Miss Van Der... you must be Dutch.

Yesterday I started my student teaching at Santiago Christian. I am working in the ESL classroom with (mainly) 2 other teachers. I bet none of you expected this, but I am currently observing and will soon be teaching grades 1-5 (less 4th)! It was a bit of a surprise to me as well, as I wasn't really sure what grades my cooperating teacher worked with, nor what "ESL" meant for this school. Here's the basic breakdown:
1st grade is pull-out ESL, which means that once a day the students who need extra support in reading are taken out of the general ed classroom to work in a smaller classroom environment but still have the same basic content. 2nd and 3rd grade is a mixture between pull-out (once a week) and co-teaching, which is when the ESL teacher comes to the gen. ed. classroom and works along with the gen. ed teacher. 5th grade is strictly co-teaching.

So far, I have been observing, walking around the classroom and interacting with the students a bit, and getting familiar with the school. And so far, I am in love with it. I never pictured myself enjoying teaching elementary, but seeing these kids struggling with and learning English, interacting with their peers, running up and down the stairs, hiding from the rain before recess, and how much they love their teachers, it's hard to remember why I didn't want to teach K-12. And then I picture what being with these kids from 8am-3pm would be like. Being able to help the students develop and attain better English is an incredible experience, and being able to see the progress from grade to grade just as well, but a full school day with one grade would require twice as much coffee as I already drink (that'd be about 10 cups a day). Thus far, I couldn't be much happier with my placement, and I can't wait to start interacting even more with the students. They are so lovable... usually. :) As the student teaching session progresses, I'm sure I'll have my fair-share of frustrations and times when I don't know what to change to better meet their ESL learning needs, but for now, I can't imagine a better experience. The teachers I am working with are great as well. Looking back to how frustrated and disappointed I was when I couldn't go back to the Netherlands, I now realize why. This experience is truly a blessed one.

The weather here is a bit strange. It's "cool" in the morning, sunny in the late morning, usually rains a bit in the afternoon, and then the sun comes out again, but I really can't complain. It's not freezing, snowing, or Iowa. :)

Besides teaching, I've mostly been spending time getting to know my host family, meeting the girls' friends, and trying to order KFC in a Spanish speaking country... If you're going to bring American food to a foreign country, I believe a prerequisite for working at the joint should be to speak English, but I suppose I shouldn't be so naive as to expect everyone to speak my language in their own country. It's not like this is Europe. 

For now, that is all I have. I'll be spending my evening watching the Bachelor and trying to get on a better sleep schedule than a mediocre college-meets-professional-semester one. Adios for now!