Curveball on a 3-2 Count

This weekend has been INCREDIBLE.

Saturday... We woke up (after I slept for 12 hours, it was the BEST) and got ready to head out at 11. From there, we went up to Fisherman's Wharf and had crepes for lunch. It was DELICIOUS and so fun to just be super touristy and walk around. From there we headed over to the boat on our way to Alcatraz! It was seriously so great. I was pretty skeptical about Alcatraz just because I am not a history person by any means, but I figured that I'm in San Francisco so I might as well go, plus my dad probably would have killed me if I hadn't. We took the audio tour inside the main cell house building and it ended up being so interesting. If nothing else, the view of the city from the island and boat was more than worth it! It was warm, gorgeous, and just a perfect afternoon.

The real loop in my weekend came while I was at lunch on Saturday. My dream for next year is to work abroad in Africa and I have been looking into working with a school called Faith Roots International Academy in Doryumu, Ghana, where my best friend from high school Anna interned during her time in Ghana last spring. Well, Anna called me around 12 and left me a frantic voicemail telling me that FRIA was having an open house about an hour away from me on Sunday (today) because the principal of the school is home for Christmas break and she is from Redwood City, CA. I quickly stole Liz's iPhone to look up if it would even be possible for me to make it to... Turns out I could take the CalTrain (California's equivalent of Seattle's Sounder train) right into Redwood City and I would be two miles away from the church where the open house was being held. As Callie Gordon later described it, "this is divine." There's no way this should have just worked out... But it did.

So I e-mailed the principal last night telling her that I was coming (I was in contact some with her last spring but have not talked to her since then, though Anna has continued to 'name drop' me to her) and at 12:15 today I left Grace Cathedral (where our group went to church today... It was a gorgeous building, though Catholic mass totally intimidates me) and headed on an adventure! The trip was actually super easy, beside the fact that I wasted half an hour because I thought I was walking in the wrong direction when I was actually going the right way the whole time (thank you Starbucks free wifi!). But I made it to the church and was able to talk with both the principal of the school as well as the couple that started the grassroots organization that the school is connected with. It was a really incredible semi-interview opportunity to just get more information about them, where they come from, and what my role in their school could look like. I am applying to work as a special education teacher, but my role could be kind of an intervention specialist as well depending on what their school population looks like next year! I would be happy doing either, as long as I am with kids :) And there is a Children's Home on site where many of the children who have been orphaned live, so I would most definitely be getting my daily small child fix and then some!

At this point, I am praying that I can financially figure out how to spend September to May or June in Ghana, hopefully coming home for Christmas (there is about a month long break). Since I will be a volunteer teacher, I will have to work and fundraise to pay my way there as well as pay my living expenses in the country. I wish that money didn't have to be such a large factor, but it will be. I'm not sure exactly what my cost of living would be there, but as John kept saying today, "God is so good!" and if things are meant to be, I will find a way to make this all work!

So although today turned out totally different than I how ever expected my weekend in San Francisco, I am so thankful for what it meant for me. Praying that this seed continues to grow into one big adventure!

Week One: Check!

Writing that title was super weird. We were only in the schools for three days this week, and it feels like it's flown by. It's going to be really hard to leave these kids at the end of the month, I'm totally falling in love. "Are you going to be here on Monday still? Good." "Are you going on our field trip with us???" "Miss T, how long is she here for? A whole month? Yes!" Honestly, I am used to my (incredibly wonderful) very affectionate kindergarteners in Spokane, so this whole "fifth graders act really cool" thing is totally new and their little pieces of not-so-subtle affection are good for me.

After school today we headed out as a group to meet up with the secondary teachers at a park down by their school. We passed their school on the way and it's BEAUTIFUL! We also walked by a high school that's apparently pretty sketch, but it was the most gorgeous building ever. The architecture and mural paintings all over this city are incredible. We also saw the Full House houses today! And at the park across the street from them, there's a little "shoe garden": the park's gardener kept finding shoes that had been left by people (don't ask me why people were leaving their shoes at the park...) so he started planting plants in them and now there's a whole collection! It's pretty funny and cute.

I am exhausted and I'm totally miserable to be around in the morning (sorry Caty! She's been a good sport, luckily) so I am taking it real easy tonight. Hope you all have a safe and relaxing weekend :)

Les Images

Math Mode

Today I did a lot of MATH and it was the best! People who know me well know that often, I complain that I miss math... Give me an algebra worksheet and I will sit and do it for fun. Really. Math is totally satisfying and reinforcing to me, because there is a right answer and I know that I can find it. Well today I did a lot more multiplication, and though yesterday I said I never wanted to do another multiplication problem... I guess I slept that off. I spent the morning looking over the science unit we are starting next week (solids and mixtures... aka simple chemistry. Also my favorite!) and then read the chapter book that she is just starting with a small group for a literature circle. The main character in the book's name is Callie Vee, so I keep thinking of Callie G. and Callie B. back home! But then it was English time where I got to walk around and help students, and math. Math math math... I love it. And today was the first day where I really felt like I was interacting with all the students, not a few random ones from time to time. Because the class is so small, she doesn't do a lot of whole group lessons and sticks with smaller, more individualized groups. It's pretty neat to see that she is able to do that since the class size is only 12.

After lunch I did more math with a kid who is really bright but still seems to get confused when doing multiplication. We made a visual of it that seemed to help him a lot and I'm making one that he can keep tonight so we'll see if he starts to get the procedure down! But the best part of this time was that we did the math on the school roof! My classroom is on the top floor so we are able to walk out a door a the end of the hallway and walk right onto the roof! There was a picnic table out there and aside from the fact that the wind kept trying to take his papers from us, it was awesome! We all want to bottle up this gorgeous, sunny weather and take it home with us. This afternoon seriously felt like it was the beginning of finals week in Spokane! It's really hard to remember that it's only January and we will eventually be going home to cold and snow.

In about fifteen minutes, a few of the elementary teachers and I are headed down to meet Margo and Caty at Fisherman's Wharf! This is the moment I have been waiting for... Real time right by the water :) I love the ocean and water and swimming and, well, pretty much everything about big bodies of water. Minus the fact that it's saltwater, but I'll get over that.

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing... Er, reading group leader.

First full day in the classroom: check! We left at 7:20 this morning to walk down to our school and get there for stretches at 7:50. It's the craziest thing... The whole school lines up with their teachers on the basketball court and the principal comes on the microphone (which we could barely even hear, but oh well) and after the Pledge of Allegiance and a little chant thing about the school, they turn on instrumental and the students and teachers alike do a series of dynamic stretches. I have never seen anything like it. The kids were less than enthused, as was my teacher, but they did it!

Morning was basically all independent seat work so I spent most of my time grading math.. I never want to do another multiplication problem in my life. It was pretty tedious but it needed to get done! My first recess was pretty awkward because I beat my teacher outside but I literally hadn't talked to any kids all morning and I didn't really know what to do or where to go. Eventually Elizabeth, another girl on my trip, came out with her fourth graders so I talked to her for a while. But after recess things got a lot better! I got to help students with their language arts and then took the three fourth graders out into the hall to do a reading group with them. The three fourth graders are such a sweet and smart group of girls. After we finished reading their story, I asked them where I should be sure to go in San Francisco... One told me that I have to go to a place where they make homemade ice cream, and another told me to go ice skating at Union Square (which we passed yesterday on our way to the SFMOMA. We heard you can see drag queens skating there from time to time).
Maybe not the most helpful suggestions, but what can you expect :)

After school today, Caty and Margo (our professor) came and met the 6 of us at the elementary school and we walked/took the bus to the Exploratorium! For those of you who are familiar with Seattle, it was pretty similar to the Pacific Science Center. But in front of the Exp. is the Palace of Fine Arts.. AKA a trip back in time to ancient Rome or something! It's this beautiful architecture with huge pillar and a dome and statues and carvings... Plus a huge pond and a fountain. It was incredible and totally unexpected! It was awesome to find that in front of our destination.

 This is looking up at the buildings in downtown on our way to the SFMOMA yesterday.

 The architecture we found today! It was so beautiful!

Here is the elementary teachers + Caty + Margo! The secondary students would not have been able to get to the museum until about half an hour before it closed because they get out of school an hour and a half later than we do, which was a real bummer.

This is right when we got to our room on the first day... Our first job was to hang up the Christmas lights and make it feel like home for the next three weeks  :)

I have a class!

This day was LONG! We woke up at 6:30 this morning to get ready, eat breakfast, and leave our hotel by 8:15 so that we could bus down to where we had our orientation with the San Francisco Education Fund, the nonprofit that set up our placements for us. Luckily we left way before we actually had to be at the meeting, because we had the wrong address and ended up being 10 blocks off of where we were supposed to be. AKA we got to speed walk across the industrial district of San Francisco at 9 in the morning. Luckily I forgot to change shoes in the morning so I was in TOMS all day (blessing in disguise), but there were a lot of hurting feet by the end of the day. After a totally thrilling orientation and really awful photo shoot for our ID badges, we got our placements and were on our way to the schools! I am working in a fourth and fifth grade classroom with only 12 students in it! Everything about it is totally different from my wonderful student teaching room... The class is small, the kids are much older (I walked in during a social studies lesson and it was a little bit of a shock to remember that this is what older grades looks like), and I am the only white person in the room besides the aide that sat in the back and was silent the whole time. But my teacher is wonderful and last year she had one of my old Whitworth teammates, Morgan Veleke, so I was excited that she knew what we were about and what our role in the classroom was supposed to look like. It sounds like she's really excited for me to work with her fourth graders because there's only 3 and they have kind of gotten the short end of the stick. So bring it, fourth graders :) It's going to be an adventure, that's for sure!

After we got home from school in the afternoon (our school ends at 1:50 every day... SCORE!), our whole group (13 + prof) went to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Lesson for the day: we don't get modern art. But it was cultural and an experience and, best of all, it was free! Thanks, AT&T, for sponsoring the first Tuesday of every month :)

Also, happy birthday to my fabulous father! His birthday always seems to be either the day I leave or the day after... it's really unfortunate. Sending you sunshine and palm trees from California dad :)

First Golden Gate Bridge Sighting :)

Hello from warm (ish,), sunny San Francisco!

Our group of 13 students and one professor is here and loving every second so far! We have bus passes already so we are free to travel all around. Caty and I hopped on a (very turbulent) plane this morning and made it to our hotel around 2 after meeting up with Liz at the Oakland airport. We're not really in a hotel.. It's technically called a residence club, but from what I know it's kind of like a hostel? I'm not really sure... But it has character, that's for sure! But our room has Christmas lights so it feels like home :) We walked to Whole Foods, got some food and our bus passes, and then Caty and I went on an adventure downtown to find the school district building where we have our meeting in the morning. Turns out the building is just some numbers on a canvas in front of the space.. Hopefully we found the right place! Guess we'll find out in the morning. Caty is the TA for the trip so she gets to do a lot of planning all the fun stuff for our group to do... It's a great plus to have a roommate who always knows where you're supposed to be and what you're supposed to be doing!

But by dinner, our whole group was here. We get free breakfast and dinner at the hotel-thing every day (which is a huge blessing) so it's fun to get to share the meals together. It's going to be a fun group and a fun trip :) We find out school placements tomorrow and start in our schools early Wednesday morning! Praying that the laughter, safety, and memories continue to flood in :)