STYLISH CLOTHES

When I first arrived in Mexico, I had a misconception about the appropriate dress code.

This was my illusion:

This is the reality:

Wearing flip flops, skirts or sandals is like writing the words GRINGO on my forehead. HAH. For this reason, I had to do a little shopping when I arrived. Luckily, nobody has to twist my arm to send me on a shopping spree! 🙂 Say hello to my morning attire.Leather jackets, skinny jeans and flats are the trend right now. I’ll be honest, some days the sun is so strong that I wish I had a bikini and sprinkler to run through, but my body is starting to adjust to this climate. It will be a wake up call when I return to Wisconsin.  Parents, please have my boots and parka ready! 🙂

Anyway, this morning I left for work around 6:30 and walked down the mountain and past the aqueduct to the bus stop. I had a lovely view of Los Arcos illuminated in purple and pink. So girly!  😛

STUNNING CREATIONS

I am such a proud teacher and my students are so creative! In addition to the assigned grammar, reading and spelling lessons, we have been working on a few projects.

6th Grade Projects

Inspired by Margo Humphrey who drew a self-portrait entitled ¨The History of Her Life Written Across Her Face,¨ the kids created their own self-portrait documenting childhood memories and interests.

We recently read a story called ¨Ace’s Phone,¨ which is a fictional tale about how dogs communicated their feelings to a boy using a cell phone. We also looked at factual data about how elephants, bats and dolphins communicate in the wild.

We all agreed that animals and humans both have strong feelings, but sometimes it is hard to understand what an animal needs or wants. I had the kids write about a personal experience where they understood how an animal was feeling. They had to describe the sights, sounds and the situation.Vivid details: We have been looking at how to write about a situation by describing all five senses. The writing prompt was about a pet frog that got loose in the school cafeteria. Hilarious stories!

5th Grade Projects

We have been working a lot on new vocabulary words in 5th grade. I had the kids use creative lettering to help remember the correct spelling. They had to create boxes by counting the letters in each word before writing the words. Lastly, they had to draw a garden filled with bees. Each bee became a spelling word. We ended the activity with a SPELLING BEE, which the kids loved! They became very competitive and we ended with a spelling champion who will get a little prize tomorrow. 🙂Second conditional: I had the kids practice this concept by writing about what they would do if they were class president.
Tomorrow we will hold a mock election where the students will present their ideas for candidacy. I am curious to see who will win. 😀

During work time I also tend to play music, which seems to keep the kids focused and makes them interested in learning English songs. Today’s playlist included Queen, Spice Girls, Michael Jackson and Pink Floyd. Things did go downhill during MC Hammer when the kids decided to pull up their pants like Steve Urkel and dance to ¨U Can’t Touch This.¨ HAH. Oh well, it was a good laugh.

We have been working on a few long-term projects for the semester, but I’ll talk more about them once we’ve finished.

Hasta la proxima a.k.a until next time. 😀