I'm in LOVE...

With my new school!!! Long story short, my group had to change schools since our previous one already had an English teacher and we are required to teach one hour of English every week. So this morning while we were at school at the university everyone was pretty nervous we were going to have the same situation where the teachers questioned why we were there, complained they didn't have time for us, and didn't want to help us.

This new school is also two bus rides away except for it seems a lot closer than the last one. It's still located in my Zapopan "hood" and probably takes 45 minutes max. We arrived a bit early so we grabbed a few tacos and strawberry cheesecake at two places across the street from the school. Shortly after we arrived at the school, the principal came up to us and welcomed each and every one of us. Then we were each taken to our new classrooms which we will be in through December.

Luckily, I'm still in my favorite grade (second) and I only have 34 kids which is more than a 10 person difference than my previous 46! The teacher carried on with her lesson and absolutely blew me away. Here was a teacher which took one comment from one of her students about having 6 dogs and 2 cats and turns it around into a full out math situation for 2 hrs! She had control of the class, the children were respectful, they didn't run up to the teacher and interrupt her nor did they ask to go to the restroom every 5 minutes.

Half way through I began to think it was too good to be true. When were the kids going to get so bored they would start playing loudly, scream or stand on their desks? When was the teacher going to stop teaching and gossip about her kids in front of them about the multiple learning disabilities and personal lives? When was the teacher going to tell me that I'm wasting my time and should go home?

Never - Such a sigh of relief. When the school bell rang, I walked out smiling, hugging and my hands were shaking out of shock and complete happiness. Then the principal approached me in the play area and asked me to come with her to her office. I began to think, ut oh, what did I do wrong? Then, I walked in and she handed me a little box with flan! Although this school still lacks some resources, they are 110% change in the positive realm. So happy to be there and can't wait for the next 3.5 months.

Next week I am teaching Art, PE, English and Math each for one hour. My first actual lessons in front of the classroom, all of which are going to be in Spanish. I also volunteered yesterday to take on an additional class to teach one hour of English each week. So instead of having to only teach my second graders, I will now also be teaching a third grade class how to speak English. Super nervous and still creating the lesson plans. Hopefully it'll all go over smoothly.

Side note: When I first sat down in my class, I heard a whistle, looked over from where it was coming from and realized it was towards me. About 10 minutes later, the same little seven year old boy walked over and gave me candy with a wink. The rest of the class time he spent either staring at me or at my legs. They definitely start the whole flirting and wooing thing early down here!