(the final presentation) Monday

In at seven to check that the multi-activity room was ready. Chairs out, microphone one, laptop connected. Back to the classroom to discover that we were six people short. Eh? Six students absent? How did that happen? Well, it appears that when, on Thursday, I said: Do NOT be late. Be early! Some students took that to mean something totally different. In the end, five people made it in, and we were just one (Alejandro) down. A quick run through the changes necessary, and we were ready.

And nothing went wrong.

That’s the wonder of the audience not knowing what we were doing. Absolutely nothing went wrong! Arrrrrrrrr!

And everyone went home at the end. Well, I say everyone and I mean everyone, except for six boys. Having spent Thursday explaining that if anyone was going to be in school on Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday they need to bring something to do, it was a total surprise to discover…that no one had brought anything to do. In case anyone is wondering if they will miss anything if they don’t make it into school, let me assure you, you won’t.

We did the Maths Bee:

1st – Guillermo

2nd – Valerio

3rd – Ivan

And then we watched a bit of Fantastic Mr. Fox. After Spanish, we watched a bit more of Fantastic Mr. Fox. After recess, we watched Spain v Honduras.

Tuesday: If you are planning to come to school (and Sr. Martinez, your son does not have to come into school tomorrow, I promise you, he won’t miss anything), bring something to do. A game to play. A book to read. Something to do. Please do not spend the day asking me: What can I do? I will be in school at 6:50am, watching the Mexico v Uruguay match. If you come early, you can come into school and join me in the classroom. Please note, at 9am the match will finish. You will need something to do. Oh, you can also wear La Verde as well (or La Negra).

And the slideshow is here:

Oh, and if you go to the school’s website, there’s a survey that the school is asking all parents to fill out. Please go, and say nice things about me. Or, if you feel you need to, go and say bad things about me – it will help me improve as a teacher.

(spelling bee final) Tuesday

THIS IS BRILLIANT!! Click here to watch THAT goal, as reenacted via Lego! Genius.

It has felt like a rush, all day. Not enough time to do everything I want to do, the clock appears to move so much faster, and then other things pop up in the middle of whatever we are doing. My timing was all out of whack from the moment I walked into school. I thought I had got to school at my normal time, ten minutes early. However, I had to stop to talk to one teacher, then another, and before I knew it, the bell rang (two minutes early) before I had got across the playground to my classroom. It is my week to be outside, opening car doors, so there was no time to write Something New on the board.

Outside, it was a case of desperately searching cars, hoping that Ana Elena, Paulina, and Ivan had got my email, or read my blog. Or, hopefully, someone else had read my blog, and passed on the message. They hadn’t. None of them were in Gala uniform. (It appears that only one student read my blog last night.) I bit the bullet, apologised to Miss Lilian, and explained that the fault was all mine. Of course, one glance at the picture at the top of the page points out that they were ALL in Gala uniform. Thankfully, the parents reacted perfectly as they dropped their children off, and uniforms arrived in school. Which, if I had gambled on, I could have not apologised, and admitted my mistake. Ho hum.

From morning line up, straight to the multi-activity room and a quick run through The Final Presentation. It isn’t perfect, not even in this form, and then Mr. Kay (that’s me) went ahead and changed the whole thing. Well, not the whole thing. The base of the performance, the poem, is still there. However, it has now turned into a whole production. This means more sleepless nights ahead of me, more frustration, and hard work. But it’s all fun in the end. (There are several pictures up on my Flickr page, taken during the rehearsal. Enjoy.)

This meant that the whole morning was spent working on The Final Presentation. We’ll get there.

After recess The Spelling Bee Final. Congratulations to the three students who made the final (wearing Gala uniform). It only took three rounds to work out the final positions:

1st – Ivan

2nd – Ana Elena

3rd – Paulina R.

Well done! And remember, “you go to business on the bus“.

Something New: 5.9

I didn’t make it to my classroom on time. However, if I had I would have written: 5.9. Last night, at 9:30, there was another earthquake. Not as big, not as scary, as the last one. But big enough to get me out of my flat clutching my laptop!

Favourite Moment of The Day (FMOTD): Starring Taylor Lautner and Alejandro! Plus, some people who go to school with Alejandro.

(that goal) Monday

The Social Studies Bee. An hour to get three finalists. On paper screen that sounds like an ideal competition. One that lasted that long because it was difficult to find three finalists. In reality, it lasted that long because no one wanted to answer a question correctly. There are two ways to learn: through understanding or by rote (off by heart). Somethings have to be learnt by heart (the multiplication tables), but after you know them, you can understand them. Many things have to be understood before they can be learnt. At the moment, many sixth graders are caught in the middle. Only half understanding, only half learning. This, combined with a shaky grasp of English,leads to maximum confusion when presented with a Bee. My advice? Improve your English. It will only happen with practise. And, you’ve only got two weeks left to practise. Of course, as I said this morning, there is one thing that everyone can give but no one takes: advice.

The rest of the day was spent on a spelling list.

Something New: We will NOT talk about THAT goal.

And yet, we did. All day. At some point, at some time, someone would mention THAT goal. Twenty-two times to be exact. It was mentioned 22 times.

Favourite Moment Of The Day (FMOTD): If I asked someone to go to Miss Claudia…

I was illustrating a point, about volunteering, and it wasn’t necessarily offering to do something for free because, often, there is no fee involved. It is all about willingness to do something. I was illustrating a point. That said, Carlo Ivan was halfway out of the door.

Attendance: One Absent

HELP – SPELLING BEE FINAL

Tomorrow is the Spelling Bee Final.

Ana Elena, Paulina R., and Ivan

must wear GALA UNIFORM. They can bring their PE uniform in a bag and change later. If you have any of these students’ phone numbers or email addresses or can IM them, please do so. It will make my life a lot easier.

Thank you.