Week Two - 7/10

Back to school after a day off ... I was ms  forgetful!! I had to run back to the workroom twice for things I forgot. All that hiking wore me out!! Ha! 

Good day with the kids. I read a book with them about valentines day and then they wrote valentines for parents, siblings, teacher (none of them wrote to their teacher) or friend. A couple wrote to girl/boyfriends and a couple to an undisclosed "love". They were so cute and some had some funky English :) They love making things so it was a great activity - but here is what I loved the MOST: I have two-three boys that just don't know a lot of English and sometimes don't want to participate (even though I end up forcing them to) and for whatever reason, they SHINED with this project. They did such a good job on their cards and were so happy to do them!!! It just made my day and reinforced to me the importance of always varying my teaching methods to reach ALL types of learners and interest - specially the ones that don't fit in with the majority. I LOVE IT!!

This is from one of the kids who never wants to do anything

This one melted my heart

I hope you become younger and younger, ha!!

On their day off the kids went shopping, to the movies, played on the computer - they all seemed genuinely grateful for a day off and used it!

After class we had our culture lesson: Chinese character paper cutting. We learned the character for happiness and cut out double-happiness characters. I love making these crafty things as part of our learning about China!!

This girl, Melissa, also has an Argentine mom

Back at the hotel, we went for a little walk around the lake and randomly saw fireworks!! So random. 

Then I went to the Westin Hotel to check out their pool and get a good tourist map to maximize the rest of our free time. That place is NICE!