Nothing Much...

Just checking in with all five people that look at my blog:) School is going really well this year. My students magically transformed over the summer from hellions to angelitos. I have no idea what happened...But it has been great to work with them this year, and I have really grown to love them all. I am currently teaching levels 2-4; again really tough to have 3 preps, but we're managing. Our new principal seems to be working out fine, and year 2 is amazingly better than year 1. We recently performed a flash mob for our students (I'm barely in the video, but my dancing was truly amazing, really.) Here it is:



On another note: I'm contemplating the next steps for me professionally, and I am looking into Spanish Pedagogy MA's right now. At this point, I'm really interested in the BYU MA, which means I could be moving back to the grand ol' Provo eventually. I'm not sure how I feel about living there again, but I'm really excited about the prospects of going back to the Y. I'd get to go to the International Cinema, the MOA, see the new LDS temple being built in the Provo Tabernacle, and explore south Provo, where I hear all of the grad students live. Plus, I'd have a car this time, so I would definitely see more of the city than I did the first round.

I'm also looking into a similar, but summer-only, program at Middlebury in Vermont, as well as U of Northern Colorado (also a summer only). I'd love to hear any advice you may have about 1) applying to grad school or 2) moving back to Provo:)

Downhill from here, right?

Finals Week #1 done at South High! It was a typical finals week: full of drama, tears, and excitement and letdowns. As a former high school student, I had no idea what went on behind the scenes during this time:

I had one student drop out the day before finals, one student refuse to finish the project which prevented her from passing, and one student, who after blowing off the last three projects asked for a C (which she didn't get of course). I had one boy start crying when he was informed that his 16 absences would prevent him from receiving credit in the course and another girl realize that her 30 some tardies did in fact add up to 10 absences, which also lost her credit in the course. I had my most difficult student switch out of my class, and countless others whose grades dropped a whole grade level after not studying on bit for the final. Let's just say it was a learning experience (oh please, let it be a learning experience) for all.

My favorite conversation from this week:

Student: "I don't know why people don't like you Srta. Brazzale; I like you."
My response: "Why thank you."
Her response, "You're welcome."

Hardhats + Textbooks = Progress

The Mystery is no longer!

The contractors gave the World Language Department permission to enter the mysterious South High and unpack boxes and boxes and boxes... of textbooks. It was 5 hours of 82 degrees (no AC on) and pure anticipation of what next year will look like.

It was great to finally see the classroom and office set-ups, which are very different from where I was last year. But, can I say "BLING!" Super Fancy. Kind of sterile, but I'm already thinking about how to humanize the place a little.

Highlights were our very own department recording room (for district and other speaking tests), and our very own World Language kichenette. Shazam!

Here are some pictures:

My new World Language Dept: l->r: Me (Spanish), Sarah (French), Jenny (Spanish), Sue (German)

Front Entry

Front doors

Commons area/cafeteria

Ceiling:)

Hallway, they all look the same. I'm going to get lost...

Stairs right by my room

My room!

Other side of... my room!

View from my room: Jr. High across the street

Our office space: four of us will have desks in here

Our kitchenette

Tornado in the Basement

Yesterday, I was working with some of my students after school when the tornado sirens went off and Lori in the main office said "This is NOT a drill. Everyone to the basement." So I escorted my students, yelled at several others who started to panic and run through the hallways like out-of-shape banshees and with several other faculty (about 80 of us total) spent the hour in the smelly basement of Carey Jr. High. With my hurricane shelter training I immediately remembered and started instructing students to not use their cell phones, as it would overload the cell phone companies. Of course that's impossible for jr. high students. Most of them didn't believe me, but today in paper, you know what I read? "A spike in cell-phone use briefly overwhelmed the Verizon cellular system..." At least I know I'm wise.

The tornado touched down for about 20 minutes south of Cheyenne, so no biggie. Here's a picture my mom sent me:


And here's one I swiped from the paper's website:


And just added: a Youtube version:

Headed South

I am happy to announce that yours truly was called, interviewed and offered the position of full-time Spanish instructor at the brand new Cheyenne South High School starting next year. I am now, a Bison.

I will be starting up the Spanish program as the only full-time modern language instructor at the school next year. We will only have about 450 freshman and sophomores the first year with grades added each consecutive year. I am really excited to be able to start a new high school and help build the Spanish program. See the school's website for pics of my future school. Be sure to check out the webcam to see the updated images. I can already feel the school spirit welling up inside!

One down, many to go.

Well, the gretest day of my year so far is today, because I finally got the internet hooked up in my apt. (thanks to my wonderful bro who camped out until the cable guy showed up. I wish I could tell my students that I will show up anywhere from 8am-12pm.)

School is a blast! I am having a great time with my students, and they are beginning to buy in to my insistence that "v" and "b" are pronounced the same, that they really do need to study vocabulary everyday, and that I am a hard, but caring, teacher.

Some of my favorite teaching moments so far:

• I confiscated my first cell phone. The girl was texting in her pocket. The incident made her cry, but oddly enough, she seems to respect me more now than before.
• I gave my first zero for talking during a test. Laying down the law...
• A bee flew into the class one day and it was mad chaos, and I mean chaos, for about 2 minutes until the bee decided to go back outside. Then things resumed as normal.
• I caught one of my macho male students trying to salsa dance before class. He needs some coaching:)
• My seventh graders always have a billion questions about everything. Everytime class starts, all of their hands raise up (at least they are raising their hands), and when I ask "does anyone have any questions about Spanish" all of their hands go down.

There are many more, which I am forgetting rapidly, but I love my job. It's literally the hardest thing I've done yet in my life, but I'm really starting to enjoy myself, and I'm getting more used to getting up at 5:45am.

Monsoon Season

Well friends, the day has come. I prepared for it for about a month, and well, I did as much as I could. I set up my room (see pics below) and planned as much as possible, and went to lots of meetings, and then, it came: the first day of school.

Before the first day, I thought the hardest part about teaching was coming up with a syllabus that contained policies on everything from chewing gum to safely escaping in case of a fire. And now, now that I've been teaching for three whole days, I've decided that the hardest part about teaching is acting like you know what's going on when really, you feel like you have no idea.

So far though, so good. My students seem to have bought into the idea that I might be ok to live with for the year, and I've been told that students who had to change their schedules (which was about 40 due to a severe registration error for all Spanish classes) they were actually disappointed that they didn't have me anymore. So that boosted my self esteem a bit:)

The best way I can describe being a new teacher is like having a tsunami come flooding through your life and all of a sudden, you realize that you have made an extreme lifestlye change. Never before in my life have I gotten up at 5:45am and worked until 6pm in the same day.

Still, I've had a great time with the students, and I feel like if I can just get my head wrapped around everything and get organized, this will be a fun year.

Thanks to all of you who have been sending words of encouragement. It has really helped!

Classroom Before and After:

I have a teaching job!

Last Wednesday, I accepted a full-time teaching position at Carey Jr. High in Cheyenne, Wyoming teaching beginning Spanish to 9th graders. I am really excited about the position and thrilled to officially have a job! I am also excited about the position in that when South High School opens in Cheyenne in a year (Cheyenne's fourth high school), my position will transfer there. This is a great opportunity for me, and I'm thrilled. I'm also excited to be moving back to Cheytown:)

Thanks to all of you for your encouraging words during this process!

Student Teaching and Bolivia

Well, I'm in deep and there's no getting out. I've been student teaching for a week now at Laramie High School in the Spanish department, and it's been a trip. My mentor teacher is the head wrestling coach, so I've learned a lot about wrestling. I personally, have always thought of wrestling as a disgusting sport, you know, helmet ears, worms, fungi, sweat, yuck. So I sit there as wrestlers come into the class and discuss injuries, whether they want to quit or not, etc, and I try to keep my grossed out face to myself. And there's no one else in the classroom to laugh with, so it wouldn't be any fun to joke anyways.


Another good story is that this student brought in a gold fish and asked me to watch it for him, because it was his friend's and it wasn't getting any oxygen in the locker. The fish was dead. So I babysat a dead fish all day. When the owner came in, she started shrieking only as a 15 year old girl could, and she called her mom and melodramtically conveyed her broken heart over the floating orange blob.


I also had a student critize my handwriting, because he didn't like the way I made my 'r'. Great times. I'm loving it. Teaching is hilarious, and rewarding.



Other good news. UW is sending me and a classmate to Bolivia for spring break to do some research for the education department here. It's a free trip! This is definitely not something that happens to me ever, so I'm thrilled. Evo Morales, alpaca for dinner, and the smell of burning coca leaves. Can't wait.