Back to school back to school...

Yesterday (monday) I was reminded that I came here to not only learn about a new culture, experience new things and travel new places, but to also visit, learn and teach in a new school.

One of the reasons I love this house is that is it 7 minutes walking to my school. So perfect.

First day of school was a whirlwind. My teacher, Mrs. Radica (Radizza - like pizza) is a young teacher, she's been teaching for 5 years, all of them at NOVA and has moved with these students from Kindergarten up to 4th grade. She is energetic, exciting, and very patient. Yesterday as I observed, and helped when it seemed like I could, I noticed that everything she does has a specific purpose, not all of them were apparent to me, but I knew there was some specific reason for her doing what she did. I will learn a lot from her.

My students are a very happy bunch. They are almost always smiling, talking, and participating. (keep in mind this was the first day). The one thing that struck out the most from this class was the diversity of its students. In a class of 20 students are from: America (2), Macedonia (4), Kosovo (2), Croatia (1-2?), Malaysia (1) Denmark(1) Poland (1) Australia (2) India (1) ... and more that I can't remember. One of the Australians sound just like the dentist in Finding Nemo. All of these students are fluent in English, some are harder to understand because of their accent, but this is something I will soon get used to.

Because my 3rd/4th grade class in Lewiston liked the Vandals so much, and the football that I brought to class everyday I decided that it would be fitting to bring this class the same gift. Let the games begin. I knew that American Football might be a difficult game for them to understand. Thankfully I was able to put one of the two American boys on each team. The group loved it, we even had 3rd graders joining in and playing. It took practically the entire recess to help one of the Aussies understand the difference between rugby and American Football, but we got it.

This school seems like a great fit and I am looking forward to day number TWO. In fact I need to leave in about 30 minutes. Time to get ready!

Ciao!