School Happenings

We are into our third week of school. It all should be routine by now.....but this is an International School with an ever changing student body with ever changing opportunities presenting themselves. The school has had the opportunity to start a pure English as Second Language (ESL) class for students that are 3rd and 4th grade age. They have either no English or a very limited English vocabulary. The class currently has 5 students. The class utilizes all subjects (math, history, etc) as tools for teaching English. Marilyn has been coordinating the ESL program. She has been working with the two ESL teachers at the school. When this opportunity presented itself, Marilyn decided to teach the bulk of the ESL class herself, so that she could have a better understanding of the job involved with teaching ESL students. There was no hesitation on the part of the administration that she would do a wonderful job because she is such a professional, compassionate, and caring teacher (their words not mine, but I fully agree). The only hesitation was that she was taking on too much work considering she was also working on admissions and guidance counseling and teaching 6th grade English, 6th grade Ancient Civilizations, 9th - 12th World History and supervising the Secondary Reading Time . We were able to rework her schedule so that she no longer taught World History (much to her disappointment...she really liked the students and the subject matter) or supervising the Secondary Reading time. I took those two responsibilities from her. Enrollment has grown to 90 students.

For those that are curious about me teaching P.E...... I have been teaching the elementary students the importance of warming up before you begin any sort of physical activities such as Duck, Duck, Goose; Balloon Bouncing; Red Light, Green Light or Extreme Hot Potato (I made that one up myself, I am thinking of starting a professional Extreme Hot Potato League, Maybe I could get Pringles or Lays to be a sponsor)..... I will take some video of my very innovative teaching methods and post them to the blog very soon. Since I couldn't run down to the Educational Supply Store or Sports Authority (for those of you in Harrison, a Sports Authority is a store that is like the sporting goods department at Wal Mart except they have a lot more sporting goods and you can't buy milk there or get your oil changed), I am getting 60 bean bags and three parachutes (not for sky diving but for games)made. Once I get them back from the seamstress I will take pictures and tell you about that experience. Once we have the bean bags, I am going to teach the art of throwing and catching. Hopefully, this will lead to baseball. By the way, Spring Training has started. It has to be the most Wonderful Time of the year.

As far as the secondary P.E., we have been playing Four Square & Doubles Two Square. I am working on starting a fitness program with the 8th - 12th grade.

We have taken pictures of the apartment. I have to upload them to the computer and then post them. Marilyn said that if I posted them that she would blog about them. Look for that before May 2010.

Aubrey said that she will blog on Wednesday....

Until next time.

Brad

P.S. Fell free to leave comments about the blogs.