Well, I will admit I don't check the blog nearly as often as I used to. I guess with wishing that I was actively doing more with what I learned during the semester, sometimes I avoid thinking about it. I am still doing day care - right now I'm the head teacher in the infant room. I will say I've learned a lot and I don't mind the age but writing lesson plans to include seven different areas of development is a pain in the neck. Upcoming weekly theme: emotions Upcoming art: shove a marker into a three month olds hand; tell him/her to draw how he/she feels But hey, it is a stable job with benefits.

Chris and I have made visits to Dartmouth and Ohio State in looking at the next step in grad school for him. On the way to Dartmouth, we stopped and spent a weekend with Chelsea. It was wonderful and refreshing. We have also recently purchased a fancy camera for me in my goals to become a photographer. I would like to be able, someday, to show up at all those non-profits that won't hire me and convince them to let me go take pictures of the things they are doing in the world. That's the latest here.

The death of the blog

Well either our blog has died or else nobody has anything interesting to write about.
So heres a story: I'm a reading and writing tutor at a Migrant elementary school in Newberg, OR. I rotate around four different classes, and mostly I deal with the lower achieving students. I have a morning and and afternoon kindergarten class that I help in, in addition to a first grade class and a third grade class. The morning kindergarten class is an all Spanish classroom, meaning that instruction and speaking is all in Spanish. Well, I'm not sure how this all worked out but somehow I (who speaks very little Spanish) was placed in this classroom to help with literacy. Much said, thrust into a spanish classroom has improved my spanish skills immensely. Also, I was about to walk a group of students to the reading room when the first word that popped in to my head was yella bena. woops, that should have been vamanos. huh.... I am always intrigued at the mind's capacity for language development.
There have been many firsts since working at the elementary school. Last week, when I was working on a paper with a tantrum-thrower third grader, he lost his temper and I ducked as a pencil was thrown at my face. Pencil dodging was not part of the job description. :)

Yesterday I was working in the afternoon kindergarten classroom. We were split up into small groups and I was in charge of reading a book to them and having them find the letter T in words and make connections between the letter and the sound it makes. One of the boys, Xaviar, kept making growling noises and grabbing the book that was in my hands. After the first grab I told him his behavior was inappropriate for the classroom and he needed to stop. After twice more, trying to ignore his behavior, I got up (luckily the buzzer rang and it was the end of our rotation time) and asked him to take my hand and told him we were going out in the hall for a chat. A couple words later I am physically dragging him by his wrists, kicking and screaming, out into the hallway. Lovely.
that is all for today. If there is anybody from MESP out there, just comment with "hey." :)