¡Hola! So since my last post I've acquired a part time position teaching none other than Español 9 y 10 at at high school near our place. If I bust out some Spanish forms in my writing, you'll know why! It was pretty unexpected and totally caught me off guard but since it wasn't full time and not English (I figured I'd still have a life for the last two months that we're here) I accepted the offer. Last week, I was scheduled to TOC for a Spanish teacher that I had been in for once last semester at this school. Turns out she was on a leave of absence from full time teaching and can only teach part time. Second semester started last Monday and two of her classes had to have substitutes because they hadn't hired anyone for the position. Apparently, no one applied for it; Spanish teachers are hard to come by. So I came in and when the admin found I out could speak Spanish (to some extent) they asked me if I'd be willing to take on the position until I move. So I said yes and here I am. Week 2 has just finished and I hope the kids are learning something! Hahaha It's been fun. I love Spanish! I'm not fluent but I like to think I have a convincing accent. When I think through what I want to say before I say it, I think I come across as sounding close to fluent. It's so bad! I'm technically not even qualified to teach it but from what I've been hearing, a lot of language teachers aren't and just do because there's a need! The Modern Languages department head teaches four blocks of French and can't really speak French (so I've heard). Anyhow, Spanish 9 is beginner and Spanish 10 is just a step up...so far I haven't had huge issues with the teaching since it's just been basic grammar and thematic vocabulary. My memory of my high school Spanish classes have helped me a lot in planning for dynamic yet essential grammar and vocab lessons. Kudos to Ms. Rossi (turned Mrs. Gallo) for doing a fine job of making Spanish one of my favorite classes in high school!

It's another dreary day here in Vancouver. Surrey. Hace mal tiempo :( The both good and crappy thing about the school I'm currently teaching at is that they have two insane 2 1/2 hour blocks on Fridays but the school day ends at 2:10. There are only three blocks a day during the week, with the last block of the day being a little less than 2 hours long. It's such a weird system and I'm not yet quite used to it (I don't know how the students can be either!). It's waaaaay too long. I'm currently supervising an IT class right now. My Spanish 10 class was this morning and the school asked me to cover for a teacher for the afternoon so here I am fervently awaiting the day to be over. Half the students aren't even working (how can you when there's a computer right in front of you and access to facebook and online games?) and I'm too lazy to be the disciplinarian today. Plus, they're seniors. And we all know how hard it is to tell 16 year olds what to do. Especially during the last block of the day. Especially since I'm a substitute. So I'm just watching the clock tick away. Forty five more minutes!!! :(((

Valentine's day was fun this year. For a number of reasons. Some of which shall remain anonymous ;P Dale cooked me a grand feast of greens (including porchetta (sp?), asparagus, roasted tomatoes y fresh parmesan), rib eye steak, garlic prawns, and mashed potatoes (which I made, hehe). I brought some for lunch today. It was MmmMmm good. I'm lazy to cook but I love to eat. I'm lucky that Dale loves cooking and cooking new things. We went to Chapters last week so that he could check out some cook books. We sat in Starbucks reading, Dale with his four different cook books and me with my entertainment magazines and books about brain teasers. And I'm supposed to be an English teacher?!?!

I just looked up from the screen to see five students playing Tetris, two on Facebook, two actually doing work, a few surfing the net, and the rest listening to music on their computers. Should I say something, do something, get mad? Hmm. Ok, back to my blog. WELL, they know what they have due on Monday that they should be working on. They know if they are passing/failing the class...I'm a terrible substitute!

Fine. I'll go do my rounds! Thirty minutes to go!