You know how on all good TV shows, at the end of the season, shit absolutely hits the fan and you cannot wait another 3 months to find out what happens? I feel like that's what happened to me last week. The week before Easter is Semana Santa, or Holy Week. I might have explained this so I apologize if I repeat myself somewhere. Basically, Semana Santa is Spring Break. We had last Friday off, this whole week, and then Monday off. And if that's not magical enough, we also get the following Monday off for some reason. I'm super excited, too, because my friend Veronica is coming to visit!
However, I feel like my students, anticipating the break, decided to reverse the old adage and decided to bring me the storm before the calm...bringing me my very own unbelievable batshit crazy Season Finale before my week of relaxation (and 60 page thesis...) Little jerks.
Sigh. Deep breath before I begin. Okay so...I believe you all know Jeri sent me 60 Easter eggs (the plastic, opening kind) and I had practiced with my Friday class so my littlest ones would not miss out on the fun. I didn't know at the time, but she had also sent me a box filled with Jelly Beans, 3 Musketeers, and more Jelly Beans...which was lucky for me because candy here is crappy and expensive. I bought little hard candies for them (the kind you might get at a restaurant or a hotel) and I also had some Valentine's candy left over (the little hearts with the writing on them) so I stuffed one hard candy in the eggs and then a few of the hearts. The hearts had good flavor...but...they were kinda hard. I figured the kids wouldn't notice, though, I mean it is still sugar...they just can't chew them. It'd be fine. (Do you see a problem coming? An ominous little black cloud forming? I didn't!)
So I go to school...Mondays I have two 1st grade classes (little over-eager adorable kids), a 2nd grade class (DIE!!!), a 6th grade class (almost teenagers [read: almost hell]), and a 3rd grade class (usually excited and good). I was excited most for 1st grade because they cherish the ground I walk on. Anyways I go to my first class and give them the same spiel as before about Easter and the Easter Bunny. I explained he didn't have a car or boat or sled to come to Spain before they could ask. I was rockin' it! .....until one of the kids concernedly raised his hand and asked, "Chelsea...is the Easter Rabbit a boy or a girl...?" Where do they come up with those questions?! I said, "well....I've never looked. But since I'm the Easter Bunny this year, I guess it's a girl!" My answers never satisfy their curiosity. Like....ever. Anyways they go look for the eggs, they're all excited...we managed to find all of the eggs (miracle!) and I tell them they can open their candy and eat only one piece, and save the rest for recess. They're all excited and trading flavors and such, while I'm reloading my eggs for the next class. One girl comes up excitedly with something in her hand and shrieks, "Chelsea!!! Se me ha caido un diente!!" I'm thinking....oh please don't say what I thought you just said...please oh please..."CHELSEA!!! MIRA!!! SE ME HA CAIDO UN DIENTE!!" Translation: LOOK! My tooth just fell out!!
And I immediately think, "DAMN those stupid ass Valentine's candies..." Shoulda known...
Luckily in first grade teeth fall out more frequently than they actually wash their hands, but I still felt kinda bad. The good news is she wrapped her tooth, is gonna get money under her pillow, and the champion kept eating the rock-hard candy anyways because it was made of sugar.
My last first grade class was fun as well, but one of the students in that class asked me if I had laid the eggs myself......ummm......no.
6th grade. I hid the eggs all over the school. I hid them in groups of three in various locations. I gave one to Juliet to put in her classroom, I put one by the cafeteria, one under the gymnasium, one in Isabel's classroom, one in the girl's bathroom in the 1st grade hallway, one in the Resource classroom, and finally one on the top floor by 4th grade in the hallway. Then I gave the students sheets of paper with directions on how to get there. "Turn left...go down the stairs...turn right...go straight along..." etc. using their vocabulary words. It was awesome, except my teacher forgot that I had asked her to do that, or she didn't understand my English. Either way, she was like "um...I don't know if they can go throughout the school like that just hunting randomly"...and I told her, well, they have directions..."oooooh, well..I guess we can try it and see." Uh, thanks. I only spent 3 hours planning this. Ugh. Anyways that sort of went off without any problems...some groups found their eggs easily and were done in about ten minutes. Others...not so much. I found one group running in a circle up and down stairs because they weren't following the directions correctly. Another group was literally running into a wall. They were searching the wall trying to find the eggs. I went up to them and asked what the problem was, and upon reading the instructions again, I had accidentally written "turn right" instead of "turn left"...I'm not dyslexic but I definitely have my moments.
That was bad, but eventually this activity got worse. The next class I did it with, one group couldn't find their eggs because the older kids had stolen them from their spot. Another group was running in circles again and I realized that I had made another left/right error...which is funny, because I had given the exact same directions to the previous class and they had managed to find their eggs. Also in that class was a diabetic kid, and I forgot to grab him some sugar-free gum. I told him not to eat the candy and I'd bring him his own the next day. Find out later he ate it anyways and tried to convince his teacher that nothing would happen. The last class is my most rambunctious class and their teacher was tired so she left to go get coffee. I figured okay, well...no big deal...this will be fine.
No, no it wasn't.
Instead of reading the instructions I gave them, this class literally ran throughout the entire school looking for the eggs. Like mad chaos. And instead of collecting the eggs they were supposed to collect, they grabbed whatever eggs they could find. The two groups that were actually following directions found that there were no eggs because their classmates had stolen them already. Other kids were complaining the directions made no sense, even though 2 classes before them, who aren't as good at English, had managed to do just fine. I was livid. So livid. They ruined Easter.
2nd grade wasn't so bad. 3rd grade was disappointing because they didn't listen to a word I said. Instead of listening, they were counting the eggs around the room. So when I said "Don't touch...stand up and just look" everybody charged at the nearest eggs and busted them open like herd of rhinos. So frustrating. Also, I told them my story about the Easter Bunny, too, and why he can't come to Europe (still so proud of my impromptu B.S.ing) when Gabriel, the kid from Manchester, raises his hand and says, "nuh-uh, that isn't true, he comes to England!" Shut up, Gabriel, you're ruining kids' dreams here!!! Made me look like a dumbass. I was glad, though, because he's used to doing Easter egg hunts over there and now that his family has moved here, he doesn't get to do those things anymore. I let him find 2 eggs instead of just one.
And Colonel Nun, I bet you're wondering? Well Tuesday she had me go downstairs to the playground and hide them. She said, "go hide them in a small area so they can't get distracted and wander off"...um...?? First of all, the "playground" is just 2 basketball courts in a closed off square. How are they going to wander off? It's a confined space? And small space?? That defeats the purpose. Ugh. So I trudge down the four flights of stairs, hide the eggs all over the playground anyways, and haul ass back up the four flights of stairs to class. I told her they were ready and she tells me, "well, they still have to receive their grades and I'm not done talking so..I don't think we'll have time. Maybe you should go back downstairs and collect them." I go back downstairs and do just that.
I found out that day what the most depressing activity on earth is. The most depressing thing you can do is hold an Easter Egg Hunt, all by yourself on an empty playground. Not only that, but you've got to find all the eggs that you, yourself, hid. Womp womp.
I guess the good news is that day I surely got my exercise in, climbing up and down all those stupid stairs.
The next day the nun actually remembered and had time for the activity. I told her it was probably best to hide them in the classroom. I'm not sure who had more fun, the kids or the nun. She was kind of wrecking the activity because she kept walking around the classroom and shouting "oh!! There's one!!!....oh!!! There's one as well!!! I hardly even saw it!!....oh you put one there?? That's so tricky!!" SHHHHHHHHHHH. They're HIDDEN for a reason. It ended up being a fun class but I lost another egg...to be honest I think I put it in the window sill and the wind blew it off. Someday somebody's going to find many jelly beans!
Well, I think that covers everything except my private classes and 5th grade. And those are a whole other ballgame so I'm going to continue Part 2 later. Just writing about all of this has exhausted me all over again, haha.
Here is a link to the pictures my teachers took of the Easter insanity. Hope you enjoy!
https://picasaweb.google.com/108231909138452173118/EasterSchool?authkey=Gv1sRgCPad2unMgci7Iw&feat=directlink
Check back soon for Season Finale, Part 2!!
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Here comes Chelsea Cottontail...
Hello world!
I am so excited for this upcoming week...I can't even explain it! First of all, it is Semana Santa...Holy Week...the week that Spaniards take off from school to celebrate Easter. To us Americans, it would be the equivalent of Spring Break, except everyone gets Spring Break at the same time. SPRING BREAK!! Actually, we get Friday off, then the whole next week, and then MONDAY too! Considering that all of my annoying classes (read: my 2nd grade classes) are on Monday & Friday, I'm ECSTATIC.
Spring Break will be glorious (I'm not going anywhere), but I'm more excited for these next four days before Spring Break. Jeri sent me 60 Easter eggs and I plan on using them to my full advantage. For my 1st grade classes through 4th grade, I'm going to explain a little bit about Easter in the USA and how it differs (here it is strictly a religious holiday) and then have a full fledged Easter egg hunt. I had my first one on Friday and it was AMAZING! I made the kids go out in the hallway and wait while I hid the eggs. Then they came back in and flipped out because they could see a few throughout the room. I made them sit down and explained some rules (so that all of the kids could find atleast one egg) and they kept yelling "I SEE SEVEN!!! I SEE NINE!!" It took all the effort I had to get them to calm down and tried to explain that in the United States, Easter is a religious holiday, but something else also happens. The Easter Bunny comes at night time after everybody is asleep, and hides eggs throughout the houses and yards for the children to find, and inside of the eggs (I showed that the eggs opened and they all gasped like I had just created fire....it was awesome) were little surprises. For one, I was super impressed because through drawing and acting, they understood everything that I was saying! But one little boy got a sad and said "but Chelsea...why doesn't the Easter Bunny come to Spain?" I immediately thought...well shit, there goes the happiness of Easter...BUT I think quickly on my feet so it all worked out. I asked "well...what does Santa drive? Does Santa have a car? (everybody yelled NOOO!!!!!!!!!!!) Well what does he drive? (A SLED!!!!!!!!!!) Yes, he has a sled, and magical reindeer, like Rudolph...well, the Easter Bunny doesn't have a car either...or a sleigh. He goes from house to house and he hops! Jumps! He doesn't have a boat either so he can't get over here in time....BUT this year I'm helping him, so I'M the Easter Bunny!" I had drawn a picture of a bunny on the board so I slouched down so that his ears were above my head. They absolutely loved it.
Haha....no wonder they think I'm so cool. I lie to them a lot.
So anyways each kid got to find their own Easter egg, one at a time, and had to tell me where it was before the could grab it (so..."next to the book"...or "in the box") They were appalled when I told them I had hidden 30 eggs in the room...20 students in the class plus 10 extra that were not visible. It was wonderful....except for the part when I'm smart, but not that smart....and forgot where I hid some of the eggs. I know, what the hell Chelsea. The class ended quickly and we weren't finished...but I also didn't know where the eggs were anyways so I told their teacher "you may or may not have eggs hidden somewhere in the classroom....sooooo if you find one, no big deal, it's yours! Good luck!" I felt pretty bad, though, because all of the kids were looking in every nook and cranny trying to find hidden eggs, and also didn't believe that infallible Chelsea forgot where she put them....that I was just playing hard to get. Well, kids...I wish. They also refused to go to recess because they wanted to keep looking for eggs that may or may not have existed. I felt pretty bad, haha, but in the end their teacher ended up finding one hidden behind her purse. She liked the candy and all of the kids were insanely jealous she stumbled upon it. That's almost as bad as the time I convinced them leprechauns were real (and really small) so for the two weeks following St. Patricks Day they all pointed to every little green object they could find and tried to determine if it was a leprechaun. Hehe.
P.S. here is a video my school made from the pictures from St. Patrick's Day...so adorable!
St Patricks - Primer Ciclo de Primaria from Colegio María Inmaculada on Vimeo.
There's no sound, just fyi.
Anyways, with my older kids I'm going to make them work a little harder. For 5th grade, after their animal project, I learned the hard way that I reeeaaaaally need to teach them how to say larger numbers. It's very difficult for them because in Spanish, the comma is a period and a period is a comma. So 5,9 means $5.90. 1.500 means 1,500. Plus most of them have difficulties with any number over 30. Soooo I'm going to put big numbers (and years) in an Easter egg and if they can tell me their number, I'll give them an egg with candy and a little fortune (I thought I would mix it up a little bit). I also might hide a few in the classroom just for fun. Then 6th grade is learning directions, so I'm going to make them have a full fledged scavenger hunt throughout the school. I'm SO EXCITED!!
I think my kids are excited too. This past week has been super crazy for everyone. First of all, I have been sick with bronchitis (still..) so I missed school on Monday and Tuesday. Before I went back to school on Wednesday, I prepared myself mentally for all of their harrassment. Usually they all run up to me and say "Chelsea!!! Monday....jew...no ees dare." And my usual response is "I know! I was the one who wasn't there!" Or they ask "Chelsea! Why jew no in class?" And I say "I was sick... :( " Most times they stare at me, like my answer wasn't good enough. So I cough a few times so they understand what sick is (because they pronounce it "seek") I get to school on Wednesday and they, of course, never cease to amaze me. A couple came up to me and said "Chelsea....jew no come Monday. Jew ees seek." (duuuuuh, I know! I'm still living it! Not to mention on Wednesday I was losing my voice from it all so I was clearly not healthy yet) My little ones were the funniest though. One kid came up to me with these big puppy eyes and said "Chelsea, jew no here Monday..." and I immediately began thinking "I know, I know...why you not here? I know..." but he finished with "....so are you ever going to come to our class again?" .....ughhh!!!!! Yes I'm coming to your class!! Another boy asked me "what days are you going to be coming to our class now? You didn't come on Monday.."
I hope I NEVER miss school again. Not to mention that missing two days in a row was Earth-shattering for everyone. Some of the teachers even told me "We thought we'd lost you!" ...really?? Ugh. Just...ugh.
Tonight is going to be a quiet night in with some pizza, a salad, and a movie. If I'm lucky, I'll also hang up my laundry and get some progress going on my Easter egg hunts. Such a luxurious life I lead, haha.
I am so excited for this upcoming week...I can't even explain it! First of all, it is Semana Santa...Holy Week...the week that Spaniards take off from school to celebrate Easter. To us Americans, it would be the equivalent of Spring Break, except everyone gets Spring Break at the same time. SPRING BREAK!! Actually, we get Friday off, then the whole next week, and then MONDAY too! Considering that all of my annoying classes (read: my 2nd grade classes) are on Monday & Friday, I'm ECSTATIC.
Spring Break will be glorious (I'm not going anywhere), but I'm more excited for these next four days before Spring Break. Jeri sent me 60 Easter eggs and I plan on using them to my full advantage. For my 1st grade classes through 4th grade, I'm going to explain a little bit about Easter in the USA and how it differs (here it is strictly a religious holiday) and then have a full fledged Easter egg hunt. I had my first one on Friday and it was AMAZING! I made the kids go out in the hallway and wait while I hid the eggs. Then they came back in and flipped out because they could see a few throughout the room. I made them sit down and explained some rules (so that all of the kids could find atleast one egg) and they kept yelling "I SEE SEVEN!!! I SEE NINE!!" It took all the effort I had to get them to calm down and tried to explain that in the United States, Easter is a religious holiday, but something else also happens. The Easter Bunny comes at night time after everybody is asleep, and hides eggs throughout the houses and yards for the children to find, and inside of the eggs (I showed that the eggs opened and they all gasped like I had just created fire....it was awesome) were little surprises. For one, I was super impressed because through drawing and acting, they understood everything that I was saying! But one little boy got a sad and said "but Chelsea...why doesn't the Easter Bunny come to Spain?" I immediately thought...well shit, there goes the happiness of Easter...BUT I think quickly on my feet so it all worked out. I asked "well...what does Santa drive? Does Santa have a car? (everybody yelled NOOO!!!!!!!!!!!) Well what does he drive? (A SLED!!!!!!!!!!) Yes, he has a sled, and magical reindeer, like Rudolph...well, the Easter Bunny doesn't have a car either...or a sleigh. He goes from house to house and he hops! Jumps! He doesn't have a boat either so he can't get over here in time....BUT this year I'm helping him, so I'M the Easter Bunny!" I had drawn a picture of a bunny on the board so I slouched down so that his ears were above my head. They absolutely loved it.
Haha....no wonder they think I'm so cool. I lie to them a lot.
So anyways each kid got to find their own Easter egg, one at a time, and had to tell me where it was before the could grab it (so..."next to the book"...or "in the box") They were appalled when I told them I had hidden 30 eggs in the room...20 students in the class plus 10 extra that were not visible. It was wonderful....except for the part when I'm smart, but not that smart....and forgot where I hid some of the eggs. I know, what the hell Chelsea. The class ended quickly and we weren't finished...but I also didn't know where the eggs were anyways so I told their teacher "you may or may not have eggs hidden somewhere in the classroom....sooooo if you find one, no big deal, it's yours! Good luck!" I felt pretty bad, though, because all of the kids were looking in every nook and cranny trying to find hidden eggs, and also didn't believe that infallible Chelsea forgot where she put them....that I was just playing hard to get. Well, kids...I wish. They also refused to go to recess because they wanted to keep looking for eggs that may or may not have existed. I felt pretty bad, haha, but in the end their teacher ended up finding one hidden behind her purse. She liked the candy and all of the kids were insanely jealous she stumbled upon it. That's almost as bad as the time I convinced them leprechauns were real (and really small) so for the two weeks following St. Patricks Day they all pointed to every little green object they could find and tried to determine if it was a leprechaun. Hehe.
P.S. here is a video my school made from the pictures from St. Patrick's Day...so adorable!
St Patricks - Primer Ciclo de Primaria from Colegio María Inmaculada on Vimeo.
There's no sound, just fyi.
Anyways, with my older kids I'm going to make them work a little harder. For 5th grade, after their animal project, I learned the hard way that I reeeaaaaally need to teach them how to say larger numbers. It's very difficult for them because in Spanish, the comma is a period and a period is a comma. So 5,9 means $5.90. 1.500 means 1,500. Plus most of them have difficulties with any number over 30. Soooo I'm going to put big numbers (and years) in an Easter egg and if they can tell me their number, I'll give them an egg with candy and a little fortune (I thought I would mix it up a little bit). I also might hide a few in the classroom just for fun. Then 6th grade is learning directions, so I'm going to make them have a full fledged scavenger hunt throughout the school. I'm SO EXCITED!!
I think my kids are excited too. This past week has been super crazy for everyone. First of all, I have been sick with bronchitis (still..) so I missed school on Monday and Tuesday. Before I went back to school on Wednesday, I prepared myself mentally for all of their harrassment. Usually they all run up to me and say "Chelsea!!! Monday....jew...no ees dare." And my usual response is "I know! I was the one who wasn't there!" Or they ask "Chelsea! Why jew no in class?" And I say "I was sick... :( " Most times they stare at me, like my answer wasn't good enough. So I cough a few times so they understand what sick is (because they pronounce it "seek") I get to school on Wednesday and they, of course, never cease to amaze me. A couple came up to me and said "Chelsea....jew no come Monday. Jew ees seek." (duuuuuh, I know! I'm still living it! Not to mention on Wednesday I was losing my voice from it all so I was clearly not healthy yet) My little ones were the funniest though. One kid came up to me with these big puppy eyes and said "Chelsea, jew no here Monday..." and I immediately began thinking "I know, I know...why you not here? I know..." but he finished with "....so are you ever going to come to our class again?" .....ughhh!!!!! Yes I'm coming to your class!! Another boy asked me "what days are you going to be coming to our class now? You didn't come on Monday.."
I hope I NEVER miss school again. Not to mention that missing two days in a row was Earth-shattering for everyone. Some of the teachers even told me "We thought we'd lost you!" ...really?? Ugh. Just...ugh.
Tonight is going to be a quiet night in with some pizza, a salad, and a movie. If I'm lucky, I'll also hang up my laundry and get some progress going on my Easter egg hunts. Such a luxurious life I lead, haha.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
April Fools!! Bulldogs!! TINY DAFFODILS!....homework. Ugh.
What a crappy title, haha. It basically explains where I am in my Sunday, though.
Nothing super interesting has been going on lately. Not in comparison to the BULLDOGS GOING TO THE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP AGAIN. Sigh. My little heart might explode over here in Spain. Not only are there no bars to watch the games here, nor hoards of friends to even watch the game with...the games air at about midnight or 1 a.m., and Spain doesn't even believe in basketball.
On top of that, I think I am a Butler jinx. For example, while watching the game against Florida, we started off strong and then 5 minutes later we were trailing by something heinous like 10. So I stopped. I kept the page up in the background on my laptop but I demanded that Katie's friend Echo update me on the score. And I would peek every once in awhile (every 3 minutes approximately). And everytime I would peek Echo would yell, "CHELSEA! Are you looking?! They just screwed up, stop!" So I banned myeslf from the game and watched episode after episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch. But look, it paid off!! We won!!
Same for the VCU game last night. But I wasn't watching Sabrina.
I got home from school on Friday (a pretty decent Friday at that...Fridays are usually pretty rough) to a massive box from my mom!!! It's HUGE!! It's full of Eastery goodness. She sent me jelly beans, Easter eggs, a yoga DVD, shoes, sandals, makeup, flashcards for my kids, a present for one of my teachers, 4 I Spy books, and....TINY DAFFODILS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No joke, I almost cried. I almost cry everytime I look at them. I love them. And I love my mom. I've been pretty homesick lately. It's the Final Four excitement mixed with the fact that I miss my family and friends. And there's three months left, haha. AND we haven't had Spring Break yet. I need a break...
Anyways....beyond the TINY DAFFODILS!! (they're silk for the record), let's focus on the I Spy books. I've been debating for awhile if those are more for the kids....ooooor for me. I was trying to explain the books to my teachers and they have never seen them before. I guess they never got translated for Spanish use. But those books are SO COOL! I've been obsessed since I got the box. I was supposed to call my mom after school at 5:30 but didn't get to calling her until around 7 because that's how long it took me to open everything and pull my nose out of the books. Tee hee. AND it's even better because when you get stuck, you can probably find the answer now on the Internet. Sometimes you can't, though. I STILL can't find a stupid anchor on one of the pages.....so freakin tricky... Once I get done with them, though, I'm going to use them with my private classes and see if I can also figure out how to use them in the classroom.
So...during the VCU game, I kept checking the score but refused to look until I found an object in one of my I Spy books. Haha. God, I'm like a 10 year old. I also colored a Butler banner that hangs outside of my door. I put pictures of last year's Final Four excitement too. A picture of the big shoe at the pep rally downtown, the Final Four banner on the Artsgarden, and our interview at Hinkle with Kent for FOX 59.
Hmmm, what else. Oh yes, April Fools came and went. :( I did my best here but it just isn't the same as pranking atleast 20 girls at Pi Phi. I also don't have Starbucks supplies to use this year....those were great last year. Here I stuck to some basics...I scraped the cream out of Oreos and put toothpaste in instead. I put big bubble wrap under the toilet and continually changed it so it would keep popping whenever anybody sat down. (This was actually a great idea in theory but kinda bit me in the ass...my roommates took a nap after school Friday, so I rushed in and set up the trap. I laid down too, talked to my mom on Skype, and then tried take a nap as well...but no luck. I really had to pee...but, couldn't, because they hadn't set off the bubble wrap. And I've never been really good at hovering...always makes a mess...so I essentially boobie-trapped myself out of the bathroom. Fail. I held it, because I'm a champion. Gotta make sacrifices sometimes for the good of the holiday). I also found out my roommate Juliet is really jumpy, so I hid around corners and just jumped out randomly when she was leaving the bathroom, turning a corner...etc...and yelled APRIL FOOLS!!! Hahaha...such a cheap trick but I was thoroughly pleased with myself. I should have hidden in her closet...
Anywho. My 5th graders presented their animal projects last week. I was super impressed! Most of them just copied information from Wikipedia word for word (I was immediately aware when the students used words like "hibernate", "cartilaginous skeleton", and "substantial exoskeleton". Oh well.) but I was still pleased because they were able to answer my small questions....like what do they eat? Where do they live? Or I would ask a question about their interesting facts they wrote about. The teacher even hung them up in the classroom windows so anybody that walks by sees their projects. They were so excited! This is also a hard task, though, because Spaniards do projects a little differently than we do. Construction paper and puffy paint is not easily accessible here....construction paper is, but it's pretty expensive (not super cheap and easy like in the States). Puffy paint is absolutely unheard of. Paint in general is not really heard of. What the kids do have a lot of is Play-Doh, glittery glue sticks, and markers. Sooo....most of the posters had some printed pictures of animals, a lot of random glitter all over (I support), a hand-drawn picture of their animal.....and then usually they take Play-Doh and create a picture ON the posterboard. So...I don't know, it's super weird. They just stick the Play-Doh to the posterboard. Sometimes it's flat, and sometimes it's not. Those were interesting to hang on the windows, haha.
Anyways, almost all of the projects went off without a problem. One girl even made a Powerpoint Presentation! With sounds! The only problem we really had was that some of them DID take information directly off the Internet...without really understanding it....and it was in English. I was really impressed they tried to read English articles! Most of them used Google Translator....and those paragraphs are really easy to tell because they don't make any sense. The ones who used original English articles were easy to tell...because it was so well written...and they had no idea what it said. For example, Sexy Boy (remember him? Otherwise known as Black Strong?) had chosen the horse. So he was rambling about horses...blah blah...and then started asking "how do you say 1978? 1990? 2002? 2014?..." etc. I was so confused. I went over to look at his poster and read his paragraph that said "If you are born a Horse, you are strong and confident. Gemstone is topaz and is a symbol of war and courage. Falls on the years..."
Ah. He had stumbled upon an entire article about the Chinese year of the Horse. Sooooo rather than explain he had the wrong "horse", I tried to explain to the class that some years in China are classified by animals, like our zodiac signs, and the Horse is a sign of strength and courage. They understood but as soon as I said "China" their eyes glazed over. They could care less about anything Chinese...
Another .... err, "fun" presentation was about crocodiles. Most of the kids wrote about diet, appearance (length and weight), and random facts about their animal like how far they could jump or why they're endangered. A few directly followed the internet webpages they found...so crocodiles. Miguel, this fun, energetic ginger kid, was super embarrassed and didn't want to read his project out loud. I told him he had to. Everybody else did. Plus his pictures were very interesting. So he gets up there and starts reading about crocodiles. His poster had a lot of information...so I knew it was going to take a little bit. At first he talked about where they lived and what they ate. Then he started the big paragraph of his poster.
85% of his poster was about crocodile reproduction.
I don't know how he stumbled upon whatever website he was on, but he literally talked about the (literal) in's and out's of crocodile sex for about 5 minutes. It was SO PAINFUL. Mainly because I was the only one in the classroom listening to the horrific things he was saying. I mean it was all scientific, mostly....kinda. I asked him what he thought the paragraph was about and he said he liked it because it was about crocodiles killing other crocodiles, because it said "mate" a lot. Matar in Spanish is to kill...mate would be subjunctive. Ugh. So I smiled and nodded. It's actually about the exact opposite...
My favorite sentence from his poster was, "The male may actually mate with the same female several times during the breeding season to ensure that he fertilizes her right after she ovulates. Males actually often try to make with other males, and females do the same with other females. Threesomes are not uncommon either!"
..............speechless. I think I snorted when I heard him read this.
Anyways, luckily for you all, I made the kids turn in a sheet with their information. I looked up his information on Google and found the website he was citing. If you'd like, you can read ALL of the information that he read to the class outloud. All of the disgusting, painful details about crocodile reproduction.
http://w3.shorecrest.org/~Lisa_Peck/MarineBio/syllabus/ch9vertebrates/reptilesandbirds/repbirdwp/barbara/repro.html
If I never hear about crocodiles again, I'll be perfectly content.
Nothing super interesting has been going on lately. Not in comparison to the BULLDOGS GOING TO THE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP AGAIN. Sigh. My little heart might explode over here in Spain. Not only are there no bars to watch the games here, nor hoards of friends to even watch the game with...the games air at about midnight or 1 a.m., and Spain doesn't even believe in basketball.
On top of that, I think I am a Butler jinx. For example, while watching the game against Florida, we started off strong and then 5 minutes later we were trailing by something heinous like 10. So I stopped. I kept the page up in the background on my laptop but I demanded that Katie's friend Echo update me on the score. And I would peek every once in awhile (every 3 minutes approximately). And everytime I would peek Echo would yell, "CHELSEA! Are you looking?! They just screwed up, stop!" So I banned myeslf from the game and watched episode after episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch. But look, it paid off!! We won!!
Same for the VCU game last night. But I wasn't watching Sabrina.
I got home from school on Friday (a pretty decent Friday at that...Fridays are usually pretty rough) to a massive box from my mom!!! It's HUGE!! It's full of Eastery goodness. She sent me jelly beans, Easter eggs, a yoga DVD, shoes, sandals, makeup, flashcards for my kids, a present for one of my teachers, 4 I Spy books, and....TINY DAFFODILS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No joke, I almost cried. I almost cry everytime I look at them. I love them. And I love my mom. I've been pretty homesick lately. It's the Final Four excitement mixed with the fact that I miss my family and friends. And there's three months left, haha. AND we haven't had Spring Break yet. I need a break...
Anyways....beyond the TINY DAFFODILS!! (they're silk for the record), let's focus on the I Spy books. I've been debating for awhile if those are more for the kids....ooooor for me. I was trying to explain the books to my teachers and they have never seen them before. I guess they never got translated for Spanish use. But those books are SO COOL! I've been obsessed since I got the box. I was supposed to call my mom after school at 5:30 but didn't get to calling her until around 7 because that's how long it took me to open everything and pull my nose out of the books. Tee hee. AND it's even better because when you get stuck, you can probably find the answer now on the Internet. Sometimes you can't, though. I STILL can't find a stupid anchor on one of the pages.....so freakin tricky... Once I get done with them, though, I'm going to use them with my private classes and see if I can also figure out how to use them in the classroom.
So...during the VCU game, I kept checking the score but refused to look until I found an object in one of my I Spy books. Haha. God, I'm like a 10 year old. I also colored a Butler banner that hangs outside of my door. I put pictures of last year's Final Four excitement too. A picture of the big shoe at the pep rally downtown, the Final Four banner on the Artsgarden, and our interview at Hinkle with Kent for FOX 59.
Hmmm, what else. Oh yes, April Fools came and went. :( I did my best here but it just isn't the same as pranking atleast 20 girls at Pi Phi. I also don't have Starbucks supplies to use this year....those were great last year. Here I stuck to some basics...I scraped the cream out of Oreos and put toothpaste in instead. I put big bubble wrap under the toilet and continually changed it so it would keep popping whenever anybody sat down. (This was actually a great idea in theory but kinda bit me in the ass...my roommates took a nap after school Friday, so I rushed in and set up the trap. I laid down too, talked to my mom on Skype, and then tried take a nap as well...but no luck. I really had to pee...but, couldn't, because they hadn't set off the bubble wrap. And I've never been really good at hovering...always makes a mess...so I essentially boobie-trapped myself out of the bathroom. Fail. I held it, because I'm a champion. Gotta make sacrifices sometimes for the good of the holiday). I also found out my roommate Juliet is really jumpy, so I hid around corners and just jumped out randomly when she was leaving the bathroom, turning a corner...etc...and yelled APRIL FOOLS!!! Hahaha...such a cheap trick but I was thoroughly pleased with myself. I should have hidden in her closet...
Anywho. My 5th graders presented their animal projects last week. I was super impressed! Most of them just copied information from Wikipedia word for word (I was immediately aware when the students used words like "hibernate", "cartilaginous skeleton", and "substantial exoskeleton". Oh well.) but I was still pleased because they were able to answer my small questions....like what do they eat? Where do they live? Or I would ask a question about their interesting facts they wrote about. The teacher even hung them up in the classroom windows so anybody that walks by sees their projects. They were so excited! This is also a hard task, though, because Spaniards do projects a little differently than we do. Construction paper and puffy paint is not easily accessible here....construction paper is, but it's pretty expensive (not super cheap and easy like in the States). Puffy paint is absolutely unheard of. Paint in general is not really heard of. What the kids do have a lot of is Play-Doh, glittery glue sticks, and markers. Sooo....most of the posters had some printed pictures of animals, a lot of random glitter all over (I support), a hand-drawn picture of their animal.....and then usually they take Play-Doh and create a picture ON the posterboard. So...I don't know, it's super weird. They just stick the Play-Doh to the posterboard. Sometimes it's flat, and sometimes it's not. Those were interesting to hang on the windows, haha.
Anyways, almost all of the projects went off without a problem. One girl even made a Powerpoint Presentation! With sounds! The only problem we really had was that some of them DID take information directly off the Internet...without really understanding it....and it was in English. I was really impressed they tried to read English articles! Most of them used Google Translator....and those paragraphs are really easy to tell because they don't make any sense. The ones who used original English articles were easy to tell...because it was so well written...and they had no idea what it said. For example, Sexy Boy (remember him? Otherwise known as Black Strong?) had chosen the horse. So he was rambling about horses...blah blah...and then started asking "how do you say 1978? 1990? 2002? 2014?..." etc. I was so confused. I went over to look at his poster and read his paragraph that said "If you are born a Horse, you are strong and confident. Gemstone is topaz and is a symbol of war and courage. Falls on the years..."
Ah. He had stumbled upon an entire article about the Chinese year of the Horse. Sooooo rather than explain he had the wrong "horse", I tried to explain to the class that some years in China are classified by animals, like our zodiac signs, and the Horse is a sign of strength and courage. They understood but as soon as I said "China" their eyes glazed over. They could care less about anything Chinese...
Another .... err, "fun" presentation was about crocodiles. Most of the kids wrote about diet, appearance (length and weight), and random facts about their animal like how far they could jump or why they're endangered. A few directly followed the internet webpages they found...so crocodiles. Miguel, this fun, energetic ginger kid, was super embarrassed and didn't want to read his project out loud. I told him he had to. Everybody else did. Plus his pictures were very interesting. So he gets up there and starts reading about crocodiles. His poster had a lot of information...so I knew it was going to take a little bit. At first he talked about where they lived and what they ate. Then he started the big paragraph of his poster.
85% of his poster was about crocodile reproduction.
I don't know how he stumbled upon whatever website he was on, but he literally talked about the (literal) in's and out's of crocodile sex for about 5 minutes. It was SO PAINFUL. Mainly because I was the only one in the classroom listening to the horrific things he was saying. I mean it was all scientific, mostly....kinda. I asked him what he thought the paragraph was about and he said he liked it because it was about crocodiles killing other crocodiles, because it said "mate" a lot. Matar in Spanish is to kill...mate would be subjunctive. Ugh. So I smiled and nodded. It's actually about the exact opposite...
My favorite sentence from his poster was, "The male may actually mate with the same female several times during the breeding season to ensure that he fertilizes her right after she ovulates. Males actually often try to make with other males, and females do the same with other females. Threesomes are not uncommon either!"
..............speechless. I think I snorted when I heard him read this.
Anyways, luckily for you all, I made the kids turn in a sheet with their information. I looked up his information on Google and found the website he was citing. If you'd like, you can read ALL of the information that he read to the class outloud. All of the disgusting, painful details about crocodile reproduction.
http://w3.shorecrest.org/~Lisa_Peck/MarineBio/syllabus/ch9vertebrates/reptilesandbirds/repbirdwp/barbara/repro.html
If I never hear about crocodiles again, I'll be perfectly content.
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