Rain

Week two is underway and it's going to be a long week full of tests and quizzes. Sadly that makes for squirrley thrid graders; totally understandable though. Giving the first test is always a forboding feeling because you never really know what to expect until you start to grade. I'm hoping that I've been doing enough to help my students pick up concepts and learn.

After being here for 3 weeks our house is finally full. Kelsey arrived on Saturday, but it seems she has been for longer than that. It is such a blessing to have such wonderful housemates. Life will certainly be full of laughter and I may actually relax a little bit as the year goes on.

I am finding out daily that life here is going to grow me more as a person than anything. Daily life is making me laugh at the small things that go wrong instead of my normal tendency to over analyze life. I know for many people that must be thrilling news that I may actually relax for once! Dominican life could potentially be helpful for future teaching ventures and for my life in general.

Learning to laugh will be crucial as next week we start our reading program at school. I have been placed with the 1st graders. I love the first graders but they don't speak English and well right now my Spanish is probably about at the level of their English. Should be a fun year teaching them how to read and recognize words. I

Rain...it isn't even rainy season yet and it's raining...but for now I love the rain. Rain here means cooler temperatures, less sweat and lots of wet & smelly dogs. But the temperature thing is a wonderful break from the heat.

Week One - Check

Well week one is done and in my book that's a pretty big deal. Like I stated earlier this week I love my students. They continue to blow me away by their crazy need to please me. Every afternoon they have Spanish with Ms. Abreu and when she leaves they always stand up and greet me. So cute.

I don't have many fun stories to share from this week; however, I'm sure they will happen through out the year.

I am excited for this weekend because we actually have shopping to do now that our house is complete. We have done some switching of living situations so our final roommate Kelsey is getting here tonight! We can finally go shopping for decor for our walls, kitchen, etc.

Right now Natalie and I are watching random FNL videos from IWU on YouTube....good passing of time. We also finished season 1 of The Office tonight...bonus.

It's hard to believe that I've been here for 3 weeks now! It honestly seems I've been here for longer than I really have been.

Week 2 involves School House Rock...pretty solid.

First Day of School

Well I survived my first day of teaching; granted it wasn't very hard since my students are amazing! After one day I already just love them to pieces :). I am blessed to be receiving on good authority "one of the best classes the school has seen".

My kids are very easy going and love math for some strange reason. I am interested to see how tomorrow goes with having the first day done with. We are supposedly starting our reading program tomorrow which means Running Records for all. Thankfully I once had a teacher who taught for a whole semester the art of the RR. I informally checked my third graders and the RR shouldn't be that difficult from what I gathered.

I have a few students who struggled but that is to be expected from 2nd language learners; so all in all I'm not too concerned. I have one girl who blew my mind...she's from New Zealand (and yes she has the cutest NZ accent in the world!) but she can read anything I've put in front of her so far. When I talked with dad today he said she'd already read the whole Narnia series independently - at 8yrs old!!!

I'm very excited to go back tomorrow and see what new things I can learn from them and teach them too. Right now I sadly have to lesson plan as Natalie gets here tomorrow!

Of Dinner Parties and Storms

Today we welcomed back the appearance of the sun after it's 2 day absence due to Tropical Storm Fay and the very low clouds and constant rainfall that accompanied it. Aside from it raining and being damp the storm wasn't nearly as bad as I had anticipated.

The storm even passed with only one major power loss the very fist day. :) However because the school was busy with construction at the time of the storm much of what needed to happen didn't get finished. Leaving us with one extra day to get ready for the next school year. School will start on Tuesday which will be quite an ordeal since things are done differently here than in the US.

I am super excited for the year to start and very thankful for the people God has place in my life here. The group of old/new American staff is outstanding. I am so thankful that we have bonded so quickly. So far we have had Friday/Saturday dinners together which is nice to have everyone around a table laughing and sharing a meal. Hopefully we can continue that throughout the year as our schedules allow.

This Week:
Monday - teacher work day
Tuesday - first day of school
Wednesday - Natalie arrives

Pictures!

This is the staircase that is being built right outside my door in my classroom! (the door to the right goes into my room)

Our back porch complete with rocking chairs and a view of the mountains.

My beautiful house that I share with 3 wonderful roommates (Anna, Christy, & Natalie)!

I'm so excited to finally be putting pictures up at my own house! We finally got our internet situation figured out today thanks in part to Enmanuel the school's IT director. I'm so thankful that someone was able to figure out our problems. School starts on Monday right now, but with the way construction is going I'm not sure how things will get done unless we help install stairs too. I'm very excited to start school now that my classroom is all set up; just waiting for my door to be relocated to the other side of the stairs and it'll be good to go.

Blessings

I apologize for the incoherent flow of this post but I'm just writing what comes to mind! :)

God has provided answers to 2 out of the 3 problems I wrote about yesterday. He also provided a working DC connection for our modem. Life is continuing to go well and I still haven't set up a single thing in my classroom which is driving my a bit insane since we have Parent Night tomorrow.

I'm loving the preping of lessons without the stress of a supervising teacher constantly hovering over my shoulder and the freedom of planning without the TU lesson plan format. As much as I love writing 3 page lessons, life is much less stressful.

Christy arrived last night around 9:30 and is already a blessing to Anna and I as we are getting things in our house sorted out. We are anxiously awaiting Natalie's arrival next Wednesday and have much to do before she gets here.

Problems with the No. 3:

Problem 1:
3ft hole in front of my classroom door. Hopefully by the end of this week I will have a new doorway that is safely accessible for everyone. In order for this to happen my old door must be removed and relocated 7ft down the hall; once that is complete my old doorway will be blocked off and the new stairs will be open.

Problem 2:
Currently Anna and I have 3 leaking pipes in our backyard. Due to our leaking pipes our yard floods and we have no water pressure in the house.

Problem 3:
Yesterday our propane went out; no big deal, but we don't have the key to open our propane cage! So in the end that problem just adds to all our other problems we are working through.


Good things:
Anna and I will have a 3rd roommate tonight who has lived in the house and can help us learn the quirks of all the house.
I have wonderful new friends who let me use their computer and internet since ours insn't working.
Health, I passed the 1 week mark and I'm still alive and well. :) Let's hope this keeps up.
My ability to be patient is growing daily.
I am getting extremely excited to be planning lessons and preparing as best as I can for my class to come next Monday.