Como Abrazas A Un Puercoespin?

Alright, so I was gathering up my mail and I found a book from the Cheerios box! And to my grand luck, it was in English AND Spanish!  So this is me trying to read/speak Spanish. I couldn't read the whole thing on camera though because photobooth cuts out audio after 60 seconds, so it's a quick snap shot of my amazing skills:)

Mixing things up because I'm pretty good at it

 This is a view of the blocked windows that I was given the task to unblock.

 Here we have on the left a file cabinet that I displaced, maps taped onto the white board, and some computers against the whiteboard. I moved all of these.

My blank canvas :)

 Alright, so here you can see that I moved the two random computers back to back with the other two random computers. I hope my teacher likes the move. They seemed in the way against the white board. I have also decorated the bulletin boards and moved the maps.

 Here is where I managed to move the taller bookshelf. Ignore my bike, I rode it to school today and kept a close eye on it. I don't know if I'll ride it to school anymore. I don't really like the possibility of rain or flat tires and I really like getting to school in 5 minutes instead of 20. Also, I like the option of driving places after school like the gym or store. So, I think I am trying to talk myself out of riding the bike.

Open windows. My principal still wants those other shelves lower than the window sill. Hmmm.

Oh! And here is the beginning to the bulletin board at the door. I need to put welcome in Spanish as well and then I'll add "to room 209" or whatever the room number is.

Yup. That's all I got folks.

Who am I working with?

Hey all,

Here's another blog from your favorite AmyO :)

I reported to my school on Monday. There are a million last minute changes that happen in DPS days before students come to school. Apparently my principal didn't find out that the school had been changed from a preK-5 to a preK-3 until way late and she is still not sure exactly what staff will be in her building this year. That being said, I walked into the school on Monday without being assigned to a mentor teacher. I sat down with my principal and we chatted about the type of person I would like to be placed with and so on. We walked around the building a little bit to meet some teachers and finally it was set. I am in a third grade bilingual classroom.

Hola. Haha. That's about as fluent as my Spanish gets. Let's see what else I got... Como esta? Esta bien. Buenos dias! Buenos noches. Uno, dos, tres, quatro, cinco.... El bano. Enchilada.

Yup, that's about all I got! I am excited though. I would love to actually learn Spanish and I know that Cafe Con Leche around the corner has English-Spanish conversation hours. Anyone know the best and quickest way to learn conversational Spanish? I want to get on board with this. I've been living in SW Detroit too long to not know the majority language any longer.

Oh! Guess who I saw at my school? My best friend from middle school's dad...also known as my softball coach. I forgot for a hot second that he worked at my school. He is the science teacher for the upper grades. I'm excited to see what he's got up his sleeve and to learn how to teach science from him. He's also basically fluent in Spanish. Go figure. I'm like the only one who doesn't speak it. Lame.

Today my mentor teacher wasn't in the building, she was out on an in-service bilingual professional development day of some sort. I was left to fend for myself and get the classroom ready for students. I managed to put some sort of color in the room, but I'm having trouble figuring out how to decorate the high ceilings. I have no posters. I have nothing. I'm not even a real teacher yet. But! I did figure out a way to get two huge cabinets away from the windows.

I'll be sure to let you know how everything goes from here on out. And I'll post all of my sweet teaching ideas :) (I sure hope I have some sweet ideas to throw out there every once and a while).

Adios mi amigos. Much love. Amyo.