Saturday, January 27, 2007

Parent Teacher Conferences

This was a short teaching week--only three days-- due to the fact that Thursday was an all day conference day and Friday was our monthy teacher meetings day. I was pretty nervous about the conferences, since I haven't really had much communication with many of the parents so far, and there is the communication barrier to think about.
The parents signed up for time slots during the day, and I had 14 of my 16 show up.. pretty good I think. It was really insightful in some cases (for example, I found out that one student who rarely turns in homwork didn't have to do homework in his previous schools in Canada and England.)
I also realized that here will probably be the only time in my life that I try to use my broken Spanish to communicate to a Korean mother with her broken Spanish. Very interesting. I hope we made some sense :)

Well, it is officially the weekend. I officially can not sleep in anymore. And.. I'm going to go do something. ByE!

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Student Teacher

Last week, students from Bethel University came to Lincoln to do some practicum/student teaching hours. We sent them an idea of a subject/theme ahead of time and they gathered ideas, came, planned a weeklong unit, and taught it. Our class had Mr. Biggs, who taught about the Six Simple Machines. The kids really enjoyed having him, and he ended the week with a fun scavenger hunt of the 6 simple machines around the schoolyard, culminating in a neat double-pulley which the kids used to hoist up two soccer goals tied together. What fun!



Photos of My House







Only in Mexico...

Exhibit A- Although you can't see all of us, there are in fact 8 white girls in this midsized sedan. Four seated in the back with one laying across, and three up front. This is the only way to go when it's past the scheduled bus time and we wont spend the money on a cab.


Exhibit B- On the way home from school, we stumble across three workers from the house next door taking their afternoon siesta on the sidewalk. Mmmm.. comfy. :)


Viva!

Friday, January 12, 2007

Back in Mexico

Well, I am back in Mexico after nearly three wonderful weeks at home for Christmas. I'm trying to get back into the swing of things, but I must admit that it has been a week so far and I've barely gotten unpacked. I've been trying to get back into the teaching part of it, so my room at home has been put on the back-burner. That will happen this week. Here are a couple of pictures (all involving food) of the past week.



Out for Cinthia's birthday at an Italian restaurant. (You know you've lived in Mexico when $7 for a nice Italian dinner including a good Salad bar is a lot of money)

We cleaned our plates at our first back-from-Christmas taco run.

The highly acclaimed (by Joy) Tacos Bob's, which had been closed for the past 4 months or so, was finally open!

Home for the Holidays

Some highlights from home.

I was in the states for almost three weeks at Christmastime. It was a nice relaxing/recharging time. Now it's back to work. Here are a few memories.