AC's, Bobbles, and Such Adventures...

This week has been well... a week... I've been continuing to do my Spanish classes, and they've been going well, for the most part. I've finally figured out which tutors to have (I have 2), so as long as I can have them, I think it will go okay. There's at least 30 different tutors, but if you jump around a lot to different tutors, sometimes it's hard to have the consistency and follow-through of the lessons. Neither of them were available on Saturday, so I have a new (though recommended) one. I feel like I've had more opportunities to use my Spanish these last few weeks-- and it may be that I'm (a bit) more confident with trying to speak/use the language. Wednesday I had a movie/dinner night with friends, and then Thursday was back to school inservices. My AC remote has been acting up-- it doesn't have a manual on/off switch-- I have to use the remote-- and I didn't want to turn it on, only to not be able to turn off the next morning-- so I actually opened my bedroom windows-- and slept without the AC. I've been a bit spoiled, b/c this was actually the first time I had slept without the AC. I was able to get the air/fans circulating pretty well, but it still took me awhile to be able to fall asleep. Thursday we had inservice-- with being able to work in our rooms, and then having our director talking about our theme for this year-- "The Story"-- Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration-- and what the Chapel services for Elem, Middle, and HS would focus on. After school, my goal was to get a new universal remote for my AC-- I took a taxi to Bellon (similar to Home Depot) -- and then to Ochoa (another hardware store), with finally finding a remote. When I got home the remote was able to turn the AC on, but I didn't press 'enter' immediately-- so the AC didn't recognize the code (though I didn't quite realize it at the time)-- so it cycled through the codes for about 3 hrs-- with never finding the right one. But thankfully the AC was ON, so I at least had that to sleep with-- it was a really warm night last night-- and for me, it's hard for me to sleep when I'm warm. I was a bit worried though, b/c I didn't want to leave in the morning with having to leave my AC on. I tried turning the breakers off in the morning-- but even that didn't turn the AC off! Miraculously though, about 5 minutes before I was supposed to leave this morning, I tried the old remote and it turned it off!

 Another thing-- If you know me, well, I'm a bit of (well a lot) klutz-- and a friend of mine says that I 'need to live in a bubble.' I seem to find these ways of hurting myself. So this is nothing new but-- I was going to bring the remotes to school to see if someone could help me figure out the whole AC thing-- so I was going to write down the model number of the AC-- which is above my bed. I got on my bed-- wrote down the number-- then looked at the number-- couldn't remember if it was a U or a V-- got back up on my bed, lost my balance, and fell off the bed, landing hard on my elbow, shoulder, and tailbone! After I did that I was actually somewhat laughing (and some frustration), b/c it seemed almost fitting that this would happen to me. Just another one of my klutzy moments! (And yes Mom I know you're reading this, and though I know you're worried about me, I'll be okay... I know you'll worry, but please don't... :-) ) I'm sore now, and probably going to be a bit more tomorrow...

My bus stop today was at 7:25 this morning, and in waiting for it, I forgot to put bug spray on, so I have about 4-5 more bites to add to the 10 (yes 10) that I have on my ankles-- note to self... make sure to put bug spray on in the morning... Next week the official year-long bus stop begins at...wait for it... 6:25 a.m..... :-O Last year the bus picked us up at 6:40. Now, I am a morning person-- in previous years I would actually sometimes leave my house at 6:30 to get to school by 6:45. But there's just something about when it's absolute -- that you must  leave at this time-- that seems to make it worse-- there's not flexibility... It usually doesn't take me that long to get ready in the mornings anyway... but it just seems ... early. Also I must remember that I'm on the bus for a full half hour-- and that I can't drink too much of my coffee beforehand, b/c I'm on the bus longer-- and we can't make a bathroom stop... I didn't move too far away from where I was last year, but just the way the pick-ups (and drop-offs) are-- I'm one of the earlier ones to get picked up-- and one of the last ones to get dropped off... So almost a full hour on the bus every day...

Going to try the AC remote again, and hopefully it'll work-- also going to try to use an app from my phone to see if that will work too. Looking forward to having down time, and trying to recover from (only) two days of inservice. School starts Monday!! I won't be teaching yet-- but meeting with parent's to sign SST (sped) contracts.

This is my 15th year of teaching-- which to me is so crazy-- b/c it doesn't feel like it's been that long-- every year is always different-- and b/c I've been in enough different schools/environments, I'm able to use those previous experiences to build upon the new ones. (Well, I guess that's true for where ever you're at...) Every one of those places/experiences have been a stepping stone God has used to put me where I'm at right now. If one of those 'stones' had been taken out of place, then the 'rest' would not have prepared me for the follow-through. Some years were better than others-- some I look back on, and can't believe I even survived...  But somehow, God got me through it...

Here's to another crazy, never dull, (klutz-free!!) hopefully wonderful year!!

I have been readjusting to be back here in the DR again--and so far it has gone fairly well. I started an online Spanish class on Wednesday- Baselang-- that was recommended to be another SCS family member. They are based out of Columbia (I think)-- I sign up for a 30 min session online up to 3 days beforehand(any day/time that's available with the tutors), with an assortment of teachers to choose from. Then we do the session via Skype. We have lessons that we go through, and I've found that I know more than I thought I did! LOL -- I need to find consistent teachers that I like, in order to help with the continuity of the lessons, b/c we have jumped around a bit. 

Wednesday our SST department met, and I think that I have a better understanding of what students I'll have this year. I will have some of the same students I had last year, as well as some new ones. It will be a different dynamic with a new Elem SST teacher, but I will have the same teacher's aide I had last year-- which will be nice to have the consistency. 

Some music from the DR... Vida Nueva (my church) and staff devotions...

The New Digs... and Settling In...

A Few Pics of the New Digs...

 Kitchen...

Bedroom... 

 Living/Dining Room..

 One of my walls...                          

 

                                        

   

                

The front door of my apartment...                                                           View from my apartment...

 

Views outside my apartment....

Across the street...

I will admit that it was actually a bit harder leaving the U.S. this year than it was last year. It could be that I had no idea what to expect last year, and the "unknown" seemed to be easier to handle. This year I know (somewhat) what to expect-- the heat, lack of transportation, the distance away from family and friends, etc., etc., etc. and it's sometimes overwhelming. 

I arrived in the DR Tuesday evening-- my flights were delayed some, but not b/c of weather. I was a bit nervous about my luggage, b/c all the other times my luggage has arrived relatively early. This time, however, it was almost the last ones for me to pick up. By Wednesday afternoon I had AC and wi-fi, so everything was (almost) settled... I had a leak in both my bathroom sink and shower faucets, and then discovered that when I flushed my toilet, a stream of water would come out onto the floor! Thursday, maintenance from school came to fix my bathroom, leaving for a few hours to get supplies from the store, leaving my toilet torn apart. It definitely makes you thankful for a working toilet! They returned, fixed the sink and shower, but the toilet was still leaking after they left. Thankfully they came again on Friday and it was fixed completely!! I was able to meet my new maid today for the first time, and we were able to communicate fairly okay. She worked for the previous teacher who lived here-- she doesn't speak any English-- so I wrote out everything I needed to tell her, using Google Translate-- which is the best thing EVER!!! 

We start inservices Monday, with a 2nd day of inservices Tuesday, and then actually 5 days off (well technically 7 with the weekend)-- b/c we don't go back until Thursday/Friday of the week after. We originally were supposed to start school Wed the 17th, but it got pushed back to Monday the 22nd. 

All in all it's going well so far... :-)

The Last Days Before Summer...

A week ago Friday was our last day of school. Monday was a work day, and then we had Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I spent the majority of the time packing up my bedroom to move into my new apartment. It's not a lot of stuff, but when you actually have to carry all of it up 4 flights of stairs, it's a lot of trips! A friend of mine told me about women who will come to you to give pedicures, so Wednesday I got a $6 pedicure while I was waiting for her to finish up her work-- Gotta love that!!
 Today (Friday) parent's pick up report cards, and can conference with the teacher if needed. It is still up in the air exactly which grades I'll be doing next year-- 5th grade will be considered Middle School, so the 4th grader's I had will most likely be with the MS/HS SST Teacher-- which makes me a bit sad, b/c I really enjoyed working with them. The other Elem SST teacher is going to be teaching Elem Spanish, so they're going to hire another SST teacher to split the Elementary caseload with me. I've learned to be very flexible, so I guess I will just wait and see what is decided when I come back in the fall! :-) Also, there are also going to be a new 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade teacher (though 4th grade is b/c there will be 3 sections of 4th grade instead of the 2 sections this year), so I will be working with new/different teacher's as well. There is also going to be a new elementary classroom building, so they are moving classroom's around, but thankfully I don't have to move, and can stay in the same spot. :-)
I have to wait until tomorrow to get the keys to my new apartment, and then I can start moving my stuff. It's about 5-6 blocks away, so I will be making some trips back and forth :-D Teacher's can leave tomorrow, but b/c of me moving, I had to wait-- and Sunday flights were very expensive, so I'm leaving Monday. My roommate Sarah is leaving Tuesday --she is moving also, b/c the school didn't want to use the apartment building any more--and the school is moving her stuff on Monday (She's taking all the furniture and kitchen stuff, so she has a lot more to move...). So at least there will be someone else around.
I fly out at 8:25 a.m. Monday, and am getting picked up by the bus at 5:55. This time I fly from Santiago to Miami, Dallas, Omaha, getting in at about 8:45 P.M. I am so excited to be go home for the summer!! I don't have my return ticket yet, but I think it's going to be Tuesday August 2nd. Teacher's have to be back August 6th, and we start inservices August 8th. I'll have to do some unpacking and figuring things out for my new apt, so it will be nice to have a few days to do that.

Counting Down the Days...

There are 10 more days of school left (Kids get out June 3rd), and there's 24 more days until I get to fly home for the summer. In some ways it doesn't seem like a long time, but sometimes it seems like it's taking foreeeeeever to get here! This past Monday we didn't have school b/c of the national elections. Election day was on Sunday, and the public schools were polling places. We were told that all businesses would be closed Saturday at noon through 6 a.m. Monday-- it ended up that there were some places open Saturday, depending upon the place. It was nice to have the day off-- well any day that we have off is nice! LOL For the last few weeks I've been helping a home school family from my church with some reading tutoring. Normally they come on Mondays and Thursdays to school, but since we didn't have school, they came to my apartment.
This week and last week I've been doing end-of-the-year assessments with my kids. I found a really good Reading Comprehension Inventory book- Flynt-Cooter, that I have really liked using. I really wish I would have had it at the beginning of the year to compare, but it'll be good to have for next year as well. I'm just starting to meet with parent's to show them the testing results, and also to sign SST contracts for next year. I will hopefully get them done next week. There will be some changes in SST next year-- the other Elem SST teacher is going to teach Elem Spanish next year. So there will be a new SST teacher next year. It's really hard to find SST teachers here, so not sure how that will all work.
Next Thursday we have off for a Catholic holiday, and then Friday is Field Day. I get to help with one of the games, so that will be another new experience.

April

The last two weeks have been filled with a lot of busy-ness...

Thursday, April 14th I took the bus to the capital, Santo Domingo (about 2 hrs away) to present at a workshop at Domican Americano-- the only English University (I think) in the DR. The other SST teacher teaches a college class there, and the Senior Education majors were putting on a workshop on Targeting Learning Styles with Technology-- and they asked me to present. This was my first time navigating the bus system-- but I was able to do it ok. I sat at the bus station for quite awhile (getting there at 2:45, and then picked up at 4;30), and then they picked me up to go to the University. It started late, and then the first speaker took a little longer than they thought (as well as some technical difficulties)-- she was a psychologist talking about what learning styles are, and the theory behind it. After my presentation, there was another activity, and I needed to wait for them to finish, in order to get a ride back to the bus station. The traffic in Santo Domingo is absolutely terrible, and though it isn't that far to drive, we sat in a lot of traffic on the way there. I had missed the 7:00 bus, so I took the 8:00 bus home, and was home by about 10:30...

Wednesday, April 20th, I flew out very early, to go to my brother' wedding in Omaha, NE (6 a.m.). Evidently taxi driver's do not like to pick people up at 4:00 in the morning, b/c I had a terrible time getting someone to pick me up! I almost thought that I wasn't going to make my flight-- as I got to the airport at 5:00, and was to board at 5:40... My connecting flight to JFK was a bit tense as well, as the line going through security at JFK took awhile, along with the bus shuttle to a different terminal, getting me to my gate just as it was boarding....Once I got to the Minneapolis airport, I had some time to actually sit and eat lunch, but I had to sort out my credit card (which thankfully Minn has free wi-fi!!). With trying to add minutes to my pre-paid phone (and possibly the connection), somehow it appeared as fraudulent charges, and my credit card was deactivated... After I got to Omaha, I rented a car, and drove to Topeka to meet my friend Alicia, who came with her two girls (3 1/2 and 5 mths) and her mom, until driving back to Omaha Thursday evening. They had driven 6 hrs to see me-- and though it was a short time, it was nice to be able to catch up. :-) We were even able to get a little bit of shopping in, but b/c I had only brought carry-on's, I couldn't buy too much... Friday morning my brother drove with me to take my rental car back to the airport, and then we had lunch with Rachel's family and our family.


 We had a few hours to kill before we needed to go to the church to help set up, so I went with Zach, Caleigh, and Dylan to Wehrspann Lake, which is a few miles from Jason's. It has a really pretty trail around the lake.

 The centerpieces...

Later that evening, Dylan and I went to the school park, and challenged me to 2 games of HORSE (Dylan won).... Saturday morning, my niece Caleigh and I had hair appointments before the pictures at 10:00, with the ceremony at 11:00 for immediate family only. The reception was from 1-4, and for me it went by so fast, with talking to family and friends that I hadn't seen for a long time. After the reception my dad's side of the family was able to spend time together at the hotel they were staying at, and later that evening my parent's drove me to my hotel that I was going to stay at, since my flight the next morning was at 5:40 (and close to the airport)! This time my flights were a lot smoother, but still with not very long layovers-- I got back to my apartment by 6:00. This morning came extremely early for me....

We don't have school on Monday, for Dominican Labor Day, which will be oh so very nice, after having such a busy week!!!  :-)

Back to "Normal"

We are back to a full week of school after having 4 days last week, and prior to that was Spring Break. I stayed in Santiago for Spring Break, and taking advantage of having some down-time- (and to having the apartment to myself for a few days) Netflix movies, grocery shopping, picking up packages, La Campagna (coffee)... I'm a bit of a homebody, and really don't get bored being home by myself. On Easter there was a group of us that got together and had an Easter dinner-- pork chops, veggies, potatoes, and Reese's cheesecake, home made ice cream and puppy chow for dessert! Along with the dinner we decorated Easter eggs (which is an American tradition-- it is not something that Dominican's have heard of doing), and hunting for 100 Easter eggs in the apartment.

We have entered the last 9 weeks of school, which is so hard to believe we're there already. I'm finishing up testing another potential SST student, and will start doing end of the year testing my student's and then meeting with parent's to sign contracts for next year. I'm to the point in my schedule, where I can't fit any new SST student's, so if they qualify, then we have to wait till next year to provide services. As many other teacher's know, there's just not enough hours in the day to fit everything in, or get everything done!! One of my student's has alternate Math, and due to my schedule, I couldn't teach her by herself, so I have her with other student's at that time. I've been using Moby Max on the computer with the student, and so far it has been going well. There are also some 7th grader's that are using it for a Reading intervention. I just discovered it this year, and am trying to familarize myself with it. I also have another student that their class was reading a chapter book for Reading, and the book is too hard for him, so we decided to pull him, and he would come to my room during that time, and I have Reading independent work at his level that he'll work on-- I'll be multi-tasking, b/c I will have other student's in my room as well.

I've also been working on a presentation that I'm going to be presenting at a workshop for some college students at the University in Santo Domingo next week. The other SST teacher teaches at the Univ in SD and she told them about me, and a few weeks ago they asked me to present on "Targeting Learning Styles with Technology." I've never done anything like this before, so this will be a new (and a bit scary for me!) experience for me! The workshop is from 4:30-6:30, so I'm taking a taxi to the bus station from school to get the 1:00 bus, and then they will pick me up, and also take me to the station when I'm finished. That's been taking up a lot of spare time working on that, but It's been an exciting opportunity!

T-13 Days till I leave for the States! I fly out here at 6:10 on  Wed April 20th, to go to my brother's wedding. Every day is pretty much planned out with something to do-- it will be busy, but I'm very excited to be able to go, and see everyone!