step by step

**here are the latest journal entries I have from work. things have been getting way better in the host family house. i am super comfortable and they are more than a blessing. Rosario is so patient with me and my awful spanish BUT I am getting better!! Hopefully I am going to start taking Spanish lessons soon which should really help me. I have waves of emotions that come but they are getting less and less. Enjoy reading about my work days...feel free to skim :)

***hopefully I will write a non formal blog this weekend or next...maybe

Wednesday, January 12, 2011: 8 hours
Today was tons better than the day before. I had a nice tear-filled conversation with my mom after work yesterday and so I got to vent and let a lot of emotion out. Also, my morning was a lot better than yesterday. I woke up on time and I was able to spend some time reading my Bible and journaling. It is definitely good for my emotional and mental health to have an easy morning that is quiet to start out with.
The morning part of the work day I spent finishing my lesson plan for Monday’s class. I feel a lot better about it and had it reviewed by Brock as well as Whitney. After finishing the lesson plan I wrote curriculum in the respective format according to that lesson plan. I want to have something to show Whitney when I met with here at the end of the day. I am having a hard time figuring out how to format the curriculum. As far as the time that has been given to the subject in the school. I don’t know how we are going to meet all of those standards with out having more class. But the goal was for me to have something to show so that I could be told where I was going wrong and where I was doing things correctly.
Maggie (administration intern) and I spent the second half of the day helping the new intern getting acquainted with the school and town. She will be living in the same host house as me and so it was good for me to show her around since I will be with her day and night. Her name is Stephanie and she will be working with the art teacher. After getting back from that I met with Whitney. Whitney is an English teacher here and is the second “go-to” person for curriculum stuff since the first one is on maternity leave (that is really killing me). Meeting with Whitney allowed me to use her as a sounding board for the questions and thoughts that I had regarding curriculum. I discussed with her the problem of not having enough time in the current schedule to meet the standard that Washington State has set in place. Whitney also provided me with the information that this curriculum is for a “5 year goal” within the curriculum process. Knowing this information, helps relieve some pressure that things need to change immediately and rocking the boat. She was also able to affirm the work that I had done to create a mock curriculum. So I feel better about when I finally starting creating and formatting the curriculum but Whitney also directed me to meet with Krista (the executive director) and Asbeth (the principal) to discuss what the future goal of health in the school would be. I will hopefully be able to meet with them tomorrow.
I am still pretty much on my own. Brock, my mentor teacher, which is just the current PE teacher, isn’t doing much mentoring. He is a great guy but he doesn’t come from an education background but only a sports background. He is pretty much praising anything I do, which is good but I also know that he might not have the knowledge to critic it. That is why I am trying to get my stuff reviewed by other people. There are advantages to being mostly independent because I can make my own deadlines but I also have to make sure that I am doing things correctly so that I don’t have to go back and do it all over again.
Thursday, January 13, 2011: 8 hours
This morning started out well. I printed my lesson plan and my teacher key for my lesson on Monday. After filling the key out, I read through the beginning of the standards PDF in detail to get an idea of the requirement Washington State was writing for from a time standpoint. Before I knew it, I was on my way to a meeting with Krista and Asbeth about curriculum. Because we are in the Dominican, and therefore nothing starts on time I had to wait a bit. While waiting, I spent some time reading over the standards to continue getting familiar with them. Eventually, I was able to meet with both Krista and Asbeth and explain the “problem” concerning the current schedule. They both understood what I was explaining told me that they would work on figuring out what Doulos is aiming for in the future concerning their health and physical education program. They encouraged me to continue working through the K thru 8 grade standard since the time schedule for those grades is feasible. It was encouraging to be listened to with respect from both people considering how young I am and not yet graduated. It only gives me more confidence to continue in my job.
After dinner, I sent time reformatting the standards so that I could print them and have a hard copy for the next months while I am chipping away at getting them. This process took way longer than I thought it would and before I knew it school was over. Tomorrow I will continue printing and finishing up materials for my Monday class and start sifting through the Kindergarten standards. I am glad that tomorrow is Friday and the weekend is coming.