Journal Entry #10 - FRIDAY!

Friday already! Since Ms. Lisa is gone, I had the kids all day today. A cover teacher was with me for a couple of hours and Ms. Hartland took them for two hours of art in the afternoon so that was nice. In the morning they had Computer Tech and Music class, so I really didn’t have to teach that much. In math today we worked on story problems requiring either division or multiplication. The students had to decide which function to use and then the answer – with a label! =]

In the afternoon Ms. Hartland’s art was really cool, but somewhat chaotic. The students got into small groups and they had to create a one minute skit and then freeze the finish. The skits were supposed to show some kind of conflict. Some of them were quite good, while others were not planned and just turned into boys fake fighting in front of the class…typical. Then the students joined two groups together and went outside to sketch each other’s freeze frame shot. One group held their positions while the other group quickly sketched the position/shape of the students. They were only allowed five minutes to draw so their strokes with a graphite marker were to be large, not a lot of detail. I took a few pictures the students drawing and the conflict poses.

Today I also finished putting up my bulletin board; Mireille helped me because she had the last two hours off. This is probably them most elaborate bulletin board I have ever created! I strung the origami cranes the students made on fishing line and then hung them from the ceiling. I also printed pictures from my power point and added captions that tell abbreviated story the young Japanese girl, Sadako. It's not quite finished, but close. I plan to print off a couple Japanese peace symbols and put them on the black behind the cranes.

Its really funny because since the peace crane lesson I have students coming in with origami books and paper wanting me to help them make certain animals or objects. A few of them are really into origami now, which makes me feel good, I'm glad they liked it and now found a hobby. When I was putting up the cranes the students were so excited that theirs was going to be hanging up, they all were trying to locate their crain in the air or on the board.

After school, Annika, Riley, Mireille and I went to play paddle at the club. There were quite a few staff members there this week, and like last Friday, it was a lot of fun. I would say there were thirteen or fourteen of us.

Tonight Annika, Brittany, and I went back to Mireille’s apartment for the night. We are hoping to relax, catch up on some school work and maybe watch a movie, on a TV!!! (not a laptop) I’m really excited haha =]. Tomorrow I plan to work out, maybe go in the ocean if its not too cold, and then we are traveling to Marbella to do some site seeing.

Another amazing day in Espana, I could get used to this.