Friday we rented some movies and watched those at night because we were going surfing again in the morning. I, unfortunately did not go because waking up at 5:30am was wayyy to difficult for me. When they got back from surfing we just relaxed around the house for the rest of the afternoon while Anne and Chris were at the orphanage in TJ, they work on Saturday's. Later that night we went out to a bar that is in walking distance from the house which was def fun...I can see us heading there a lot this year. Sunday night we were sick of just sitting at the house so we decided to take a spur of the moment trip to the beach. It was actually definitely my high point of the week. We all just layed in a circle on the blanket looking up at the stars just talking.
Monday was finally my last day of not working! Ali, Emily and Mike had the day off as well because it was labor day, but Chris and Anne still had to head to the orphanage due to the fact that it is in Mexico and they do not celebrate the day. On our day off we decided to sleep late and then head to get sushi for lunch. It was my first time trying it and it was actually very good! We found a place that was not only amazing but gave us soup, salad, rice, chicken teriyaki, egg rolls, shrimp and veggie tempura, and dumplings for only 11 dollars! It was a great last day before working.
So Tuesday began my first day working at St. Patrick's elementary school! I will be assuming the roles of Phys Ed teacher for grades K-8 and Computer teacher for grades 6-8. Tuesday was an easy day because they had a half day of school so Anne (she is with me at St. Pat's on Tuesday's and Thursday's) and I met with the principal, got schedules, met the teachers, and looked over paperwork that we had to have signed. The kids left school and then we met with the junior high teachers (6th, 7th and 8th grade) and they gave us a lot of helpful hints of how to deal with the kids that age and who is really going to give us a hard time.
Wednesday was their first full day of school and my first day by myself as well. (side note: our creepy astro van hit 99,999 miles on 09/09/09!...so weird!) That morning starting off the morning assembly the principal Dan O'Neal started with "does anybody know who this is?" and all the kids responded with either, our new P.E. teacher or the new auggie. It's so strange how they are so used to having somebody there every year and getting a new P.E. teacher each year. As much as it may be difficult for them because they have to get used to new games or new teaching styles each year I think it's good to see somebody at this age doing a volunteer program such as this. I wasn't having my life scan done until the following morning so I couldn't be alone with the kids until that was done. I spent most of my day reading a P.E. lesson book and reading things about the school and what my real job is.
I love being able to come home from work and just spend time with my community. When we got out on Wednesday we hung around the house for a bit and then Ali, Emily and myself decided about 25 minutes before sunset that we wanted to head to the beach to see the sunset. We saw some of it, but it was great. I love the beach at anytime of night. We then proceeded to get amazing frozen yogurt at a place we found on Coronado that has a great deal. The funny thing about California is that you see frozen yogurt places everywhere, but you don't ever see ice cream places.
Thursday consisted of planning and reading again with Anne in the morning followed by finally getting our life scans done. We then spent time with the 3rd graders playing games that they liked and then later the same with the 5th graders. The third graders are still at the adorable age...probably the last grade that is really just all around cute. They loved the game sharks and minnows and then a game they called night at the museum where you have night guards and everybody else is statues, and the statues move when the night guards have their back to you and if they catch you moving you're out. They love it. The 5th graders are pretty good too...they also loved sharks and minnows but they can't play it for as long. There are so many of them though...26, which is one of my biggest classes.
The evening also consisted of going back to school for "back to school night" where the parents have the ability to meet and talk to all of the teachers. We pretty much sat through parents talking about different fundraising things for the upcoming year and then Anne and I and the other teachers (there is only one for each grade) had to introduce ourselves to all of the parents. As much as it was boring and almost unnecessary for us to be there cause the parents don't really care about talking to the P.E. and computer teachers that have been there for only 3 days, it was good to really see the sense of community at the school and how a catholic elementary school really runs because it is so much different then a public school. The sense of community with the teachers is also amazing and I can't believe how much they have already welcomed us into the school within a matter of a few days. They offer to help us in any way that they can, give us tons of words of advice and even just have fun conversations about who we are, what we're doing this year, their lives and even what we're doing this weekend. They've told us about great places to get things that we need and have even offered to let us use bikes they have on coronado beach! Speaking of coronado, we went back YET AGAIN Thursday night for prayer on the beach...I love looking at the stars.
Friday was crazy, it was my first day by myself and my first day having to have the kids and have lessons. Of course the first class I had was the 8th graders (28 of them!) and they are definitely going to be my big challenge this year. They hated participating in all the stretches, they cheated out on running the small 2 laps around the yard and they argued with every call I made in kickball (if they didn't complain about playing the game in general in the first place). The teachers and previous volunteers told me that this grade would be really hard to deal with and I have seen in the first day that that is beyond true. I have them 4 times a week, twice for P.E. and twice for computers, so I will have to see how this week goes.
The rest of my first full day wasn't too bad. The Kindergarteners were adorable. They loved everything including the stretches and the games. 4th grade was harder because they are definitely not as young as the the 3rd graders so the games I planned didn't exactly work. The 1st and 2nd graders are together because there are only 6 kids in grade 2 and they were cute just like K. So I made it out alive after my first week of classes. I am realizing that this year is going to be a lot harder then I thought it would be. I am going to be there for about 45 horus a week, plus the time I spend outside of work planning all of my lessons. I still haven't found anything really good to use to begin planning lessons so I'm going to try to do research on that this week. It will be difficult because the kids get bored soon after games and you never know if they will even like the game or not so you have to have a couple different back ups.
The weekend was great but also seemed wayyy too short! Friday was a very chill night where we all fell asleep before 11pm...yes we are lame! We are learning that we need to take naps when we get home on Friday from work because the work day just drains us (or at least me). Saturday was for sleeping late, watching life time movies, beach during the day and frozen yogurt once again! When I was swimming I saw dolphins in the water! AMAZING! We decided that since mike's 23rd bday was on Tuesday we would celebrate this weekend due to insanely conflicting work schedules during the week. Ali made him a cake that was the ocean with a surf board that was bitten by a shark (he is deathly afraid of sharks!) and it was amazing. We hung out on the deck upstairs and were going to go out, but never even made but had tons of fun!
Today was zoo day! We met the CFO of the San Diego Zoo and she gave us free tickets so we did that. It was absolutly amazing! We definitely took advantage of our tickets and our time there and hit just about everything in the zoo. I want 2 pet mandrills (girl and a boy), an otter, and a mom and son gorilla to adopt. That would be fab!
So tomorrow starts the 2nd week of school, my first week really teaching. I'm nervous to see how it will go and how kids will act. I'm trying to be more strict with them in the beginning and let them know the rules and hopefully they will behave in class. Tomorrow I just have 6th grade P.E. and an 8th grade computer class but have a few different engligh enrichment classes during the day to teach as well to the kids are fluent in spanish that come to St. Pats from TJ. Hopefully I can find something to get a good set of units going and a schedule for the year. As of now I'm just going week by week and i'm praying this one goes well! I just realized how long this was! I'm going to try to update more so the entries aren't as long. have a great week everyone!
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