Working on a Saturday! :)

Today is a sunny Saturday in Sayulita!  Emily and I enjoyed sleeping in a little bit, but by 10:00 a.m. we were off to the school to start planning for our first day of teaching on Monday.  One neat fact about Sayulita at this time of year is that it does not really start getting light outside until about 8:00 a.m.  Therefore, it feels like it is early in the morning when it is actually pretty late!

At school, I began to realize how challenging it is to create a daily schedule.  It was especially challenging because I have the first graders for one half of the day and the second graders for the second half of the day; therefore, I only have half of a day with each group before they switch and go with another teacher in order to receive instruction in Spanish for a portion of the day.  It is so hard to fit in all the activities I want to do with each grade amongst all the designated specials the students have as well as the time they currently need to decorate their classrooms for the open house on next Thursday.   My job is to be sure to teach math, English language arts, and science in English each day to each group.  That is a lot to fit in each day when you only have a couple of hours!  I am beginning to see why so many teachers switch off between subjects like social studies and science throughout the week.  There never seems to be enough time in the day for all the goals you want to accomplish.  I think that I might not be able to fit science in every day which is sad, but I am happy that the students at least have an eco-science special each week for forty minutes in order to supplement their science development. 

This brings me to my next discovery…the students have such AMAZING specials here!  As I said earlier, the first and second graders have forty minutes of eco-science each week.  In addition to that special, they have forty minutes of yoga, two hours of physical education (which includes surfing, soccer, or swimming!), eighty minutes of art, and forty minutes of dance.  Although I have not seen the physical education, yoga, or eco-science specials take place yet since I have only been at the school for two days, I am very excited to see how they are implemented as well as how the children respond to them.  The physical education activities seem so fun and exciting!  I think seeing how the students react to these exciting specials will help better inform my practice as a teacher back in the states because if students really like yoga for instance, I can incorporate that into my classroom someday.  It will help me see how I can infuse my schedule with unconventional activities that help students grow physically.

After planning, Emily and I want to walk around the small town a little bit in order to get to know it a little better.  We want to go to the beach (the part where the waves aren’t too high) and along the way stop and visit the town’s cemetery.  We saw it in passing one day, and it was beautiful!  We also want to make pasta with homemade sauce because we bought so many fresh fruits and veggies which taste wonderful!  ¡Hasta luego!