Catching up on February

On Feb. 2 we took a picture to commemorate the great date. I posted it on Instagram and Ivy was cut out of the picture. I think it's worth seeing her cute face in the picture!

Last weekend we went to see Papa Fred and Marj in Logandale. It was lots of fun. So much fun that we couldn't get a picture of Will standing still. I can't believe Will is 15. I think it takes a bit to get used to a new age. He will get his driving permit this year! Having a gap between drivers has been a bit of a bummer.

Ivy's hair just gets longer and longer. She says that she either wants it down to her hips or maybe she should cut it like a boy. She likes the extremes right now. She had a great time with Will in Logandale.

(And we did end up getting a picture of her cute face.)

I also had a great time seeing Paige and John there. Also, Marj's son Duane and his wife, Kelly, seemed like great people too.

The next day we went hiking at Valley of Fire. Bill was feeling much better and we laughed that maybe we should have spent the night in Logandale because we didn't realize we would be hiking at Valley of Fire the next day! We had a really great picnic at The Cabins where we fed the ground squirrels (who like buns, but not ribs) and then hiked over to the wash and ran up the wash a ways barefoot. Will and Ivy played in the sand together as they weren't in the mood to run so much.

On hugs day I passed out Hershey's hugs to the class I am trying to like and to some of my friends at school. It was a pretty good day on the whole.

I took pictures this week of the walls of my room because I am really enjoying being in my room even though it is small. I am really pleased with my students' work. I still can't bring myself to label everything in Spanish. It just looks so messy.

Below are my Spanish II students' self-portraits. They have been up since the beginning of the year and I think I'll probably keep them up until the end of the year.

My Spanish I students made family trees and I put up the ones I likes the most. I especially love it when they draw their family members.

Some of the most pleasing things to me are the things I keep behind my desk: the porg piñata Faith made and the art by Diego Rivera, Dali and Picasso. I also have a Botero on the wall to the left of the porg. And then there are still the piñatas my students made last year. I really want to do piñatas again this year. It was a really fun activity and what I remember most from Sra. Brown's Spanish class in Jr. high. The purple chair is super uncomfortable, but my students seem to like it. I found it by the curb of a friend's house the night before garbage day :)

Yesterday was dashiki day at Basic HS. I was happy to have an excuse to buy and wear a dashiki

Today I went to a workshop about classroom management and missed a phone call from Heather. Shoot! It would have been fun to talk, but I did learn some useful things. Here are the best things I learned to say at this workshop.

For students who want to complain or argue. They are called foggers:
"I understand"
"bummer"
"mmm."
"uh-huh"

I actually used this unknowingly the other day. My hardest student walked into the room telling me what a bad teacher I am. Our interaction went something like this:

Student:  Señora, you are so boring. You are the worst teacher. Your class is so boring
Me: Really? What do you want to do in class? (he always sleeps)
Student: A project.
Me:  A speaking project? Like we have planned today?
Student: No. This is the worst class. You are the most boring teacher.
Me:  I think I can live with that....(then I wandered off.)

I also learned how to make calls home to parents. These are things to say to parents who don't know what to do or don't want to work with me:
"I know what to do. I have dealt with situations like this before."
"I know you love ___________. If we work together, we will see changes."
"I have never seen a student fail when parents and teachers work together."