Sept 25 2013

Wednesday!

It’s Katie’s busy day, and my not so busy day. All the same, I joined her on the walk to school that morning through the glittering rain. It rained all day. Probably not the best day to wear my cute flats, but I survived.

We got on our computers and began fiddling around, as usual. Katie spent some time preparing her lesson- in one of them, the parents were to stop by and watch, so she needed to be extra ready for everything!

So that went on, and I chilled inside. I had some kids stop by, we traded our QQ numbers, and some boys came asking for candy [what? Why? I never bring any for anyone], and later on that day when Katie was to teach another class, they came in and pushed me over there in my chair… I really don’t think the teachers we passed were happy about it, but I will not let it happen again! But they weren’t late for class, class wasn’t going on, so hopefully I can’t get in too much trouble for that, right? Haha. But they were everywhere, I couldn’t get away.

All the same, I taught my Grade 3 class today- the one I’m teaching FOUR times this week, because of the holiday last week and this following week, we’re doing Wednesday classes THREE times this week and I also have them on Mondays. Anyways, half the class was missing because they were doing something else with another teacher. A few of them did return and come to sit down.

We went through a few flash cards, and then through the book. The second part was to draw their school, which was a good idea because it took up time, but bad because it took up the rest of class and I never had their attention again! Definitely learned my lesson on that, haha. But I did manage to get some kids through another step, of just talking with some adjectives, so that was pretty good.

Oh, and I was wearing one of my new sweaters! The kids loved it! Called it a rainbow because it had stripes of different colors on it. :D

After that, I fiddled around on the computer because I didn’t have any more of my classes except for the Grade 9 class with Katie- we’re teaching them THREE times this week as well. This past Sunday because last Wednesday we did Friday classes, yesterday because it was Wednesday, and on Friday we’re doing Wednesday classes [Saturday are Thursday classes again and Sunday are Friday classes- and then the rest of the week for Holiday], it’s a little crazy.

So I worked on that for a bit, which took up some time. I wasn’t too sure on what part in the book to work on so I made up like 3 PowerPoint presentations. I had a lot of time on my hands, I had to do something! And that wasn’t too bad! It was a good bit of fun overall.

Dinner!

Okay, now that was delicious. More rolls, of course, and other good dishes. Katie loved one of the green bean dishes- most of them are pretty good although one yesterday was SO spicy she was tearing up, so you have to watch out! And they had star chicken nuggets, and this watery rice soup that I like, and some spicy potato slices… yummy!

It literally rained all day, so we didn’t have Activity Time- again! Very sad L

However it kind of helped us out so we actually had some more time to plan out together what to do. Then a ton of my Grade 5 girls flooded over to see Katie and I for a bit.

Class was soon to start though, so we grabbed everything and headed up. There were no lights and no one in there, so we waited because we weren’t sure if we were really going to have class or not. Soon enough, we had kids start coming in so we figured we were good and started setting everything up.

Katie called roll, and Nicole helped us find the right spot for the video- and she also had us go over the one before, because she wants all the videos to be watched, and last night they didn’t watch it. So we did that and the homework sheet for a few minutes, and then turned over to our main portion, Act II. Super dorky stuff, totally 80’s but in the odd way, haha… Anyways, we did the worksheet after that, and it was a lot about a restaurant so I’d made a presentation about American restaurants. It all seemed so obvious, so I don’t know if it was just repetition or what for them, who knows?

Anyways, we were going to do a Katy Perry song for them but they noticed I had Adele’s Skyfall, and they shouted for that instead! So that’s cool. We were glad they were offering some input, you know? Good to know they care a bit. Although during class, they were talking to each other a bit more than before, and hopefully we figure out how to work with them so they pay attention more often. We’ll see… But the timing worked out perfectly and we were done!

Finished for the day, we collected our things and headed out. We wanted to find some hot cocoa or other so we stopped at the grocery on our way home, but there was just coffee drinks… we did grab some snacks though. There’s this large green thing that looks like a melon Katie likes to buy- but it’s got a super thick skin and inside it’s a bit like a white grapefruit. We’re not sure what it’s called, but Katie likes how hard it is to eat so she gets one pretty often. I’m content with the little tangerines though, haha… and more snacks, of course! She got a fruit/veggie drink [very juicy but not with many vitamins we figure] and I got a Chinese version of orange soda… but when we got home neither of us could open it! So… it’s still in the fridge…. Oh well….

We ended up spending a good three or so hours chatting and eating snacks, which was a good bit of fun. Our topics went over us growing up, our teaching methods, belly buttons [it was always Katie mentioning them], and how we should definitely live near each other and homeschool with each other’s kids. So yeah, we’re both ehm, going to live in California! That’s where I want to be. I don’t need the beach, persay, but…  Yeah. Haha. You know, the usual corny stuff that girls talk about.

At midnight we finally were tired enough but had to do scriptures. Except we spent the first ten minutes in hysterical laughter over… something or other, I don’t know. The mascara was running and we were bouncing all over her bed unable to breathe, that’s all I remember. Over all, it was a very fun day!

Oh, a note on teaching clothes: nice-casual. Some of the teachers here seem to get away with things. Most of them end up in jeans by the end of the week- a lot of them in jeans! Some t-shirts have writing on them as well, as long as it’s not too busy, it seems. I know Journey worn short shorts, a t-shirt and heels one day as well, although I don’t think I’d be comfortable wearing any shorts while teaching here. We have a few casual-like t-shirts, but are still nice enough to wear, we figure. The teachers do have a basic uniform but don’t often wear it. Dresses aren’t too common, but are still definitely worn. The women here always seem to be here in heels which is crazy, I don’t do it. Katie even went a day in flip-flops and I don’t support that, but she didn’t get in trouble so she’s doing it another occasion or too before it’s too cold.