international festival

Saturday was the International Festival at school. The other student teachers and I were in charge of the United States booth. We were given brownies, hot dogs and Coca-Cola to share with those attending. I'm pretty sure American food is more popular here than it is in the United States. We were a frequently visited booth.

The event was such a great time. I saw many of my students (who were overjoyed to see me on a weekend) and I had the opportunity to meet quite a few parents too. It was great to get to see a lot of the staff in such a relaxed atmosphere as well.

There was a booth representing each country that OLM has students from. There were about 30 booths in all and each booth was decorated with traditional tapestries and clothing. Each booth had authentic food as well and needless to say I tried a little of everything. In addition to the booths, there were student performances as well as a Samba band. Lots of dancing and lots of fun.

This also serves as a little sneak preview of the school. It's so unique, I'm going to spend a day taking pictures of it soon to share.

ketchup

I'm a teeny bit behind on blog posts, so here's a little bit of what happened this week.

Completely bombed a lesson. While being observed.
I planned too complicated of a lesson and took too long explaining the plan. The kids got out of hand and were being disrespectful. I got frustrated and lost my cool a little bit. In the end,  I focused too much on behavior and we did not get to complete the bulk of the lesson. I've done a lot of reflecting  and I'm actually really glad that this happened and that it happened during an observation. Feedback on an awesome lesson is all well and good, but what I really need feedback on is the lesson I ruined. Because I was being observed during this lesson I was able to talk out all my thoughts afterward and get some great advice from my mentor.

I had been focusing too much on the negatives. Don't do this, stop doing that, you're not sitting properly. It's emotionally draining to be that negative all day. I was leaving school feeling exhausted and not satisfied with my teaching ability. It's because I was managing behavior in a way that does not parallel my personality. I should handle behavior in a way that makes me feel comfortable and consequently makes the kids feel at ease and safe in the classroom. I've made some changes to my behavior management techniques and it has done wonders so far. The kids are more respectful and I can leave school feeling satisfied and excited for the following day.

Celebrated Kyleigh's birthday!
My roommate's birthday was on Thursday. We decided to go to the beach and walk for a little bit then go out for dinner. We ended up seeing the most gorgeous sunset yet and of course I forgot my camera. I snagged some pictures from Kelly though.

Lesson learned. Never leave the house without my camera.

The waves were huge and lots of surfers were out but there was a large sand bar that developed so by the time the waves got to us at the shore they were very calm. For the first time we found shells at the beach, and a lot of them. I was very excited about that. One of my favorite things to do at the beach is hunt for shells and beach glass.

Then we went out to dinner where I got this delicious caipirinha with watermelon, tangerine, lime and basil in it.

Today was the International Festival at school. That deserves a post all to itself, so I'll be checking in again very soon.