A strange day indeed

Today started with Valeria's class, which meant that no one was really paying attention.  I took them to the computer lab to listen to the "Empire State of Mind II" song, which they translated last week.  They were attentive while I played the song twice (once with lyrics, and once without), and then while I played the original with Jay-Z.  From there it was all down hill.  I aske them to finish their NYC presentations, which of course meant that only a fe of them would even do it, or had even done the assignment.   One group was watching Family Guy on youtube while the others presented.  Really guys?? Really?  I hate being viewed as someone they can take advantage of; as someone who will let them do anything they want.  Then, they ask why they have such low marks in English!  Well, if you would pay attention, or do the assignments, you might learn something and then you would not have a low mark.

Rosina's class was much better.  I had them do the geography activity, and it went REALLY well!  They were amazing!  They did a great job of working together with the vocabulary and finding things on the map!  It's classes like this when I realize that they do want to learn, and they will do the assignments well, but they just have to be in the right mood (which was not okay in my high school...you did it or you didn't get a grade, etc).  I did have to get on to the boys in the back (surprise, surprise!!), but other than that everything went really well

 

Rosina could not take me to Valentini, so I walked.  I stopped and got myself a cornetto, stopped at my apartment to use my bathroom, and then walked to school.

I took Francesca's class to the lab to do the healthy food lesson, which Francesca was COMPLETELY uninterested in.  It amazes me how I can tell when she is completely annoyed by my lesson because she leaves the class constantly.  She doubted some of my research about the food, but whatever.  I am over her not liking what I have to say, or not ever believing it.  I spent most of the lesson yelling OVER the ones that would not stop talking or spinning in the chairs.  There were a few who were paying attention, and I appreciate them for that!

Angelino's class was good.  I did not teach of course because it is Monday, but it was an interesting day.  Francesca is still working on that project with the Netherlands, and she came in to ask Angelino about whether or not it was appropriate to use a picture of a prostitute because one stereotype of Amsterdam is that they are a bunch of prostitutes and drug addicts.  This led to a conversation about the word corset and them having me look it up on my phone.  Then Angelino made some comments about a red and black corset he saw in a magazine and how they were nice.  Umm, I do not need to know what kind of lingerie you are attracted to! So, that was awkward.  Then Angelino was telling me about the recovery classes that the students can take if they fail a class.  THey can take up to 3 recover classes and then take a test.  If they pass the tests, then they can still go to the next year in school.  This concerns me quite a bit because there is NO WAY you can take 1 test and that ensures that you learned the material from that past year.  Plus, a lot of cheating happens here when it comes to testing, so you do the math.  It made a few things clearer for me regarding some of my students being left behind in certain subjects.

When class was over, I walked home and ranted to Nick about some things.  I stopped at the discount store for a few things, and then at my regular store for some toilet paper!  I figure that's important stuff! ;) When I got home, I ate lunch, talked to my momma, and then I crashed for 3 hours.  I was exhausted, and I needed that sleep!

When I woke up, I worked on my NYC review game for Linda's class, marked things off my to-do list (cleaning, blogs, lessons, packing, planning for Erin & Meagan, etc), and then went back to bed.