Happy 279^th Birthday, Mr. Washington!

The nice weather has returned! I’m not sure exactly what the temperature is, but it’s sunny and decent. It’s a little windy, but it’s not a cold wind, so that makes all the difference!

Today seemed to go pretty quickly. My celebrity status continued, with several more students coming up to me and being like “Te vi, te vi en la misa!” And María José was like “So I heard you went to mass on Sunday!” Ahh, stardom!

I had the three-year-olds first hour. I went to Julia’s first and we started out with the “Buenos Días” song (which I am learning!) and then the maquinista of the day, Patricia, called roll in English—“Is _______ here?” “Here.” That was followed by the counting of the students at school and home sick. I then talked a little about the characters from Sponge Bob, because we talked a bit about them last week. They LOVE Sponge Bob! I wasn’t able to get a picture to show them this week, so that’s my homework for next week!

I was only in Ángela’s class for about 20 minutes because we ran over in Julia’s (it’s so hard for me to split the hour between the two!). When I got there, they were reviewing places/things around the city—fruit store, bread store, traffic light, sidewalk, street lamp, etc. That was all they really did whilst I was there, because they reviewed the places several times.

When I got to 5A, María José was reviewing their homework with them. That took a while and when she was finished, I talked with them about some leisure activities from their books—reading, rollerblading, watching TV, listening to music…I then asked them questions about the activities to check for comprehension and I totally called on the kids who weren’t paying attention or who didn’t have their hands raised! I guess that’s the teacher in me, haha!

Third hour was 1B and we played a “game” called STOP! in which I said a vocab word and then went through all their flashcards, and when I came upon that word, they had to yell STOP! It was kinda cute because each card it wasn’t, they were like “NOOOO!”. They then did a workbook page where they had to draw the next shape in the series. The concept seems pretty simple, but some of them had trouble with it.

Today was bocadillo (sandwich) Tuesday. Emi told me yesterday, when I was at my lesson with Juan An, that was her group’s turn to do it, so when she dropped me off yesterday, I was like “OK, see you tomorrow!” I bought a small bocadillo just like I always do and I saw her when recreo was over and she was like “Corni, venga! I was like “See you later!” and another one of the moms was like “Wait!” And then Emi came and gave me another sandwich, bless her heart! I think she thinks I don’t get enough to eat or something…either that, or she felt bad for “only” serving me store-bought pastries yesterday because she didn’t have time to make anything! She was like “Don’t worry though, because on Thursday I’m going to make blahblahblah type of cake.” No doubt it’ll be delectable and she’ll sent half of it home with me…Yeah, hard life, tutoring, I know!

Five years A was after break and I reviewed carnival things with them and also read them the story again (apparently when I read it before several students were sick. They then did a simple worksheet about series as well, in which they had to draw the next character. It was like “teacher, ghost, pirate, teacher, _______, pirate. They were so lost; they had no idea what to do, do I ended up giving several of them the answers…my bad!

Last hour was 6B. While I usually enjoy that class, today, they just annoyed me. I did a dictation with them (like I did with 6C yesterday) and they didn’t get it at all. No matter how many times I repeated the sentences—literally ten times for some—they were still like “WHAT??” And then they would talk because they didn’t understand it and so the ones who actually did understand it couldn’t hear. I mean, 6C had a little trouble with it, but not nearly the trouble that this class had. I even said “If you guys’ll just be quiet and listen, it’s not that hard!” I just had an “off” day with them, I think.

I think I’m going to try to make some fudge this afternoon…since I have marshmallow crème now! Thanks Mom and Dad! We’ll see how that works out. I hope it turns out well and tastes like it should, because that sounds so yummy right now!

Xoxo,

Court