mimiyang

yay. It’s not much, but it’s something. Toward the end of the Book 1, I felt like they were mostly saying words that we already knew (from living in El Salvador for two months now), but the grammar lessons are still very helpful.

We still have Books 2 and 3 to go, and we also plan on taking Spanish lessons at school soon—whenever they become available. Slowly but surely!

When I surveyed my kids at the end of last year, most of them had the same criticism: that they don’t do enough projects in my class. I had set out to change that this year, and thus far it has gone pretty well. Thus far into the first quarter, each class has had a major project and a major exam, and the projects have been fairly significant in content / rigor. I even did a socioeconomic project for my Algebra 2 Honors class, and the result was interesting. (Some kids did a brilliant job; others ignored my various feedback and aimed for the minimum, as might be expected in all situations.)

But, I’m also getting some pressure, both from myself and from the school, to hurry the pacing along. The projects have been great, but time-consuming, and therefore we’re a little bit slower in the pacing than we would ideally like to be. I have yet to find the right balance.

Our school also does periodical student reviews of teachers. We’re supposed to survey each class every quarter, and summarize the results for our supervisors. I’m curious to see what the students have to say about my teaching, although I’m clearly going to take it with a grain of salt. I am almost certain that most students will say that I give too much homework, even though I only give a moderate amount (albeit daily). I guess we’ll see!

I hadn’t been actively working on any of my other existing goals on the list, and I felt guilty so I updated the goals list today to reflect new priorities. But, a major reason for this lull is also that I’m actually, for a rare moment in my life, striking a really great work-life balance. Almost unfailingly, my weekends are spent exploring El Salvador (and/or surrounding areas), and my work week is busy with being the best teacher that I can be. My time isn’t spent idly…

Having real prep periods each day definitely helps. So does our school’s rotating schedule, which means that I only see each class 4 times each week.