It's been raining a lot here. So much so that during the night the thunderstorms will shake the house and cut the power. When that happens, the fans stop working. When the fans stop working, sleep stops happening. While the rain does make everything here cooler and more bearable, it also drastically increases the number of mosquitoes everywhere. For someone who hates bug spray but gets thoroughly bitten, these mosquitoes are an issue.
It's very fair to say that I miss fall.
It was a real long week at school. Long because it was the first full week we'd had in a while. But I'm finally getting comfortable enough to get more creative with my lessons. For our shapes review in Prepa this week, I made sugar cookie dough for the kids, which they used to model triangles and squares. To practice circles I brought in bubble wands and the kids ran around outside blowing bubbles, which they absolutely loved. Tomorrow we will be making Letter M Monsters.
All of a sudden, second grade got really cooperative at the beginning of this past week. The second half of the week wasn't as incredible, but I got a lot of hope on Monday and Tuesday when I saw that the kids were actually learning from my lesson plans. The week, however, still had its share of interesting moments. On Wednesday, as the kids were answering reading comprehension questions, one of my students announced to me that he cannot read. This wasn't as surprising as it should have been, given that this seems to be the vibe I'm getting from a significant portion of the class. On Thursday during PE, I looked over to see two boys eight feet in the air, climbing up some random poles stuck in the yard. On Friday, I realized that two students had simply left the room after finishing their quiz. I went outside to look for them and could not find either boy anywhere around the school yard. As I was explaining to a volunteer that I had lost two of my students, he spotted them coming out of the bathroom together, along with a third student of mine. Apparently I'd lost three. I think I get teacher points for that?
Today the refrigerator repairman came at Amanda's request. Turns out all the coils and wiring in the fridge and freezer were iced over, apparently preventing the fridge from getting cold, while the freezer interior snowed. So after thawing our entire freezer with Amanda's hairdryer, the repairman unscrewed everything, reassembled it all, and swept the large pond of water that had collected on the kitchen floor out the door.
Liz and I have been baking bread. We've made three loaves in the last week, plus bagels yesterday. We even splurged for cream cheese. Since good bread products aren't a thing here, this has all been a super welcome addition to our diet of beans and cheap produce. There's just one thing that makes this more exciting: at home I have never baked a loaf of bread that has succeeded in rising. But here my bread not only rises, but also has perfect texture and consistency. And this, even though we bake in a toaster oven that always takes almost double the baking time of any recipe.
I think a new normal is beginning to take some shape. Thanks to the constant surprises that I encounter here, I don't think I'll ever discover what exactly my new normal means. But I'm completely okay with that - it's what I signed up for. So I'm just going to keep right on teaching and cooking and getting to know these kids. Tuesday I'll begin tutoring the second grader who told me that he can't read. I'm definitely going to keep on being surprised day after day.
Personally, I think normal is overrated, even the beta versions. :) It's also unfamiliar to me . . . so maybe that's part of it. Awesome you for baking bread! Boo about the mosquitoes. That's no fun. As for the teacher points, I think when you lose two and get back three that's much preferred to losing three and only getting back two! We lost Zac Brown for most of a Sunday morning once. He won hide and seek that day. Locked down the school as I recall and found him in a dumpster in which he was (voluntarily) hiding and thrilled that his classmates had not yet found him. (He missed the part of the instructions where all hiding was meant to be inside the building. English proficiency had nothing to do with it in that case!)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the update! Shana Tovah! Here's to 5775!
Oh Eliza, your blog is beautiful and it makes me oh so happy! What an adventure you have here! I have to repeat what someone said earlier, you're truly a gifted writer so keep on telling your stories. I love how nearly every post includes a blurb about how you're moving outside of your comfort zone and growing in ways you probably never imagined. Your students are blessed to have you, I'm sure your lesson plans are absolutely fabulous and ridiculous at the same time (which is a good thing). P.s. send me some homemade bread. :) Xoxo, Corrie
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ReplyDeleteIf there's one thing that people would want to continue working normally, it's the refrigerator. Well, it makes sense that frozen-over coils would mess them up. You must be glad that was fixed in one sitting, and that you guys can adjust things much more easily now. Take care!
ReplyDeleteSue Berry @ Advanced Appliance Service