Much Has Happened

I haven't written since the very end of June and a lot has happened!  Some of the highlights have been that my husband and I went to D.C. on vacation.  My Mom, Dad and little brother came and participated in a 5K or 8K with us.  We had VBS at Church (I helped with the little kids drama).  Oh and I started a new job!

I really want to focus on that last point in this post, hopefully I can also post pictures of our D.C. trip at some point in the near future.  As for the race, I couldn't run it, I had to walk it because my knees are still bothering me...

So I got a job teaching Spanish III and IV at a private school.  As many of you know I wasn't planning on applying for teaching jobs.  It's amazing how things can change and how quickly those things can change.  Someone I know also works there and when one of their Spanish teachers resigned in July so came to me to ask me to apply, but I didn't want to.  So she came to me again to ask me to apply.  The more I got thinking about it the more encouraged I was to apply.  Here are two reasons of my I decided to apply after all:

• The school is a much smaller school than where I student taught.  I think I felt lost there because I come from an extremely small school background (in fact both schools I attended growing up were K-12 and both have been consolidated with other schools, due to how small they were, after I was there).  My schools always had 100-200 students in the entire K-12 facility and I student taught in a school that has more like 1400 students in the high school alone...  The school I am currently teaching at is a K-12 building (though much larger than any that I attended growing up) with less than 1000 students in the entire building.  Still many times the size I ever attended, but not nearly so large either!

• I also applied because I knew there would be another Spanish teacher there.  I wouldn't be left on my own at the school trying to figure out all 4 levels of Spanish out by myself.  I teach levels III and IV and our Spanish I and II teacher actually used to teach III and IV and she seems to be a wonderful teacher.  I am excited to be able to work with her!

Yes, there were other reasons I decided to apply, but here are two of the bigger ones.  Needless to say I applied and then got the job (exactly 3 weeks before kids would start school).  About a week after getting the job we left for D.C for a week and a half, then I came home and went straight into teacher in-service (that was almost 2 weeks ago now).

The first two weeks there have been extremely busy, but good.  Now we all could have appreciated having air conditioning several of those days, but we all made it through that.  Just pray for cooler weather so I don't feel like I'm melting!  :-)  The kids overall seem to be responding well to me and I do enjoy my students.  You probably won't find me writing in too much detail about my job here, but I wanted to at least let you know I have it and that I am enjoying it.  Though it is definitely not what I saw myself doing at this point, it is proving to be a good adventure (as all of life is an adventure).

Pray for me that I can teach these high school students to the best of my ability with keeping their needs in mind!

Cinco de Mayo

One of my jobs is being a private tutor of Spanish and German students.  Currently I have 6 Spanish students.  For a while I have wanted to host some language nights for my students and last Thursday I finally did just that.  I hosted a dinner at my house for my students and had a friend come over and make authentic Mexican enchiladas.

It was a lot of fun, I invited my students over and they could each bring one friend.  Three were able to come and one brought a friend.  So we were a group of 6 (4 students, my friend and myself).

Going into the evening I was kind of nervous that my students would get nervous and not want to talk much.  I had asked them to prepare a few questions in Spanish to ask my friend that evening.  They were also going to be required to speak in Spanish some with my friend and each other.  In preparation for the evening, I made copies of different pages out of the 50 Most Beautiful People edition of People en Español.  I was going to have the girls look through them and choose one, then "introduce" their person in Spanish to the group.

It turned out I was nervous for no reason.  After we dished up my friend gave them a brief outline of what Cinco de Mayo is all about in Spanish and the girls followed her very well.  I think they impressed themselves at how well they did understand.  Then they commented on the food (which was very well received) to my friend in Spanish.  They started in English, but after asking them to say it in Spanish they were quick to try their hand at it.  After a while I had them go around the table and "introduce" the person on the picture they chose.  Throughout the evening I made sure that each of them had asked at least one question in Spanish.

The whole evening was a great learning experience for them.  They were able to to see that they can make mistakes and still be understood.  During our tutoring sessions I tend to be somewhat picky with their Spanish, so this opportunity to show them mistakes are not bad was great.

It even seems that the evening inspired some of my students with their Spanish.  It's only natural to be more motivated after having an opportunity to use Spanish in a more real situation.

Verdi

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to sing the Verdi Requiem with the community choir I am a member of.  This work is demanding on the choir that sings it and the orchestra that plays it.  The choir was composed of our choir and the choir from a local college.  We put in long rehearsals and many extra rehearsals during the week before the concert and when it came to concert time, I was only able to sing the Saturday evening concert, as I developed a bad sore throat before the Sunday afternoon one. Regardless, it was COMPLETELY worth it!  Check out this video of the Dies Irae.

It kind of reminds me of several undertakings that I have had since Christmas.  Currently I am training for a marathon (see last post) and fundraising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  Not only am I putting in long training sessions (which getting sick made very difficult recently), but I am working on raising at least $2,900 (but I would love to surpass that by a few hundred if I could).  So again, I am doing something that is very demanding and takes a lot of long hours and extra work.

Also I am working on building up my tutoring business.  Tutoring includes working evenings and doing a lot to prepare for my students.  Yesterday I have been working a lot on gathering and creating resources all in one convenient location.  Check out my other blog Spanish Practice and see the work I have done on that.  Feel free to use those resources and pass them on to others that are learning Spanish.  The materials on the site are of course focused on my students' needs and catered to the curriculum their schools are using.

I am active at Church as well and recently have been selected as a Young Women's Representative for the LWML 2011 National Convention.  When it comes to LWML I am also helping start a new circle at Church.  Right now we are focusing it on other young women in the congregation and basically we meet and have Bible Study once a month.  So far we've met twice and I have really enjoyed it so far!  I can't wait to get more involved in LWML as time goes on.

Along with that I am also still working as a substitute teacher.  March was rather slow with it, but that was fine.  We had a lot of company and I was sick.  It is also to be expected due to spring breaks being on different weeks.  There are just not a lot of jobs in March.  I still enjoy working as a substitute.  I think what I like the best is seeing the students and giving them as hard of a time as they try to give me.

I am just amazed at how busy I have been since student teaching finished, but it has also all been a lot of fun.  It keeps me busy and at times I am probably busier than I should be (my husband can attest to that), but I can say that I at least enjoy the work I am doing and the activities I am involved in.