Here We Go

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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.

Guided Reading Lending Library

In the last two days I've spent ten hours working to get my idea for a guided reading lending library off the ground. I am actually amazed at the amount of work that I got done (with the help of some other teachers) in just two days. I wanted to take a picture of the work in progress but I forgot to bring my camera.

Thursday I started by laying out all of the books that I had sets of (5-8 books). There was another teacher who had quite a few sets too so I added those to the piles. I then went around to every teacher's room (there were quite a few working) and asked them for what ever they had and added them to the stacks around my room. By the end of the day every desk and table surface was covered in sets of books.

Today when I came into my room I was overwhelmed at all the work there was left to do. Luckily I had three great teachers there to help me. Leveling the books was the biggest and most important part of the whole project. Two teachers worked on leveling the K-3 books (by using the Fountas and Pinnell book as well as by comparing them to anchor books and descriptions). I used the F&P 3-6 book to look up the other titles. Anything I couldn't find in the book was given to a third teacher who used a binder with level descriptions to figure out each book. By 1:00 we had leveled ALL of the books! I had had serious doubts about completing the job but we did it. Next came the task of organizing the books in groups by level A, B, C, etc. and the recording on a list to see what we had. As it turned out we had a pretty good assortment of books for each level. For levels P-Z, however, we were really lacking in books, just one or two titles per level. We'll have to order those books for next year. Finally we worked on coming up with a system for loaning out the books. Each set will be stored in a magazine file with a library card on the front. When a teacher wants to take books they just take the books and the book info card (with teaching points, vocab, etc.) out of the file, sign the card, and go.

Now we just need to organize them into the room/closet that will be their home (TBD at the moment). We want them to be in a place where all teachers can get to them any time they want without having to ask permission or hunt someone down for the key. If it's not accessible and easy to use, teachers won't use it. We'll probably get another day or two to work on the project next week (for some reason our school has lots of extra money to spend before we loose it). This is great news because I'd love to have the room ready to go by the start of the school year and September is just such a busy time for something like this.

When everything gets set up I will definitely share pictures.

Non Parlo Spagnolo, Ma Sarebbe Utile

Dico sepmpre, per ogni parola che ho imparato in Italiano, ho perso quella parola in Spagnolo. E credo che sia la verita'. E siccome ho studiato l'Italiano per cinque anni e ho abitato in Italia per tre anni ma ho studiato Spagnolo per solo tre anni nella scula superiore, si puo' capire perche ho detto, "Non posso dire neanche una frase in Spagnolo." Pero, penso che tutte le parole Spagnole che ho imparato sono sotto chiave e posso farle riuscire.

Il 18 Luglio, vado in Guatemala per un mese. Frequentero' un corso di Spagnolo per i primi cinque giorni (solo) ma spero di fare uscire tutte le parole e frasi che ho gia imparato. Sembra necessario parlare un po' di Spagnolo perche l'Inglese non e' molto parlato in Guatemala. Pero, sono un po' apprensivo di imparare (di nuovo) perche non voglio perdere l'Italiano che ho lavorato molto di imparare. Sarebbe molto utile parlare Spagnolo pero. Quasi tutti i genitori dei miei studenti parlono Spagnolo. Adesso no parlo con loro perche non posso.

E' strano che ho deciso di studiare Spagnolo nella scuola superiore perche sarebbe praticale ma adesso, cuando mi serve, no posso dire niente.



I always say that for every word I learned in Italian, I forgot that word in Spanish. I believe that that's true. And since I studied Italian for five years and lived in Italy for three years, but only studied Spanish for three years in high school, you can see why I say, "I can't even say a phrase in Spanish." But I also think that those words are just locked up and that I can unlock them.

June 18th I'm going to Guatemala for a month. The first five days I'm taking a course in Spanish. I hope to be able to unlock all of the words and phrases that I've learned during those five days. It seems necessary to speak a little bit of Spanish because English isn't widely spoken in Guatemala. But I'm also a little apprehensive about learning Spanish (again) and "messing up" the Italian that I've worked so hard on. It would be very useful for me to learn Spanish, however. Almost all of the parents of my students speak Spanish. Now I don't speak with them because I can't.

It's strange that I decided to learn Spanish because it would be useful but now that I need it I can't say anything.

Last Day of School Wednesday (Sort Of)

So the last day of school is Wednesday and I couldn't be more excited. Soon I'll be off to Guatemala for a month and just before that a good friend of mine from high school is coming to visit for a week. But even though the kids' last day is Wednesday, I'll be at school on Thursday and Friday too.

Ages ago I had this idea to start a "guided reading lending library" (I just made up that name) at my school. I saw it at a school that I went to visit and thought it was fabulous because I never have enough books on every level to use for guided reading and my AP doesn't like it when I use the paper books printed online from readinga-z (because "we have PLENTY of books at this school"). Basically the "lending library" is a book room that has guided reading sets of about eight books each, and several titles for each Fountas and Pinnell level A-Z. When teachers want to plan guided reading all they have to do is go and grab their class sets for the levels that are needed. Everything is organized and waiting to be checked out.

After seeing this storage room at the school I visited I thought We have to have this at my school! I tried to get around to telling the AP of my idea but you know how they are always running around and it's hard to get them to stop and listen for a minute. Well, I finally told her about this idea on Friday and she LOVED it. And it makes sense that she would because we'll be making good use of the books already in our school and it solves my problem of needing to use the paper books (which are a pain to get copies of at school). I just didn't expect her to love it so much as to say "I want to start this right now! Can you work Thursday and Friday?" I did a quick mental calculation in my mind and came to the realization that that was the start of my summer break. She added that there would be per session pay and I agreed. Not only for the money (though I would NOT spend my first two vacation days working for free) but I am really excited about this project. Teachers can't do guided reading without sets of books and it is impossible to run around trying to round up the books you need each week. And contrary to what some at my school think, you can't do guided reading from a basal reader. I hope that I can get a lot accomplished in the two days. I also hope that teachers are appreciative of everything once it is done. If they're not, they probably aren't doing guided reading like they should be.

Imparare a Parlare L'Italiano

Since I'm going to be writing in Italian I thought I'd write about how I started learning it and other things related to speaking Italian. It could be kind of like a theme for the week, although I'll admit I don't know exactly where I'm going with this. It's good practice for me in any case. It's been two years now since I lived in Italy so I'm sure my Italian's a little rusty. Apologies in advance for any major errors.

Non mi ricordo quando ho pensato per la prima volta di imparare l'Italiano. Mi ricordo pero, che quando ho cominciato la scuola superiore volevo inscrivermi nel primo corso di Italiano. Io pensavo che la scuola superiore avesse tutto. Ma non era il caso. Ha offerto solo Francese, Tedesco, e Spagnolo. Mia amica, che voleva studiare Italiano anche, ha scelto Francese invece ed id ho scelto Spagnolo (perche sembrava piu praticale). Ho studiato Spagnolo per tre anni.

Cuatro anni dopo, quando e stato tempo per scegliere un'universita', ne ho scelto una con una facolta' di Italiano abastanza grande, cosi potevo frequentare tutti i corsi di Italiano che volevo. Ho studiato Italiano per cinque anni e adesso non posso dire neache una frase in Spagnolo. Ma parlero' piu' di questo la prossima volta.

Translation (not word for word, but slightly more eloquent being that English is my native language and all):
I don't know exactly when I first knew that I wanted to learn to speak Italian. I do remember starting high school and being so excited to start taking Italian. High school was this big amazing place that had everything. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. The school only offered Spanish,French,and German. My friend who had also really wanted to take Italian decided to take French and I chose Spanish (thinking it was more practical). I studied Spanish for three years in high school.

Four years later, when it was time to choose a university, I made sure to choose one that had a big Italian department so that I could take as much Italian as I wanted. After studying Italian for five years, I can't even speak a sentence in Spanish. I'll write more about that the next time.

According to Srah Blah Blah tomorrow starts "Language Week." In observation I'll try to blog a little in Italian. Hopefully with the last week of school I'll be able to keep up with the postings. Here are the "rules."

Anyone else? Kelly some posts in Turkish? Julie, a little French?

The Start of Something Big?

I think a lot of us will be watching D.C. to see what happens next.

Taking a Trip is not Cheap!

I got my plane ticket to Guatemala City for just $306. I couldn't believe I could go somewhere so cool for so cheap. But when I got to thinking about what I would pack I realized that I needed so much. I went shopping today and got a lot of what I needed. I'm trying not to have buyers remorse because I know that I need all of this stuff.

Shoes:



I seriously didn't have any shoes suitable for hiking around lakes and ruins and cobblestone streets. These sandals are unbelievable comfortable and I think they'll go with a lot of different types of clothing. On the other hand the light colors might not be the best for traveling but I'll just have to wash them when I get home. There was a buy one get one half off sale so I got both pairs for $120.

Day pack:


I don't own a backpack so I had to get this for carrying around daily stuff. Only $20 at some random store near Union Square.

Guide Book:

Rough Guides are my favorite. I also picked up a Spanish phrase book. I'm thinking about taking a five day Spanish class when I first get there but I figured this book will come in handy as my Spanish is beyond rusty. This was the best buy of the day because somehow the guide book rang up as $6.99 instead of $18.99. The cashier didn't seem to mind. Both books for just $13.99. Score!

Digital Camera:


My biggest purchase of the day. I desperately needed a new camera. My old one was about four years old. It only had 3.2 megapixels, was extremely slow, had a small display, and was completely unreliable as the AA batteries it took never stayed charged no matter what kind I bought. This Cannon Power Shot is beautiful and I can't wait to start using it. Of course I also had to buy a 2Gig card, a case, and an extra battery just to be safe. (I don't want to be at the top of a Mayan ruin and have my battery die on me). Camera with all accessories: $420.

And I'm not done! I still need some rain gear, a few items of clothing, and backpacking essentials like chamois, travel lock, etc. It's a good thing I found a cheap ticket.

Summer Travels Ahead

I just bought a plane ticket. I'm off to Guatemala on July 18th! I'm still in shock that I actually bought the ticket.

2007-2008

Well, the organization sheet is in and it looks like I'll be teaching ESL again next year. There really wasn't much movement in the teachers of the lower grades so no spot for me.

There are a few things that am looking forward to about sticking with ESL.
1) Hopefully in my third year teaching it I'll sort of know what I'm doing and be able to improve upon the last two years. In fact, I just had my "End of the Year Conversation" with my program director for TFA and I outlined a few things I want to work on next year including phonics instruction and making connections between quality children's literature and writing, grammar, vocabulary, and listening/speaking.
2) I've spent about 15 hours of June Planning working to prepare for doing just what I described so it will be nice to actually get to use it.
3) This will be my first time teaching the same kids for a second year. Apart from a few kids who test out of ESL and a few kids who test in, my roster is essentially the same. I'm excited to think of starting the year off knowing all of my kids and what they need. For example Brandley, Marco and Fernando need systematic phonics instruction from day one if they are going to improve their reading levels. Heidy made 1.5 years reading growth this year and is now at a mid-first grade level (she is a second grader). She's being held back and I know that if we work just as hard next year as we did this year she'll make another 1.5 years of growth and start the third grade on grade level.

I'm starting to get excited about next year already though I am definitely looking forward to the summer. There might be a trip to Central America in my near future. I haven't been abroad in two years now so a trip is definitely long overdue!