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!