26.2

I would not call my marathon experience fun, however, I would say it was an amazing experience that really forced me to push farther than I thought I could and if I could go back I would definitely do it again. I now feel like I can do anything.
























My students threw me a surprise going away party my last day at Panther Creek High School.

Leesville Road Middle School

http://leesvillems.wcpss.net/

This is where I will be teaching ESL next semester.

Choices Choices

This past summer, as I was thinking about my post graduation plans I told myself that I had until Christmas to decide...because after studnet teaching I would have a better idea of what I wanted to do post graduation.

Well....it's almost Christmas; meaning I'm supposed to have decided what I am going to do post graduation, right?

In case you were wondering I still don't know. I've been praying about all semester and I just don't feel any certain "pull" in one direction.

My choices are:
Staying in Raleigh and teaching (Spanish or ESL)
Staying in Raleigh and teaching while attending grad school part-time
Returning to Asheville and teaching
Returning to Asheville and teaching while attending grad school part-time
Returning to Asheville and interning with MNA (mission to North America) doing an ESL ministry
Going to Peru with MTW (Mission to the World)
Going to Mexico with MTW/RUF (Reformed University Fellowship)
Going to Queens, NY with Campus Crusade to start a Destino group

Quien sabe???

Last Week before Christmas Vacation

Well I never though I would say this, but I am really sad about the end of this semester. I am excited to go home for a MONTH (!!!) but I am going to really miss my students. I have gotten really attached to them.

This past week we have been working on the Subjunctive. To practice distinguishing between the Subjunctive and the Indicative we played "Roba el Tocino" (Steel the Bacon). I knitted an S and an I to represent the subjunctive and the indicative. Once the class was divided into two teams each student was given a number (each team had a one, a two, a three, etc). I would read the beginning of a phrase and then call a number. The two students with the number called had to run into the middle of the room (where the S and I were on the floor) and grab the letter based on what should follow the beginning phrase. Once a student grabe the correct letter they had to make it back to their team without the other person tagging them. We had a blast!



Friday night I went Ice Skating in downtown Raleigh with Mi Familia (NC State's Latino organization) and Sarah Riddle. The Winter Festival began with the lighting of the Raleigh Christmas tree, games for children, and an outdoor iceskating rink. It was "magical" and just like the movies skating outside.

After iceskating I went salsa dancing with friends from Chapel Hill and NC State.

There is no such thing as being bored....just boring people

I hope that is not true, because I'm bored. Right now it's a good kind of bored. I'm bored because I'm done with my work for this semester. I'm done with my teaching portfolio, I'm have my last two weeks of student teaching all planned all copies made, and I have two (soon three) planning periods.... what to do????? For now this is a good kind of bored. No stress, no anxiety, just relaxation. But soon I will get tired of "wasting time". Please send suggesstions!!!!

(P.S. I can't access Facebook on school computers=NO FUN!)

My level II class (who I am no longer teaching...sad!) recently learned the imperfect tense. This tense is used to describe conditions and reoccuring events in the past tense. So, Ms. Toreson and I brought in Milk and Cookies and large blankets. We cleared the desks, put the blankets on the floor and had the students bring in their favorite childhood toy. We had "show-in-tell" and the students each had to talk about their toy using the imperfect. It was delightful!

gifts of the parents

So, I got my car towed. Long story short (well, really it's just a short story) I got back late one night to my apartments and there was no parking anywhere near my building. So, being the [really cute] young 21 year-old FEMALE that I am, I decided I did not feel safe parking [really] far away and walking back... [also, out of laziness]. So, I parked in front of the dumpster. Yes, dumb, I know, but I was going to get up [really, really] really early in the morning for work and I know the trash men don't come before 6 a.m.

Well, lo and behold, sometime in the wee hours of the morning my car was towed. The point of this story is to highlight my GRATEFULNESS [in light of the Thanksgiving season] I have toward my parents for the gifts that have given me: persuasion [thank you, mom] and stubbornness...because the "customer" is always right" [thank you, dad].

Due to the gifts [that I once, and sometimes still do, hated as a child in public] that I have received from my parents, I was able to talk the towing company down from a $100 recovery fee to a $50 recovery fee. What talent!

...and I parked in front of a dumpster!....duh, Lara, duh.

Dona Dollars

One of my goals for this semester (and for any semester I teach Spanish) is to get the students speaking in the target language (aka: Spanish). Most students who take Spanish in high school expect to be "fluent" after a few years, but realize they can barely carry on a conversation with a native Spanish speaker after all those semesters. Part of this is the fault of teachers for 1.) not speaking to their students in Spanish and 2.) for not making the students ever have to speak in Spanish. These are both understandable problems. For one, it's SO MUCH EASIER to speak to your students in English. As for getting them to talk to you in Spanish, it's challenging, makes them feel vulnerable (what if they say something funny or incorrect in front of their peers), and they know you will understand them perfectly fine if they speak in English. So to achieve my goals of making my students as conversationally "fluent" as they can possibly be from Spanish class, I have create the "Dona Dollar". This is how it works... 10% of the students' grade is participation and I give the a weekly participation grade. Each Monday the students will start with a 90% participation grade. When they speak to me in Spanish or a classmate in Spanish I give them a Dona Dollar. (Side note: they cannot randomly yell "hola" during class and get a Dona Dollar. Their comment must be relevant and beneficial for the whole class. ) At the end of the week I collect their received Dona Dollars and for each dollar their participation grade goes up a point. (example: 90 + 6 dona dollars= 96%). I also have a seating chart taped to my whiteboard that has each of their names on it. If during class they are talking in English, while either I am talking or another person is talking I put a tally by their name. I also put a tally by their name if they are sleeping in class. At the end of the week I subtract a point from their participation grade for each tally by their name. (example: 90+ 6 dona dollars - 4 tallys = 92%)

This system is also a great way for me to diferentiate. I have some students who are very conversational in Spanish and some students who are still working on learning how to introduce themselves in Spanish. I remind them that I am the Queen of Dona Dollar (because I am Dona Sullivan after all) and I determine when a Dona Dollar is deserved. For example, my more advanced students must use an upper level phrase or sentence to earn their dollars but some of my students will earn dollars for simple phrases, because I know they are reaching the current potential. I also give them Dona Dollars if they see me outside of class and use Spanish.

The Dona Dollar system is AMAZING and I can't get my students to stop talking in Spanish. Even though they think up questions to ask that might not be super necessary, just to get a Dona Dollar, I don't care because they are speaking in Spanish!

*** this picture is the picture of my actual Dona Dollar and I print 600 (10 per page) of them each week on light green paper.

Happenings

Let's see... I went home last weekend and it was filled with biking, swimming, running, dressing-up, giving out candy, carving pumpkins, and catching up with friends.

Monday (Nov. 2nd) was Day of the Dead in Mexico. It's a largely celebrated holiday in Mexico so we learned about it in class then i had my students make "offerings". In Mexico, "offerings" or "alters" are made in honor of the dead. The offerings may include photos, toys, food, etc. I then had one of the art teachers in the school come and vote on which class had the best "offering".

In Destino this week we had a local Hispanic pastor come and speak to us. He was well received. We are currently up to about ten girls and ten guys at the weekly meetings!

I have also included a picture of my classroom at Panther Creek High School. I was observed on Thursday and it went very well!

After returning from Asheville on Sunday evening I got to meet-up with some of my friends that studied abroad in Spain with me. We girls went out for Tapas (Spanish appetizers) at a local restaurant in Raleigh.

Unfortunately I am fighting a cold now, but today I went and got my H1N1 vaccine (free to NCSU students) and last month I got my Flu Shot. Tonight I going to the Panther Creek Senior Night Football game, in the morning I'm running 20 miles (I hope!), then I'm going to the NCSU Homecoming football game, then I'm going out with Destino friends to celebrate Silvia's (Destino member) birthday. I'll probably spend Sunday afternoon grading papers and planning.

Thanks for reading!

I've decided to become a professional actor.

I originally thought that I wanted to be a teacher, which is why I am spending my college career studying education. Well, turns out it's not what I thought it would be. I thought I had gotten myself into a career where I would be presenting information to other human beings, they would learn the information, we would play a game or two to practice, and then we would repeat the cycle with new information. Turns out, I was wrong. Apparently when you decide to teach a foreign language, you are really an actor, not a teacher.

Acting is what it has come down to. I act everyday. I act out grammar concepts, I act out vocabulary, I act out two person conversations (all by myself, might I add), I act out directions/instructions, I act out games, I act enthuistic when I'm tired; I ACT all day long.

Now, don't be fooled, my acting is not as glorious as Hollywood acting. For starters, my audience is a group of very critical, self-conscience, too cool for school...but yet really interested... teenagers. I act, not by choice, but for understanding. You see, I teach about 95% of my class in Spanish (I mean, it is Spanish class after all). The only times I speak in English are when the kids are in trouble (warnings one and two are in Spanish, but three deserves some serious English), when there's an emergency (so far we have not had one), or when I'm going over an important test or project that has picky details (I have to make sure the "spacey" kids are on the same page as the rest of us...I mean this both figuratively and literally).

Because my job has come down to acting in front of teenagers everyday I have found that my days are very inconsistent. Some days are GREAT; everyone understands, everyone behaves, everyone does their homework...and then some days are not so great; no one understands, I see blank stares on faces looking at me know matter how many different ways I try to act out "get your homework out" (even though they've heard the phrase 1,000 times), everyone talks while I'm talking, and no one does their homework and therefore does not understand the class work.

The organizational part of teaching is way easier than I thought it would be. The "up" and "down" days are what makes teaching harder than I thought. When my student's are having an "off" day it gets taken out on me. No matter what I'm doing (good or bad) they react the way they are feeling. Unfortunately, I take that as a personal reflection of the lesson I prepared for them. I love teaching, I really do. But, I wish there was some consistency. When I go into school in the morning I never know if the students are going to have a "good" or "bad" day.

It's also hard to only talk Spanish on those "bad" days because the kids don't want to think and they don't want to push themselves to interpret a foreign language. So no matter how hard I act, and no matter how enthusiastic I am, and no matter how many crazy things I do in front of them to get them excited about Spanish....they just sit there.

So, I like the challenge (well, usually) but I've decided that being a plain ole teacher (one that lectures, gives lots of worksheets, and has so little interaction with the students it doesn't even matter if their having a "good" or "bad" day) is, well ....EASY; but being an ACTOR, that acts because they love it, that acts because they want to convey a message, that acts regardless of the audience's response is, well....hard.

As for the weekend...
Sarah Riddle is coming up tomorrow to spend the night. We, and a bunch of Destino girls, are going to a Campus Crusade Girl's Sleepover tomorrow night. There's a talent show and we are all Salsa dancing. Then Saturday I have my long run (I'm going for 17/18 miles...yuck!) and then afterward I'm going to the fair with some friends. I going to EAT WHATEVER I WANT at the fair because I'm burning so many calories in my long run! Wahoo!

Fall is in the air!

This past weekend I went home for "fall-break" except I
didn't really get a fall-break because of student teaching. However, I went home for just the weekend.

While at home, I got to hang out with my friend Sarah. We went out for dessert and then went out salsa dancing. It was also fun to see friends form work. I went to visit my friend Maria and her three week old baby, Vanessa. Maria was one of my ESL students this summer. I also got to go to Wal-Mart (my favorite!), go to church with Caroline, play games at the Skinner home, go for a long run (it is soooo much more enjoyable running in Asheville than in Raleigh), and go out to eat with my parents. When I was leaving on Sunday afternoon my sweet Bug (aka: Audie Murphy the Cat) was in my car all ready to go....he got out reluctantly with a kitty-treat.






































Student teaching has been going wonderfully. I really really love it. My kids are great and with the right motivation can be really fun and enthusiastic about Spanish. They make me laugh; a lot. This week we danced (the students and me) to techno, played "Steal the Bacon", and had conjugating wars. Next week my students have a test, then we will be reviewing for the midterm, watching the movie Selena (they need a break every now and then), and then learning how to dance Cumbia (a Latin style of dance similar to Salsa). The singer Selena is known for her Cumbia music so I figured we should experience it first-hand. I'm really excited about the lesson.

This weekend I plan to go to the NC Fair (for the first time!), go to an RUF (Reformed University Fellowship) pot-luck/bonfire, attend Spanish Church, run 14 miles, and sleep "late" (8am is now late to me....how lame!).

I love the fall weather. I can feel and smell the holidays around the corner. I do miss Asheville during this time of year, but Thanksgiving break will be here before I know it.

Thanks for reading!

This is how I dress for work:

This morning I taught a whole class by myself. It was really fun! The planning that goes into the classes is draining, but overall I like it. I also way OVER PLANNED. This is better than under planning, but I was really sad when I didn't get to do half of my activities...and I put all that time into stuff that I didn't get to use.

This week at Panther Creek it has been Homecoming Week, so their are "Spirit" days to show school spirit. Wednesday was "Wacky Tacky" day...and I participated, hence the many colors from the red/pink family!...and I just wanted an excuse to wear my RED BOOTS!

Catching up...

I had every intention of writing several times on my blog this week, instead of just giving one large weekly update, but it just didn't happen. Sorry. So here's to "bulk blogging"...

I finished Methods this week! I had my final exam (a presented lesson plan) on Tuesday. I actually finished creating my lesson plan on Sunday and found myself to be bored out of my mind on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday because I usually have so much to do. My finial went well and I got an A on it, but I have not yet received my grade for the class.

Monday afternoon I went for a walk around a lake and read a book for enjoyment because it was such a nice day. It was weird not having anything to do.

Tuesday I had Destino. I made Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies (a childhood favorite) to take to Destino because I had so much free time! After Destino I went out for Sushi with Allison (roommate), May (resident from last year), and Jen (methods classmate) to celebrate Jen and my completion of Methods. Sushi Blues in Raleigh has half-off sushi on Tuesday nights AFTER 10pm. Allison, Jen, and I were all falling asleep by the end of our meal because we are all on teacher schedules!

Wednesday I still went to methods class to watch other students present their final projects. Then Wednesday evening our methods class had a pot-luck to celebrate our completion of our Methods class.

Today (Thursday) I had my first official day of Student Teaching. It went well. I'm currently "team-teaching" with my CT, so each of us do an activity or two during each class periord. I love my first periord (level II). They are quiet, stay on task, and still participate. My third periord (level III) are a challenge. They love to socialize and talk, and I get them right after their lunch when they seem to have lots of energy (they get to go off-campus for lunch). This is also my largest class (35 students...yuck!) which does not help. Then I have my sweet fourth period class (level III). They are clamer, usually on task, and attentive.

Tomorrow, I will be teaching a legend to my level III's and then doing story books with them. In level II we will be playing a fun game to practice our reflexive verbs. Also, my level II's are reviewing clothing vocabulary, so tomorrow I'm wearing a coat, scarf, jeans, boots, sweater, jacket, tie, gloves, blouse, t-shirt, bathing suit, scocks, belt, hat, and maybe a few more things, in layers. At the beginning of the class I'm going to dance to techno music and take off the clothes as they call out the names in Spanish. Sort-of a VERY APPROPIROATE version of a strip-tease, that embarrases me, wakes the students up, and helps them learn the vocabulary.

Tomorrow night I have a Barn Party with Campus Crusade for Chirst. Their will be hay-rides, corn on the cob, mechanical bull riding, line dancing, ect. Saturday morning I'm playing in the Mi Familia soccer tournament on the Destino team and then we are having a Quesadilla party on Saturday afternoon.

I think that's about all!

Week six, or so...

I'm sitting here watching the season premier of Grey's Anatomy with two of my roommates (Rainna and Amanda). I don't usually follow seasons of shows on television, for time's sake, but I guess if other people are watching it, I might just get suckered in!

This week's short re-cap:
-I went to the NC State vs. Gardner-Webb Football game. I tailgated with friends at the Campus Crusade for Christ tailgate last Saturday. We ate BBQ, hush-puppies, baked beans, and banana pudding.
- I got the Flu Shot
- I've been working on my schedule for next semester (I'm trying to take a graduate course)
- I've been looking into graduate schools (mostly Appalachian State in Boone) where I will study Spanish Education. I am deciding if I want to go full-time for a year and two summers, or try to complete graduate school while going to school part-time and teaching high school Spanish part-time (hopefully in the Asheville area).
- in Destino we had Pastor Grabriel Angles come and speak with us. He is a pastor in a local Hispanic church. We had 18 students in attendance and about half boys, half girls! (last year we mostly always had just girls)
- Tonight I ate dinner with some friends and then went with them to a Campus Crusade for Christ meeting.
-Friday and Saturday of this week I am required (for my methods class) to go to the FLANC Conference (Foreign Language Association of North Carolina). The conference has lots of GREAT foreign language teachers that offer seminars on everything from "Songs in Spanish for learning grammar concepts" to "games in the foreign language classroom" to "Engaging students", etc. The teachers teaching the seminars are fenomenoal and I'm excited to network with other Educational professionals and meet other teachers.

Yay for sunshine today!!!!

FLES (pronounced "F-less")

FLES (Foreign Language in the Elementary Schools) is something I have recently become a huge fan of. I've always liked younger children, but never thought I would want to teach elementary school....however, these past few days I've felt differently on the subject. I've been teaching/helping in Senora Turco's class at Green Hope Elementary school for the past three days. Because I am K-12 certified I have to spend time teaching in each of the grade levels. My days have been filled with songs, games, excitement, ethnusicatic kids, hugs, smiles, more singing, kids wanting to hold my hand and sit in my lap, kids wanting to be in school, and of course, more songs. I have loved it. Each day Mrs. Turco sees a Kindergarden, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade class. The school has five classes of each grade level, so each class gets Spanish once a week for 40 minutes. Essentially Mrs. Turco repeats her days five times each week (what SIMPLE lesson planning!!!). Also practically nothing is written in a FLES classroom...it's all verbal (half the students can't even read in English yet anyway). Today we played musical numbers with the kindergartners to learn numbers in Spanish and used PICTURE dictionaries to create really cool family trees with the 4th graders. I play all day!...and I love it.

The great thing about teaching a foreign language in general is you can be creative and play even in the high school level...because they too are learning basic speaking skills; but sometimes it's just harder to get those high schoolers to be excited about singing little songs and doing the hokie-pokie in Spanish. One great thing about high school are the relationships you can form with the kids...slightly different then the relationships you can form with the younger kids.

I'm not saying I've made a life altering decision to switch to elementary school, I'm just saying it's been refreshing and fun to be part of these past few days and I'm glad my licensure is K-12 so that I always have the option of teaching any level I choose. For that I am thankful.

desk, race,birthday, and PICTURES

These are pictures of the really awesome desk my dad built for me. It's perfect in my room!





Let's see....

I went home again this weekend to run in the Asheville Citizen-Times Half-Marathon. It was AWESOME. I felt great and enjoyed every minute of miles 1-12. Mile 13 was not so enjoyable, but I loved the race and I'm so glad I did it. I would definitely like to do more in the future and as of Monday I have started on a full marathon training plan that has me ready to run a marathon in December. I'm not sure if I will be able to stick to it with student teaching. I would have the time, but I won't be able to run before school (4am=insanely too early) and soon it will start getting dark around 5:30pm...so we shall see. I rested Sunday, ran 5 miles yesterday, and today I ran 3 miles and did some sprint work. My legs did feel pretty tired today. This evening before Destino, I went and swam for 45 minutes. If felt good to give my arms a little work out.



















I was having problems with blisters on my feet. I attributed it to increasing my weekly running (which is adding to the problem) but I got new shoes on Saturday and I LOVE them. They don't rub where my old shoes rubbed. The lady at the Jus' Running store where I buy my shoes thinks I was running in a shoe that was a size too small. (So, I'm guessing my race time would be like 15 minutes less with my new shoes...haha...just kidding!) I also bought some running socks (basically non-cotton) and that has helped reduce friction which causes blisters.

(This paragraph was more for my mom and grandmothers who love me and were concerend about my feet.)

While home I also got to celebrate a friend's birthday. We had a nice celebration for Rico (who also ran in the race with me) and I made him a homemade white chocolate cake with white chocolate iceing.

virus,labor day, high school, race, desk...but no pictures....sorry!

My poor computer got a virus so it is currently at the NC State Help Desk being worked on by a bunch of Asians! I have full confidence in them getting the virus off my computer. Until then, they have loaned me a laptop which is great, but I have none of the pictures that I was going to include in my because they are on my poor computer...so you will just have to imagine visuals as you read.

I went home for labor day weekend. It was not laborious, which was nice, and I did get to see lots of friends and do lots of things. I had a four day weekend her in school and it was laborious, which was not so nice. I had lots of homework. I spent Wednesday observing at Panther Creek High School and instead of staying the in class I will be teaching I went and observed the other four Spanish teachers in the school (there are a total of five). One of the teachers I observed was the FLANC (Foreign Language Association of North Carolina) Teacher of the Year last year. She was AESOME! I observed her teaching her AP Spanish class and her Level I Spanish Class and she was great at both.

Tonight (Thursday night) I had parent-teacher/open-house at Panther Creek. I met most of the parents of the students I will be teaching, which was nice. It was weird being a "teacher" at one of those open-houses.

I go home to Asheville again tomorrow (Friday) because I have my big 1/2 marathon on Saturday morning. I'm really excited, because I love races and the atmosphere at races, but I'm really sad it's here. It seems like the last four months of my life I've been training for someting (either a triathlon or a running race) and this is my last planned race of the year. After this Saturday I have not "scheduled" to work toward. Also, this week has been really weird because I am "resting" for the race so I have only ran a total of 6 miles this whole week (2 miles every other day)...I feel really guilty and lazy, but according to my training schedule that is what I'm suppose to do. So, I'm really excited for the race so I can run a really long way, run hard, and feel that burn in my legs and lungs!

I also have a really really cool addition to my room (I will post a picture soon) of a beautiful desk! My dad made me a perfect, dark-wood desk with a drawer to go in my room. I didn't want to buy a desk and all the desk we had at home were either too big or the wrong color...so he just made the the perfect one. (I'm sitting at it now!). I looks great in my room and fits perfectly. Thanks, Dad!

One week down and many more to go :)

This was a good week. I got to meet all of my students...ALL like 110 of them (in only three classes!). I did a little "get to know me" lesson for each class speaking only in Spanish using props like my bike helmet, an apron, etc. when talking about things I like to do. Then I quizzed them to show them that they can understand more than they think in Spanish. If they answered the question right I gave them a mechanical pencil.

We had our first Destino meeting of the year and we had 5 new (all Hispanic!) visitors. How exciting. After the meeting we all went to the State men's soccer game on campus. Tomorrow (Friday) we have our Mi Familia (Hispanic organization on campus) cookout. I'm excited to get to socialize with my Latino friends from State!...and get to know the new Destino members better.

On Saturday I am volunteering for Fiesta Del Pueblo. It's an annual cultural festival that has live music, food, and all sorts of advocacy and educational programs for Hispanics. I am volunteering through Mi Familia with the Justice Fair. I'm excited because there is always good food, dancing, and lots of Hispanics!

I got an A+ on my FLES (Foreign Languages in Elementary Schools) Lesson presentation and written plan in my methods class!...which I was super excited about. I really really enjoyed doing the lesson (see previous post for details) and was very pleased with the grade. ...who knows, maybe I'll teach elementary school one day...but then again, maybe not.
I am also finding my methods class to be VERY beneficial and to the point. I wish that all of the education classes that I have taken previously in college had been so beneficial and relevent.

I've been sticking to my 1/2 marathon training schedule really strictly this week. I have even passed-up some late night social events so that I can get up early and run. (Normally, this would NOT be typical for me, but it's crunch time now because the race is only 2 weeks away...yikes!) I am going to try and run 11 miles in the morning. ...good luck to me!

Back in the Swing of Things

Now that I'm pretty settled into Raleigh I suppose it is time for me to get back into the grove of blogging....

I have decided that I LOVE my apartment and apartment location. I am two minutes from I-40, ten minutes from a newly renovated Super-Wal-Mart, ten minutes from Target, five minutes from school, and it's super easy to give directions too. I also love the layout, having my own bathroom and large closet, and I like my clean, organized, and respectful apartment-mates.


















































I have decided that I DON'T like riding my road bike in Raleigh. I road this morning for an hour and a half and it was super annoying. Every time I found a good two lane country road it led me straight to a large intersection. I asked some other bikers that I saw where was a good place to ride and they gave me some suggestions that I will try next week. I do however live about five minutes from a lake that has a five mile loop around it that I also LOVE running on.

I am an official "employee" (unpaid, that is) of Wake County as of yesterday when I went down to central office and got my teacher ID badge. I took a really good picture (YAY!) and I can now get into any Wake County sporting event free!....I saw this as a win/win situation (minus the "unpaid" part).

My roommate, Allison, and I went to the local farmers' market this morning where I bough some peaches and a green pepper. As for food, I have been cooking in large quantities and then eating off that particular meal for several days. Last night I cooked some rice and mixed vegetables in "sofrito" (a Puerto Rican classic of cilantro, onion, and garlic that they use to flavor about everything they eat). I also grilled some chicken that I like to have around for salads or to add to my rice.

In Destino news.... Last week we had a leadership meeting to begin planning for the year. In addition to Holly (our Campu Crusade Coach) we now also have Justin. Justin graduated from State in 2004 and then worked in Argentina with Crusade for 4 years. He should be a great addition to our leadership group. Also, tonight we are having a SURPRISE going away party for Ekaterina who is leaving us for a 9 month intership in Georgia. We are going to miss her!


(Ekaterina pictured here....)












I am enjoying my methods class (a 7-week "teach you how to teach" class). I'm finding it informative. We are currently in our FLES (foreign languages in Elementry schools) section. All of us are certified to teach kindergarten through 12th grade so we spend time studying each grade level and specific teaching techiniques. Yesterday I had to teach my Elementry School Lesson and I LOVED it. The idea in FLES is that you create a content specific lesson and through focusing on the content the young children just pick-up vocabulary and grammar. In FLES you can't just write notes on the board because the kids can't even read yet. So you just speak to them in Spanish the whole time and you have to be very repetitive. I had an abosolute blast teaching my lesson. My content focus was "patterns" and my grade level was 1st grade. Through my lesson, in addition to learning how to complete patterns, the kids were able to learn the words (in Spansh) for pattern, circle, square, triangle, boy, girl, green, blue, and red...and they took ZERO notes. I'm glad I will have the option to teach young children because I really did enjoy it.


(Pattern artifacts picture here....)















So, if you made it to the bottom I give you a "star"! (because teachers are no longer permitted to give out candy in Wake County.....LAME!)

Summer time!

Sorry for the absence, but I love summer and there are things I'd rather be doing then stuff on the computer!

History...check!

I have finished ALL of my classes but one, YAY! I took my history exam yesterday and to study I made a really large color coded time line of Latin American history...I thought it was impressive anyway. :)






















Last night some of my residents went to paint the Free Expression Tunnel in order to make their freshmen year complete...I tagged along. We spray-painted a whole bunch of nothing.

Spring is in the air!

I attended the Mi Familia end of the year Gala last Saturday night. The Hispanic organizations from NC State, Chapel-Hill, and Duke all get together for a night of awards, dinner, and dancing. If was an enjoyable night and fun to get all dressed up.

I went with several of the Destino Girls..... (pictured below)






























Also last Saturday in the afternoon we had our Triad Palooza...which is like an end-of-the-year cookout for my building. We had tacos, pizza, subs, games, and live music.







Yesterday we had our "Destino Despedida", or our Destino end-of-the-year/going away party. We spent the hot (90 degree plus weather) afternoon at the pool in Silvia and Manuel's apartments. We swam, played games, threw frisbee, grilled hotdogs, sat in the hot-tub (later that night), roasted marshmellows, and had a great time. We had a total of about 32 people...a Destino record!!! We also said goodbye to Rolando, our foreign exchange student from Honduras. He returned to Honduras on Sunday where he hopes to start a Destino on his university's campus. He is already in contact with a Campus Crusade staff worker who is working in Honduras.











































This week I have an exam Wednesday and a project due on Friday. I also will be busy with check-out and my other RA duties. Well, I'm off to study and work on a project!

almost there!

This week has not been too bad. I got the bulk of my work done before Easter so as long as I pace myself well I should not have any more stressful days the rest of the year! I'm on duty this weekend so I have to stay in the building tonight and all day tomorrow. However, we do have our Triad (the area in which I live) Palooza tomorrow afternoon. We will be having tacos, games, and live music. It should be pretty fun! Also tonight I will be spending several hours with some other girls cooking all the meat for tomorrow. Then tomorrow night we have our Mi Familia Gala. The Gala is the end of the year banquet that includes the Hispanic organizations from UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke, and NC State. We all get dressed up, eat yummy food, and have awards. It should be pretty fun!

I also had a small scare this week when I called in to Stone Ridge Tavern to line-up summer work. The manager I talked to told me that they had been having so many college students just come back and pick-up random nights here and there but then not be availabe to work when needed. She said that since they needed more consistant/relaible staff they were requiring all college students to "reapply" and interview in order to get hired again for the summer. She also said that they were not hiring very many people. I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO HAVE TO LOOK FOR OTHER WORK! So, I called my dear friend Hannah who works there full-time, prayed about it...maybe God had other summer plans for me..., and waited. Hannah called me back today after talking to the other (more "normal") manager and the owner and since I will be coming back for the whole summer they are fine if I want to work there and I don't need to reapply. WHEW! Glad I have that into place!

I believe...

Here's how the "I believe" game goes: write 5 beliefs or rules you live by. You can't be preachy, serious, religious, or political.

1.) I believe in setting goals and then striving to achieve them, whether they are daily to-do list or life long dreams.

















2.) I believe in dancing like people ARE watching.


















3.) I believe in taking naps (sometimes even when you're not tired).















4.) I believe in being tan (there's no excuse in the summer).











5.) I believe in letting you hair air dry and just being natural (but NOT greasy).









WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IN????