How crazy is it that I've already been living in Venezuela for three weeks?? I can't believe how close we are to September already and how long I've been here, time has gone by so quickly since I've been busy with work. I'm excited for tomorrow, Heather and I will be going to spend the evening/night/most of Sunday in Puerto La Cruz at the beach house. We decided we are not nearly tan enough for living in a warm country and need some serious beach/relaxation time.
Tonight, one of the local teachers Andraina is taking us to the salon she goes to. She has a lazer hair removal appointment, which is apparently super cheap here. It is about 300 Bs per session (about $40 US) which is uber cheap, so a bunch of us are tagging along to see what its all about, maybe get our nails done to to celebrate two weeks of teaching (since this is also increadibly cheap.) Afterwards she is going to teach us how to make arepas and hang out with us for our Friday night girls wine/movie/snack night. She's very nice and taught here last year, even though she is only 21. Venezuelan high school stops at 11th grade and she skipped a year so she was only 16 when she went to college and therefore was teaching here at AIS by the time she was 19. Crazy!
School has been good this week, the kids are getting more comfortable and hence more rowdy, but thats okay, they still listen when they need to. Even the kids who don't know any English are starting to pick up on some of the things we do and say every day like being able to count and know their colors. My main priorities, at least until September, are to get these kids to know minimal words in English so communication is easier. I think everyone's lives (mine and the students) will become much more enjoyable once communication is simpler.
Today we made handprint butterflies and I made the kids tell me the names of the two colors they wanted to use in English. Even the kid who knows no English was able to understand me well enough to tell me his two colors in Spanish and then repeat me when I said them in English. This may seem super simple, but its a big improvement for him. Marcelo came into the classroom while I was doing handprint butterflies with them and asked me to go make sure the workers were setting up my writing classroom the way I want and he said he'd watch the kids. I advised him to read a story because he probably didn't want colorful fingerpaint all over his suit, which was bound to happen if I let him take over what I was doing. It was funny to come back and see my boss sitting pretzel style on the carpet with all the kids listening to him read. The kids loved showing everyone their butterflies when they left school today. It was one of the first things they've taken home (I needed some decorations for the classroom first... lol)
Yesterday we had another "surprise" visitor. We came in from recess and there was quite a large spider in the middle of the carpet. The kids (who are obviously used to all the creatures) screamed a little but crowded around looking at it and began singing the itsy bisty spider. It was adorable to here them sing, but the spider was definitely not itsy bisty... They wouldn't let me kill it so I had to captuer it and let it go outside. Being in South America always seems to make me get over any fear of bugs I may have.
Tonight, one of the local teachers Andraina is taking us to the salon she goes to. She has a lazer hair removal appointment, which is apparently super cheap here. It is about 300 Bs per session (about $40 US) which is uber cheap, so a bunch of us are tagging along to see what its all about, maybe get our nails done to to celebrate two weeks of teaching (since this is also increadibly cheap.) Afterwards she is going to teach us how to make arepas and hang out with us for our Friday night girls wine/movie/snack night. She's very nice and taught here last year, even though she is only 21. Venezuelan high school stops at 11th grade and she skipped a year so she was only 16 when she went to college and therefore was teaching here at AIS by the time she was 19. Crazy!
School has been good this week, the kids are getting more comfortable and hence more rowdy, but thats okay, they still listen when they need to. Even the kids who don't know any English are starting to pick up on some of the things we do and say every day like being able to count and know their colors. My main priorities, at least until September, are to get these kids to know minimal words in English so communication is easier. I think everyone's lives (mine and the students) will become much more enjoyable once communication is simpler.
Today we made handprint butterflies and I made the kids tell me the names of the two colors they wanted to use in English. Even the kid who knows no English was able to understand me well enough to tell me his two colors in Spanish and then repeat me when I said them in English. This may seem super simple, but its a big improvement for him. Marcelo came into the classroom while I was doing handprint butterflies with them and asked me to go make sure the workers were setting up my writing classroom the way I want and he said he'd watch the kids. I advised him to read a story because he probably didn't want colorful fingerpaint all over his suit, which was bound to happen if I let him take over what I was doing. It was funny to come back and see my boss sitting pretzel style on the carpet with all the kids listening to him read. The kids loved showing everyone their butterflies when they left school today. It was one of the first things they've taken home (I needed some decorations for the classroom first... lol)
Yesterday we had another "surprise" visitor. We came in from recess and there was quite a large spider in the middle of the carpet. The kids (who are obviously used to all the creatures) screamed a little but crowded around looking at it and began singing the itsy bisty spider. It was adorable to here them sing, but the spider was definitely not itsy bisty... They wouldn't let me kill it so I had to captuer it and let it go outside. Being in South America always seems to make me get over any fear of bugs I may have.
Blurry picture of our visiting spider that I had to capture. You can't tell, but he was bigger than any spider I've seen in the state.
My kids love to swing. They can say "push me please" in English because I refust to do it anymore unless they say it in English. Before they figured out what the phrase was this was the outcome, everyone pushing each other. They much prefer me to do it though, and so do I honestly, it results in less arguing.
They love these little fish counters that I have, but they use them more to play with then count so I made up little fishbowl cards that each have a number in them. Now if they play with the fish they need to count how many fish they are puting in the bowl so it matches the number so their tank doesn't get too crowded.
Very proud to see these three playing the color game without my supervision and without any arguing. It's a simple game, but taking turns is a hard thing to do in preschool.
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