Look Mom! I'm a Chef! :)

Check out my latest cooking endeavors :). Steamed peppers, onions, green beans, carrots, potatoes, lime, cilantro, and garlic salt. Yummy.
And a shout out to Amy Kovanda for teaching me how to make "Grown Up Grilled Cheese". Toasted bread, topped with a tomato slice, a basil leaf, and melted cheese. Definitely a keeper for my recipe book. The original recipe calls for provolone cheese; however, that's a delicacy here and quite expensive, so I used gouda instead.
Costa Rican style cooking = lots of fresh fruits and veggies. I'm loving this.

Yay! I took pictures today!!!

Just a few photos today. :) Here's the class smiling for the camera.
And then the classic goofy faces.
Meet Jordan. Energy central, trust me. He's moving to Guatemala in December.

So today I had a bad day. You know, the classic forget-my-lunch, bad-news, take-it-personally, make-the-kids-cry kind of day. BUT I did come home with a couple funny stories...

Lunch is a hectic time of day for those of us in 4th grade (and any grade for that matter), because every teacher is also the lunchroom supervisor for her students. Not only is the teacher responsible for opening juice boxes and encouraging good table manners (my class struggles with chewing with our mouths closed... me included :)), but the teacher is also responsible for heating up any lunches needing reheating. So I'm running around, grabbing lunches and pushing microwave buttons like a pro... and then I realized I had forgotten my own lunch. I was already having a bad day, so this was kind of like the "straw that broke the camel's back". I finished my microwave duties and sat down next to the 5th grade teacher (Kim V.) and told her I had forgotten my lunch. Now this seems normal enough, but of course my good old emotions overflowed and I collapsed into tears. Thank goodness Kim had enough sense to just go get lunch for me from Cosas (the catering business that makes our student lunches) and tell me to collect myself in the bathroom. When I came back from the restroom, Kim had lunch waiting for me and my students were asking, "Would you like us to make a donation to your lunch?" (We've handled forgotten lunches this way in the past for other students) ... Of course, I didn't turn down the cookies and chips the students offered me in place of my forgotten lunch. Ha, quite healthy.

Alright, second funny story. We were doing the penmanship exercise, and I was attempting to write "14" at the board. Now, it doesn't seem to difficult to write while standing up, but when my arm doesn't have a horizontal surface to rest on, it throws me off completely. Soooo you can imagine how my penmanship lessons tend to go. (Ha, I should call it "how not to write" lessons) So I wrote my "14" and one of the boys raises his hand. "Ummm Miss Siscoe? The 4 doesn't go under the line quite that much." .... I was silent, staring at my attempted 4, not knowing what to say or do. One of the girls whispers "Jordan, don't frustrate Miss Siscoe right now!" Jordan says really loudly "Actually, your 4 is great. Nevermind!" I stand back and examine my "14" again. Another girl says "Yeah, Miss Siscoe, it looks great!" Ha, it was obvious that I was having a bad day.

Tomorrow will be better.

Un Fin de Semana Tipico en San Francisco de Dos Rios

Eventful weekend on this homefront! Lots of socializing and... well, no work. Ha, I kind of feel like a college student still because I get back from my fun weekend on Sunday afternoon and all I can think is... "I have a lot of work to do!" Bah.

In the near future (in other words, this week), I am going to really make an effort to not bring work home. Bah humbug, first year of teaching.

Alright, I'm done complaining now. :)

Kim and I babysat on Friday night for the Diem family with the cutest little boys ... I forgot my camera. Josiah (3 and obsessed with Peter Pan) and Elliott (18mos. and super laid back) are my new favorite stress outlet.

Saturday brought another trip to the feria and housechores. THEN :) we went with our neighbor Diane and friend Becky Diem for a pedicure at a Nicaraguan place "Magica Unas" ("Magic Nail"). Only $8!! Then we headed to teacher friend's Lauren and Mau's house in Concepcion de Tres Rios, up the mountain, and enjoyed an afternoon of Mau's exceptional cooking and lots of stories and laughs.

Sunday = church, grocery store, lunch with the Diem family, phone call to Mom, mini-nap, laundry, letter writing, dinner with the neighbors, meet Kim V.'s family... and here I am. :) Lots of work to do.



I realized today I hadn't taken photos in way too long. I'll be fixing that soon. Sorry I didn't capture Josiah or Elliott's mischevious smiles for you... I'm sure I'll have more opportunities. For now... I need to get something school-related done!

As always, much love

Changes in Fourth Grade

Lots of changes this week!! My students (and I :)) have handled it well for the most part; however, I must admit I'm looking forward to the set routine again.

Change #1 = New student from Korea! Must catch her up on everything we do in our class. . . thank goodness she speaks English pretty well!

Change #2 = We are no longer eating lunch in our classroom, because the construction is complete! Now we are eating in the picnic area, and we are figuring out new routines there... kind of confusing and stressful for everyone involved, trust me.

Change #3 = Our first tests! Tuesday was our True Stories test, Wednesday was a Puzzles test, and today is a Word Play test. Whew!! No homework due to tests in also a new thing this week.

Change #4 = Every Wednesday, we will be reading to the kindergartners, and this past Wednesday was the first time. Both the 5 year olds and my 10 year olds did so well with this :).

There's more, but I'm writing during my planning period at school and someone else needs the computer. I'm surviving the changes so far! And thank goodness someone thought of weekends and rests from work.

I have a phone number! :)

Yay hurray, I purchased a phone number! If you don't have a Skype number and you are living overseas, I'll be your salesperson right now. $17 for 3 months of unlimited minutes calling to the United States. Incredible, that's all I have to say.

So far, I've surprised several family members and friends with calling :). What great fun. You might be next!!!

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This is my week to teach Bible during Chapel time in the mornings, and my students have been helping me. The lessons center around the story of the Tower of Babel, when all the different languages of the world came to be. My students drew plants and bricks and then acted out the parts of brickmakers, carriers, and a boss... They did wonderfully today. I'm so proud of them (of course!)! On Friday will be the final culmination when God confuses the languages and everyone begins speaking different languages and can no longer communicate. My students will start babbling in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Korean. It will definitely be another proud moment for me, and they're super excited to speak their native languages!

Another proud moment today was when we went to the kindergarten class with Miss Wegman (my roomie Trish) and partnered up a 4th grader and a kindergartner to read for 20 minutes. I had coached my students about how to ask questions to keep the 5 year olds engaged in the book, and my students did wonderfully at leading conversations about the books. During our debriefing session afterwards, several students said "My kindergartner wouldn't stop talking!" and others said "Mine wouldn't talk at all!" Ha, it's quite the age gap, but our purpose is to excite the kindergartners about reading. I think we accomplished that goal for today!

what would you do if...?

do you think you could handle 15 students, calling your name "Miss Siscoe! Miss Siscoe!" and asking you a million questions a second and the action never stops and then a bee flies in the room... and out the window so everything calms down... and then the bee flies back in... constant chaos surrounds you (girls screaming, boys chasing bees)... and then to top it all off someone farts? what would you do in this situation?

true story. in fact, it happened yesterday.

Guess What Made My Day??

A couple things, actually.

I always begin my parent/teacher conferences by asking how the student is doing in my class. I like to get a parent's perspective to see if we're on the same page... :). One dad today told me, "Well, I don't know what you did to my son, but all of a sudden, he loves to read." Yay!!! I love to hear that!!!

Today was also the first day that I had another person helping me in the classroom. And I didn't have just one, I had two! Wow, they did so much grading for me and so many "administrative" duties that I am just amazed. Thanks Miss Roark and Mrs. Bredbenner!!! Your help was so appreciated!

That's all for now.