Interviews

Well I went to 3 interviews so far. All very promising. 1 pure ESL job, 1 job at the reservation so there are ESL concerns, 1 job where there is no ESL trained English teacher, but increasing numbers of ESL kids and 1 just English job at a school that is doing smaller learning communities. 2 are in town, 1 is an hour & 1/2 away and 1 is 3 hours away....we will see.

Baby Will got hungry yesterday cause i wasnt there to feed him. His Pop found out that he doesn't particularly care for orange flavored Pedialyte. But, he didn't starve or cry uncontrollably until I came home. He also spent the night with Nana and Pop in their bedroom. He was a very good boy and slept from 9 until 3. Then he didn't fuss while Nana warmed up his bottle. I am proud of him.

Adventures as of late

Will is getting very, very big. I'm guessing close to 13 lbs now. He can still wear most of his 3 month clothes...the 6 month clothes are still pretty big on him, but the time is coming. It is kinda sad that baby clothes only really *fit* for about a week or so. The rest of the time they are way too big or too small.

Last night Dan and I, not wanting to cook and not wanting pizza, tried out a service we knew about but had never taken advantage of. Entrees on Trays (cute name huh). We got Indian food. It was tasty. I had tandoori because it tends to be less greasy and grease is what kills Indian food for me. Really I like the rice and meat...most of the vegetables aren't my thing. Six weeks in India kinda killed the taste for me. I wasn't wild on Indian food before that. But there are a few things I like: palaak paneer, naan (preferably buttered), tandoori anything...saffron rice...Ok, that is about it. I lost 6 lbs in India when everyone else gained weight. Of course my triad walked about 5 miles a day...probably more.

I finally got ahold of my principal today to tell her that I am applying for jobs in MS. She was ok. I mean, it isn't like I'm the best teacher in the world and the school will fall apart without me. But I really, really hated to do that.

Baby's first Soccer game

 

Will went to his first soccer game on Tuesday night. He got to see a tied game that went into overtime and then a shoot out! Our team won 5-3! He is a pretty good good luck charm. 

What shall we do next?

My sister is a master of t-shirt creation. So for a shower gift she made onesies for baby. Now that my 11 lb 7 oz baby is growing out of his clothes very quickly, she has offered to make more...

What shall we put on them?

Current repertoire:

I love my Auntie Sheri
I love my Auntie Deva
Gamer
Soccer Star
Hola!

From Tony (at Dan's office):
Metallica (logo)
My daddy is smarter than yours

Any suggestions on the new batch?

Baby Will arrives

Well, I haven't blogged since October. Teaching, being pregnant, and blogging didn't all seem to want to happen at the same time. I also blogged while I waited on Dan to get home and he has swapped his schedule so he goes early and comes home early. That affected my blogging regularity...

Then came the second dilemma. Did I really want a 'mommy-blog'? How many people would really want to read posts about my child and how wonderful and cute he is? But I have had more than one person ask when I'm posting pictures of the baby so here goes...

First post:

Here is a link to my picasa album where you can knock yourselves out with pictures from the first month...more to follow.

http://picasaweb.google.com/gosteers

wow!

Wow. This year has flown by. Our first writing camp is Wednesday. I guess today since it is 3:29 and I can't sleep. We are taking the senior re-testers who get to take their next test on October 17. I think we have a real good chance this year of quite a few of them passing in October. Last year it was more like 15%...I'm hoping for closer to 40-50%. The statistics say that every time you re-test 30% of re-takers will pass. I need more than that this time.

I think they are way more motivated than last year's group and they definitely have had all the advantages. We have tracked this group since they were sophomores, put 100+ of them in an extra English class last year and hounded them all summer to take the test. I had a kid yesterday who said to me, "Ms. I just realized that I could have taken the test this summer without studying." This student works and couldn't go to the study class so I told him just to take off mornings that one week of summer and take the test. It couldn't hurt. This week, with needing to pass all 4 tests still, he just realized that he might have gotten lucky and passed one of them if he showed up. Sometimes I just wonder....

I have 3 of my new teachers helping with writing camp. I am not at all concerned about their ability, but I am afraid that I am throwing them out there without a lot of preparation. We haven't really gone over how to teach a TAKS essay yet. I have given examples, explained the concept, but I hope it is enough. I'll find out. The kids will tell me if the teacher was confused. They have done this before, again and again.

On a side note, my 7th period class, hellions that they are, might actually learn how to behave. Now, that isn't set in stone. They still won't sit in any type of assigned seat, but they will be quiet to listen to instruction for about 20 min at a time. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten them so that they will be quiet during individual or group work. We are still working on that. I may have to read every story out loud for the rest of the semester. Then I'm praying for some schedule changes in January. Oh, but I won't be there but for 6 weeks, then I'm out for 6 weeks with the baby! That will be nice. No 7th period for a month and 1/2!

How big is your baby?

So, most people already know...Dan and I are expecting. I found the cutest website and here is the link to how big my baby is right now.

I'm waiting for week 16, that one is my favorite....

School starts Monday

Well, they made me head of the dept this year. I think this may be more of a curse than a blessing, but we will see. :) I have 4 brand new teachers that are going through the alternate certification program. They will all end up doing very, very well, but right now are stressed beyond belief. I was seriously not that stressed my first year out, was I? I had people near tears today. Maybe I was just more clueless about what I was getting myself into.

Got our TAKS scores back from the summer test today...I had 11 kids pass from 25 that took the test. Now, 63 didn't pass in February so that means that 38 didn't even show up to *take* the summer test. Believe me that they will hear it from me when they get back. I might give them till the second day of school...maybe. But I think that most kids that showed up every day to take their tests passed at least something. So my Lit Genre numbers just dropped from 111 kids in 3 classes to 94 kids in 3 classes. I had prayed that 15 kids passed, which didn't happen, but that was when I had 93 kids scheduled in May...Now I'm back to where I started. As long as 5th period gets below 38 kids (like that many are ever going to show up during lunch anyway) and 7th below 34 because 7th period I just can't handle the stress of 34 kids at one time. I am also praying that certain kids don't end up in 7th period again...pray with me please.

My schedule will be as follows:

1st - Lit Genre (33)
2nd - Planning
3rd - Reading I Language Center (19)
4th - Dept chair prep
5th - Literary Genre (38)
6th - Reading II Language Center (18)
7th - Literary Genre (34)

At least have those Language Center classes and plans to keep me sane amist the 30+ classes of kids who failed the test the first time. :) What am i saying though? I wouldn't give up one of those kids to another class if you begged me. They are my babies.

I have 3 boys hired to come help me file and box things on Friday. Specifically the 7000 novels for our novel curriculum and the workbooks that have to be carted all around the school. I told the oldest brother not to show up by himself. If his brothers wouldn't come, he needed to call someone else to come with him. We will see what happens.

A Game of Tag

Five Things in My Freezer
1. Green Chile (about 1/2 sack of authentic Hatch Green Chile)
2. A fish I caught in mom's pond
3. Eggo waffles (dan bought)
4. Egg rolls
5. Seafood for paella

Five Things in My Closet
1. old purses
2. shoes
3. 1 million pieces of scrap fabric
4. hangers on the floor
5. recordable CD's

Five Things in My Car
1. old satellite reciever
2. Ginger snaps and peanut butter crackers
3. The welcome sign for my Japanese exchange visitor last year
4. dad's non-automatic camera
5. gps system (so i won't get lost)

Five Things in My Purse
1. More peanut butter crackers
2. 4 purple pens
3. 1 black sharpie
4. both mine and my husband's cell phones
5. my "as necessary" glasses

I tag Christina in Puebla...'cause other than my sis, I think she is the only person that reads my blog that also has a blog. :)

Le Fin de Semana 3

This past weekend, Dan came to visit. Yes, I was glad to see him.  Yes, we had a good time. 

Thursday night we went and ate with the lady who I am staying with.  She fed us spaghetti and bread and cheese and carne asade (chicken).  It was very good.  Dan told her like 20 times that he really liked it and now I´m eating cheese with every meal.  Thanks. :)

Friday Dan wandered around while I went to class.  I don´t know exactly what he did, but he seemed to enjoy himself.  We met up later and walked around and it rained so we ended up going to the movies to see Cars.  It was pretty good, but we are going to have to watch it again in English later.  I´m sure we missed most of the jokes.  On a side note, it is the general belief that most cartoons are funnier in Spanish.  My kids have always told me this, but i thought it was just cause they knew Spanish better.  However, they apparently use different jokes in Spanish.  Shrek and Shrek 2 are apparently way funnier in Spanish.

Saturday we went to the planetarium, but it was closed so we ended up at the children´s museum.  It had the cutest exhibit where small kids got to shop in a grocery store and choose and pay for their produce at the register.  It was really cute and I wanted a picture, but i was afraid that the parents would get freaked out by me taking a picture of their children.  Then we went to the archeology museum and walked to the fort of guadelupe.  As we are outside at the fort of Guadalupe, it starts to rain.  I, in all my wisdom, thought that it would stop soon, however it only started raining harder.  We left cause they were closing, then we ended up completely soaked going to the convention center at the bottom of the hill.  We waited out the rain for about 4 hours there. 

That night we went to eat at what turned out to be this really nice restaurant.  We paid about $40 for out meal, when usually a meal costs about $10 for two people.  It was very good.  Dan had some kind of stuffed chile with fruit compote and white sauce and pomogranate seeds on top.  I had mole poblano, the traditional dish of Puebla.  It was also excellent.

Ok, I´ll finish up Sunday later, gotta run to class now.

Dan llagó

Mi hermana dije que yo no estaba apprendando español.  No es verdad!  Yo apprendo español, pero yo pienso que mi familia gustan oir para excursions, no clases.

 

A la tarde, Dan llagó en Mexico seguro.  Yo soy muy feliz.  Fuemos a la casa y comimos con mi familia mexicano.  Hoy, Dan es camina en la ciudad de Puebla.

The place I went yesterday

The thing about listening to Spanish all the time and not reading it is that sometimes I can´t really repeat the words correctly.  I am a visual learner if there ever was one.  I can´t remember anything that I don´t see written down, though i can remember pretty well if I stare at something for a minute.  As such, I don´t really remember the name of the place that I went yesterday...but it was really cool.

 

We started by going to a set of temple\pyramids that are in pretty good shape. Two of them you could climb.  One was very unique because it was built in a spiral.  They have erected a cross on top of it now and tie a person on it as a representation of Jesus for Good Friday.  The other was just a straight pyramid, but at the top they had relics of volcanic rock that had been some type of structure on top.  They reconstructed one bit of it and it looked a bit like stonehenge, but much smaller.  That is the idea anyway.

 

Then we went to the largest archeological roof in the world.  It covers a pyramid that has intact murals with the colors that are SO bright.  It was really amazing.  Our guide showed us the plant that they used to get the reds and blues.  The reds come from the insect larvae that lives on the plants, the blues come from a stone...I think lapis probably.  It is that shade of blue.  I got some pictures but it was starting to get dark and come a storm so I don´t know how well they will turn out.

 

It was gorgeous though.  I really liked it.  Incredibly cool and interesting in a historical way.  I promise to post pictures when I get back.  I have taken this insane number so far (like 200 nearly) and my friend Christina and are going to swap photos when we get back so that will probably double....

Teotihuacan

Yesterday we went to the pyramids and then to D.F. (Ciudad de Mexico).  My camera battery went dead before we got to D.F. so I have no pictures there.  Oh well.  I´ll buy a book I guess.

 

The pyramids were super super cool.  When the Aztecs arrived, this whole civilization was already gone so they just built on top of them, but when you uncover what the old layers look like, they are simply beautiful.  There was this one part in one of the temples that some of the frescos on the wall were still intact.  It was really cool. I got pictures of that.  They are really tall, but they let you climb to the top.  At the top of one there was this hole that everyone was sticking their finger in...I´ll have to figure out why, but it was neat.

 

We went to the old palace of the kings.  Castillo.  It was very cool, absolutely beautiful too.  I didn´t get any pictures, but some of my friends did.

 

In the Cathedral in the city center of D.F. we walked in while they were having mass.  You can walk up to the bell towers and walk around in the ceiling.  You know they way that the cathedrals have domes in them?  you are actually walking across the domes!  Very neat.  Then I sat down in the sanctuary portion and it is really really beautiful.  They have different sections for you to sit at.  I´m sure there is some reason why, but you can hear the mass anywhere you sit because of the acostics.  I´m not sure if the mass was in Spanish or Latin, the hall echoed so I couldn´t tell.

 

So that was my weekend, how was yours?

You want pictures?

Go see my friend´s blog:

 

easierthanscrapbooking.blogspot.com

 

She is in school in LA for her masters in nutrition.

Weekend Plans

This weekend we are going to Teotihuacán ...not sure I´m spelling that right....no i wasn´t.  I went and checked.  Basically Mexico´s pyramids....It should be really really cool.

 

I hope everyone is doing ok!  I´m great here.  Dan comes to visit next Thursday for a long weekend.  We are looking forward to visiting D.F. (Mexico City).

Volkswagon plant and new haircut

So this morning we went to the volkswagon plant.  That was really, really cool.  We got to walk around some and then we rode in these volkswagon buses with the tops cut off.  The tour was entirely in Spanish, which is helpful for learning spanish, but at times frustrating if you are still learning ´cause I wanted to know the *information.*  But I got enough clarification that I wasn´t so lost.  They have a school for 15-19 year olds (girls and boys) that teaches them how to make parts and how to run the robots and other things.  They also take Spanish, Math and Science.  Really neat tech program.  I walked in and was immediately like "Those kids are 15 years old!"  But then they explained why they were there.  They were really distracted when we walked in and were watching them.  They giggled and showed off how well they could cut with hacksaws.  Very funny.  We couldn´t have cameras but I would have loved to have a picture of that.

 

Then we saw them make Jettas.  Did you know that the chassis is all one piece?  Then they put on the motor, gas tank etc...Also the dashboard is all one piece, including the airbags.  Very interesting.  Then we saw where they were making the new Beatles, but didn´t go in there.  They make 1400 cars a day.  All very interesting.

 

So this afternoon I went and got my haircut.  I paid 70 pesos ($7) and 20 for a tip and then 30 pesos there and back for the taxi...What is that $15 for a haircut???  Pretty good huh considering it was a really nice salon.

 

Then we went and sat in a mall for an hour or so and got some mango ice cream and then we came back to school...A productive day. 

volkswagon plant

Hoy, vamas para Volkswagon planta en Puebla.  Tomas un taxi para la planta, despues "take a tour."  Muy divertido.

El Gas

One of the interesting things here is that they run all the hot water..maybe the stove, off bottled gas.  They have these gas trucks that drive around with probably twice the amount of what you would use for a gas grill or something.  The trucks play a little gas truck song and every now and then the loudspeaker says "El Gaaaas!"  (the gas).  It is very interesting.  The song annoys most people, they start up at about 7 and stop at about 8 or 9.  The trucks just drive around the neighborhoods.

 

I´m kinda glad that the gas gets piped into my house so I don´t have to go and wave down a gas truck everytime i want to cook something!

new shoes

On Thursday we are going to go to the Volkswagon plant and I have to wear closed toe shoes.  I didn´t bring closed toe shoes.  I wear my Birkenstocks all the time.  There is no need.  I made sure that every outfit I brought would be ok with them then I only brought those and a pair of dress sandals.

 

So I went and bought a pair of mexican tennis shoes (http://www.charly.com.mx/).  I think they are pretty nice.   they are brown leather-ish with pink stripes and elastic instead of shoelaces.  Very cool I think.  Way more trendy than I usually go for.  However, I think they will be fine.  They go with jeans so I think that I´m ok.  I paid a little less than $30 for them at full price in the nice stores.  Sheri, how much would a pair of tennis shoes be in the states?

 

Once again, if anyone wants anything in Mexico, let me know.

Le fin de semana 1

Well, I created this yesterday and it disappeared....how sad.  So I´m starting over...

 

This weekend I went to Atlixco.  It was really interesting.  We visited a church that was on top of this really, really tall hill.  Ok, tall for the girl who has lived in MS or Texas most of her life.  Probably not tall for most people.  It took us about hour to walk up.  I was incredibly tired....Although I´m probably floja (lazy).  We got a lot of good pictures, including some pictures of the volcano.  That was nice.  It is hard to see through the clouds usually.

 

Then we came back and went through the market.  That was really neat, but I kinda ruined it for myself because I was starving and couldn´t  really enjoy it.  I did get some peanuts from the vendors that were really good.  I think they boiled them first and then roasted them?  Not sure, but they were blackened on the outside.  It was really interesting, but I was the only one that liked them.  I was also the only southerner in the group so that may have explained it.

 

We also got to go to a trout farm and eat fresh fish.  That was neat.  It looked a lot like the one in Branson, but maybe not as big...Was that fish farm in Branson or just near Branson?  We didn´t get home until about 10.

 

Sunday I went on an adventure to get a cell phone.  This was productive, I got one for $40 that was supposed to have $30 of airtime.  Somehow that failed and I ended up with only 2 phone calls and some texts to Sheri and then it quit working.  It also quit texting the one message before I was going to have sheri tell dan to call me at the house.  I got it fixed Monday morning so now I have a cell phone.  It costs $1 a call.  Which was very interesting to me.  It took a good five minutes for the salesgirl to explain "per call" to me.  It was pretty interesting   I think she was glad to have something to break up the day.  I was there about 30 minutes.  I can be on the phone for 3 hours or 20 minutes and it is the same price.  kinda cool huh?

 

However, the real adventure was not getting back to the house in a timely manner.  I thought I had taken the right bus...and truly I might have but not gotten off soon enough (I was standing and couldn´t see out the window).  I ended up 30 blocks south of where I was supposed to be and across a river I didn´t know existed.  I met a guy whose daughter spoke English and they told me to walk back to the busy street and take a cab because the directions were complicated.  I did get to see Mexican democracy in action cause I passed about 3 polling sites on my way. 

 

When I got to the house all I had was 100 pesos for a 30 peso cab ride.  I went inside for change, but didn´t have any so I just gave the guy the hundred.  He was really bothered by this and finally gave me a 20 back and we called it even.  So I paid $8 for a $3 cab ride.  however, it was so worth it.   I would not want to be stuck over there and not be able to get back.

 

More later...Check out my friend´s website from the school here.  She is a much more consistent blogger than I am.