Lately I have really been enjoying my work!
I've gotten to know the kids better now (finally learned all 200 of their names! Yeah it took me all year, but whatever haha) On Wednesday I was on my after school duty watching the kids leave, which is usually pretty boring besides the occasional "Bye Miss Devlin!" but this day, my "sister" (Angelica in the 4th grade) was out there with a couple of her 4th grade friends. They asked me if I wanted to play "Signs" which I had never heard of. Basically you make up a gesture and say something with it. Angelica did "Yo yo chips!" and moved her hands by her shoulders. I ended up going "Whaa??" and moving my hands up. Once everyone has a "sign" then we go around and say ours then someone else's, trying to mess them up. It's kind of confusing to explain, but it was really fun! I'm supposed to be on duty from 3:15-3:30, but I ended up staying out there playing until almost 3:50 with Angelica and then with Mya, one of my favorite 5th graders (who I used to tutor in Math)
Then on Thursday, Mya asked me if I wanted to play Signs again, and I told her "yes! after school" I ended up playing it both Thursday and Friday with a variety of the kids including Angelica and Selina from 4th, Liliana from 2nd grade, Angel from 1st, Mya, Andrew and Elissa from 5th. They are so cute! On Friday after our staff meeting, there was a 3rd grader, Joanna, who had been stuck at school for 2 hours and her parents were still not there (later found out her mom's car broke down). So, even though I wanted to go home, I decided to play I Spy and 20 questions with her. I ended staying with her for half an hour, and it was really fun!
Then today, Monday, I went outside for the morning announcements and Selina came up to me and gave me a really good hug. It was so unexpected and adorable. After she left to get in line, Joanna came up and gave me a hug, telling me her mom eventually picked her up. I'm not sure if there is a better way to start off the week than hugs from kids. So awesome. Love it.
Besides becoming friends with the kids, I have also really started to like teaching. I'm teaching Excel to the 5th and 6th graders and they are actually absorbing the knowledge and liking it! And I taught the 4th graders Powerpoint! They were presenting their Powerpoints to the class last Tuesday and I was so proud of them:) Also, on Friday, I got to team-teach with Mrs. Molina a math lesson to a mix of grades that was really fun. Our school has decided to do something we call STAR Fridays where we put the kids into classes by math level instead of grade and we work on what they need the most help with. It was great!
Now thinking about teaching in the future excites me. Like thinking about setting up my own classroom, creating rewards for the kids, grading papers, having my own discipline system, planning my own lessons (non-computer ones), etc. I've been thinking about teaching grades 3-5 or maybe middle school. I do really love the little ones also, but they can be difficult and when they are a bit older there is so much more opportunity to teach them some really cool subjects!
So: My plan at the moment is to do JVC for one more year in Spokane, take the rest of the year off (travel? work? volunteer?) until June 2013, when I will start grad school in Education at either University of Portland or Lewis and Clark. Then, I'll look for a job at a school.
I have been thinking a lot also about my other passion: film. I really like making films and am glad that I majored in it at Santa Clara. I still think I'd like to work with films as well, but the day-to-day of being an editor would require me to sit alone in an editing booth for many hours on end and I just don't think that's what I was meant to do. I think film may end up being a hobby or side project at this point. I'm thinking of bringing my camera to Tucson to make a short film (or two) before I'm done here. But besides that I don't have grand plans for film in my future. I'm much more excited about teaching at this point in my life.
But, who knows what the future holds. Maybe I'll change my mind ANOTHER time! It happens a lot....
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