Saturday, September 12, 2009

One month down...

Well, I've been at school for a month now. It's been quite an exciting time. I had my first sick day, my first meeting with my instructional coaches, went to the Homecoming bonfire and assemblies... etc.
It's such a dynamic school with tons of pride. I'm loving the challenges thus far. I feel like I've had some great triumphs and failures, and the learning curve is HUGE. Every day it's something new.
My first year classes are going great. I really feel like my students are successful so far. I really feel like I finally reached my third year classes this week too.
I've had numerous compliments and a few criticisms as well... but those are from those students who chose "New Staff" as the instructor over anyone else because they figured they had a chance that I would be easy. They've figured it out though.
We did a neat project on Friday with my first year classes performing weather forecasts. I got out the flip video camera, and we caught all the action. For the most part, the students did really well... but as always, there are a few that didn't study the vocab as I had instructed.
A couple weeks ago we did our first "Charla de mesa" in my third year class, and it seemed to go well. The students were all using Spanish to chat about a few prompts that I had given them and finding commonalities in between them in Spanish. I think it was a big milestone for a lot of students because they've never just used Spanish to chat. It was good!
I'm really enjoying myself now. I just hope I can hold on to my health because that is really what determines whether or not I enjoy myself.
Tonight I'm chaperoning the Homecoming dance... oh boy. It's going to be the latest night I've had in some time.