A group is coming down from Michigan this month to do some volunteer work at the school. Talking to one of the volunteers who is already here, I thought creating a separate picasa page just for photos of the school or related to the school would be a good idea. Anyone from the group is welcome to post their photos to the page and I'll be posting some of mine. In fact, I posted quite a few tonight and divided them by schol year (more or less).
The new picasa page is: http://picasaweb.google.com/eaglecollege.mx
I'll try to get an updated posting about what is happening here tomorrow. It's late now and I have a test to create and some other work to do. So check back in the next day or two if you are viewing this around the 20th of February.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
104 degrees in February
When I returned from classes today the computer showed that the temperature in Roma, Texas was 104 degrees. That was at about 2:30 P.M. It is now almost 5 P.M. and the same computer shows the temperature outside to be 101. It is only February 5! And if you are thinking that I live in Cuidad Miguel Alemán, Mexico and not Roma, Texas I am not sure that 30 yards across the Rio Grande River makes it any cooler here.
Today is the anniversary of the Constitution of Mexico. Schools and businesses celebrated the holiday yesterday so today was the first day back to classes. Last week I tested my Third Graders on their knowledge of English pronouns. We also began studying 16 words from a list of the most frequently used words in the English Language. I had each students select a word from the list of about 260 words. I did not tell them when they were choosing that they would have to learn those words - learn how to spell them and learn what each word meant. Even my best students often have no idea what the word they spell or read means. For example, today they were learning the Scripture verse "...Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved ..." from Acts 16:31. I normally try to use more modern language such as "you" rather than "thou" and "will" rather than "shalt", but this verse was in their school material. Several students had memorized the verse in just a few minutes and could recite it to me very well. When I asked if anyone knew what "believe", "thou" or "shalt" meant, no one had a clue.
That is typical of my class. They can read words and spell words but at the same time have no understanding of the word. So we have began identifying each key word and identifying it. Often this means identifying the Spanish word that has the same or similar meaning. Today we did that with the 12 pronouns - he, she, it, you, me, us, which, I, we, they, her, him - and their 16 chosen vocabulary words. The vocabulary words are: about, be, big, black, color, friend, from, have, next, open, play, present (which can be pronounced 2 different ways and has combined about 4 meanings), run, some, they and under. Not a bad selection to learn first. I will have them chose 16 or 17 more words either tomorrow or Thursday. One student was absent the day they initially selected words, but abcteach.com handles 16 words well but 17 not so well. I may stay with 16.
Back to the 104 degrees. Last Thursday night/Friday morning it was about 36 degrees here. The forecast for tonight is a low of 52 degrees - 50 degrees cooler than the high. And you think the weather where you live is unpredictable? Since it was so hot today, I decided to go ahead and take my VW Jetta into the local dealership to have the AC checked. As my luck would go, it began "acting up" about a week ago. Everytime I switch on the AC there is a loud rumble. I am hoping it is not an expensive repair. If it is too expensive, I will just forego the AC and drive with the windows down. I am old enough to remember when lots of vehicles did not have AC and driving with the windows down was your air.
Today is the anniversary of the Constitution of Mexico. Schools and businesses celebrated the holiday yesterday so today was the first day back to classes. Last week I tested my Third Graders on their knowledge of English pronouns. We also began studying 16 words from a list of the most frequently used words in the English Language. I had each students select a word from the list of about 260 words. I did not tell them when they were choosing that they would have to learn those words - learn how to spell them and learn what each word meant. Even my best students often have no idea what the word they spell or read means. For example, today they were learning the Scripture verse "...Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved ..." from Acts 16:31. I normally try to use more modern language such as "you" rather than "thou" and "will" rather than "shalt", but this verse was in their school material. Several students had memorized the verse in just a few minutes and could recite it to me very well. When I asked if anyone knew what "believe", "thou" or "shalt" meant, no one had a clue.
That is typical of my class. They can read words and spell words but at the same time have no understanding of the word. So we have began identifying each key word and identifying it. Often this means identifying the Spanish word that has the same or similar meaning. Today we did that with the 12 pronouns - he, she, it, you, me, us, which, I, we, they, her, him - and their 16 chosen vocabulary words. The vocabulary words are: about, be, big, black, color, friend, from, have, next, open, play, present (which can be pronounced 2 different ways and has combined about 4 meanings), run, some, they and under. Not a bad selection to learn first. I will have them chose 16 or 17 more words either tomorrow or Thursday. One student was absent the day they initially selected words, but abcteach.com handles 16 words well but 17 not so well. I may stay with 16.
Back to the 104 degrees. Last Thursday night/Friday morning it was about 36 degrees here. The forecast for tonight is a low of 52 degrees - 50 degrees cooler than the high. And you think the weather where you live is unpredictable? Since it was so hot today, I decided to go ahead and take my VW Jetta into the local dealership to have the AC checked. As my luck would go, it began "acting up" about a week ago. Everytime I switch on the AC there is a loud rumble. I am hoping it is not an expensive repair. If it is too expensive, I will just forego the AC and drive with the windows down. I am old enough to remember when lots of vehicles did not have AC and driving with the windows down was your air.
I'll close with another photo. Ok. Two photos.
I hope to begin adding photos to my picasa album soon - maybe tonight! Feel free to visit and bookmark my album - http://picasaweb.google.com/timdnew
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