Random Ramblings...

It has been quite a week.  We're back to school after the break, getting back  into the swing of things, down to only just a few short weeks until the end of first quarter.

It has been raining a lot.  Sometimes misting in the morning.  Raining heavily in the afternoon.  Sometimes raining all through the night.  I've heard it may have something to do with a storm that is moving through Mexico.  So far I haven't gotten caught walking in a torrential downpour.  Those have mostly happened during my afternoon classes.  At some points it has rained so hard it has been hard to talk and hear each other above the sound of the rain beating down on the roof.  There was hail in some parts of town the day before yesterday, strong enough to knock down a big circus tent.  It's a big monetary loss for the owners since, from what I've heard, circus tents are very expensive, but at least nobody was inside when it happened.

I've enjoyed getting back into the routine with the students.  They really are a great group of kids (and teenagers--I know they don't always appreciate the use of the term "kids" :-).   I am really enjoying having the chance to bounce between the age groups and get to know almost all the students.  I don't teach all of them, but through lunch duties and chapels I am starting to get to know the names of some of the others.

I slept a little more this week, which was much needed and very welcome.  I had my first full-length dream in a long time the other night.  Something about escaping from Geneva, Switzerland, in a yellow, rickety, wooden motorized carriage.  (No clue what that was all about, but it was kind of exciting to have actually slept well enough to wake up remembering a dream with a plot. :-)

Otherwise it has been a lot of visiting with people...and getting work done at school.  We are doing writing samples next week, and since I am in charge of the secondary literacy training, I put together the packets for the writing samples and then led a collaboration time training the staff on how to score them.  We'll see how all that goes next week.

I also took a tip from a friend in using literature for grammar practice.  It has been fun to look for pieces of authentic writing that use preterite and imperfect verbs so the students can examine how and why each one was used.  So far it seems to hold their attention more than just using grammar activities from the book.  We've also been doing a lot of "Around the World" with verb conjugations.

I also started reading El Tunel by Ernesto Sabato to see if it might work to read with my high school students.  I am still waiting to see how grisly it gets towards the end, but so far it definitely has potential.  The author writes with such a strong voice and really draws the reader into the main character's head.  It's intriguing and there are parts that made me want to laugh out loud. 

And now it's the weekend again.  Time to get together with friends, go to a Spanish lesson, and keep moving forward into whatever each new day will bring.  It's exciting.