Updates. Updates. Updates.

Of course I haven’t blogged in a week… and now that I AM blogging, there’s only one week left until I leave for Ecuador! So much stuff has been happening- finalizing lesson plans, finalizing my inquiry project, creating activities for the kids in San Gerardo, creating my packing list, making my souvenir list… etc. etc. I have two more days in Kentucky and then I head back home!!

A lot has happened in the past week that I should have blogged about but never got around to writing. I spent two days at Northaven Elementary School where Kelli works. It was the end of the school year so I spent most of my time talking with teachers and helping them pack up their classrooms, a side of teaching I most definitely will experience in the future!

Now to the important stuff. Alex and I have finished our lesson plans! We have five great lesson plans that we will be using in America Latina and Quitumbe schools. Instead of teaching in three schools, we will only be focusing on two schools, spending more time in Quitumbe. We received our Quitumbe schedule and found out that we’ll be teaching six sections of 5^th grade, six sections of 6^th grade, and two conversation sessions with 11^th and 12^th grade. I’m so excited for all this field work!!

I’ve also started to get to know my classmates a little more. Alex and I went to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch this week, and I found out that we have a lot in common! We make a really great team and I can’t wait to get to know her even more in Ecuador.

ANOTHER exciting thing happened this week! I contacted my host mom, Lola, and we’ve been sending emails back and forth… in SPANISH! She seems like a really fun and relaxed lady with a really big family. We’ve both expressed how excited we are to meet each other and to learn more about one another. Funny story: The host mom my sister lived with in Spain two years ago was also named Lola… weird coincidence!

Besides all this fun stuff, I also met with Lauren again! If you don’t remember, Lauren was my host two weeks ago. We met up yesterday and went to the other Comfy Cow on Frankfurt Avenue. It was a great night for ice cream and we were able to catch up on our week. I feel like I’ve really connected with Lauren and hope to stay in touch with her even after my trip to Ecuador!

To end my weekend, I met up with some of my friends from college in southern Indiana. We had a great time playing Frisbee, playing Apples to Apples, and eating home-made tacos!

This time next week, I will be in my bed in Ecuador, resting up for my first day of adventures in a foreign country! It’s all starting to come together and is becoming so much more real in my mind. I can’t wait!

I leave you with an update on The Voice: All of Team Adam’s girls made it to the top 8, along with all of Team Blake. It’s so close now that I can’t even predict who’s going to move on! I guess I’ll have to keep watching- though the finale happens while I’m in Ecuador… Here’s to hoping my host family likes watching reality TV!

It's the Weekend!

I’m falling behind on my blog posts! Let’s rewind to Friday evening after I left Lauren’s home to attend the next seminar session. My teaching partner, Alex, and I were given most of the period to work on our lesson plans… We got two of the five done! We’re hoping to finish the rest of them by the next seminar session so we can focus on our inquiry projects.

After the seminar session, I went to my final host, Kelli’s, place. She lives in the Highlands in Louisville and lives pretty close to some nice places to eat and explore! That night, we ate at Rocky’s which is an Italian fast food-ish place. The portions were huge, so I was able to save some for lunch the next day! We ended the night watching Shark Tank and went to bed.

Saturday morning was pretty relaxing. Kelli has all the seasons of “Saved by the Bell,” so I started watching that… what a throwback! Later, Kelli and I went grocery shopping for the food we planned to cook for the week. We decided to cook pasta with meat, mushrooms, and onions and rice with mixed vegetables. I actually helped cook the food, which is something I don’t usually do! In the end, our food was delicious, and we had a great time cooking together!

We ended the night by walking to Orange Leaf, a frozen yogurt place down the street. For anyone who knows me, I will never pass up an opportunity to eat frozen yogurt… I LOVE it. It was my first time going to Orange Leaf, but it was a lot better than Red Mango! They had more variety in their flavors and had a creamy taste.

Today will be another relaxing day. Kelli and I plan to do homework and will try to work ahead for this week. Hopefully, I’ll have a draft of the rest of my lesson plans to show Alex and I’ll have the first part of my inquiry project planned out.

10 days until I’m back in my own bed and 14 days until I’m in Ecuador!

End of Week 1

It has officially been one week since I’ve lived with Lauren and her family in Kentucky. This is my last blog post from my room in Lauren’s house L. I had an awesome time living with her and experiencing Louisville with her. She included me in her activities and wanted to help make my trip to Kentucky memorable. I’m sad to be leaving her, since I was beginning to get used to her lifestyle! BUT. I’m also excited at the same time because I get to move in with my third host, Kelli! I can’t wait to see what the next week will be like and what I learn from Kelli.

Zoe and Mercy

To celebrate my last night with Lauren, we all went to “The Comfy Cow,” which is a Louisville-based ice cream shop. It reminded me of Oberweis Dairy back at home in Illinois. The ice cream at The Comfy Cow was delicious, though it wasn’t as rich as Oberweis! I got “Cake Batter Up” ice cream which was cake batter ice cream with pieces of yellow cake mixed inside. We met up with one of Lauren’s friends and her dog, who is best friends with Zoe. I survived sitting and eating around TWO dogs – that’s a pretty big accomplishment for me!

After our visit to The Comfy Cow, we headed back to the house to watch TV, a routine we created this past week. However, instead of turning on the TV, Lauren and I spent the rest of the night hanging out and talking. We tried to be spontaneous and watched a YouTube video on how to side French-braid our hair…  and we didn't succeed... don't judge. We had a great last night together and I couldn’t be happier with the time I spent with her throughout the week. We’ve made plans to see each other one more time before I go back to Illinois to say our final goodbyes.

Lauren and I at The Comfy Cow!
We had broccoli AND ice cream on the same day!

Tonight, I start week two in Louisville with Kelli and begin my intensive preparation for Ecuador- solidifying lesson plans and starting my inquiry project. Dr. Herdoiza also wants me and another participant to lead a professional development session in Ecuador on the importance of special education in the classrooms. There is no concept of special education in Ecuador and the services are definitely not like the ones we have in the United States. This professional development session will hopefully address this situation and stress the need for special education, and inspire teachers to begin implementing some programs in their classrooms and schools. That’s a goal that I hope to accomplish while I’m there, along with the many other professional and personal goals I have set for myself!

16 days til the big day!

The First Session

Yesterday was my first face-to-face seminar session. I attended the previous sessions through Skype, so being able to physically see people and interact with them was great. Our sessions run for two hours and they prepare us for what to expect in the classrooms in Ecuador. Once in Ecuador, we will make trips to three different schools - America Latina, Bicentinario, and Quitumbe - and spend one week teaching in each of them. The themes of our lessons will be “confidence” and “giving,” two of the virtues that we learned about from the Muhammad Ali Center last weekend.

My assignment is to teach 5^th graders about confidence and giving while teaching them the grammar concept of “to be” in English. In Spanish, there are two ways to say “to be”- ser and estar – and in English, there’s only one way. My teaching partner, Alex, and I will need to clarify this to the students and somehow incorporate it with confidence and giving. Our assignment for the next session is to come up with different ideas, games, and interesting ways to teach this material. We received our assignments for the first school, America Latina, and Alex and I have to teach four sections of 5^th graders and 3 sections of 10^th graders. Don’t worry, we won’t be teaching 10^th graders, but we’ll be conversing with them, helping them to improve their English while we work on our Spanish! Within our conversations, we will talk about confidence and giving and hear what they have to say about these topics.

Besides getting our assignments, Dr. Herdoiza taught us about the proper ways to interact with and teach students who are learning English as a new language. She gave an entire lesson on Simon Bolivar in Spanish to help us experience what it feels like to learn a topic in a new and different language. From her lesson, I learned that the use of visuals, gestures, and repetition are essential when I step into my Ecuadorian classrooms.

We ended our session by eating some delicious Spanish food made by one of the participants, Brent, and his father. They made seco de carne (beef stew), tostada (popcorn-ish), and a fruit juice that tasted really good. If the food in Ecuador tastes anything like the food we had in class, then I know I’m going to enjoy it just as much in Ecuador and eat a lot of it!

Update on The Voice: All of Team Adam’s girls made it to Top 10! Can’t wait for next week’s episode!! Competition’s getting tough!

In the Classroom!

Today, I observed Lauren teach in her 5^th grade classroom at Maupin Elementary School. Maupin is an inner-city, Title 1 school in the west side of Louisville. Breakfast must be served every morning, as mandated by the district. Throughout my field experience during college, I was never placed in an inner-city school, so this observation provided me with a different perspective on teaching and the education system in general.

Lauren had mentioned to the students that I would be visiting, so they were expecting me to come in sometime this week. When they saw me, I could see the curiosity on their faces to find out who I was.

During Sharing Time, we all sat in a circle and listened to a few students share interesting things about their weekend. This was a great way for me to get an idea of what student life was like outside of the classroom, but it was also a way for the students to talk and express their feelings. When it was my turn to talk about my weekend, all I could say was that I went to a baseball game and the questions began spilling out. “What’s your favorite baseball team!” “Who’s your favorite player!” “Are you really from Chicago?!” I had to break the news to them that I wasn't a big baseball fan, but that I like basketball and I watch NBA games as well as Indiana Basketball. Apparently, that was a great answer, because I was bombarded with even more questions related to basketball. Of course, I said the Chicago Bulls is my favorite NBA team and that I want Derrick Rose to come back. I was surprised to see how much these kids knew about Chicago basketball and the NBA in general! It was a great way for me to connect with them and allowed them to feel comfortable around me.

After Sharing Time, Lauren went through literacy and reading. The students were preparing for K-PREP, which is the standardized test for Kentucky, so most of the information was review. I admired the way Lauren was able to take control of the classroom and made sure that all her students were paying attention to her and the material at all times. It seemed difficult, but she built that relationship with her students in a way that they showed her the respect that she deserved. She made it look so easy to do what she did, but I know that it took a lot of time and effort to get to the point she is at with her students.

One of the great parts of the day was recess. The kids asked me to play kickball with them. I was wearing dress pants and flats, but hey, they asked me, so why not? I ran all the way to second base until one of the kids outran me and got me out. At that point, I began talking with one of the Cuban students in Lauren’s class… in SPANISH. Lauren told him that he couldn't speak to me unless it was in Spanish, just so I could practice my conversation skills. It was a great way to practice because this student was fluent and asked me different questions in Spanish. I was surprised to see that I could hold a conversation with him and understand him! I look forward to doing the same thing while I’m in Ecuador, while conversing with my host family and in the classroom. Due to confidentiality, I was unable to take pictures of/with students.

The day went by so quickly and smoothly! I was also able to see a math and social studies lesson before we left to go back to Lauren’s place. After school, Lauren, Jeremy, and I went to dinner at the Bluegrass Brewing Company, where I had some chicken wings! We left the BBC and took Zoe for a walk at Seneca Park… talk about an exercise! After the walk, we came back to the house and spent the night watching The Voice. Can’t wait to watch the eliminations tomorrow night! #TeamAdam

New Experiences

Yesterday, I arrived in Louisville, Kentucky and met my second host, Lauren, her husband, Jeremy, and her cute little puppy, Zoe. For those of you who know me, I’m quite afraid of dogs and cats, so living with one will take some getting used to! But I’m working on it, and I’m starting to feel more comfortable being around Zoe. Lauren and Jeremy are great! They have given me my own room, my own bathroom, and full reign to their fridge. I was afraid that we wouldn’t have anything to talk about, but I was wrong. For one thing, we bonded over The Voice and ended up watching the latest episode together. We all like to watch basketball, so I was easily able to convince them to watch the Bulls game with me… and they watch Harry Potter. Game over. J

After settling in, Lauren and I began talking about her experiences in Ecuador. She gave me advice and ideas to help me prepare myself for the trip and how to begin my lesson plans. Hearing about the impact she and the rest of her group made in the lives of the people in the small village, makes me even more excited and motivated to go on this trip. The village we will visit is San Gerardo, which is a community of about 500 people. The program coordinator, Dr. Magdalena Herdoiza, has made 11 trips to San Gerardo and has made a name for IU-S there. Lauren says that not only has this trip made her a better teacher, but it has also made her an even better person because of the things she learned from the kids and people there. I’m excited to see where my experiences in Ecuador will lead me and how I can incorporate them in my life.

The next day, I was finally able to meet the other members of my Ecuador group at the Muhammad Ali Center, which is a museum/culture center dedicated to the life and work of boxer, Muhammad Ali. The purpose of this visit was to learn about some core values of Ali that we will be teaching to our students in Ecuador. The values we focused on were “confidence” and “giving.” As part of our curriculum, we will create lesson plans to teach our students how to include these values in their lives. Going to this center was a really great opportunity to learn about Muhammad Ali’s contributions to the civil rights movement and how he became a role model for other African Americans. I hope to visit the center again while I’m in Louisville to learn more about his other core values and to learn more about his life.

After leaving the Muhammad Ali Center, I was driven back to Lauren’s place by one of our assistant teachers, Kelli, who will be my third host next week! We drove through Bardstown Road, which is like the Kirkwood of Bloomington. It’s a long road that has tons of small shops and nifty stores. I’ll be able to explore them more next week while I live with Kelli, but it was great to see another side of Louisville.

To end the day, Lauren and Jeremy took me to my first baseball game! We watched the Louisville Bats play the Buffalo Thunder at the Louisville Slugger Field. As you can see from my pictures, we had pretty good seats! We were entertained by Buddy the Bat and the funny performances by the blown-up characters. It was a great day to sit outside and relax!

The Beginning...

For the past six months, I have been planning for my three-week trip to Quito, Ecuador with Indiana University-Southeast. In Ecuador, I will have the opportunity to teach English in three local schools, complete a research project on a topic of my choice, and engage in a service learning initiative… and that’s just the academic stuff! Along with that, I get to travel to over 16 different places in Ecuador, and experience the culture, the people, and especially, the FOOD! Talk about a dream come true!

Prior to actually leaving for Ecuador, I must complete seminar sessions at IU-S which will help me prepare for my field work. These sessions will last for three weeks, so during that time I will be living with teachers from the program. My first stop is Bloomington, Indiana where I will stay with Dr. Guerra and her wonderful eight-year old twins. As soon as I walked in, they made me feel welcome and right at home! I absolutely fell in love with her son and daughter who are amazing artists, musicians, and dancers! We talked for hours about Harry Potter, gymnastics, and their time in Bloomington. Dr. Guerra and her kids made my five-hour car ride worth it! I can’t wait to see them again in a few weeks!

Tomorrow, I head to Louisville, Kentucky to meet my second host, Lauren, a former participant in the Ecuador program. I can’t wait to meet her and hear about her experience in Quito!

I am so excited to be teaching on my first trip abroad. I hope to put eight years of Spanish to use and immerse myself in a culture that I have been learning about for so long. For the next few weeks, I plan to blog about my experiences in Indiana and in Ecuador to help remember this exciting time in my life!

23 days and counting until I’m in Quito!!

P.S. Thank you Mom and Dad for driving to and from Bloomington in the terrible weather. You guys are awesome for doing this and for making Ecuador happen J