Teaching Kindergarten

20 February 2010
I have been teaching Kindergarten for 6 months now and every day is an adventure! I have 21 students and one assistant, along with a "unique aide" who is there to help keep one student on track. It's lots of fun, sometimes stressful, a learning experience, an exercise is patience, and just plain silly some days. Although I have taught preschool and worked with young children, most of my teaching experience has been with older students and in small group. So being THE classroom teacher was new to me. I have really learned a lot about myself and about working with kiddos. I have a few mantras that keep me going when the stress is higher than normal or something really zany happens...
(when they are off-task) What's the task?
They're only 5.
It's Kindergarten.
Breathe.
If at first you don't succeed, try, and try, and try again.
And when those don't work..a pause, a deep breath, a big-belly laugh, and the Tooty-Ta.
Here are some photos of my students. Enjoy!Making Reading Bugs for Reading Week.
Reading books to our Reading Bugs.
Holiday concert. Ms. Nhi made a great fireplace. The kids wore nice clothes and their Holiday Non La hats that they made in Art.
Singing at the Holiday Concert.
Our field trip to Dam Sen Park and the Ice Castle for our Weather unit. We had to wear these coats because it was SOOO cold! The kids are standing on an ice sculpture of the 1-Pillar Pagoda in Hanoi.

Angkor Wat 1/2 Marathon, Take 2

6 December 2009
Following the whirlwind tour to MuiNe and to Cat Tien (I could not go with the family to CTNP- had to get back to my students..but I heard it was great fun!!) we put my family on a plane and took them to Siem Reap, Cambodia for a weekend of AMAZING ruins and a fun run..one of the most fun, in fact.

The ruins were beautiful, as always. It was odd being a 2nd time visitor-lots of things had changed since our visit last year. Mostly it was at one of the ruins where things have been left in its natural state..they are having to close off certain parts of the complex, rerouting visitors down different paths, and renovating other areas due to safety.

The run was good fun! Jonathan ran as the gibbon again and my brother ran as the gaur. I might someday run in a costume, but I just have fun running support for the animals! My friends, Amina and Gianmarco, ran the half-marathon! So did my friend, Karen. I think, in all, the overwhelming opinion of Cambodia is: We love it!
Our guesthouse where we stayed:


Here's one of our tuk-tuks. My parents loved the driver..and for the life of me, I can't remember his name! Ha-Ha! His name was Sook-Ti. It was painted on the side of his Tuk-tuk!
Ta-dah!!
Peek-a-boo! It's Sher!
Here we are trying to avoid the heat at one of the ruins.
That's very thoughtful. Thank you.
Dave, this is for you.
Sunday morning. Sunrise as we get ready for the race.
J, a la Gibbon, after the race.
J getting interviewed by a radio station in Phnom Penh.
The whole family. Dave (a.k.a. the Gaur) was really as tired as he looks here.
The whole animal gang with the amazing Pisei.
Karen and the Gibbon-Gaur duo after the run. So, the gaur costume managed to rub Dave's nose raw within the first kilometer. At one point he took of the head and there was blood everywhere.

*NOTICE* FAMILY VISITING*

On Thanksgiving weekend my parents, sister, and brother flew in to Ho Chi Minh City. The first stop, after the hotel, was to the Zoom Bar in the backpacker district. We enjoyed catching up over a beer...and getting them prepared for the upcoming events: next morning: train ride to MuiNe.

In MuiNe we had a great time just resting. My family was really excited to try some local fare, so we ate a lot of Vietnamese food next to our hotel, and brought home some tasty and not-so-tasty fruits to try. We bought a durian and tried that..banana-garlic-feet is how my brother described it. No one was a fan..

Here is my sister at Joe's. Hi Sher!!
My bro, Dave, and my mom.
Jackie Mama and P-Ray! Behind them is Joe. He was dealing with a bee problem: a bunch of bees had nested inside one of the speakers so he was in the process of replacing it.
Fishing boats at sunrise. I love this scene..
An octopus we found on the beach. So I picked the blurriest photo of it. oops.

Weekend in Hong Kong

In mid-November, my teammate, her son, and I flew to Hong Kong for a weekend at Hong Kong Disney. My friend, Amina, found a great deal on tickets! She and her son Gianmarco were goingto go for a belated birthday celebration and invited me to come too. It was an invitation I could not pass up, seeing as how I am a HUGE Disney fan!

We flew out on Friday night and arrived really late (it was round midnight by the time we made it to our hotel). Hong Kong Disney is very different from Disney World in Orlando. In Orlando there are literally hundreds of hotels on and near Disney property. At Hong Kong Disney there are 2 options, and they are both very nice hotels done in the Over-The-Top way that Disney does everything.

We all were feeling a bit under the weather to begin with, and then arrived to chilly, Hong Kong autumn weekend. We took the bus from our hotel to the park. It was great seeing signs in both Chinese and English. The whole park was empty compared to my previous Disney experiences. I must say, though, that one of the funniest experiences was Cinderella's castle. The entire way in I was looking at the tops of the trees to see any signs of Disney: a castle spire, the peak of Space Mountain..I didn't see anything. Wow, it must be kind of tucked back from the road...I thought. We walked through the entry, past the All Aboard the Disney Train, up Main Street U.S.A. and, LO! There was the castle! Not exactly what I had imagined, but fun nonetheless. Can you say wee? How cute!

I spent the better part of the day at the park until I couldn't take the chills and feverish aches any longer. I went back to the hot tub (outside) to try and force my flu out of my body. Oh, this weekend was in the wake of the H1N1 insanity that hit everywhere, but Hong Kong is especially concerned with cleanliness..we were afraid they would send us back to Vietnam because we were coughing! Phew! I am glad that didn't happen!

On Sunday morning I took the train into the city and wandered around a bit. Hong Kong is a place I would love to return to and explore further! A weekend didn't do it justice!
The festive lobby of the Disney Resort Hotel in Hong Kong. This was my first taste of Christmas!
The gate to Hong Kong Disney. Brrr! Cold!
Main Street U.S.A. and way off in the distance (it's not that far, it's just that wee) is Cinderella's Castle.
Capt. Jack Sparrow made an appearance and I couldn't resist sneaking a kiss. I loves me a pirate. RRR!
These were cool! Guys with brooms and dustpans were painting Disney characters on the street using water!

October Break

Howdy friends!
I love to teach! It's lots of work, but it's also lots of fun. Our first break, Fall Break, was back in October. Jonathan and I decided to spend most of it in MuiNe, Vietnam. It was Jonathan's first trip to this lovely beach paradise. We had the best time just hanging out, walking the beach day after day, sampling the tasty foods, and just being together.

Here are some photos from our time there!
Here we are updating our status and drinking a Saigon Do at Joe's..our hotel wasn't ready yet so we enjoyed lunch after our train ride.
Jonathan tried a little surfing..and did pretty ok! I guess it was tiring, though.
Here we are on the beach at sunrise.
Up the beach is a fishing village where folks use these boats to catch all sorts of things. These people are going through the nets to see what they caught.
Here is a boat that just came in from fishing. This is at sunrise. The boats go out at night and come in sunrise. At night, the horizon is littered with the lights from the boats out fishing.

Blogger Slacker..

1 January 2010
Happy New Year!!!

First, well no, second (since first was to wish everyone a Happy New Year) let me say that things have been insanely busy and so I've fallen off the bloggin wagon..so sorry. So much has happened!
I have been very busy with teaching, which I love. I am a classroom teacher for Kindergarten, and I feel like it is my first year of teaching all over again! Most days I do what I can just to stay on top of things! I'll write more about teaching in a subsequent entry, though.

Some of the big things that have happened this semester are:
*I participated in an olympic distance triathlon in late August,
*We spent our Fall Break (in October) in MuiNe, Vietnam,
*In November I went to Hong Kong Disney with my friend and her son,
*My family (mom, dad, sister, brother) arrived Thanksgiving weekend! We've had loads of fun traveling and hanging out.

So, I'm going to try and recap some of these things, in individual entries. I am committed to writing and posting more often..so I can keep you all up to date with the going-ons about Vietnam!

Back in Vietnam

2 August, 2009
3:05 a.m.

After a month of family and friends in the U.S., we returned to our home in Vietnam. The flights were smooth and easy, with a free upgrade to Economy Plus (traveling on your birthday isn't all bad). I tried taking a homeopathic medicine for jetlag, Jetzone, and it seemed to help. I have more energy, am not tired or foggy during the day, and feel like my body is getting back onto a schedule, of some sort. But then again, the weather here is mild and cooler than what I remember it being in the past, and I've been waking up at 2 in the morning..hmm

Coming home to our apartment in the tropics after being away for a month was interesting. I half expected critters to have moved in, ransacked the food in the cabinets, and generally left a BIG mess. Fortunately we only had wee ants and mold/mildew, and some scat that could be mouse or gecko.

Saturday, our first day back, we went out for a late breakfast. We had our hearts set on the baguette and egg sandwiches that Ms. Hieu makes at her cart near the tennis club. When we arrived, much to our sadness, she told us that the bread was "het", or gone. Bummer. (We ended up getting up early enough to enjoy them on Sunday morning!) On our way back to the house, one of my regular moto drivers, Mr. Hong, came by. Before we left I told him we would be gone for a month or so..I wonder if he drove by every day to see if we'd returned? I wonder if he tried calling my cell to see if I was going in to school? Hmm. What happens when you are not there, I wonder?

School won't start for another 1 1/2 weeks, but the teachers are back, sort of. The new staff had to report on Sunday afternoon for the beginning of orientation. The returning teachers will not be at school until Wednesday. I am very excited and very nervous about the upcoming year. I feel like I have so much to do to get ready! I'll just need to breathe and remind myself that I'll do my best, and if it doesn't get done, then it doesn't get done!