Colegio Menor ....El primer día

Colegio Menor ... I'm in love! The school is so beautiful inside and out! I told my teacher if she could see the schools in the states she would feel closed in! There is fresh air circulating through the hallways and courtyards throughout the school. I woke up early today after a not-so-good night's sleep - probably because of the anxiety and anticipation about my first day in my 3rd placement of student teaching! Emily and I walked just up the street to the bus stop and waited for our "teacher bus" to pick us up. As promised at around 7:28 "Galo" our bus driver arrived. To our surprise, the bus was full of American teachers that had done their student teaching here at Colegio Menor and then either stayed or came back to teach at Colegio Menor! They were so nice and we were relieved to have them to show us where to go when we walked into the school. Immediately I was stunned by the beauty of the grounds - green and lush, palm trees and flowers everywhere! LOVE IT! We were greeted by Tim Long the primary principal and he quickly gave us a tour of the school. Oh, and by the way - we were way overdressed ;)! The teachers wear jeans and trendy clothes - but not formal or business dress. Emily is teaching 4th grade and her classroom was upstairs. After we dropped her off Tim took me down to my classroom .... ROSSINI ... is the classroom nickname. I walked into the classroom to the sound of students speaking in English and Spanish. Everyone was so excited to see each other as they have been on spring break for TWO weeks! I was so overwhelmed with excitement and joy and the experience that I "welled" up a bit and had to turn away and collect myself! (I'm a sap ... my husband says that I can cry reading the newspaper ... he's right!) I immediately fell in love with each of the 22 students. I've learned most of their names already and can actually pronounce them! Their day is somewhat different than ours in the states. We had morning work, community time (which was sharing our spring break stories and talking about the calendar - the students had traveled all over the world on spring break - several went to Casa Blanca, Cancun, Rome, Miami - it was incredible to hear of all the places that were visited! It was then time for break - the kids went by themselves to the playground and courtyards to play and have a snack if they wanted to. After break was Reading, then Writing - then lunch and recess. After recess we had Math and then the students went to P.E. and Music so we were done teaching for the day. We had a team meeting - which I loved - it was a lot like the team meetings the 2nd grade teachers had at T.C. Cherry! At the end of the day, Emily and I found our American teacher friends and they directed us to the correct bus. A quick ride home and we survived our 1st day! I can't wait to meet my teacher tomorrow. She was traveling back today from Vancouver so she was not in the classroom today - her aide Ale taught instead.