"Fall" vacation

For all of you who might be wondering what happened to me...don't worry! I have just been busy the past couple of weeks. But amongst the craziness that has been my life lately, I am taking a moment to write a brief update.

Last week was my first week of actually teaching for this school year. It has been so good to finally have my class. But it has taken up a lot more of my time. I am trying to do better than last year and actually be fully prepared for classes before they start. ;~) It has been different and challenging to have a 1st grader. It is the only grade I haven't taught before and so it is going to be a year of learning for me. It will be exciting however to see how much he learns and grows during this first year of being in a school setting. So far he is doing pretty well and I think once we get into a good routine he will do great! My other student, the 1st grader's sister, is in 3rd grade. This is a little easier for me this year because I taught 3rd grade last year and so I am mostly familiar with the curriculum for the grade. There are only a few that I have more work to do for since I either didn't teach that class last year, or we have gotten new curriculum. I am still trying to figure out what to do for Spanish with them. We were supposed to be getting new curriculum but I don't think it ever got ordered. Teaching them Spanish has already been good for me though. It forces me to use my Spanish more than usual and I am able to learn more vocabulary words. In all, classes have been good. Right now I am trying to get everything ready for while I am gone. It is hard to plan two weeks ahead when you only have 1 student in each grade and they fly through things. The challenges of small schools!

Well, I leave for the States this Friday. I leave Pucallpa after school and then fly out of Lima at 11pm. If everything works out and I don't miss my connecting flight in Miami, I will be back in Chicago by 10:30am on Saturday!! I am looking forward to seeing all those that will be close enough for me to spend some time with. I am praying these two weeks, even though they will be busy, will be a good break for me. I never really got a vacation this summer...I spent my summer in school!