Oh Give Me a Home, Where the Buffalo Roam...

Well.....we just had a wild west birthday party, with fried chicken, some amazing wild west themed cakes, lots of cowboys and Indians, some country dancing, and lots of western songs. Although I'm tired out and pretty beat, we all had a really fun time! Some of the kids have been talking about birthday party for nearly a month now, and I'm sure that they had as much fun as they were expecting to have! I was pretty proud of my first grade music class as well, who performed a square dance during the party!

A cowboy hat cake that I made....not sure if you can really tell from the picture, but the kids at least knew what it was supposed to be!

Valentine's Day wishes....and a proud Auntie

I got some pretty cute and funny Valentine's Day wishes this year. The first ones that I got were obviously from my real Valentine and love of my life, Chris Blue...I got a few from other teachers at Sakeji, a few from my students (and a "necklace" from a student hand made from thread and a bobby pin), but the most adorable one of all was in my email inbox this morning from my nephew! Isn't he adorable???

It's the little things in life

As some of you may know, we had accepted some lower end second graders this year who had been struggling with reading (or not reading at all). I've been trying to spend as much extra time with them as possible, and pretty much started from scratch with them on their reading. 

It's been a little tricky, and at first I was getting discouraged because they just didn't seem to be getting it, but slowly by slowly they've been coming along. 

Anyway, today they all took a huge leap, and understood the concept of short vowels and long vowels, and were doing very well in reading groups today! As one of them confidently read a sentence containing short and long vowel words, I was literally holding back the tears. 

So much of teaching is the same old, same old, and since you are going along at the same pace as the kids it's hard to sometimes see the progress. It's just those little glimpses here and there that give enough encouragement and joy to keep chugging on!

Not a Football Fan Until Today

I've never really cared for American Football....too much tackling, and men wearing tight pants, and people getting hurt. Normally on Superbowl Sunday I could care less about going to a party, and for the last few years have stayed home, quilted, and watched Pride and Prejudice or something.  

Today however, I would want nothing more than to sit down and watch the Superbowl. There's something about knowing that almost every single American is doing the same thing at the same time, and not being able to do it too and be American with them makes me a bit homesick.

Oh well...I'll live. Maybe I'll get a game of rugby going or something. :)

The Joys and Humors of 2nd Graders

Today I got a sweet note from a student with whom I'd spent a couple of extra minutes this morning going over a "challenging" math concept. The note goes something like this:

"Dear Miss Garcia, I love you very much. You are a good teacher. You have teached me well...."

It made me chuckle...apparently now we need to start working on the past tense!