A boring post to catch things up

Once again I got caught up in life and suck at blogging...but it's been a hectic week!

I don't even know where to begin...and to be honest, nothing earth-shatteringly interesting has happened so I'll try to update you all in an entertaining way. Let's cross our fingers and begin.

My first day at school was last Thursday, but I went in on Wednesday to say hello, make sure they remembered I was coming back, etc. I knew I would have to suffer through a million hello kisses and I was prepared for the awkwardness. The only thing that helped me gather my nerves was the thought of all of my kids super excited to see me and telling me how bee-you-tee-full I am. I arrived at school around 11:40, just in time for recess. I walked inside, though, and nobody was on the playground. Not knowing why they were still in class, I went upstairs and headed to the teacher's lounge, hoping to find Rocio, the English coordinator, and talk to her about this school year, me starting, etc. I didn't find her but one of the other teachers was in there prepping for classes and was super excited to see me. I asked her what was going on this school year, how things were going (because they all started Monday) and she gave me some of the dirt on all of the changes that went on over the summer. They switched around some of the teachers and basically all of them were annoyed because it was Wednesday, nobody had their schedules yet, and there was no organization. It made me feel better knowing that they were completely in the dark in life as well, and it wasn't just me, haha. Instead of being bombarded by my students though, I ended up being bombarded by my teachers. I was really surprised because last year they didn't seem super warm towards me...they weren't unfriendly, by any means, but they weren't super excited or involving either. This year though they were all so happy to see me! I was so surprised and it made me so happy to see all of them...for once I didn't mind all of the hello kisses :) They're a lot less awkward when people are truly happy to see you, and you to see them, too.

The first week of classes, that week, is "sensibility" week...and that might be a really poor translation. Basically the teachers have to pull material out of their asses in order to waste time until they receive their real schedules and can prepare classes accordingly. Honestly it's more fun for me because I just walked around from class to class and tried to help the teachers waste time. To give you an example of how much the teachers didn't care, they made the kids watch The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and then gave them a bogus worksheet to pass the time. Isabel, my favorite teacher, asked the kids what happened when when the boys came out of the closet, then whispered in my ear that they "bought rainbow flags and went to celebrate Pride in Chueca (the gay district)." It was a fun week because I basically had no responsibilities or anything to do. I did crack open their new English books, though, because literally none of the other English teachers had, haha.

Come Monday they had finally finished our schedules. They tried to give me Monday free, but it just wasn't possible. Instead I only have one class on Monday (at 3 p.m.), and a half day on Friday. I'm pretty excited! Combined it's like a 3 day weekend, right?? Haha. Some good news, though, is that I feel like I have been inadvertantly promoted. First of all, all of the classes have an extra hour of English this year. This hour is my hour of class, which means we won't be using the books. Instead they want me to facilitate them speaking more in English and doing more activities/games/projects. They also have discussed it and are going to let me give the kids grades! It's not super official but basically the kids will now know that I have a grade book and that during my hour of English I can give them positive or negative marks and tell the teacher so that it impacts their overall grade in the class. Technically as an assistant I'm not allowed to give "grades" but I thought this was amazing because it shows their respect for me and I feel like they are truly working to include me and demand respect for me. It feels so good.

I think this year is going to be wonderful. I survived my first week "on my own" in the classrooms and while I cheated and used some Spanish to assert my boundaries, most of the classes (even the awful 2nd graders) were eager and excited for the fun class each week with me. Hopefully I can live up to everybody's expectations!

Next blog I'll try to be more fun, this was just necessary catch-up work :)