10.11.2008

Culture Day!

Yesterday was a day of excitement for the students and craziness for the teachers. :) If you've ever chaperoned a field trip or "fun day" at school, you know what I mean. My students worked so hard, and many parents and teachers commented to me how great our room looked. We had truly tranformed our room into a Chinese experience :). I was so proud of them! Here's some photos from the fun!
Welcome to our China Exhibit!
Perfect decorations for the door from a student.
My roomie busting out the Bible costumes with her kindergartners.
My student Gaby in her Chinese garb. She's beautiful!
First graders visiting China. :)

10.09.2008

Convenient Misspellings and Combinations Make For Good Laughs

My student wrote "workshit" in her assignment notebook again today. . . So I told her that the "i" is actually a "double e". Thank goodness she is not up on English cuss words, so she has no clue what I laugh about when I read her assignments.

Cuss words seem to be a theme this week in 4th grade... I need to give you some background information before I tell you what else was said today:

Two girls were working on their Chinese Writing exhibit, and one wrote "Sing Your Name"... switching the "g" and "n" around. I went over to their table and sang "Miss Siscoe!" They looked at me funny, and I pointed to their sign. One girl turns to the other and says "I told you so!" So the girl who spelled it wrong begins to sing her name in different styles... First, she says "Miss Siscoe, this is opera style!" "Miss Siscoe, this is rock and roll style!" Then a boy joins in the conversation and demonstrates his style before telling us what the style is. He made farting noises for each letter of his name... what else do boys do afterall? Then he declares (for the whole class and hallway to hear) "It's faulk style!" (It's hard to spell what he said... It reminds me of the pronunciation of "Meet the Faulkers".... you know what word it plays on.) I looked at him, eyebrows raised. His eyebrows raised pretty fast also when he realized what he had said... And then he says "Uh... Faulk is a combination of Fart and Rock!" Greeeeeat....

Oh, and our school is being painted this week -- WHILE SCHOOL IS IN SESSION. As soon as the students leave at 2:30, so do the painters. I have already built a rather frustrating relationship with these men trying to explain why my door needs to stay locked when I am not there... and these conversations have often ended in tears for me and exasperated looks from them. (Ha, they probably think I'm crazy.) SO, today at 2:15, one painter decides it would be a great time to paint both doors and surrounding woodwork... Now, picture 15 minutes later, students leaving, backpacks and projects in tow, and me trying to babysit these wet doors. I had paint on my clothes, my elbows, and a few students had paint on their backpacks. As a tico student left, he tells the painter (now down the hallway, missing all the wet paint action) that I have paint all over me. This poor painter comes running down the hall, turpentine rag in hand, and he hands the rag to me to clean off my elbows. He was very concerned about my clothes, but I just said "Esta bien! No preocupados!" I didn't know what else to say because our communication is already so ... frustrating. Whatever, it's just a dress and a funny frustration story.

10.08.2008

Spanish Bloopers

Alright, two funny stories for today.

Sooo... In the morning, I greet all the other staff at Sojourn with "Buenas dias! Como esta usted?" The other person usually responds, "Buen, gracias a Dios." ("Good, thanks to God.") I THOUGHT they were saying "Buen, gracias, adios." ("Good, thanks, goodbye.") I just found out last night while reading Trish's blog that they are saying "Thanks to God" instead of trying to shoo me away.

And, the "ee" sound in English is the same as the "i" sound in Spanish... Today, one of my tico students wrote in her assignment notebook "workshit" instead of "worksheet." As I checked her work over, I started busting out laughing because apparently I assign "shit" for homework. In her quiet voice, she says, "Miss Siscoe, what's so funny?" I tried to stop laughing (but it didn't work) and said, "Oh nothing!" I wrote in "ee" over her "i". Hopefully her parents don't notice.

10.07.2008

Serious Faces, Grocery Shopping, and Read to Self

We took a few moments for a photo shoot before Music Class today. Here's the results.
The "serious" faces.

and of course, the "goofy" faces.

We will be applying our addition and subtraction knowledge with a budget simulation project. The lesson plans call for grocery ads with dollar amounts on them.... however, those are a rarity here. SO, I invented my own "grocery ad" of sorts. Would you like to shop in my grocery store? :)

Here's a couple photos during Read to Self today. They're working so hard!!!

Mwa Ha Ha Ha

Tricia was away this past weekend as she was in a wedding in the States.... little did she know what she was in for when she returned.

This was waiting in the shower for her at her 5am shower time yesterday morning. :)

I stayed with Kim Maple and her son when Jaclyn and I came to visit CR in May... Kim had us over for dinner this past weekend while Trish was away, and I am borrowing David Beckham's cutout for something at school... sooooo Trish saw him for the first time in the shower.

In English we spell laughing hahahahaha, but in Spanish we spell it jajajajaja. I think jajajajaja makes me laugh more!

10.06.2008

Mas Fotos de Parque de La Paz

Here are the promised photos! :)


A dirt bike path. Lots of bikers hanging out and showing off tricks.
The view of the mountain from the mountain, ha. Aren't the clouds gorgeous?
Whimsical, eh? There were so many children and adults flying kites from the mountain. Some of their line was so thick that we could see it all the way to the kite! Some kites were so high or far away that they were tiny ants floating in the sky. No offense to any one who really likes ducks, but the ducks here are really ugly. Perhaps a cross between a turkey and goose? Strange...

Lots of greenery surrounding us everywhere! It is the rainy season after all...

Una Nota de Mi Estudiante Llame Yena

An assignment in Writing Workshop was to write a letter to me to let me know what the students were currently thinking and feeling about being in 4th grade. I just thought I would share one letter from Yena, my new student. She is a very intelligent young lady and skipped 3rd grade. Here it is:

Dear Miss.Siscoe
I've passed to fourth grade!
I've made friends very fast.
I don't know why almost all the children in here are so kind to me.
Being the youngest girl in the classroom is kind of scary to me. You're a great teacher!
I think you will be a great astronaut.
I hope I'll grew more.
Sincerly, Yena


P.S. I told the students I want to be an astronaut someday. :)