Parent Teacher Conferences...

...in Spanish!!!

I have been so nervous for about the last week, for lots of reasons. Last school year, I really wanted to have relationships with the tico parents, just like I did with the gringo parents, but it was virtually impossible because of the language barrier. The tico parents knew I was learning Spanish, but it is hard to bust out a Spanish conversation A) when you're not confident about it and B) after a day of speaking English with 10 year olds. So the tico parents turned to the EFL teacher when there were issues the school needed to know about... and I was left feeling like I wanted more.

Plus, my goal someday is to work in a bilingual school in the States... so I felt the weight of that goal a little bit as I asked,"Can I really do it? Can I really be fluent and have relationships with families in both languages?"

So this year parent teacher meetings yesterday were like my debut and the culminating point for my nerves. I spoke in Spanish for 5 conferences yesterday and it felt so good!!! We were able to discuss concerns and strong points of their children, and I told the families that I wanted to learn about the language and the culture from them. I also told them to contact me at anytime by phone or email.

I did it!!! Thank you, Jesus, for teaching me so much in one year!!!

Who Knew Grammar Could Be So Fun??

This year's first grammar lesson generated lots of laughs... so I thought I would share it with you. Today, I opened the lesson asking the students to show me how they felt about grammar and I received many thumbs down... uh-oh, I told them, I had to teach to a tough crowd. They all said, "Good luck!!"

I handed out a half-sheet of paper and the students wrote one sentence. My example was "The cow jumped over the moon," which I knew to be from a nursery rhyme, but the ticos thought it was the funniest thing and what was a nursery rhyme?? Each student wrote their sentence as I told them it could be as silly or as serious as they wanted it to be. Here's some samples of what we ended up with:

My teacher is great.

I just saw a really weird thing.

The sheep jumped in a bikini.

Miss Siscoe is great.

I am happy today because my mom is happy.

Jonathan is a rat.

My name is Jonathan.


I wasn't really sure what the girl who wrote "Jonathan is a rat" was trying to imply about her classmate, but we went with it and he was good humored about it.

Then we divided our sentences between the subject and predicate (aka the noun and verb), and I instructed the students to cut their paper in half on the line they had drawn between the two parts.

Then the fun really began.

I read all the subjects one at a time. We decided they were not complete sentences.

I read all the predicates one at a time. We decided they also were not complete sentences.

Then I mix and matched the subjects and predicates together, and here's what we got:



Jonathan is Jonathan.

I am a rat.

Miss Siscoe jumped in a bikini.


Uh-oh... that last one had them rolling on the floor. I was a little worried about parents hearing that I was talking about wearing bikinis... with their 10 year olds.

And then the killer question came that just topped off the whole stand-up comedy routine:

"Miss Siscoe, do you really wear bikinis?"

2009-2010 Students!

All smiles for the camera...

The girls begging me not to take more photos...

and the boys not minding at all...

fun bunch... and this isn't even all of them! twins arrived today, so that puts us at 15.

please pray for our classroom. it's like a personal sauna, and we have lots of headaches and hydration issues. pray for a lasting solution to the problem! thanks.

i know you´re all waiting for this... :)

Coming Soon...

photos of the new students!!! :) I just have to take some photos first and then I will introduce you!

Volcan Irazu

Judit and I ventured to another Costa Rican volcano today... there's so many to see! We could walk all the way to the edge of the crater of Volcan Irazu! It was very strange to see the land... almost sandy, but the sand was black lava rock, and only a few plants growing. Also, it was at an even higher altitude than the city (at 4000 feet) so it was really cold. There was lots of fog and cold winds. Most of the plants were considered lichens too... which I thought were only in Alaskan tundra or whatever those are called! Who knew there was everything from palm trees to lichen in Costa Rica??

We thought this plant looked like a nest...
Cute flowers, but not so nice to touch... they have thorns in the petals!
One of the craters had this emerald lake in the middle...
Me modeling with the landscape and fog.
Judit laying an egg on our so-called nest plant
Crater #2
It was so foggy we couldn't see the top of the satellite tower 50 yards in front of us!
Judit

On the way back we stopped by a restaurant with business cards tacked all over the walls... and when I say "all over," I mean "all over." We didn't have any business cards to leave, and I decided it wasn't a good idea to leave my passport copy... :)

Austin's First Day of... High School!

I was glad to be around for such a monumental moment... and I just had to capture it. Here he is, my baby brother headed off to high school...