Things I've realized in the last couple weeks

1. Waking up at 5:00 a.m. every morning has not been as bad as I thought it would be.

2. I like to be planned out at least 3 weeks in all my classes

3. Total lack of an understanding of 'forming lines' or 'waiting your turn' still makes me annoyed

4. I also do not like having meetings that always run 6 minutes late when I only have 15 minutes inbetween to get somehere.

5. Even though #4 bugs me, I still hold my students for 30 seconds sometimes when they only have 3 minutes to get from one class to another.

6. Number 2 is not possible

7. I'm a little sad that football is over.

8. I am very happy that I just realized that we have 3 locals channels on our cable that are broadcast out of Denver.

9. We might have to travel out of country in the next 30 days if our Visa does not come through.

10. Although waking up at 5:00 am is not bad, it is still not very much fun.

11. Teaching students, much like leading teams, is difficult.

12. Sometimes the most simple assignments yield a wealth of information and context on students, their backgrounds and the struggles they are dealing with.

13. Riding a bike on the road is not nearly as terrifying if it is 5:40 in the morning

14. I miss Hulu.com

15. I'm hoping sometime to climb Mt. Pico Blanco

16. As much trouble as I have with my classes sometimes, it is still easier than teaching Lizzy and Sammy like Christy does

17. If I don't bring water to class in the morning, but the third class my mouth gets dry and I start spitting (accidently) on the folks in the first row

18. I take too long when I grade assignments

19. We still have big time 'I miss the states' moments - and probably will for the next two years

20. The second 60% I lost on Bank of America stock was much easier than the first 60% (math joke - get it?)

I've included a picture of me teaching that Matt Befus took unexpectedly. You can see how animated I get! The room I'm using too just got upgraded and we have a project unit and stereo,DVD,etc in there. Its pretty sweet. This is my 7th grade 'B' class. This year they split the 7th grade class in 2 because there was so many students, it would have been difficult to have them in one class.

British Propaganda

Sammy is into Thomas the Train in a big way. By the looks of the toy shelves back in the United States over Christmas, so are many other kids. I'm fine with it - which is a good thing based on how many new Thomas toys, books, adventure sets, etc that he received from my parents over the holidays. That aside, I do get a kick out of reading some of the older Thomas books. This is both because of the British-isms you find in there (see below) in addition to the down right silliness that are in these books. Lets take a closer look...

(Picture 1)
In this page of our book titled 'Breakfast time Thomas' written by the Reverend W. Awdry, we can see that Thomas was acting 'Cheeky' this day as he tried to pull away from the station without his engineer! (This was against the best advice of his friends Percy and Toby the Tram).

(Picture 2)
After Thomas loses control of his engine - he crashes into the stationmasters house (NOT a great way to keep your job in these tough economic times). Notice that I'm pretty sure two people and the Catog (hybrid creature) did not survive this crash. This picture also sets up the next one...

(Picture 3)
I think its great that the author really focuses on the big picture in the final page. Never mind the fact that a TRAIN ENGINE just crashed into the house - you ruined our breakfast you 'miserable engine'. The girl looks upset that her shirt got untucked and the boy looks mad that his gel did not hold his hair in place. He should come to Costa Rica because there are MANY kids with Mohawks and I never see one piece of hair move. (P.S. - I guess the station master was the only one who didn't make it).