just miss megan

miss megan.

that's what the kiddies call me.

or just miss. more like "meeeeess".

OH they're presh.

so, Monday we had children and parents running around the school like crazy animals. well, maybe that's not a good description. it wasn't THAT crazy. but still, lots of parents - lots of kids - lots of people not knowing what they were doing. i met 21 of my 23 children. i also met the children that are in my co teacher's classroom (which will be my other class). many of them already speak a moderate level of english but there were a few that did not seem to speak a lick of english. i also had to remember that these lil' babies were nervous. it's only their 2nd grade year AND it's their second language. the parents were interesting. most of them were SUPER nice & very excited for their child to learn english in my class. my spanish was FLOWING. most of the parents did not speak english so i told the children "today is the only day you will hear spanish in the classroom, enjoy it!" i wanted to make sure the children didn't think that they could get away with speaking spanish in my classroom. i'm going to TRY to be suuper patient this year in understanding that they need LOTS of encouragement to try and speak english. i need to remember back to my first spanish classes and how nervous i was to speak it out loud to the whole class.

so far one of my favorite quotes from one of mis alumnos (students) was:

[when looking at our class list] "YESSSS, look mom! she is in my class again.

my girlfriend is in my class again! miss megan, can i sit by her?"

after school on Monday we went to eat at a comida corrida place near our house. it was the epitamy of deliciousness. comida corrida places are places where you get soup, rice, beans, tortillas and a main dish (usually a choice between chicken, beef, or something else yummy). i had a chicken with a cheese broccoli sauce and it was soo yuuuum. then they gave us a dessert that was like a fried pastry with fruit in the middle with sugar on the outside. it was like a little slice of heaven.

side note:

brittan and i were talking yesterday about culture in mexico and how there are SO MANY things that define the culture here and make it different than anywhere else. we couldn't come up with much for the united states as a whole. we did come up with flip flops. they are so american. we thought about like pizza, hamburgers, french fries...but all of that really didn't come from the united states like ROOTED in the US. ya know?

anymore ideas?

we'd love to know what you guys think.

So, remember Cecilia? Our mother away from mothers here in Mexico? Well, first of all, remember that she's amazing. and we LOVE her! but she absolutely made brittan and my day today with an email asking us to come over this weekend and have dinner with her. she's going to make tortilla soup and show us how to make it. that email was seriously at the PERFECT time. we both came home from our first day, tired, our brain's FRIED from spanish, and just worn out. and her email was a huge encouragement to us! we can't wait to get some good hanging time with her. also, learning more about culture in mexico with someone who is from here is super exciting :) i wish i had more interactions with families here. maybe that's something i'm going to strive for.

so, i spent Monday night skyping with friends and watching Finding Nemo. i put the spanish subtitles on. it seems to help a lot in learning new words and verb tenses. there's a lot to freshen up on and still to learn!

TUESDAY

was the first day of school. school starts at 8:00am and ends at 2:00pm. we are supposed to be there at 7:50am, but those of you who know me, know that i'm in my classroom at 7:30am getting ready for the day. so, the kids were pretty good for the most part. you know, there's always a few that just don't listen but i will learn how to tame them :) one thing that is totally different and i'm going to have to adjust BIG time is that culture is sooo different. like even in our teacher meetings it's not a big deal to hear people talking while someone else is talking. it's the same in the classroom, the children aren't taught to be QUIET. so constantly, there is noise. it's just culture and i'm going to have to adjust but i'm tellin you - this first day was a TRIAL! i kept wanting to tell them to be quiet but that's expecting soo much from them especially since they have not been trained to do so. the day went by pretty quickly, overall. i remember looking at my clock at 12:30pm and wondering WHAT IN THE WORLD am i going to do until 2:00!? but it all worked out. and i learned a lot about my kids & am excited to see where the year leads.

parent meetings two dreadful words for teachers. we had a parent orientation night tuesday night where i spoke in spanish in front of a group of about 50 children's parents. i didn't say much, but i spoke. and it was INTIMIDATING. i told them about my expectations, showed them our books for the year, and told them about testing and homework. WHEW, i'm just glad it's OVERRRR.

well, the rest of this week is going to be more get-to-know-you games and activities and preparing ourselves for LOTS of learning. these children are PRESH. i just have to keep them busy...one minute with nothing to do and they go crazyyyy.

WEDNESDAY

so, i promise i'm not going to update EVERY single day. but wednesday was the 2nd day of school and it was drastically different from the first. i started the day off RIGHT. we had a morning meaning with calendar and announcements and then we shared some more about ourselves and they were actually QUIET and interested and worked hard. i think the first-day jitters had them hyped up on tuesday. the afternoon class consisted of computer, music then library. we had no class time in the afternoon. we had some meetings with the other teachers and talked more about our outlook for the year.

so, i went to high-five a student because he spoke a pretty difficult sentence in english and he thought i was going to hit him or something, he kind of flinched. hahaha, it was really funny. little things like this happen a lot - things are just so different here!

so i went like 4 days on the cereal/sandwich diet. i am SO GLAD i went to the store today. i got pasta and yogurt and granola and fruit and broccoli and i'm EXCITED! i regretted buying the grape juice because lugging that thing back to my apartment was a PAIN. but i had a great dinner with leftovers for tomorrow :)

i want to hit up the movies tonight. maybeeee it will happen :) for now, it's naptime

con amor a todos :)

-meggie