Week 7: August 24th to August 30th

Do you know the most difficult part of the school?...



Parents.

Yeah, It's not students, coordinators, planning. No. It's parents. It is the biggest problem in this profession.

This week I had to give the reports to parents. This implied a very deep psychological process because I needed to organize my ideas about some students and make them softer and nicer. Sometimes, as a teacher, I can only think like "I don't like this student, he/she is very annoying, disrespectful, lazy..." AND I KNOW THAT'S NOT WHAT A TEACHER IS SUPPOSED TO THINK ABOUT A STUDENT. But I'm also a human, and sometimes that's the part that comes up instead of the loving and supporting teacher.

In the end, I managed to talk very nice with the parents and everything went well. Besides that, during the week we were organizing the activities for the family day, that'll be in September the 1st,  this Sunday. Yes, I'll work on a Sunday. Yujuuu

Week 6: August 17th to August 23rd

I wish I could start one of the entries not thinking about how hard was my week and not wanting to start writing exactly that.

The first thing that comes up in my mind is my work. That's why maybe I always think about how hard was the week. Isn't it sad how our life becomes our job and the job is our life? Here lies the importance of working in something you really love. Like being a teacher... For me... I think.

Sometimes it's just really really hard to be a teacher. And when for sometimes I mean all the times.  Especially when you are children teacher, second graders, to be specific. You don't only have to plan and organize cool classes for them, but you face to form them as human beings, give them the tools to be able to inhabit society. Just a few time ago a realize that I couldn't be the teacher that I had when I was in primary. I can't be as my role model. It's impossible. Kids are living in this era full of technology, parents that come from a totally different generation, and I feel that we don't know what to do with these kids. Old strategies don't work anymore. We are in the climb of an educational crisis. What would be the top of this mountain?

Well, in other news... I couldn't go skating this week but I was exercising on my own. This makes me think of the impossible balance of life. To continue, some memes to express how I exactly feel right now:

Sorry for the Spanish, but it's me. 

Hahahaha this is pretty me on Saturdays mornings 

May the force be with you... If you can do it, of course. 

This is pretty real. During school it was pretty this way. For example I chose good grades and social life, that was when I learned to sleep only 5 hours or less (nw I'm paying the price). Some of my friends prefered social life and enough sleep, like, for real. 

Me every night in bed before checking all the social media on my phone. 

Challenge accepted... I think.

To be honest, my facial expression is worst than that. How could anyone in the world do all of this? 

This is basically how I try to be the whole day. 

Well, I think it's enough for today. Thanks for reading!

Week 5: August 12th - August 16th

This week was good. It was kind of half good half bad. I had so many homework that I didn't do. But I didn't want to have a bad week because of bad sleeping. So I did sleep but I didn't do all of the things I needed. Now, I'm in class, feeling as bad as I can feel, but well, shit happens.

Doing all the things I need to do in a week is overwhelming. I've been studying technics to organize my time, to do everything, but I've learned that I'm really slow on doing things. On Monday, or Tuesday, I don't remember, I woke up at 4 a.m. Is the first time I can do it. But the other days I couldn't do it. But crying over the spilled milk is not going to solve anyone's problem.

There is this technic that I used a lot when I was studying at UdeA bioengineering. It's the Pomodoro technic, in which you study for 25 minutes and then you stop for 5 minutes, yo take a break to stand up, going to the bathroom, drink some water. The idea is to change the activity because our brain loses attention every 25 minutes. Of course, there are many people that have an attention span larger than the usual. But the technic applies for everyone.

At my workplace, it was regularly good. As I said, I didn't do some things because I didn't want to have this bad feeling, even tho I had it in a different way. I have this kid, daughter from a Famous guy, and she is so problematic. This is the girl who says the bad words, who treats bad to the other kids, she is so bossy and annoying. The worst part is that she is not honest, she lies every single time we confront her, and after aking her a lot of times, is when she accepts what she has done.

I'm really worried about how to teach these simple values to my students. Is that something that must come from home? Is it something teachable? Am I able, capable, allowed to teach those things?

Something really, really AMAZING, was that I started to train roller derby. This epic sport is about going on a track with a team, one person (the jammer) is the one who has to pass the other team, and her team (yeah, is something for women) must avoid that the opponent jammer pass. It's a contact sport, so there is a lot of energy flowing in between the people. Pitifully, I can go to the training on Sunday because I'll be with a friend on Copacabana, chilling and sharing with my family.

This is our motto. For me, this means sorority.

Well, I think that's enough for today. Thanks a lot for reading.

Week 4: August 4th - August 11th

This week was pretty intense (is this good? When will I have a regular week? With no problems at school or in my life?). On Tuesday 6 of my students got into a fight. Like, they were actually punching to each other in the face and kicking others. This situation was really stressing because they are kids... And what's the consequences of this type of things when talking about kids?
For me they must have a consequence... All of the parts, because there's this situation about ones were defending others so we have "the good guys" and "the bad guys" but what we argue (my co-homeroomteacher and I) is that they defended themselves in the incorrect way.

Well, that was one thing. The other is with my own personal life. I've been dealing with ideas about how bad is society, and hot damage people are. People feels lonely and when somebody is in a relationship, it doesn't matter if it's men or women, they tend to look for something else in other person, a new one, even if they know that they have a person who loves them unconditionally. This is tremendously sad for me and for the type of relationships I create. Specially de ones I have now.

Besides these, I haven't been able to go to visit my family because I'm out of money. Living by yourself is really difficult, and having to deal with the consequences is the hardest part. Growing up sucks. We were happy and we didn't know it, when all that mattered was to do your homework and eat the whole lunch so your mom would not ground you.

Even everything seems to be pretty... Shady and full of problems there are still good things. I have been sleeping well. I have done all of the word for the university. I'm not doing sooooo well at my job, but I'm completing my basic tasks.

No photos for this entry. There's something going wrong with that.

Thanks a lot for reading. You have a good week, in case I don't.

Week 3: July 28th - August 3rd

If last week was hard... this one was...

Hello again!

It's Sunday and I'm getting ahead with all of the work I have from college. This is part of it. I really like to do this weekly review because it helps me to see what's been happening in my life in all the aspects, particularly in my job and in my studies. 

Ok, so last week in our English class I really enjoyed that we did some memes during the class. Even the activity was kind of free, it was also an interesting way of reflecting on the topic we were talking about. I haven't thought about memes as a way of creating critical thinking.

https://padlet.com/darla0059/jzd8wxik1s33

Yesterday in English class too, we made a game about general knowledge, like trivia. It was fun even tho my team lost. But it's very nice to exercise your mind with this type of games.

In other class called "Proceso de adquisición de lenguaje" we were talking about how kids learn to write, this is something that really passionates me because is to understand that children approach the written languages, it is not something that you learn. 

Well, now about my Job, this week was kind of terrible. Now I see it and I can laugh about it, but during the week it was pretty rough, even more than the past. Maybe it was because I didn't sleep so well that I was very irritable, or maybe my kids were just too much energy, or maybe the sun, Leo, Uranus, and all the planets were in the wring position. I don't know. But I feel I didn't have the best attitude with all that happened. 

Finally, I would like to mention that this exercise to write about my life in English is something that actually I wanted to do a long time ago. And now I'm glad it's one of my homework. I really enjoy doing this exercise. 

See you, read you next time.