was held at the Water Street Restaurant in DUMBO and after a few short presentations we had a delicious lunch (paid for by a book company that gave us a presentation). After the meeting I walked around the waterfront and took some pictures before returning to school (because I had a paid PD I needed to get back for).

At the meeting I talked to my supervisor/ELL specialist/CLSO-whatever-you-call-her about how I wanted to move to teaching Kindergarten. She thought that was a great idea and asked if it was a self contained ESL. I said no, just a regular class. I told her about the whole situation with my principal saying she couldn't post a vacancy. She replied that she could and SHOULD post it on the open market. She also said that she would try to send some ESL teachers my way. She had a suggestion for me as well. She said that I could have all of the incoming Kindergarten ELLs in my class (along with some other students) and I could have a self-contained ESL kindergarten (my ideal class). This would lighten the load of the pull-out ESL teacher who would then only have to service grades 1-5. A good situation all around, in my opinion.

When I got back to school I relayed all these ideas to my principal. She interjected ways that it wasn't possible and I countered with how it was since I was told by our district ESL know-it-all that it was!! I also told her firmly that I CANNOT teach the same thing again next year. I am in a rut doing the same thing three years in a row! I am a kind of person who needs CHANGE! (She tried to get me to distinguish between 'unhappy' and 'in a rut' "because they are different." I can't distinguish between the two because it is both, I told her.) She listened to everything that I had to say and said she would consider it and get back to me by the end of the week.

I really hope this works because I seriously need a change for next year. Oh, and at the meeting I gave my email address to two schools that need self-contained ESL teachers for next year. Networking, networking.

Apparently the answer to Tuesday's question was no.

2008-06-12T20:25:00.003-04:00

So my principal talked to me today about next year's assignments before she handed out the organization sheets. She said that she put me down for ESL again though there was a vacancy in a lower grade like I requested. She said I was "being considered" to fill the position but the problem was that she couldn't post a vacancy for my license area. If she found an ESL teacher though I could possibly be given the Kindergarten class that had a vacancy. (It was sounding a little hopeful at this point.) Then she went on to say that while she was interviewing for various vacancies she would put it out there that the ESL position was a possibility but that she couldn't specifically advertise for the position because she "couldn't create a vacancy in my license area." Well, what if she hires someone for the Kindergarten position and finds an ESL teacher after that? Can I still have the position? I asked her. No, she said because it will have been already filled she said. I pointed out that it seemed unlikely for her to randomly come across an ESL teacher if she doesn't post the position. Yes, she agreed, as she nodded her head and gave me a look that said "this is the unfortunate predicament that we are in." I pressed on saying that it seems like I am stuck here in this position. It's as if the only way for me to get my own class is for me to go to a new school and start all over. She made some light comment about not letting me leave and I'm so great or something like that. (Throughout the whole conversation she showered me with compliments about how great I am with the ESL program and that the AP thought so as well.)

Essentially I came away from the meeting with the impression that she has no intention of giving me the position but is trying to make it seem as though she is doing everything she can to work it out for me. In the end when it doesn't work out she will be able to blame it on "the system" for not letting her create a vacancy. She compared this to a previous year when a special ed teacher wanted to go into a general ed classroom and so they put her there for the next year and created a vacancy but then "it wouldn't let them do it and she had to put the teacher back to special ed." (She says this all cryptically as if there is a computer system that knows where she is placing people for next year and won't let her do certain actions.) Now I understand about not creating a vacancy insomuch as she can't give me my own class next year leaving the ESL position with out a qualified person to teach it when I am qualified and working in the building. I completely get that. But I don't see how anything is preventing her from advertising and actively looking for my replacement. This is why I know this whole business she keeps repeating about creating a vacancy is her cover. I know this woman. If she really wants to do something, she will *find* a way to get it done. Obviously she doesn't want me out of ESL.

Will I ever get my own class?

2008-06-10T23:59:00.002-04:00

For the second year in a row now I put on my preference sheet that I want my own class instead of teaching ESL. Just like last year my choices were 1) first grade, 2) Kindergarten, and 3) second grade. I talked with the principal and she knows that I really, really want this for all the same reasons as last year. This year though she keep mentioning how she knows I'm "not comfortable with the inconsistent schedule of being an out of classroom teacher." Weird that this year she tries to subtly put me down by saying I can't handle an inconsistent schedule of coverages and maybe I should "consider going into the classroom" when last year she said she had seen me in coverages and I needed to work on my classroom management if she were to consider giving me my own class. Contradictory much? Anyway, she said she would seriously consider it though it is problematic to create a vacancy in a "high-needs" license area. (Makes me think I'm definitely not getting it as she's already set me up for why she can't.) Then at the full day PD last week when her and I were discussing yearbook stuff she said I needed to make sure to go to the PD with the rest of the teachers because I need to "be in the loop in case I have my own classroom next year." (And still I think she's just saying that to say it.)

I know that next year they are adding a first grade class and a Kindergarten class and both of the current Kindergarten teachers want to move to new grades so there should be plenty of movement if she really wants to give it to me. The tentative organization sheet is due out Thursday.

Watch Me Fly!

2008-06-08T22:19:00.001-04:00

For Ms. Frizzle's Birthday we went to the New York Trapeze School. We learned a surprising amount in just two hours. Here is my last fly of the day.

The Rubber Room

2008-05-24T13:32:00.004-04:00

If you don't know what the Rubber Room is check this out. And then go see the movie when it comes out. One teacher from my school was sent to the Rubber Room at the beginning of this year and he is still there.

Thanks for the link Nancy.

Too Much Information?

2008-05-17T22:44:00.004-04:00

I have a blog, I post a daily photo of myself every day on Flickr, I have a Myspace account and a Facebook account (to which I semi-regularly post "status updates" telling my Facebook friends what I am currently up to). I share plenty about my daily life and my friends and "friends" that are linked to my various accounts are able to keep pretty good tabs on me (as far as I'm willing to share), I'd say. But is this taking it too far?

Is anyone on Twitter? I checked and none of my friends are. Yet.

Happy Friday

2008-05-16T15:04:00.002-04:00

Today was a wonderful Friday for me. I had a meeting to attend that was just three blocks from my house! And even better, it didn't start until 9am. This meant I got to sleep until 7:45. By the time the meeting ended at 1pm there was no point in going back to school since I get an hour for lunch and then an hour for travel time. There was nothing else to do but go home :) So wonderful!

The meeting was about scoring for the big state English proficiency test that all of my kids just finished taking this week. Starting on Monday I have to train a group of teachers at my school to score them. The scoring should only take a couple of days since my school doesn't have that many ELLs. Then it will be back to real teaching again.

Three Angels

2008-05-14T22:40:00.004-04:00

Why I love Kindergarteners . . .

One of my Kindergarten girls, Jessica, was trying to tell me a story but I couldn't understand a word of what she was saying. "Angel, the man who cleans the floor!" She said, referring to our custodian. "My cousin's name is Angel, too."

"I know." I said.

"There are two Angels. My cousin and . . . Oh, and the one that flies. So there are three Angels: the one that flies, my cousin, and the one here."

So precious.

My First Ever Meme!

2008-05-04T22:13:00.003-04:00

I've been blogging for about three years now and this is my very first meme. And clearly I need the inspiration right now since I haven't blogged in month. Thanks Julie!

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answer.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?

In 1998 I was 17 and a senior in high school getting ready to graduate! I was planning my first backpacking trip to Europe which really gave me the travel bug. In the past ten years I have taken a trip or lived abroad almost every year (the first two years living in NYC were pretty rough financially so I didn't make it anywhere those years).

Also ten years ago on that backpacking trip I randomly met a Jordanian guy who I had a romantic summer fling with. We have always kept in touch and have seen each other on various trips of mine to Europe (and one of his to NYC). It still amazes me that ten years later he is still a really important person in my life. Meeting him also sparked my interest in the Middle East, learning Arabic, and now a desire to go teach abroad in the Middle East. Sometimes I forget that all of this started with a chance encounter in the Florence leather market.

It's interesting to reflect upon how ten years ago the things going on in my life were sort of setting up for what is happening now.

2. What are five things on my to do list for today?

Well, the day is over now but the only thing on the to do list was to go to brunch and I can proudly say that I accomplished that!

3. Snacks I enjoy:

-carrots and hummus
-fudgesicles
-chips and guacamole
-brownies

(These are just random things that popped into my head. I'm not sure if they are my most favorite. I'm sure there are others.)

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

I don't really sit around thinking about what I would do if I had extreme amounts of money. Like Julie, I do know that I would travel the world. It would be nice to have a house in a few different places that I like to visit often so I could split my time between say, NYC, Italy, etc. And (obviously) I would donate to a worthy cause. Most likely something involving education would be on that list.

5. Three of my bad habits:

-Hitting snooze in the morning. I love the morning and I REALLY would love to be a morning person in theory but I just can't get out of bed in the morning. Even if I've already had more than enough sleep.

Hmm . . . the first one was easy, let's see.

-Maybe taking ridiculously long showers. All the time. I know, it's bad to waste water (and time) but I love being under the hot water and as much as I try (or don't try) I can't seem to take a quick, or even relatively quick, shower. I have ALWAYS been like this.

-I'm starting to think spending too much time on the internet. Sometimes I "multi-task" by watching T.V., talking on the phone, and/or eating while being on the computer.

6. 5 Places I have lived:

-California: I lived there until I graduated high school.
-Arizona: I went to college there and my family moved there too so I don't really have family connections to California anymore.
-Florence, Italy: I studied there twice. Once for a study abroad program and another time as an exchange student with the University of Florence.
-Sardegna, Italy: After I graduated from college I taught English in Sassari, Sardegna for a year.
-Brooklyn, NY: I moved here in 2005 when I started teaching as a Teach For America corps member. I put NYC as second choice of cities that I wanted to teach in but in my heart it was really first. I'm so glad that I ended up here.

7. 5 jobs that I have had:

-Lifeguard
-Starbucks Barista
-selling jackets in the leather market in Florence
-working at the reception desk in a youth hostel in Corfu, Greece
-waitress (in Italy and Arizona)

8. Peeps I want to know more about:

-Minty at Pepperknit
-Kelly at An Adventure of a Lifetime
-Ruth at Out of Uganda
-Ms. Brave at Ms. Brave Teaches NYC
-Miss G at Closing the Gap in NYC

Language Learning

2008-04-08T21:15:00.002-04:00

Recently I started taking Arabic classes again. The classes were going well at first but tonight I was really frustrated by the way the teacher was presenting the lesson. There were so many things that I would have done differently. Mainly I was frustrated that the teacher was doing all of the speaking in Arabic and we, the students, barely got to say anything. How can you learn a language when the teacher is talking and the students are listening? Students need to SPEAK in the target language. This critique comes not from my teaching experience here in NYC but from my TEFL training in Italy and then teaching for a year at Inlingua (a private language school) because those experiences were comparable to the class that I am currently taking. So when I got home tonight I wrote an email to the school telling them about my concerns. At first I thought the email was going to sound really rude because I was so frustrated but I think it turned out to be quite reasonable. What do you think? Would you have emailed the school too?

Hi,
so I just had my third Arabic class and I am not feeling satisfied with tonight's lesson. The first class (which was my trial class) was good but the teacher deviated from the book so that perhaps wasn't an indication of a regular lesson. The second class was with a substitute and it was also good. This third class, using the book with the regular teacher, I did not like. The problem that I have is that the teacher did the majority of the talking. For most of the lesson she read all of the tables of words to us in Arabic and asked us if we knew what they meant. We then responded in English. Then for the exercises she read the sentences to us in Arabic and we answered filling in just two words in Arabic. There were so many opportunities for us (the students) to be reading/speaking in Arabic that were missed. I felt really cheated out of the time that we had in class. With just three students we should have had ample speaking time. Instead, the teacher talk time was about 90% while the student talk time was about 10%. I hope that we can somehow resolve this because otherwise I really like the class (and the teacher) and want to continue with my Arabic studies. please let me know what you think about this. (And if perhaps I am addressing this with the wrong person could you please forward this message on?)

Thank You,
Ms. M

Our "Quality" Has Been Reviewed

2008-03-28T18:57:00.003-04:00

So the first word (given by our principal over the loudspeaker just minutes after the reviewer left) was that our review was "extremely positive" with more details to come.

I'm sorry, but I'm not excited that my school did great on our Quality Review, because it just isn't. For the second year in a row we managed to fool them. If I were the principal I think my goal for next year would be to get the same result without any crazy preparations leading up to the day and a half review. If all these pretend things we did for the review (bulletin boards, data binders, classroom rearrangements, prepping the students and teachers to say the right thing) were just naturally in place all year with out a mention of the QR, THEN I'd be happy we got a good review.

Kindergarten Writing

2008-03-14T19:55:00.004-04:00

This week I introduced my kindergarteners to using a rubric to get a "happy face" on their writing. I showed them a big rubric I had made on chart paper and explained all that they would have to do to get a happy face.
- a detailed picture
- a sentence with a capital at the beginning and a period at the end
- spaces between each word
- all words sounded out ("stretched")

After explaining the rubric I asked: "Who wants to do their best writing and get a happy face on their paper?" They all raised their hands and were really excited. AND they all really did their best work of the year. They were so excited to see if they were going to get the happy face on their papers. Even my kids who usually struggle a lot got it with a little help.

There's just one kid, my newcomer, who didn't get the stretching of the words. He's just not there yet developmentally. But he did his neatest writing, a great picture, perfect spacing, copied the sentence starter I have them ("I learned that . . ."), and then wrote a string of letters for the rest of the sentence. I asked him what his sentence said and he said he didn't know. He really did his best work of the year though. So do I give him a happy face or really stick to the rubric and give him the "medium(?) happy face" because he can't stretch his words? He was the only one who couldn't do all four things even with help.

I gave him the medium happy face and told him what an awesome job he did.

Breakfast!

2008-03-12T20:41:00.004-04:00

. . . because Ms. Frizzle asked.

Pineapple bits, orange and tangerine marmalade on a whole wheat English muffin, cottage cheese and, of course, coffee.

Now that the math test is over we have the Quality Review to drive us crazy.

2008-03-08T11:47:00.002-05:00

I truly think that the quality review team should just show up completely unexpectedly (at any point in the year) without any warning. If we have to "get ready" for it, then we're really just putting on a show, aren't we?

First it was the binders with printouts of data that no one really uses. Do you think the QR people will notice that we printed out test item analysis reports to be analyzed a MONTH after the ELA was already over? Clearly those were not being used to "drive" instruction. So the newest thing is the "Vigilante Squad" (as one first grade teacher calls them). The Vigilante Squad consists of the Principal, AP and both coaches. They are going around from room to room completely changing furniture arrangements, demanding that more charts be added, putting in "centers" that we don't use, and generally causing all the teachers in the school to freak out. They don't consult the teacher on what they are changing, nor do they ask the reasoning behind the current set up of the classroom. When they finish their rearranging, they give the teacher three days to complete the organizing and cleaning (Or else?). The funny part of all this is that the administration has been harping on how when the QR people come "you students better know the routines of your class, how to use things in the room, where to find things, etc." So I guess changing every room in the school just a few weeks before the QR was the best way to ensure that.

If only we put the same amount of time and energy into teaching and planning and collaboration, we might just have a decent school.

I finally have my week back!

2008-03-06T23:45:00.002-05:00

Now that the math test is over, so is after school, Saturday Academy, and weekly PD. That's eight extra hours a week all to myself! This is what I did with my week:
Monday-yoga
Tuesday-one-on-one training at the Mac store for my new computer
Wednesday-yoga
Thursday-Arabic class

I don't regret doing all that I signed up for this year; the extra money was definitely worth it and now the extra time is just that much sweeter. I'll definitely do it again next year.

Letter in the File

2008-02-13T23:12:00.002-05:00

Today I received a "letter in my file" from my assistant principal.

Hold on though, it was a GOOD letter. It was thanking me for doing such a great job on a particular report that I have to do every year that collects data on the ELLs in the building. My AP said that she knew the report took a lot of extra time and I did it "without complaining" and my doing so freed her up to look after other things. She even threw in a little joke about how we both finally nailed down the meaning of a particular term regarding ELLs that had been throwing us off for quite a while now.

While I was very happy to be appreciated for my work on the report, the letter was kind of funny for a few reasons: 1) It's my job to do the report, not the AP's, so it wasn't really like I was helping HER out, 2) While it did take a lot of time, it wasn't as if I took it home or did it after school; everything was completed during regular school time, 3) I finished the report a month ago, so why the sudden recognition?

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to have any positive letter put in my file that she wants to write, it just makes me wonder: Is the administration trying to butter me up for something?

One For Me, One For the Kids

2008-02-09T17:23:00.000-05:00

I stopped in Barnes and Noble after brunch today to get a new book to read. Of course I couldn't resist the picture books in the kids section and ended up with this book, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. It is hilarious and I can't wait to read it to my Kindergarteners and first graders. While taking this photo I actually settled on the book that I am holding for myself, Through the Children's Gate: A Home In New York. I'd been browsing around for an hour or more and seen lots of book that I have wanted to read or that look newly interesting, but none that I was ready to commit to today. Then I found this one and didn't want to put it down.

It's Official!

2008-02-06T23:43:00.000-05:00

My job contract arrived today and I purchased my ticket . . .

I'm going to Italy this summer!!! I got a job as an RA with a study abroad company. For five weeks this summer I will be looking after high school students studying abroad in Florence. It's suddenly becoming real . . .

Super Bowl Salsa

2008-02-04T22:04:00.000-05:00

Salsa before:

Salsa after:

I have been making this salsa for many years now and it's always a hit. Basically it's just all of the veggies from the first picture plus a can of corn, a can of olives, a red onion, salt, pepper, olive oil, and two squeezed limes (plus the one on top for decoration).

I have a funny story about this salsa. I made it for my Italian roommates and some of their family members one year when I was living in Italy. (I had to go to a specialty store just to get the tortilla chips.) So they had all sort of eyed me chopping the vegetables wondering what exactly I was making. My explanations in my first year Italian weren't really working. When I was finished I left the salsa on the kitchen table with the open bag of chips next to it. I left the room and came back a few minutes later to find no one had tried any. I took a bite myself and one said "Oh, you eat it like that." Then they all tried a bite. One of my roommates said "It's good," in a still unsure voice. He paused for a few seconds and then added, "But it would be really good if you cooked it and put it over some pasta."

Afternoon in Cobble Hill

2008-02-02T19:52:00.000-05:00

Today after teaching Saturday School I decided to walk around a part of Brooklyn that I love but for some reason or another don't get to all that often: Cobble Hill. I had lunch one of my favorite brunch spots, Bar Tabac. I sat at the bar (by myself) and had a delicious Croque Madam. I even shamelessly dipped my French fries in the little ramekin of mayonnaise on the plate leaving the ketchup untouched.

I also made a few purchases which I will share with you all in photos:

1. I had this Lenanese coffee on my birthday when I ate at Tripoli. I loved the small strong coffee with cardamom and asked the waiter to write down the name of it for me. He told me I could buy it at a shop just a few doors down from the restaurant. It's taken me almost two months to get back but I can't wait to brew some at home.

2. Although I once loved this slim gold wallet, it has clearly seen better days.

I've been on the lookout for a unique looking wallet that I was really in love with for several months now. I wasn't sure I'd find one before the old one totally died on me but today I found this:

I love this coin pouch that is attached to the inside; it's what initially drew me to the wallet. I also love the way the pockets are set up and the magnetic clasp. And . . . after I photographed it I realized there is a strap that pulls out in case you want to carry it alone (which I do every time I go out to get lunch at school). And I love that it is blue. I really HEART this wallet! I didn't even have buyer's remorse when I paid $65 for it.

3. I got these sweet little cookies at One Girl Cookies. I loved the atmosphere of the little shop. So cute! The cookies aren't bad either :)

(Cookies shown on a little plate that is part of a tea set I got for my birthday.)

Window Box Herb Gardens

2008-01-31T20:18:00.000-05:00

Today I worked with Kindergarten and first grade classes planting window box herb gardens. I wish that I could post pictures of the kids getting their hands dirty in the soil because they had so much fun. One first grader was so adorable when he said: "Look how nice or garden looks when we work together. If I didn't behave I wouldn't get to help plant . . . and this is SO cool." Such grown-up statements for a 6 year old.

The lower grade classes are donating the window herb gardens to the upper grade classes as part of the community service aspect of the project.

Two New Things, One Photo

2008-01-30T23:20:00.000-05:00

1. After Christmas my sister let me take her cat back to New York with me. It's sort of like a temporary adoption. I love her so much! It's great to finally have this pet on loan since I can't commit to getting one of my own.

2. I started my second scarf in three years at the knitting get together Jules organized last Saturday. I think this is going to take FOREVER to finish! I think we need another meet-up quick.

2008-01-23T22:20:00.000-05:00

I got a fun summer job.

I'll share the details when I'm sure that I won't get pinched and wake up :)

Priceless

2008-01-08T22:13:00.001-05:00

Quote of the day:

"You have to listen to the teacher. That is the true meaning of school."
-Christian (Kindergarten student, to another student)

2007-12-21T18:41:00.000-05:00

I really suck at blogging this month. Oh, well. The month is over now (as far as school goes anyway). Winter break if finally here and I am off to visit my family for Christmas!

Have a great holiday everyone!

First Snow!

2007-12-02T19:27:00.001-05:00

A walk through Prospect Park.

The trains were conspiring against me!

2007-11-20T21:59:00.001-05:00

I so wanted to make yoga today before the long Thanksgiving weekend.

I taught Extended Day today which ends at 5:15. Just enough time to rush to my yoga class on St. Marks, change, and have a few minutes to spare. Today I had to make a quick phone call after dismissing my class to pay off my student loan (I'd been missing business hours for so long and the interest has been racking up daily. It had to get done today). The call went quickly but as I left the building I saw that I had somehow lost thirteen minutes in the process.

I raced to the train and just missed the J train. Then I got to the F and as the minutes passed and no train came I realized there was no way I could make it to class.

Dramatic, I know, but I was so looking forward to going.

Speaking of "Where did you learn that?"

2007-11-20T00:15:00.000-05:00

Today one of my first graders was writing about her mom in the family books that we are making. She wanted to know how to write that her mom was playing and demonstrated sitting cross-legged with her hands on her knees and thumbs and index fingers pressed together.

"Oh, your mom does yoga?"

"Yeah!"

It was so funny that she mentioned that because I remember catching her playing around on the rug last year in what looked suspiciously like downward facing dog and side plank. I wasn't sure if I was just imagining that it looked like yoga though because many poses I do in yoga are ones that I did as a kid playing around or in gymnastics class. I tried to ask her where she learned that but she wasn't really able to explain it to me. Now, a year later, she can verbalize that she watches her mom do yoga at home.

How I Spent My Halloween

2007-11-18T22:31:00.001-05:00

On October 31st when others were dressed up and gallivanting around the city, I was at a panel discussion about Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York. I wrote about visiting the exhibit at the Municipal Arts Society and this event was related to that exhibit.

Here are eight minutes edited from the two hour panel discussion. You can catch a glimpse of me in the audience (in the red v-neck) right at the beginning of the clip. You'll notice that many people were wearing Harry Potter-esque, round, black-rimmed glasses. They were handing them out for audience members to wear as a sort-of tribute to Jane Jacobs who was known for wearing similar glasses. I did actually wear the glasses for most of the discussion (and was so proud for actually "dressing up" for Halloween after all), but alas, they filmed me at the one moment that I wasn't wearing the glasses.

Three Day Week!

2007-11-18T21:57:00.001-05:00

It's Sunday night but we have just a three day week to look forward to so I'm feeling OK about that. On Tuesday I have a PD about preparing ELLs for Day 2 of the EL*A. So really I have the easiest week ever. I'm actually worried that I don't have ENOUGH time to finish everything that I wanted to get done by the break.

Today I went shopping for Thanksgiving dinner. I'm so excited. Thanksgiving at my apartment has become a tradition since I moved to NYC. This year Jules and "Boyfriend" are coming again and I am so excited. My sister is coming on Wednesday. It's going to be a good break. I just have to get in two more yoga classes by Wednesday because I know that I won't be going while my sister is here. (Four whole days without yoga!!)

This Year I'm Doing it All . . .

2007-11-15T20:58:00.000-05:00

. . . Saturday Academy for three hours each week, Extended Day twice a week for an hour and a half, and a "study group" every Wednesday for two hours (not to mention this week was parent-teacher conferences!). I'm exhausted! But I'm making it through. And after three whole days, I finally made it to yoga so I'm feeling good.

Now that it gets dark so early it's hard to do anything but go straight home after school. As I'm walking out of the building at 5:15 it feels like I should have been home hours ago and already in my sweats and making dinner. It takes everything I have to remember that 5:15 really isn't late at all. If it were May, it would be afternoon and I'd be feeling thankful that I'm a teacher and have a chance to be free and out of work so early. But for now, it's dark and cold for another few months.

***

Extended Day went sooo much better today than last Thursday (which was our first session). Coming into the class not knowing the kids (they are fourth graders that I don't normally work with), not knowing the materials I'd be working with (the AP gave me the books 15 minutes after the session started), not having any snack provided by the school, and--seemingly insignificant, but--not having working clocks that day, really spelled disaster for the end of a long day.

Today however, I came in prepared: I put the desks in a new seating arrangement (one long table with all the kids), brought pretzels (to be handed out to on-task students), and came armed with some better teaching strategies. It made all the difference and today the class a pleasure. The time flew by and before I knew it we had just 20 minutes to complete our last section and go over it. I don't know if the timing felt better to the kids too but at least with the clocks working they didn't have to ask me the time every two minutes.

There is one girl that is driving me crazy though. She always wants to read, answer the question, or add to what someone else said. If she doesn't get to talk every time she starts getting really frustrated. The first day I finally snapped and yelled at her about there being nine other kids in the room and she can't speak all the time; she has to wait her turn. Today I was a little more patient. I also tried to make the turns predictable by having them read and answer round robin-style so she knew when her turn was. I had wanted to write names on popsicle sticks to draw randomly but I didn't have time to prepare that for today. At one point I was really trying to get the kids to understand that getting the wrong answer isn't something to be embarrassed about; now is the time to talk about our answers so that we can figure out why we got the wrong answer and be able to get it right the next time. Well, she really took that to heart and (I swear) when I asked "did anyone get an answer other than C" (which we had just determined to be the right answer), she said that she first chose D but then changed her mind and put C (and then she went on and on as to why). I was sitting right next to her and she picked C the first time. So she wants to share out so badly that she is willing to lie and say she got the wrong answer because she knew I was only calling on kids with the wrong answer at that point. Seriously, I don't know how to deal with her. Somehow I have to tame her a little bit if I am not going to go batty every week. Ideas?

Saturday Morning Yoga at the Y

2007-11-10T21:27:00.000-05:00

I'd been looking forward to this class for a while now (I hadn't been able to make it because I was teaching Saturday school). The pace is much slower than the classes that I usually take at Yoga to the People and perfect for a Saturday morning. The change of pace and the change of routine made all the difference in my practice. Today every pose felt right. Each transition flowed smoothly into the next.

Sometimes slowing down is just what we need.

"Where did you hear that?"

2007-11-08T23:41:00.000-05:00

Whenever one of my students says something in class that I am surprised that he/she knows, I can't help but ask "Where did you learn that?" or "How do you know that?" Just this week I found myself questioning two students.

*In my kindergarten class we are making family books and on the cover the students drew pictures of their families. J drew her sister. She explained that she is sixteen, lives in Mexico, and has a baby. "Wow. Does she go to school?" I asked. "Yes. My grandma keeps an eye on the baby." Just in case you didn't catch that, my five year old English Language Learner said her grandma "keeps an eye on the baby." I wonder where she could have learned such an idiomatic expression because I know that she speaks Spanish with her family so she didn't overhear it in a conversation about the baby. Did she talk about her baby-sitting grandma to her teacher and then the teacher rephrased it and she just remembered? I did try to ask "Where did you hear that?" But being five she really didn't get what I was asking her and just explained again that her grandma keeps an eye on the baby.

*There was another story that I did get to the bottom of this week. One of my second graders read an independent book about a grandpa who was bored because he didn't work and had nothing to do. Then found a new hobby and was happy again. On the graphic organizer E wrote that the problem in the story was that the "grandpa was fire." I understood that he meant "fired." I asked him to show me where in the book he saw that the grandpa was fired. He showed me the line that said "Grandpa Martin did not work." Smart thinking, I thought. He inferred that the Grandpa was fired because the story said he did not work. But why would he think he was fired? How did he even know that word? Was someone in his family fired? I asked "How do you know that word 'fired.' Where did you hear it?" He explained that in his class they have jobs such as librarian, pencil monitor, etc. and if they don't do a good job the teacher fired them. I praised him for the inference and the connection . . . and then explained what it meant to be retired.

I don't know if it's odd for a teacher to ask "How do you know that?" but if you don't ask you'll never know. I usually find their answers to be quite interesting.

Oh, PD, how I do not love you!

2007-11-06T18:50:00.000-05:00

School is kind of a quiet, sad place with no kids--especially on a cold rainy day like today. The building was eerily quiet. The two times I had to walk to the other end of the hall to get something from my room, I rushed to get back to the library where the noise and energy of the teachers spilled out into the hall.

The day, as expected, dragged on and on. The topic of the day: DATA. Specifically, the school progress reports that were released today. We took the entire day to "delve into" the report to figure out what it was saying. And it certainly took a lot of explaining: we got a D.

The best part of the day was the hour and a half lunch break and trip to Dumont Burger.

I Don't Know What Got Into Me Today . . .

2007-11-03T20:50:00.000-04:00

. . . but for some reason I felt the need to cook all day.

First, I started a French beef stew. It's a three day process so I'm making it to eat on Monday. Here's what it looks like so far marinating in my fridge.

Then I made a Tuscan white bean stew. It took almost four hours to make but at least it was ready for dinner tonight.

Finally, I made this apple pie. I'd been having the urge to make an apple pie for a week now so I figured while the second stew was cooking I may as well bake a pie. The lattice top isn't the most beautiful but it was my first try.

Talking About Halloween

2007-10-31T23:31:00.000-04:00

In the spirit of Halloween I let my kids play a game today. It was a speaking game similar to Taboo. Students partnered up; one pretended to be an alien who just arrived to Earth today, and the other had to explain to the alien what Halloween was without using the taboo words: Halloween, candy, costume, scary, pumpkin, witch, ghost, party, or trick-or-treat. If the student made a mistake and said one of the words, he/she had to give the alien one M&M (each student had a handful).

I did the activity with all of my groups from Kindergarten to Fifth grade. It was interesting to see how the different groups did with the activity. I first did it with my second/third grade group. They had a little trouble with it because they didn't really get that they needed to make someone *understand* what Halloween was about. I was prompting one of the second graders by asking, "What do you do on Halloween?" She said, "I play around." They were all so worried about saying the words that they didn't really explain the holiday and not much candy was exchanged in the process. My fourth/fifth grade group on the other hand couldn't stop saying the taboo words. The youngest groups actually did a pretty good job with the activity although it took a lot of modeling to get them to understand what they needed to do. In all of the groups the students that did the best with the speaking activity were the students who spoke the least English. It actually makes sense though; they are used to having to talk around words that they don't know. For example one student was describing trick-or-treating but couldn't say "candy" so he said, " . . . you get chocolates and other sugar things." That is exactly what someone learning English would say if they didn't know the word for candy. My more proficient speakers had more trouble realizing there was another way to get the meaning of "candy" across.

And That's How You Know It's Been a Really Long Day

2007-10-30T23:48:00.001-04:00

When it’s 3:00 and you’re passing out math manipulatives to Kindergartners and say: “J and S you get the green triangles. K and R you get the orange squares. N and V you get the yellow . . . the yellow . . . thingys.”

And N says: “You mean hexagons?”

“Yes. Hexagons.”

“Ms. M, did you forget?”

Newcomer English

2007-10-20T22:38:00.000-04:00

Saturday school was not bad at all today.

I got to school with a minute to spare (I forgot to account for weekend train delays). I had just three students. I was hoping for all five but two of the boys have Saturday school at their church--or their mother would have brought them "con mucho gusto," she told me as she dropped off their younger brother who is in Kindergarten. I told the AP that he didn't really need to come. I thought he was doing pretty well in his regular class and was progressing nicely but she said it couldn't hurt. He actually seemed really disoriented during the first part of the morning and probably didn't understand why he was at school on a Saturday without his brothers or classmates. He warmed up though, and so did the other two girls. We had a lot of fun and they were all speaking more than I've ever hear them. (That is repeating after me in English and trying to explain things to me in Spanish, and occasionally attempting to try out some new words or phrases on their own.)

We did my basic first ESL lessons today. A lot of "What is this?" "This is a (insert item you're pointing at)" to get them used to asking and answering about new vocab. We did a lot of TPR (total physical response) to practice things they will often hear their teachers asking them to do in class. We took a tour of the school learning the names of the different rooms (such as library, office, lunch room). You would think that after almost two months of school they would have picked up some of these words but most of the words they didn't know or couldn't produce on their own. Actually the Kindergarten boy knew more then two girls (in second and third grades) did in most cases. He has been in the country about nine months longer than they have and he went to Pre-K at the school for part of last year.

Over all it was a good day and it went by really fast. I was happy with what we were able to accomplish today. It's really unfortunate that my schedule is so full that I don't have a separate time in my schedule for these kids during the regular school day because it is so crucial. I'm glad that I was given the opportunity to teach this Saturday class though.

City Ballet

2007-10-20T21:49:00.000-04:00

I really enjoyed the Jane Jacobs exhibition today. It was small but well put together. The first room laid out Jacobs' four principles of urban planning (mixed uses, short city blocks, concentrations of people, and a mix of new and old buildings). A lot of the print and photos on the walls were immediately recognizable from her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Along side that were current examples from New York City (the book was published in 1961). Cleverly, the exhibit made use of one of the windows in the room overlooking the busy street below (I'm not sure exactly which street it was, but in the vicinity of 51st and Madison). On plexi-glass placed in front of the window each of the four principles were printed with lines seemingly pointed at various parts of the street below. It invited the viewer to consider the street below and how well it fit with Jacobs' ideas. In fact, most of the exhibit was centered on inviting the museum goer to consider his or her own neighborhood in relation to the concepts presented.

The second room was all about activism, both by Jane Jacobs and current groups and individuals. One pamphlet available was called "Can One Person Change the City?" and it laid out the eight steps you can take to get involved with your neighborhood.

I especially liked a video that showed two high school students giving a tour of their neighborhoods. One a boy from Williamsburg and another a boy from a housing project in the Bronx. The contrast exemplified perfectly what Jacobs was all about.

I went to college in Arizona and studied Jane Jacobs in my architecture and urban planning classes. Reading her work made me want to live in New York so badly and highlighted everything I hated about Arizona. My parents thought I was quirky when I went on about "sprawling chaos" in Phoenix. Cities just make sense to me. The first real city I lived in was Florence, Italy. Thinking about how Jane Jacobs described the "city ballet" in her neighborhood in Greenwich Village, I wrote about the city ballet that I encountered every day on my walk to school from one side of Florence across the Arno to the other. I still think about it.

I can imagine living somewhere other than here and hearing about this exhibition wishing that I could go. But here I am in NYC. I've been really soaking in the pleasures of urban life lately. I really feel like this is where I am supposed to be.

Cool exhibits to visit on a Saturday . . . just another reason why I love living in New York.

Saturday . . . School

2007-10-19T21:51:00.000-04:00

It's my third year teaching and I'm finally going to teach Saturday school. I was so hoping that I would get the position and now that I have it I'm sort of wondering what I've gotten myself into. It won't be so bad. Just 10am-1pm. And there are only two Saturdays in October (well, there were three but for some reason they didn't tell me I was teaching it until after the first day) and then none in November (one is canceled due to Thanksgiving, and another due to the AP and some teachers taking a day trip to Atlantic City, and the others I'm not sure about). In any case, it's really good that I am teaching Saturdays because I will finally get a chance to see all of my newcomers in a separate group, that is beginners in English rather than grade-level groups. I just don't have time for that in my regular school schedule.

Even with Saturday school I'm planning on having an awesome day tomorrow. I'm going to go see the Jane Jacobs exhibition at the Municipal Arts Society and then a yoga class at Yoga to the People. I've finally found a yoga class that I love and now I'm addicted. I've been going four or five times a week for the past few weeks. Another great thing about the studio is that it's donation based so you "pay what you want." Finally yoga is affordable!

Loving My Schedule

2007-10-13T13:38:00.000-04:00

I know I sort of mentioned this already, but I just had to elaborate.

Being a pull-out ESL teacher I have the privilege of being able to write my own schedule. The first year my schedule was a mess. Trying to coordinate nine grade levels (that’s Kindergarten through eighth grade) around two lunches, preps, math lessons, etc. was a nightmare. I finally worked something out but I was always forgetting my schedule and picking up the wrong kids, not to mention eating lunch and taking preps at a different time every day. The second year was much better. I only had grades K-5 so just that helped a lot in the organization. Still, not every day was the same so occasionally I was off, and in hindsight, having a prep every day during first period wasn’t the most productive.

This year I have finally figured it out. It sort of happened accidentally because it wasn’t as if I set out to make myself the perfect schedule, it just sort of worked out that way. The main change this year was that I have too many kids that need eight periods a week to actually give it to them (that’s another story in itself) so, in order to make the schedule somewhat fair I decided to give each group five periods a day. This means that I can see each group for one period a day. Every day. The same schedule. And after planning around lunches and preps my schedule is:

First Period: Kindergarten

Second Period: Push-In 4th/5th

Third Period: 4th/5th

Fourth Period: 2nd/3rd

Fifth Period: Lunch

Sixth Period: Prep

Seventh Period: 1st

The obvious bonus is having lunch and prep together everyday. That’s one hour and forty glorious minutes to eat and get soooo much planning and work done. But it gets better. Kindergarten is my favorite (and probably easiest) class, so it’s great to have them first thing in the morning. I actually look forward to picking them up from the cafeteria. Next, my push in class is pretty easy as the teacher already has the students working, I just come in a take my groups aside to work with them. I then go back to my room and the 4th/5th graders meet me at my room (soo great to not have to go “pick them up”). After most of the morning has breezed by it’s the final push for 2nd/3rd grade until lunch. They are by far my most difficult group but I know that soon it will be time for a much needed break so I make it through. And then suddenly it’s 12:15 and the day feels practically over. I just have 50 minutes left of teaching (after my hour and forty minute break) and they are my first graders–my second favorite group. And the day is done! (Well, apart from the 37.5 minutes).

Seriously my days FLY by this year. And, when my prep finally comes, I feel like I have really earned it! I have stuff to take care of from the previous classes and planning for the rest of the week to get done. I am really in love with my schedule. And it only took three years to figure out! I’ll have to remember this for next year.

Finally Time to Teach

2007-10-01T23:14:00.001-04:00

Well, it's the first week in October and I just finished teaching my first week with my kids. (Crazy, I know.) And let me tell you, I was exhausted ALL WEEK. After all my weeks of "searching" for students I ended up with 49. That's about thirteen more than last year. More students plus more of them at a lower English proficiency than last year equals I don't have enough time in my schedule to give them the required number of minutes per week. To achieve that I'd have to combine three or more grades and have twenty students in a group which just isn't feasible. So instead, I gave each group five periods a week so that it is even (some groups should get eight periods a week). Even with this compromise there are 12 students in my kindergarten group and 14 in my second/third grade group. I know that may not sound like a lot but when you are pulling kids out of their regular class it's nice to be able to give them more individualized attention.

The good thing about my schedule this year is that it is the same everyday so it is much easier for me, the classroom teachers, and the students to remember and stick to. Also, by sheer luck I was able to put my lunch and prep together in the afternoon so now I have a huge chunk of time to get some real work done during the day so that I don't have to take much home.

As usual, the Kindergarteners are my favorite. I just love the little ones, they are so much fun. My big 2/3 group is the biggest handful seeing as half the class is boys and all but two of them are quite a handful on their own let alone all together.

I'm happy to finally be teaching now. Even though I know I have a ton do do as far as ESL paperwork at the beginning of the year, I start to feel a little guilty like the other teachers in the building are wondering why I STILL am walking around without kids. I tried so hard to get everything done quickly this year but it really takes me a solid three weeks to finish everything. Now I'm free to teach until about November when I'll be taken away for more reports.

In Search of Students

2007-09-09T22:34:00.000-04:00

At this point in the school year as other teachers are writing about how the first week of classes went, what their new students are like, and what they have been doing to get their students ready for the upcoming year, I am still doing administrative work and trying to sort out who my students are. I've written before about the long process of going over reports and test scores and rummaging through cumulative folders of new students to determine ESL eligibility. I swore that this year I was going to get through the process more quickly so that I could see students as soon as possible. So far my plan isn't working. There are always things stopping me from doing what I need to do. First of all, the main report that I need to tell me which kids passed last year's NYSESLAT and what proficiency level the other kids scored won't print (or show up on the computer). I've been trying all week! I finally figured out another way to look up the info but that only tells me if they passed or not (knowing the proficiency level is essential to forming pull-out groups).

Another thing is that the secretary, who is supposed to help me get the reports and student data I need is always too busy to help me. I understand that this is a busy time of year for her too but I feel like she doesn't realize that sometimes I can't do ANYTHING until I get a particular report from her. So when she just tells me that she can't do it now and doesn't tell me when she can, it gets really frustrating.

With all of the information that I've gathered so far, I can tell that I have a minimum of 47 students! That's eight more than I started with last year and I'm still not done finding students. Thirteen of those students are kindergarteners! (I think there will be at least a few more too.) That is sooo many. When I pick them up for ESL they won't really be in a small group setting but a class that is almost as big as their regular class. That's going to be a huge challenge. Also about five or six of the kindergarteners have a low level of English. Previously most of my students have just had low literacy levels but a fairly high level of spoken English. These kids don't know basic words that they need to understand or speak to their teacher. I'm definitely going to have to start rethinking how I teach my kindergarten class.

As for the rest of the administrative process, I still have to finish identifying new ELLs, get proficiency levels from last year's test, send out parent letters to all students who were tested in the spring or fall, and hold an orientation for parents of new ELLs. With the short week coming and who knows what unforeseen obstacles, I'm thinking end of next week before I'm finished. So much for getting done early.

Here We Go

2007-08-29T21:46:00.000-04:00

After a month off, it's back to blogging (and back to school).

I didn't go into school this week, unlike last year when I did for two days and was chastised by a few fellow bloggers (the comments are no longer there). It's not that I necessarily agree that we absolutely shouldn't go in before school starts, it's just that I haven't been very motivated to get back to school this year. I haven't bought or planned ANYTHING for the new year yet. I suppose that is partly because I know that I won't have kids in my room for two to three weeks so I have a little extra time to get things sorted out once school gets started.

So . . . instead of spending today in my room cleaning, organizing, and decorating, I took full advantage of my last glorious day of summer. After sleeping in, I went to my first yoga class at Laughing Lotus. Then I met one of my friends who has been out of the city for the summer for lunch in the East Village to catch up and talk about the dread of returning to school. We walked around for a while and after she left to get a pedicure I went to the Sugar Cafe on Allen/Houston for a slice of tiramisu cheesecake and iced coffee while reading my book. A fabulous day and so much better than going into school.

Now I'm trying to do about ten things at once including make dinner, wash my laundry, write this post, and catch up on a few shows I have recorded on my DVR. My body is not at all programed to be going to bed early and getting up at I can't even remember what time. I don't want to think about it yet.

New (International) Teacher Blog!

2007-07-30T21:30:00.000-04:00

Today I met some girls at my hotel in Coban. We went on a tour of the local coffee farm and then walked around the city together. We had a lot in common as I found out she is teaching at an international school in Guatemala City. When we went to the internet cafe together I found out she also has a blog about her experiences teaching and traveling in Guatemala. She just got here this summer and will be teaching for two years. I'll definitely be reading her blog and living vicariously though her until I go abroad too. Check her out! www.kellyseagraves.blogspot.com

I can't make a link at the moment as the keyboard is American but it works like a Spanish one.

Market Day

2007-07-30T21:04:00.000-04:00

Before coming to Guatemala there were two things that I wanted to see--a coffee farm and all of the beautiful textiles and crafts. Thursday I went to the market at Chicicastenango which is known for its twice weekly market. Since I got here I have bought so many things just because I was attracted to the color or pattern (and I'm usually not a big souvenir shopper). Luckily at the big market I was able to abstain from buying too much and just took some pictures instead.

Sweet Relief

2007-07-25T16:39:00.000-04:00

There´s nothing like the relief of finding a place to stay when traveling. Especially when traveling alone. Just twenty minutes of wandering around alone can make you feel desperate and wonder why you are even in this strange place to being with. You sort of hope that someone would see your lost look and point you in the direction of a place to stay. But then someone does and you are weary and don´t want to seem desperate and take just anything, so you say no and keep walking (all the while wondering if you should have at least taken a look).

And then finally you come across a place and it´s perfect. You set down your heavy pack and emerge from the hotel and suddenly this new town looks much more charming and you can imagine all of the things to do and see and eat and life is good again.

Bike Trip

2007-07-24T20:59:00.000-04:00

Today I took a bike trip through the surrounding area of Antigua. We rode through corn fields and even saw some coffee growing in the shade. The tour guide said that it was an intermediate ride which I didn´t think would be too hard because he also said that people had complained that the "easy" ride was way too easy but this was definitely challenging. We rode though a lot of paths that were very muddy since it is the rainy season. Many of the paths were what he called "single track" meaning they were very narrow and the pedals of the bike barely fit in certain areas. By the end of the ride I was covered in mud. We saw several Guatemalans woking the fields and carring the corn on their backs or with the help of donkeys.

At one point the chain on my bike broke and the guides had to fix it.

The landscape was gorgeous--very green and lush. All week I have been looking up at the mountains and volcanos surrounding Antigua and today I finally got to see it up close.

(I would post more photos but the computer is working very slowly!)

Last Day in Antigua

2007-07-24T20:40:00.000-04:00

After a week in Antigua I am getting ready to move on tomorrow morning.

This afternoon I had my last Spanish class. Twenty hours in the last week! My Spanish has definitely improved. We did kind of rush through everything but since it was a refresher it was OK. So now I can speak in the present, past, imperfect and future tenses (well, in theory anyway). I will need to review a lot during my trip but this is a great start and much more than I would have been able to do on my own. I think another really beneficial thing about the class was having one on one time with the teacher. Not only because I was able to practice speaking a lot but because I was able to really study the things that I thought were useful to me.

It almost feels weird to be getting on with my travels now. In just a week I´ve grown really comfortable with the school and living in the guest house (it´s really like a family). I could definitely imagine coming back here to study Spanish for several weeks in Antigua. I am kind of excited to get to the real traveling now. I'll be on the move every few days and hopefully meeting lots of new people.

Next stop . . . Lago di Atitlan.

Children

2007-07-22T18:47:00.000-04:00

Since I have been in Guatemala I have seen so many children here. I look at their faces and think that any one of them could be a student in my class. It makes me think about what it must be like to suddenly turn up in Brooklyn and start attending a new school in a strange place. Of course I have considered this before but being here makes it so much more real.

Spanish Classes in Antigua

2007-07-21T14:30:00.000-04:00

So I sort of decided on a whim to take a week-long Spanish class at the beginning of my trip to Guatemala. At first I wasn´t sure if it would be a waste of my travel time or if it would be beneficial to helping me communicate for the rest of my trip. I figured that Antigua was a place that I would want to spend a little time anyway so it couldn´t hurt to spend some of my time there learning Spanish. And so far it is proving to be very useful.

I´m what you would call a false beginner in Spanish. I´m not completely starting from scratch (I had three years of high school Spanish) but I do need to start learning it again from the beginning. Because of my knowledge of Italian and the Spanish that I have stored deep in the depths of my brain, I am going fairly quickly through the material. Most of the verbs are similar to Italian so I can recognize the immediately. I just need to study them so that I can retrieve them on my own when I need them. Things like phrasing and sentence structure is either similar to Italian or feels natural from having previously stidied Spanish.

For the last two years I have taught kids who speak Spanish as their first language and I have never spoken to either them or their parents in Spanish. I wouldn´t have known how to form a sentence other than Yo soy la maestra de ESL. Now, for the past three days I have been talking with my Spanish teacher (we have one on one classes) at length about my family, life in Arizona, Italy, etc. By no means is any of this grammatically correct but I am starting to be able to speak. Honestly I doubt I ever spoke this much in my high school Spanish class and that was after having learned all of the verb tenses and conjugations (I´m just now starting to refresh on the past tense in Spanish).

All of this makes me realize that I am not that far off from being conversational in Spanish. And it kind of makes me excited to learn. Spanish was never something that I wanted to study. In high school I had expected to take Italian only to find out that it wasn´t offered. So I spent three years in learning it but never really caring about being able to speak it. Once I started learning Italian it was even further on the back burner because all I cared about was speaking Italian and not ´messing it up.´ Even since then I have taken French and Arabic, wanting to learn those before coming back to Spanish. Now it seems that with a summer living in Latin America and focusing on learning Spanish I could be fairly decent in Spanish. Definitely something to consider although I am still pretty set on the idea of teaching in an international school in Egypt so that I can learn Arabic sometime in the near future.

Count Down to Guatemala

2007-07-09T01:12:00.000-04:00

Only nine days until I leave for Guatemala! I've just about got everything I need for my trip now (still lacking the rain gear, but I'll get to that). So in my last week and a half here I want to do all of the fun NYC summer stuff that I'll be missing out on when I'm on my trip. Movies under the Brooklyn Bridge, concerts at the Bandshell in Prospect Park, River to River festival, the floating pool by Brooklyn Bridge Park, and Coney Island (I haven't been yet and it's my last chance). So much to do and only ten days.

I Hate Losing Comments!

2007-07-01T21:34:00.000-04:00

I started adding labels to my posts a few weeks ago but they weren't showing up on the actual blog, just on the part where I type. Today I figured out how to get them on the blog but it means losing all of the previous comments from the last two years. That makes me a little sad. Why can't the halo scan comments transfer over? But I guess if I'm going to make the change it's better to do it sooner rather than later.

*updated

Mi Piace Le Lingue

2007-06-30T15:39:00.000-04:00

My last Language Week post a little late. I've wanted to write this week but have been so busy.

Mi piace molto le lingue. Mi piace imparare lingue e ascoltare diverse lingue. Mi piace vedere film in lingue straniere e mi piace viaggiare in paese dove parlono lingue altre che l'Inglese. Sono molto interessata in bilinguismo e i diversi metodi per crescere i bambini a parlare due lingue.

Non direi que imparo le lingue facilmente me mi piace imparare le lingue. Voglio imparare tanto lingue quanto possibile. Ho gia detto che ho studiato un po' di Spagnolo e ovviamente l'Italiano. Ho anche studiato un po' di Francese e un po di Arabo.

Ho studiato il Francese quando ho abitato a Firenze. (Strano, lo so.) Ho frequentato l'Universita' degli Studi di Firenze e hanno un centro linguistico. Corsi di lingue non costava molto e potevo prendere crediti per "related fields" di che avevo bisogno per prendere la laurea a Arizona State. Era molto interesate imparare Francese in Italiano. La maestra ha traducco in Italiano da il Francese e spiegazione grammaticale era sempre in Italiano. Sembrava che era molto piu facile per gli Italiani imparare il Francese (una lingua romanza) che io. Pero era interessante che c'erano certe cose che io ho capito piu facilmente che loro perche era piu simile a Inglese che Italiano. Poi quando ho abitato in Sardegna ho lavorato a una scuola di lingue, Inlingua, e ho frequentato un altro corso di Francese (gratuito). Non parlo bene il Francese ancora. Devo abitare in un paese dove parlono il Francese se voglio impararlo per bene.

L'Arabo, ho studiato per diversi raggione. Quando ho abitato a Firenze ho conosciuto tanti Arabi. Ho sentito l'Arabo parlato spesso e ho piaciuto come sentire. Un giorno, scerzando con un amico Arabo, ho detto "Io posso imparare l'Arabo. E' un corso che offrono a l'Universita che frequento in Arizona." Mi ha risposta, "No, non puoi imparare l'Arabo. E' troppo difficile!" Lui stava scherzando ma non ho mai dimenticato cosa ha detto. Due anni dopo, stavo per registrare per l'ultima semestra a l'Universita. Ho visto un annuncio per un nuovo corso di Arabo. La mia programma era gia piena ma ho deciso di inscrivermi nel corso. Era molto divertente. Era interesante imparare come funzione una lingua che sembra impossibile imparare. Si e' un po' difficile ma non impossibile. Sentivo rimorso che non ho deciso di studiare la lingue prima (adesso era l'ultima semestra a l'universita' e non avro' l'opportunita' di studiare di piu.) Pero, non era completamente vero. Ho frequentato in altro corso di Arabo a (community college) e poi quando ho abitato in Sardegna ho assisisto ad un corso di Arabo. Come Francese non parlo molto Arabo ma adesso capisco come funzione la lingua. La prossima lingua che voglio imparare per bene e l'Arabo. Per fare questo voglio abitare in Egitto o Libano. Ho projetti di insegnare a una scuola internazione l'anno prossimo o l'anno dopo. Ma questo e per un altro posto.

I love languages. I like learning languages and listening to different languages. I like watching foreign language films and I like traveling to countries where they speak languages other than English. I’m very interested in bilingualism and the different methods for raising children to speak two languages.

I wouldn’t say that I learn languages easily but I like learning them. I want to learn as many languages as possible. I already said that I studied some Spanish and obviously Italian. I’ve also studied some French and some Arabic.

I studied French when I lived in Florence. (Strange, I know.) I attended the University of Florence and they had a language center. Language courses didn’t cost much and I could earn credits in “related fields” that I needed for my degree at Arizona State. It was very interesting leaning French in Italian. The teacher translated in Italian form French and grammatical explanations were always in Italian. Then, when I lived in Sardegna I worked in a language school, Inlingua, and I attended another French course (for free). I still don’t speak French well. I have to live in a country where they speak French if I want to learn it well.

Arabic, I learned for different reasons. When I lived in Florence I knew a lot of Arabs. I heard Arabic spoken often and I loved the way it sounded. One day, joking with an Arab friend, I said “I could learn Arabic. It is offered as a course at my university in Arizona.” He replied, “No, you can’t learn Arabic. It’s too difficult.” He was just joking but I never forgot what he said. Fast forward two years later. I was registering for my last semester at ASU and I saw a flyer for a new Arabic course. My schedule was already full but I decided to enroll in the course. It was so much fun. It was interesting to learn how a language works that seems so impossible to learn. Yes, it is a little difficult, but not impossible. I regretted that I hadn’t decided to study Arabic sooner as that was my last semester at University and I wouldn’t have the chance to study the language again. But that wasn’t entirely true. I took another course at the community college after graduating and when I lived in Sardegna I audited another course. Like French, I still don’t speak Arabic very well but now I understand how the language works. The next language that I want to lean well is Arabic. To accomplish this I want to live in Egypt or Lebanon. I have plans to teach in an international school next year or the year after. But that is for a different post.