Thursday, March 1, 2012
Welcome Baby Mica!
Big Sur. Amazing cycling, sightseeing, hiking
Friday, February 10, 2012
Angels
I don't know exactly why I have been so blessed in the roommates, friends, and sisters area. I have consistently been blessed to have some of the most incredible women I know as my closest relationships . Maybe Heavenly Father knows there is some intense refining to be done on me, and thus need those daily examples. Which is totally fine because they add so much happiness to my life, and perspective, and love, and understanding of what really matters most.
Here's just a little excerpt of an email I received from one of them this morning. Perfect words, perfect timing:
"We are not casualties of mortality. We will have our dreams or we will have something better. That's just how it works."
I know right? I wouldn't trade... for anything... being surrounded by amazing friends who are constantly lifting me up and following the Spirit to do good and make the world a better place. Even if that means making a difference for just one person.
Here's just a little excerpt of an email I received from one of them this morning. Perfect words, perfect timing:
"We are not casualties of mortality. We will have our dreams or we will have something better. That's just how it works."
I know right? I wouldn't trade... for anything... being surrounded by amazing friends who are constantly lifting me up and following the Spirit to do good and make the world a better place. Even if that means making a difference for just one person.
Love
"Let us define love: To love another righteously is to protect, to elevate, to keep pure and undefiled, and to sacrifice one’s self for the benefit of the other." Elder Richard G. Scott
Friday, February 3, 2012
Teaching... again
If you are not a teacher, or are completely bored by the whole idea of teaching, you might want to stop reading. However, if you are a teacher, have a passion for teaching, or are my mom, you might be interested... so read on.
Today I taught a brilliant lesson (I feel ok about bragging right now because I don't often make this claim) to my little guys- 1st through 3rd graders.
We 'travel' to different Spanish speaking countries. First was Spain, and now we are in Chile. We started our trip by talking about the season and weather of Chile right now which made them excited to learn weather and seasons vocabulary. Then we made a packing list and studied clothing vocabulary.
We had a short and sweet 14 hour plane ride and I showed them pictures of what they would see as we landed in Santiago. We then got to our hostel and as we went to each new place throughout the first day we saw pictures of the actual place and found it on a city map I printed from the internet. They marked their maps and the route we would take throughout the day.
When it was lunchtime we went to an outdoor market with artisan souvenirs and restaurants. I showed them pictures of typical Chilean meals, described them, and told them how much they would cost. I had given them a budget of 10,000 pesos at the beginning of the day... the equivalent of $20. So with lunch they got to learn numbers in the hundreds and thousands, as well as some Spanish food.
Then came souvenir shopping. Luckily I served my mission in Chile so I had plenty of 'realia'... jewelry, stuffed toys, bookmark, mate bombilla and straw, change purses, collector's spoon, keychain. I had the name of each souvenir printed on one side and the price on the other. I showed them the item, said its name, had them look for it in the cards laid out, and had them say the price in Spanish. When all the realia was out with its label and price on it they got to 'go shopping'. They wrote their purchases on the back of their packing lists so they could keep track of their budget.
It's amazing how much more exciting the students are about learning when it's real life situations. And it's so much more fun to teach. Basically, I plan on teaching any new vocabulary while we're on a trip to one of these new countries. And hopefully figuring out how to include grammar in our travels.
Love days like these. I felt like I had them more often in the last couple of years in Virginia and have just been trying to find my groove at this new school and with my new age groups and teaching environment... maybe finding the groove is just around the corner:)
Friday, January 6, 2012
A good teaching day
As I have bumbled my way through this new experience of teaching 5-14 year olds I have felt almost like I'm starting over in many ways.
Ok, not completely. I remember my first year of teaching, driving to work every morning, fighting the urge to keep driving past the school where I taught, across the country, and home to California. The only thing that got me through each day was knowing that I could change my career at the end of the school year.
For some reason I decided not to change careers at the end of that school year. Maybe it was the teachers that I worked with who inspired me. Maybe those few students who made the hardest days bearable just by a smile or a note or telling me that Spanish was their favorite class.
And just like everyone promised, every year got better. I think it has to do partially with the fact that my students kept getting younger and younger. But also with the fact that I have really felt like I have been lead to the right place at the right time.
I loved the people I worked with at my first school. When the enrollment went down and I was forced to move schools I was not prepared to get a position at one of the most incredible schools. Ever. When I decided I needed to move to California one of the most difficult things for me to leave was my job. I had no idea that I would have the opportunity to teach in a setting I had dreamt about for years. Not only would I get to have complete autonomy over the curriculum and schedule, I would get to teach elementary age kids AND middle schoolers... my favorite age groups! AND it would be at a Montessori school.
So I went from teaching the same thing five times a day in a public school setting to teaching seven different levels of Spanish to children between the ages of 5 and 14 at a private international school. I love that I sit in my office and hear sounds of children playing all day. I love that throughout the day I have kids coming in to talk or play or draw pictures for me. I even love that my students call me Melissa instead of Srta. Della Gatta. I love that I can do fun projects and field trips and songs and games without other teachers getting mad or jealous. I love that I don't give letter grades or standardized tests. I love that I have so many opportunities to work individually with my students. I love that my students are not confined to desks and have freedom and responsibility.
I wish I could post pictures of my middle schoolers today, reading to their five year old 'buddies' the bilingual books they made. A few months ago they started making books for children in Spanish speaking countries. The books teach children's rhymes and songs, animals, the alphabet, stories, food etc. They are all written in both Spanish and English, colored, laminated, and bound. They will be sent to kids who don't have access to very many materials, particularly to children's books.
But before we send them, the middle schoolers read their books to the kindergartners. They were AMAZING with the little kids. They were so good at teaching them, improvising... and the kindergarteners looked up to them so much. They loved it.
I have A LOT to learn. I'm still trying to figure out how to teach all these different levels, how to differentiate for all the levels within each class, how to develop a curriculum, how to make it interesting and fun but challenging at the same time... classroom management (which happens to be different in every one of the 11 classrooms I teach). But along the way I have these little moments of success when I see how my efforts make a difference... even in a small way.
Ok, not completely. I remember my first year of teaching, driving to work every morning, fighting the urge to keep driving past the school where I taught, across the country, and home to California. The only thing that got me through each day was knowing that I could change my career at the end of the school year.
For some reason I decided not to change careers at the end of that school year. Maybe it was the teachers that I worked with who inspired me. Maybe those few students who made the hardest days bearable just by a smile or a note or telling me that Spanish was their favorite class.
And just like everyone promised, every year got better. I think it has to do partially with the fact that my students kept getting younger and younger. But also with the fact that I have really felt like I have been lead to the right place at the right time.
I loved the people I worked with at my first school. When the enrollment went down and I was forced to move schools I was not prepared to get a position at one of the most incredible schools. Ever. When I decided I needed to move to California one of the most difficult things for me to leave was my job. I had no idea that I would have the opportunity to teach in a setting I had dreamt about for years. Not only would I get to have complete autonomy over the curriculum and schedule, I would get to teach elementary age kids AND middle schoolers... my favorite age groups! AND it would be at a Montessori school.
So I went from teaching the same thing five times a day in a public school setting to teaching seven different levels of Spanish to children between the ages of 5 and 14 at a private international school. I love that I sit in my office and hear sounds of children playing all day. I love that throughout the day I have kids coming in to talk or play or draw pictures for me. I even love that my students call me Melissa instead of Srta. Della Gatta. I love that I can do fun projects and field trips and songs and games without other teachers getting mad or jealous. I love that I don't give letter grades or standardized tests. I love that I have so many opportunities to work individually with my students. I love that my students are not confined to desks and have freedom and responsibility.
I wish I could post pictures of my middle schoolers today, reading to their five year old 'buddies' the bilingual books they made. A few months ago they started making books for children in Spanish speaking countries. The books teach children's rhymes and songs, animals, the alphabet, stories, food etc. They are all written in both Spanish and English, colored, laminated, and bound. They will be sent to kids who don't have access to very many materials, particularly to children's books.
But before we send them, the middle schoolers read their books to the kindergartners. They were AMAZING with the little kids. They were so good at teaching them, improvising... and the kindergarteners looked up to them so much. They loved it.
I have A LOT to learn. I'm still trying to figure out how to teach all these different levels, how to differentiate for all the levels within each class, how to develop a curriculum, how to make it interesting and fun but challenging at the same time... classroom management (which happens to be different in every one of the 11 classrooms I teach). But along the way I have these little moments of success when I see how my efforts make a difference... even in a small way.
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