Happy Leap Day!

I hope you’re all having a wonderful leap day as mine has been going very well. I woke up to a beautiful, clear sunrise filled with warm pinks and reds, then caught the bus to school, at school I got a bit of work done before classes with the 3^rd graders began. English went well for the most part and all the students were full of hugs and compliments. After school the spelling group did better than they previously had during our mock spelling bee which was good to see. We’ve got some nice rivalries going. Then I was able to walk home in the snow. There are currently large, fluffy flakes floating down. My hair was quite the sight by the time I got to my apartment. Anyway, since it’s leap day and all here’s a little something extra:

-According to an old Irish legend, St. Bridget made a deal with St. Patrick so that women could propose to men on Leap Day. This was to help balance the roles of men and women just as how Leap Day balances the calendar.

-In Scotland it is considered unlucky to be born on Leap Day.

-In Greece, it's unlucky for couples to be married during a leap year and especially on Leap Day.

-Dinah Shore was born on Leap Day in 1916 (American singer).

-Egyptians were the first group of people to add a Leap Day every four years. However, the Romans chose February 29th as the official date.

-A person's chance of being born on a Leap Day is approximately 1 in 1500.

Have a wonderful leap day!

Tomorrow is a big holiday here in Bulgaria so I'm sure I'll have another post up this weekend if not before about the day's festivities. It's one of my favorites :)

It's also currently Peace Corps Week as we celebrate the anniversary tomorrow, March 1st. And to celebrate I even got a letter today from congressman Tim Walz who represents the 1st district of MN. Thanks!

Peace, Love, Literacy, and Reckless Curiosity.

Songs and Bingo

I wanted to post a few videos from the week that make me smile. The clips are from two sections of 3rd grade and feature the song "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" as well as playing Letter Bingo. Enjoy!

Peace, Love, Literacy, and Reckless Curiosity.

I love third grade!

My day started off with sleeping in since I currently teach 2^nd shift (this means 1:20 - 5:30 regular classes). After doing some work, watching Glee, and eating lunch, I walked to work. My teaching day started at 1pm with the after school spelling group (3rd and 4th grade are the only ones who trade off for morning or afternoon shift, everyone else is in the morning). This group is comprised of 4^th through 6^th grade students and each week we have a spelling bee based on a certain number of words from the wordlist. Today’s bee was from all the A-C words. What started off as a good, energetic group soon became problematic. In the middle of the spelling bee, I ended up asking two students to leave. One of the students was simply continuously talkative and noisy even after several warnings that he needed to be quiet. The other student continued to use language inappropriate for a learning environment (who has been told many times in the past that he needs to refrain from speaking with such words during school). I think it is the most serious the students have ever seen me get though I was happy I was able to continue sitting in my “judges” chair and watch them walk out. This was all thanks to the other students in the room. You see my spelling kids are there to learn and they honestly want to not only do well in the competition but also learn English. I was happy they were all on my side and happy to see the boys leave. We then had a wonderful class. The boys are welcome to come back next week however I hope they now understand the severity of their actions. Therefore, my school day didn’t start out in the best way however once the 2 boys had left everything was good and we finished our bee with the top 3 kids choosing prizes from a poster, track bag, and sticker sheet.

Then it was on to third grade. Let me emphasize how much I ENJOY teaching 3^rd grade this year. No matter how disruptive a class may get these are some extremely kind, caring, and compliment-filled children. Most days I get plenty of hugs and today one of the girls even gave me a kiss on the cheek. Today we played Bingo at the end of each class which is always a good time and the students are usually super excited for prizes which always consist of stickers and something else. Today there were also toothbrushes and Justin Beiber Valentines (complete with a temporary tattoo). Since I had lesson until the last hour I also had the pleasure of walking away from school with several students. They were very sweet and all wished me a nice break. We have Thursday and Friday off of school. Anyways, I just wanted to share a day that went from good to okay to great. I hope you’re all having an enjoyable Wednesday :) I promise to post photos and videos in the next post. 

Peace, Love, Literacy, and Reckless Curiosity.

Teaching English

I figured some of you may be interested to see videos of what we do in English class, so here you are. The first one shows a typical English activity. Part of most lessons includes me reading the new text or dialogue while the students listen and follow along. Then the students repeat after me to improve their pronunciation. 

The 2nd video shows students singing a song. About every other unit their is a song included. This averages out to twice a month typically. You'll notice a familiar tune however I'm teaching British English; therefore, this Old McDonald's got a farm. 

And these videos show third grade students reading aloud their new text for Valentine's Day. After we went through the translation of the poem, they found it very funny to read to one another. Mistakes and all, I think they did wonderfully. 

This week is a three day week for students which will hopefully allow me to get a significant portion of my side projects finished. I'm looking forward to a few days of time at my apartment to work on my long to-do list to accomplish during my short time left here in Bulgaria.

Peace, Love, Literacy, and Reckless Curiosity :)

Valentine's Activities

This week I was able to celebrate Valentine's day with all of the 3rd grade students on Wednesday which turned out to be a great time. Not only did the students like the activities which included reading a poem, making a Valentine, and number/shape bingo but I was showered with compliments by many of them. I think my favorites were "You're a good person" and a coordinated "I love you" by a few girls. The one thing about bingo that usually surprises me is that if I have a toothbrush as part of the prizes it is usually the first thing to be chosen. Good for the kids and I'm glad they want them, thanks dad for including them in one of my packages and whichever insurance company was giving them away to advertise. Here are some photos of the lessons (there are videos but I don't want anyone to be embarrassed so I won't upload them):

 

For all the spelling kids, remember to study the words from the list and practice your pronunciation of "i", "r", "c", "s", "u", and "y". Next week the spelling bee will be from the A-C words :)

Peace, Love, Literacy, and Reckless Curiosity.

Back to School Again

After an unexpected national break from school due to the weather, it was nice to go back today. The kids were all in good moods which made for a great day. With my small spelling group of 3rd graders we made Valentine's cards today. i had planned the making of the cards in a simple step-by-step manner which made it that much simpler for the students to input their own style. Check out the process and amazing products:

Happy Valentine's Day!

During regular English lessons today I got a few random shots of the kids pretending to be frogs jumping into the pond. Today the lesson was focused on mine, yours, his, hers, and a song about 10 green frogs.

I will be doing Valentine's themed lessons on Wednesday with all the 3rd graders which will include making Valentines, playing number/shape bingo, and reading the poem:

Roses are red,
violets are blue,

sugar is sweet, 

and so are you.

Roses are red,

violets are blue,

sugar is sweet,

and I love you!

I hope you're all having a wonderful week!

Peace, Love, Literacy, and Reckless Curiosity.

Projects and the Weather

First off, for all the spelling kids. Print the list of words from the link below and read the rules!

Rules
2012 Words

Now onto what's been happening lately. Yesterday I got home from a weekend in Sofia as I ended up staying an extra day due to the Peace Corps imposing a travel ban due to the amount of snow. It was a good weekend of catching up with other volunteers, enjoying some delicious food, and meeting with my program staff about what I've been up to.

It's definitely winter as the temperature has been low and we've had quite a bit of snow within the last week and a half. Today there are 54 mph winds here in Sliven with a temperature of 25 degrees F though it feels like 4 degrees F. One to three inches of snow is expected tomorrow and the temperature is expected to drop to 7 degrees F. The wind will also continue. What all that says to me is it's time to stay inside working on my side projects, knitting, and of course a bit of movies or TV. The mayor here in Sliven even declared tomorrow a no study day.


I’m definitely staying busy with a plethora of teaching, after school spelling practice, and side projects. I’m currently working on planning and logistics for my PCPP (thanks again to everyone who helped to fund the project). The English Enrichment workshops will happen in April and May. As of now, three cities are set and I’m still waiting on a few schools to respond whether they will be able to partner or not. It’s a lot of getting materials together and organizing computer files in a logical and efficient way.

Another project I’m working on is a lesson plan for an American Culture Club. I’m creating 27 lessons aimed at advanced middle school students here in Bulgaria who want to learn about the United States through English. Here in Bulgaria students occasionally have an extra class each week based on a topic of interest. With this lesson plan an English teacher will be able to facilitate lesson plans in a fun and interactive manner. It will help the English skills of the students as well as their knowledge of American culture. Every state will be covered as well as topics such as currency, national parks, Michael Jackson, Presidents, and so on.

The third main project I’m working on is an “All About Bulgaria” small group/individual unit for American middle school students. These lessons have no need to be sequential and are designed for students to be able to read and complete with minimal adult assistance. Students can work individually or in a group and are able to turn in answers and projects to their teacher or parent. It’s a great way to get more social studies topics into students’ daily lives. Topics range from the Bulgarian alphabet to roses to creating a 3D map of Bulgaria. My goal is for the lessons to be fun and also make students think critically about a country they may not even know exists.

I hope you're all having a wonderful week, now for a few photos...

Peace, Love, Literacy, and Reckless Curiosity.