International Festival!

I arrived back in Houston on Sunday. It was nice to be home and see all of my friends over my trip back to Minnesota for my friend Zach's wedding. (The wedding was very fun by the way. It is weird that one of my best friends is married now, but I am really excited that he has found someone and glad to see him as happy as he is).

I arrived in Minneapolis on Wednesday evening and had some free time on Thursday to take a trip back around campus. A lot has changed on the University of Minnesota campus since I was last there. Many of the construction projects that were just being started when I was graduating are completed, which means the campus has a few new landmarks. Other than the obvious new football stadium I was able to see the beautiful building that replaced the old "warehouse," I mean... "Science Classroom Building" (yes, that was its actual name).

While on campus I stopped by my old office in Carlson (Carlson School of Management - the U of M's business school). It was nice to see a lot of the people I used to work with, catch up, and share a few quick stories. Some of them actually read my blog from time to time... so "Hi! Carlson people!"

Since I have been back teaching... my schedule and days have been all over the place. It is currently "International Week" at my school (which actually lasts a week and a half - maybe it is things like this that confuse my students in math...) On top of "International Week" I have been trying to do interventions for the students who did not pass the first administration of the math test and have the rest of my students work on a self-driven project. (Basically my school wants the students who didn't pass to just focus on what they did not do well on - Math TAKS, Reading TAKS, or both instead of moving forward with instruction). It has been really hard to stay on schedule and to keep my students working hard while teaching two classes in the same room at the same time, the end of the school year nearing, and "International Festival" stealing precious time from the school day.

Don't get me wrong... I really like "International Festival" and the concepts behind it. I think the students really like it to. I just think it is at a bad time in the school year. So far I have remembered to take pictures (on my phone so not the best quality) during the kindergarten and first grade celebrations.


1st grade's country was Venezuela. They preformed traditional Venezuelan dances, spoke about history, provided the teachers with food, among other things.





Kindergarten had Mexico. The performed some adorable Mexican dances, sang songes, played games with the older students, provided the teachers with food, and did other events that represented Mexico. (Kindergarten went first - my pictures just didn't upload right... and I am too tired to switch them)

2nd Grade was Ireland today... unfortionately I was preoccupied with behavior problems with a few of my students and was unable to take any pictures...

Tomorrow 3rd grade has India as their country

Monday 4th grade has... somewhere in Africa I think?

Tuesday 5th grade will wrap up the world tour with Australia. I hope things go well. I will try to remember to take some pictures. Have a good weekend! Tomorrow is FRIDAY.

and yes, I STILL have Saturday school (with the students that did not pass the Math and Reading TAKS)