TEACHING

As a new teacher, I am constantly thinking about what to teach my students and the best approach to teaching that information.

The Sound of Music 

This week I introduced my fifth grade class to the wonderful world of Julie Andrews.

We have been working on rhyming and grouping words with similar sounds. I thought this song was the perfect example to share with the class. I was able to sing the lyrics and have them repeat. We finished the activity by having a group sing-a-long. The kids LOVED it. 🙂

Hand Clapping Games

I love thinking about all my favorite childhood games and what to teach to the kids in order to give them a taste of American culture. I thought about the many clapping games I enjoyed as a child. There are many classics like Miss Mary Mack and Patty Cake, but I chose to introduce Down Down Baby.

Brussels Sprouts= Alien Brains 

We recently read a story about the life of Walter Dean Myers. In one section Myers discusses how he never liked brussels sprouts, because he was told in childhood that they were actually alien brains.

This week the kids had to pick a food that they despised and create an imaginative story about the origin of that food.

Did you know that spinach is sour, because it is made from smurf blood? Did you know that Wasabi is actually made of alien vomit? HAH. Such great stories!

Cultural Communication

Since I majored in International Studies, I took many courses on inter-cultural communication. I thought I would share some of that information with the students, so they could understand the many ways that people communicate and how different people view the world.

We look at some of these things:

• What are their social customs?
• How do they perceive time and money?
• What is their view on personal space?
• What is proper table etiquette?
• What are verbal and non-verbal taboos?

The kids seem to really be enjoying these segments. I have discussed culture in Japan and India thus far. Next week, I hope to discuss information on Italy.

I’d like to give them information on a wide variety of cultures and then I hope to finish off the semester with a capstone project. I’ll explain more about that later. 🙂

Group Meetings

This week we also had TWO opportunities to meet as a whole to discuss teacher development.

We were able to meet with a representative from Journeys to discuss ways to utilize book material and additional resources to explore.On Friday, we also had a government-mandated training session where we met to discuss classroom management and child development. The whole session was in Spanish, but I still found it very beneficial. They also provided food for us. 🙂 This was my first experience with guayaba fruit. It tastes like a tart apple.We ended the day with the movie The King’s Speech. The movie opened our eyes to psychological reasons behind why people have difficulties speaking in public and ways to build student confidence in the classroom.

SELF-REFLECTION

I partake in daily self-reflection. I think about things that went well and things that I could improve in the future.

This is a great spot to reflect. 🙂

Parque Querétaro 

I was able to sit on a park bench, paint my nails and read a magazine. 🙂Querétaro publishes a local magazine called MujerQRO (Women of Querétaro), which is aimed at female empowerment.

They had great articles on health, fitness, gardening and they also included an article about top restaurants in town. I thought I would give one of them a try.

El Nueve Restaurante

My friend Doris and I went to El Nueve, which specializes in Mexican cuisine from the Yucatán Peninsula.

One of their most famous Mayan dishes is called cochinita pibil.

Cochinita pibil: slow-roasted pork dish prepared by marinating meat in citrus, coloring it with achiote seeds and roasting it in a banana leaf.

Achiote: slightly nutty and peppery in flavor.

Cochinita pibil is traditionally served in corn tortillas with re-fried black beans and topped with pickled onions.
The menu prices were extremely affordable. My dish was a mere $3.50. I also ordered a soda with my entree. I guess they assumed they wouldn’t find a Coke with the name Megan on it. 😉 Here were the condiments to accompany the dish. After perusing the menu, I decided on cochinita pibil. To accompany my dish, were some tasty and fresh corn tortillas. This was a LICK-THE-PLATE-CLEAN kind of meal. Yum! So delicious and highly recommended to anyone coming to this area.After dinner, we headed back toward town.

Here were a few highlights:

Piñatas are MUCH COOLER than I remember!The historic city center is absolutely magical at night. The pictures almost look like a postcard. 🙂It was a wonderful walk UNTIL a CREEPY STREET PERFORMER dressed up like the Grim Reaper came up behind me and put his face close to my shoulder to scare me. I screamed like a girl, then couldn’t help but laugh. Hah.

I also was asked for an interview by a few college students. They had to perform a video interview with an American for a project in their English class.

Here were their questions:

What is the craziest thing you have seen?

What is the craziest thing you have done?

If you were in a restaurant in China, would you choose to eat either rats or cockroaches on the menu?

What defines a crazy person?

How would YOU answer that? What do you think I said? Hah. Think about that and let me know. Have a good night. 🙂