Finally ON?

It seems that finally someone turned On the light at the end of the tunnel or at least I’m beginning to see some of it. Two things have happened this week that made me happy. The first one is that it seems that there are 2 offers to buy the the building we are selling. So please pray that we can finally sell the building. The second one is that  the school principal has invited me to go to Guatemala in November. I don’t know if you remember but I have told you about my school sending people to our school in Guatemala for two weeks for a kind of retreat they do each year. I’m pretty excited because I’m going to my friend’s country and I’m going to be meeting people from our schools in Guatemala, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Nicaragua. I’m looking forward to some sightseeing also, not much I been told but anything is good. I have never thought of visiting Guatemala but from I have been told It’s going to be great. I We are there for an spiritual experience and formation mostly. Maybe and just maybe and if it can be done my friend is going to talk to her sister to find out if she can pick me up one day and take me sight seeing or something. I’m looking forward to that. I’m smiling because even though it is for work I am going to be traveling. My passion…. it has been too long for me.. Excited? YES!!! Things are changing…I hope that finally things are changing for the better.

Celebrate life

First I want to apologize for not writing. It seems that lately I’m either too busy or I don’t have to write about. I will continue to wrote though even if it is once a week.
Celebrate life was our theme at school this week and I’m trying to do just that. It has been a busy but good week. The weekend has been fantastic and it still haven’t end. Today is my friend’s Monica birthday. She wanted to celebrate it all weekend long with us, her 3 best friends. So on Friday she wanted to do something on Saturday she was going with our friend the brother to see Rent at the theater and on Sunday we are going to go with our families to a restaurant in the town of Cidra. Plans changed for Friday because she had her little girl to take care of and she was also tired. We decided to meet at my house and spent some time together. For 2 hours we were the 4 of us again as is used to be. Two of them went home early and my friend from Guatemala and I decided to continue the night at El Condado. We went to eat, walk and talk the things that we enjoy the most. As always had a great time and we ended the night walking to the car in pouring rain. Soaked but laughing. Celebrating life, oh yes. On Saturday I went to pick up Mike and Lynn at the Caribe Hilton hotel in the morning. It was so good to see them!! We went to El Morro and to walk around Old San Juan. At night we went to a restaurant the we like. It was a wonderful day with friends. Today I’m looking forward to making this day a great day for my friend. It’s been some hours since I wrote the first part of this blog. We went with our families to the restaurant in Cidra. My friend was beautiful and loved the gift we gave her. We ate a lot as always. The only one missing was the Brother. Next time we have to bring him. I know he is going to love it. Anyway it was a great weekend and I truly hope that we helped our friend have a great birthday even though I know she is not going through the best of times. I wish we could have done more. The 3 of us did the best we could. I know she had a great time yesterday with our friend and that the play was very good. I’m glad. That ’s what friends are for.

Small victories

It has been a rather boring, but full of work week. Boring because nothing strange or exciting has happened(see pepper spray or vodka), but I had a lot of work to do because on Friday I had to give some individual reports to students that have less that 70% in one of the class. So I was grading things the whole week to have this done on time. My morning assistant is not coming to school because she has doctors orders to stay at home. So in the morning were I have more classes I’m alone until Tuesday. Yesterday was a good day at school. I knew from the others that my coordinator was visiting to observe classes for some days now and for some reason she hasn’t visited me yet. Strange because I’m always one of the first because I’m right in front of her office. Well I have been aware of that the whole week and planning my classes with activities that I knew she would like. The thing is this are the sort of activities that I should do with assistant not alone. So i decided to take the risk. Yesterday I have two of this activities just in case. One for spanish and one for math. This classes are the most likely for her to see because they are the first in the morning. She didn’t come at Spanish and the work being done took longer than expected so after English class instead of starting with math I continued with the activity. It was at that time that she came in. Great… Went she comes to see classes mostly I ignore her and block her so I don’t get nervous but this time I went to her and ask her if I should tell the children to put away last class work and start with math She told me to continue like I was. One good thing about this is that she got to see the Spanish work also. Continuing with my story .. I gave them 10 minutes to finish and I told them to put everything away to start the math class. ummmmmmmm this part is always bad with this kids. This year class is very talkative and they get distracted very easily. So changing activities have become a pain for me at least for know until they finally get used to my rules( this has taken much longer than usual) well yesterday It went smoothly. You don’t know how many things were running through my mind. Well I started my class (place value) and then one of my students started to have a behavior (that I can’t tell you about because It’s too serious but It’s not disruptive to the class) that the coordinator already knows about but that the new school psychologist haven’t seen. That’s when it all started. When my coordinator saw what she was doing she went out grab the first teacher that she saw at the hall and told her to get the psychologist. Well she didn’t get the psychologist she was looking for so she got the other one. She came in and talked with the coordinator saw the behavior and went out of the room to stand at the front door to look at the girl. So now I’m giving my class the coordinator was at the back of the room one of the psychologist was outside by the door looking inside. Then the other psychologist came in and sat at the back also. So you can imagine me giving the class while this people were all over…. coming in, going out,standing outside and talking with each other. One will have thought there was an emergency in the classroom.OMG! Meanwhile and this is the good part. I remained focus, calm and in control. Blocking all this and with my kids attention!! I was doing all this aware of the presence of this people in the classroom and out. But I was not making eye contact and I was not getting details. I only knew they were there. About all the details I learned later when I talked with the coordinator. It was funny how I could do it because all the time this was happening I was giving my classes and thinking this only happens to me!! I was also thinking about how I was doing and thinking was I was doing wrong or not or how it would have been better. Anyway by the time I put them to work again a difficult activity to do alone. The psychologist were gone and like a miracle for the first time this year my kids did understand everything got to work alone and all the time in good behavior. It was a small miracle and a small victory. I was very proud of myself and aware of how much I have change. I am more confident and secure.I take things in a different way so I’m more relaxed. Now I know what I’m able to do and that I’m good at it. Now Im not afraid of the Middle state visit. If they come to my classroom I know I can deal with it. In the afternoon my coordinator talked to me about the girl’s problem and told me what happened while I was giving my class. Many things I didn’t see. One time I even told the girl to sit down and ended the behavior when one of the psychologist came in. I’m used to do it so i do it without thinking. Thank God she did it again after that. Al of them saw the behavior so now we can get something done. She also told that she like both activities and everything I did at the class and other work already done that was on the bulletin boards and most important of all how I continued to be completely focus in my class while all this was happening and with the complete attention of my kids. Wow! For me that was music to ears. I’m happy I can hide it. Each day is getting easier. I’m seeing the good and taking the bad easier. I’m learning. Let’s see what this week brings.In other things I’m looking forward to Dec 9!! OMG ! The Carnival Dream is soooooo beautiful!! I’m looking forward to hours onboard with friends and not missing any part of that ship. I want to see everything!!!!!! I also want that my 2 friends that have never gone near a cruise ship to see all the beauty of this ship. We are going to have a blast!

The truth is that I been lazy and busy

Sorry for taking so long to write another blog. I have been busy and lazy…both. Last sunday I got to see Gloria aka Sue. Went to get her and her mother ant the airport and took them for a ride around some places and later we went to Old San Juan, El Morro and lunch at El Mojito. We had a great time. It hasn’t been an easy week and I am still overwhelm by all the work that the start of a new school year involves including a Middle state association visit this coming October. At school they are driving all of us crazy with all the preparations. I think we will see a relief after their visit the first week of October. This week? more drama..
Elementary school kids with pepper spray and vodka. Both stupid accidents that we have to blame parents. Also this week I finally learned that I’m not going to Guatemala and that they are  not going  to give me a job in the afternoons. No to both. Drama, Drama… and what do we ladies do? Call our Brother and cry. JA! it seems he has become our shoulder to lean on. Poor..
He got lucky with this friends God gave him. So dramatic. My part was about complaining about the Brother Superior and the other was one of my friends that got sick and she was also crying. ahhhh! It all went well after all. We all ended up at this sick friend house yesterday afternoon and that made her very happy. After that my friend from Guatemala and I went to El Condado and we ended up sitting in the sand at the beach with the full moon reflecting on the water. It was beautiful!! We talked and talked for hours. Perfect ending of an stressful week. Let’s see what this week brings!