20 Days Until Colombia!

I just finished SKYPING with Guillermo and we are both getting quite excited about my trip. I'm working on Plan C in case A & B are put on hold. As teachers we know flexibility is key so I'm hoping anything I plan can be adapted to any situation.

Guillermo has about 360 students in a total of 12 classes. They must have really full classes and they go five and a half or six hours straight! (5 minutes for class changes). I'm glad I get to sleep later than in Oklahoma!

My professional development will include sessions on topics we are being trained in on Monday, February 21st. It will be quite fresh in my mind and easier to teach while I'm there. I plan to use dog sled racing (The Iditarod starts the week before I go) for vocabulary development, non-fiction outlining/summarizing, and sentence structure. It will be in the 70's there so who wants to think about snow? I DO because this is one of my favorite sports now. I will be introducing/including a sports culture they really know nothing about. And the Iditarod Education Department can add Colombia to its map of participating schools.

Colombia is getting closer

Seven weeks from now I'll be in Colombia, South America for a two weeks professional educator development fellowship. I love my teaching time slot- 12:30-6:30, as the school is so large it works on two shifts. Lucky me, being so NOT a morning person, that I get the afternoon time. I'm so looking forward to seeing another school system at work and I know there will be things to bring back to my classroom, ready to immediately implement.