I've been keeping myself busy....

In the last month, I have....

~~had a visit from my mom and our friend, Jennifer!
~~reorganized how I run my classroom
~~crashed my computer
~~stayed up past 11 on at least 5 occasions during the week
~~discovered a sweet new podcast
~~completed my third quarter grades 2 weeks ahead of time (and I only have one
student failing!)
~~gone to Santa Rosa on a girl's weekend (also new hair cut debut!!)
~~planned out my Semana Santa
~~started thinking about going home

First of all, my week with visitors. It was such a good time, but it was so fast! My mom and Jennifer came in on a Friday, we stayed the night in San Pedro Sula, and traveled to Copan Ruinas on Saturday. I have a mototaxi friend named Jose who was super helpful in showing us around and finding a hotel for us. We visited the Mayan Ruins and got some souveniors. Saturday night, we slept in Copan, and then came to Gracias on Sunday. We had a birthday lunch with Paola, had naptime, and went to the hot springs. On Monday, Jennifer and my mom came to school and observed my classroom. They were able to give me lots of great tips because unfortunately my kids decided to act the exact same way they always do, even with visitors in the room! It was actually really helpful though, because I haven't really had a lot of teacher feedback these last two years of teaching. Monday evening, we hung out at my house and met the neighbors, as well as the other teachers. The comedor made us a typical Honduran meal, which we enjoyed with the other teachers, as well as Shelly's family! Tuesday morning, I went to school, and my mom and Jennifer headed back to San Pedro Sula (yes, they braved the buses by themselves!). Like I said, it was a great week, but quite a whirlwind!





So, because of my heart-to-hearts with my teacher visitors, I decided to move things around in my classroom. I reorganized the desks, stacked up boxes, and changed my behavior management tactics. I've also been spending a lot of time on YouTube, listening to lots of Love and Logic seminar clips. I realized that I have missed two years of professional growth, so I'm trying to catch up. I do a lot of self-reflection in everything I do, and so I have always done teacher-reflections of myself but.... that's about the extent of my growth. :) The things I've added to my teaching methods in the last month have helped a lot, and I hope to continue until the end of the year! ... We'll see :)

About two weeks ago, I wrote a very, very long email to my sister, Emily, and then tried to send it and nothing would happen. So, I closed my computer and waited until I was back at my house. When I opened my computer again, it was completely blank. My computer had completely crashed, and I had no idea why. I asked around, and one of our teachers has a nephew that fixes computers. He offered to take a look at it. Eventually he figured out the problem, and it was not a problem that could be fixed. However, he said he could pull as much off my computer and then redo all my programs and start over. He charged me 20 bucks and was able to give my computer back with all the programs on it still! They're all in Spanish, I lost most of my word documents, and have no pictures saved from my last two years here, but.... I still have the internet and a webcam that works haha. So that was kind of crazy, kind of sad, but ultimately definitely not as bad as it could have been.

I've been staying up later. I think it has to do, in part, with the next 'bullet'

I found a free podcast from HowStuffWorks.com called 'Stuff You Missed in History Class'. I'm minorly obsessed with it- which is fine, because I downloaded like
200. So, that has been entertaining, and also nice to listen to when I'm grading or things like that.

I'm just always proud of times when I don't actually procrastinate. :) And, last quarter, I had 7 kids fail, so only one is pretty great!

Catelin, Paola (our 5th grade neighbor), and I went to Santa Rosa to celebrate Paola's birthday. We met Ana there, got pedicures, had some delicious food, went to a concert, and stayed at a hotel. It was fun!






Next week is Semana Santa, or Holy Week. Everyone is going on vacation, but I'm staying home to work and save money for a trip at the end of the year. So.... I'm going to be job searching like crazy! I made up a schedule for each day and all the things I need to accomplish before I lounge around for the day. :) It should be pretty interesting, being by myself, with nothing to occupy my time except work, internet, movies, books, cooking, and the great outdoors. It's obvious what I would choose if left without a schedule.... check lists really are magic for me :) Wish me luck!!

Finally, we're about two months away from finishing the year. I have slowly started making myself think about 'the end'. I'm pretty sure it's going to be one of the most difficult things I've done- leaving this place that I've come to really love- but I hope I will be able to enjoy these last couple months while giving myself some closure! again... wish me luck :)