School & Spring Break

 Erika, Erika, Jenny, Alison, Silvia, and Maria from my 3rd level English class outside doing a "5 senses scavenger hunt".

 Spring Break stop one = Banos. We rented bikes and rode to El Diablo waterfall, went bungee jumping off a bridge, took a gondola ride over a valley, and sat at the edge of a waterfall just to name a few things.

 Stop two was Cuenca, the oldest city in Ecuador. This is a picture from the National Park which has over 3,000 lagoons like this one in it! It was beautiful and we lucked out by finding some other tourists who shared their truck with us and let us tag along for free!

 

Julie, Julia, CeCe, and I at the park

 Lunch at the Taj Mahal restaurant...nom nom

 On our second day in Cuenca, we took a bus ride to some Incan ruins that were really cool.

 Cuenca is also world famous for inventing Panama Hats! We took a tour of their factory and learned that this misnomer came about because the hats were often shipped to Europe through Panama so they get the credit.

 Alison wearing her birthday crown as we studied "Celebrations" in English class (:

 Jenny displaying her "5 senses" book in English class.

 The girls with their birthday cakes and candles...make a wish!

 This was toooo cute! One day while I was setting up before English class, Karen, Patti, Evellyn, and Marisol took the instruments from the Church and made a marching band singing the Days of the Week song I taught them!

 Cotto Girls Program took a field trip to the park last Friday and the girls brought things to have a picnic!

 All they wanted to do was play in the fountain but the park security guards told them they couldn't....

 they couldn't until the police man came up to me, told me they were still not allowed to swim, but that he was going to take a five minute walk & then he winked and left (: They had so much fun splashing around!

 Julie with our two Manuelas in Adult Ed. They are learning how to read!!!

 Kristin with Maria Juana and Maria Eloisa in Adult Ed. They are our special students so they know about 5 letters now and we are working on patterns and money too.

 Me with 10 braids in my hair after some serious craft time when I visited Damaris' house (:

 Her turn...haha

 Adrian, their neighbor, is a new Center kid too!

 These are my new business girls! They are freshman and they have spent the whole year studying business, sewing, bakery, and beauty school. Then they pick the specialty area they want to continue studying and just focus on that for the next two years. I love the girls who picked business and they all have really outgoing social personalities which is awesome for sales but a little more tricky for classroom management haha

Melanie & I

Sunday Funday with the Sotos

On Palm Sunday, Julie, Kristin, and I were bored so we decided to see if the Sotos wanted to have a play date (: We picked them up at school, went to the park, played at a cool Oreo Carnival until it rained, then we went to the mall next door and went bowling. It was an awesome day with Jefferson, Gretty, and Kazzandra.

 

A Month in Pictures

Hello everyone! Since the last time I posted we have done some pretty fun things during school and on the weekends. Here are some pictures and stories (:

This is Alison, Jennifer, Silvia, Maria, Erika C, and Erika A from my 3rd level English class after we did animal presentations and made masks! 

 This is a picture of Diana Lituma who is one of the girls I love from high school study hall but I am very sad because she just got expelled a few days ago... She can go back to school starting next year but I miss seeing her around so much! There was a problem with students leaving and drinking during lunch and then coming to school drunk so they kicked her out as an "example" and now no one can leave campus during lunch. This was for sure one of the saddest things from my time here but I still keep in touch with her through her sisters and we are visiting their families house after Easter which will be great!

This is Nicole Urbano who is one of the dirties, craziest, most adorable little four year olds at La Marine (:

 A week after my paseo to take my English class ice skating, I helped out as a chaperone when Julie took 23 boys ice skating a few weeks ago. It was SO SO FUN!!

 Last Tuesday in Girls Program we decided to throw a birthday party for EVERYONE! The girls were so cute and we had a ton of fun. This is Nathaly who is one of my English students wearing her awesome newspaper birthday hat that all the girls made. We also had a dance party, played cards and games, learned to sing "Happy Birthday" in English, and finished by decorating sugar cookies. Feliz Cumpleanos!!

 Patricia  Lituma (my favorite, I'll just admit it....haha)

 Marcia Cando or Marcia Multiplicando as we like to call her (:

 GRETTY SOTO!!

 Genisis in her pretty birthday hat!

 Fernanada and Nathaly playing Twister! How cute?!

 Friday I had a wonderful wonderful day because I got permission to miss resource room in the morning and I went to La Gota de Leche (sort of like the third Center) where the first, second, and sixth graders all put on plays. Just look at Matteo and Nicole in this picture!!! How adorable are they?!

 Kazzandra Soto with all her attitude in that fierce red tutu (:

 Patti and Carolinaaaa

 Adonis! He had the leading part but sadly he broke his ankle the day before the show so he was either in a chair or his mom would go on stage and pick him up to move him throughout the performance.

 Patti, Johanna, and Katty (or should I say Parrot #1, Parrot #2, and the Moon) hanging out before the show.

 This is my goddaughter Sayne who played a grandma and was in the most beautiful indigenous clothing! Great job!!

 The sixth graders had some weird purple masked characters and a grandmother who cried a lot...I didn't really understand but their grade won the competition for best play!

 Ceasar in his super cool new hat and Kerley after the shows

 Me, Kerely, Nicolas, Sayne, and Joseph after the show. They are all Sayne's brothers and sisters so I'm happy we all got a photo together!

 Me, Juan David, and Maurro riding the school bus from La Gota to the La Marine school after the plays. What a fun ride!

HUMAN BINGO!! Seriously this is one of my new favorite games to play in English class! We make a 9x9 grid on the floor (out of sweatshirts...very classy here) and the girls play on teams to get three in a row. I just change out the vocabulary flashcards so it works with whatever unit we are on!

There are more pictures to come like from last Sunday when Kristin, Joe, and I went to one of our Adult Ed student's house. Her name is Gloria and she is super old but really excited about class and we had an awesome lunch with her and her family all there!

Also today was Sabado de Ramos or like their celebration of Palm Sunday just it is on a Saturday. Both of the Centers were combined here in Cotocollao and we started with a cool procession thing over the grounds and ending in Church for Mass. Then they all ate a special lunch and Krisin, Julie, and I took one of our favorite families called the Pachas out to lunch!! We had so much fun and got ice cream on the walk home. They are an awesome family and it was great to spend some quality time with them (: Then I took two of my study hall girls, Tatiana and Sabrina, out to eat later in the day too. They are Diana's best friends so I wanted to make sure they were doing okay and they still talk to her and learned their lessons so I was a happy.

Thank you for reading all this...sorry it was so long! There is just so much to say (: Love you all xoxo