Me Llame "Fiesta" (Call Me "Party")

Zip-lining in the jungle with monkey, lizard, mosquito and my dad:

These were not actual animals by the way, they were the nicknames of the guys who instructed my dad and I on this canopy tour.  My dad and I went to Manuel Antonio for four days and it was my best weekend in Costa Rica yet.  Besides zip-lining, we went white water rafting with intense rapids in Rio Naranja (even tho the river was more brown than orange) and I had a close call because I almost fell out of the raft, but luckily my feet were wedged into the raft enough, and I was right by the guide who yanked me up as soon as he saw it happen.  We also went to a Latin jazz club where we danced all night with some people from our hotel; we hiked through the National Park where we saw some animals and interesting plants - I even got to pet a little deer; we went to a small, yet one of the prettiest beaches ever, inside the park - Playa Espadilla; we ate at an actual airplane which was shot down in Nicaragua by the Sandanista government and brought to Costa Rica where it was turned into a very nice restaurant; we played with squirrel monkeys and a snake right outside of our hotel room; we met so many interesting people such as a couple families from England and a doctor from Canada; and we relaxed on Manuel Antonio Beach whenever we had free time.

I have to say, teaching a bunch of fourth graders while your dad is watching can be a little nerve-racking, but for me it was also pretty enjoyable - my students would say the same also, even though it was a little crazy, but that's nothing new.  They loved my dad, especially a few boys he taught how to play the baseball game 500. They were all asking where he was the next day and sad when I told him he had to go back to the states... what an influential guy my dad is :) We both agreed that we had the trip of a life time that not many people get to have with their dad or daughter.  Hopefully there will be plenty more to come.

My Best Teaching Head-Fakes Yet: The whole head-fake thing is from a book my dad and I were reading together called, The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch.  He says that head-fakes can be used for more than just football because they can also be used to teach something without people realizing they're learning. So far, I've already put this to use with my students since we read that part in the book. The first I thought of beforehand when I gave my dad a homework assignment: bring letters from his students for my fourth graders.  My students got extremely excited and got to work right away on their responses to their new pen pals from Wisconsin, including putting in photos,stickers, drawings, and other little gifts.  It's definitely a great way to motivate them to practice writing.  Other head-fakes include making a video about the fifth grader's role models in oral english class; also in fourth grade math I did a magic trick where I made the zeroes "disappear" when they were multiplying multiples of 10, 100, and 1,000 and then re-appear for the final end product.  We've also had some math centers and games to make the concepts more relevant to them.  Since I teach math to the fourth and fifth graders, it gets to be a lot, so it's one more reason I have to make it interesting... including making up stories to get the kids into the lesson.  I'm still not living one of them down... I made up such a bad story/joke for the 5th graders in a math lesson about how I was in a market and kept hearing this guy call out "decimal! decimal!" but then I realized that he was actually holding a piece of bad (mal) fruit saying "es mal! es mal!"  ..... yeah, it was the best I could do to get their attention one day, and that was about three weeks ago.. at least a million times every day my students come up and whisper in my ear or call from the other end of the school "DECIMAL! DECIMAL!" I don't think they're ever going to forget that one. It's worth it though, because I receive some very sweet compliments from my students about how they like my lessons since they're fun.. one student even requested for me to stay after I'm done student teaching to teach them math - but I think I have to turn that offer down since I miss everyone from the states too much.

Pat on the Back of the Month: It's not my intention to brag about all these good things that I have experienced or accomplished, because there are certainly things that are not so good at times - which is to be expected with anyone, of course.  It's just that I try to pay more attention to the positive things, which is why I need to share my huge "pat on the back" from the owner of this school.  I get nervous that I need to conform to how my cooperating teacher does her lessons, and I get worried that I'm spending too much time doing what I think is best for my students' learning instead of making sure every single workbook page is filled out. So  when I was told that the owner of the school wanted to speak with me last week, immediately my stomach turned upside down,thinking I must be in trouble for being too outrageous when I teach or something and they're going to make me switch schools or not be allowed to even teach in Costa Rica at all.  But it fortunately was not this bad as she asked how things were going for me and other questions about the students, and then told me how happy she was to have me at the school and to keep up what I'm doing because the students have told her good things about me.  BIG sigh of relief.  Needless to say, I left school that day with a huge smile on my face rather than my normal "I need the longest nap ever and maybe 20 cups of coffee" expression.  Even though teaching here continues to be one of the very hardest challenges I've ever had, I feel like I'm making at least some sort of positive impact on these kids, and I'm definitely growing as a teacher.. and another thing, I'm so ready for my own classroom. POR FAvor.

The Gift of a New Boyfriend: I guess when students get tired of giving their teachers candies or fruit or other small gifts, they decide to give them a boyfriend.  Well, today the girls in my fifth grade class gave me a new boyfriend because he's the same age as me apparently, and his name is Kevin - maybe you know him? He's the oldest Jonas Brother.... haha I have yet to meet this famous boy band singer, but hey, tomorrow they're bringing me a picture of him.  Yikes.

"More Time" by Needtobreathe: So now that I'm in my 10th week here, I have 7 weeks left - I feel like it's going to go by so fast because there's so much I need to do here still - things I want to do with my classes and places I want to see in CR.  It's so strange to think about all my friends back home either starting up classes again or starting new jobs.  I want to wish all of them "GOOD LUCK!" ... and honestly, keep in touch :) Also, incase you're wondering why you should call me Fiesta - it's because I received a name tag with this written on it from a waiter at a restaurant I went to one day for coffee.. random, but after you wear a name tag all day, whatever the name is on it just kind of sticks I suppose.. At least it's not a bad name, it's a lot better than Big Tuna or something.