Day the Second

The school day went smoothly, but it just drains you of all energy! I think it's the heat. We only teach half of the day, but by the time you are finished, you get your computer, sit in the teacher lounge, and just sit and stare for a while, because you have to store up your energy before you accomplish anything else. Needless to say, I took a nice nap this afternoon.

I had all 23 students today. It seems like a big number, especially compared to Andrew's class of 8.....makes me sick.... But they all like me, which makes it a lot easier. I think I've been able to earn most of their respect already, so the rest should be pretty easy. I have one girl who has a problem listening to my directions, so there might be some consequences on the way if she doesn't shape up. The boy you doesn't speak English is so great! He knows how important it is to me that the students don't speak Spanish during my class, that he completely refuses to use it at all, and works really hard to communicate using his very limited English. I do have some students who are lazy and want to just use Spanish, but most of them have been at this school for at least 5 years, so they know English.

Today was a fun day. We decided on our Classroom Standards of Behavior. (they're like rules, but I decided to call them something different) We talked a lot about respect today, did some brainstorming and discussions about it, and then broke into groups to make lists of how 6th graders should behave. Then we came together, picked our favorites, reworded some others, and came up with 5. Then the kids made posters of the standards for the wall. They were really proud of them when they were finished. I'm trying to challenge them with lots of difficult concepts, especially for ELLs,(English Language Learners)but I can tell they really appreciate it.

Tomorrow is a big day, since I'm going to try actually teaching a few subjects. We're going to start reading our novel, "Because of Winn-Dixie," work on some math puzzles, and start talking about Native Americans and oral tradition.

New topic: New kind of juice! Jugo de tamarindo, or tamarind juice. A tamarind is a legume, so the fruit is in a pod. According to Wikipedia, they are ingredients in Worcestershire sauce and chutney. The juice is dark brown, which really threw me off, but it actually tastes sweet/sour, like a tomato. It isn't my favorite. Jugo de chinola is much better, but that's no surprise. Andrew doesn't like it at all, so I might give the jug of concentrate I bought to Amy and I'll just drink it at her place. It's okay, we have another jug of jugo de pina, pineapple juice. Probably not too many surprises with that one. I'll let you know tomorrow.

Thanks for all of the comments everyone! It's very exciting to log on to the blog and see "2 comments" at the bottom of my post.

Now, to bed. Good night, America.