La escuela!

Today was the first day at the school. It was so great! I loved it!!!

My teacher's name is J.R., and everyone calls him that (or teacher, which bugs the heck out of me. You know his name, why are you calling him "teacher"? He's not calling you "student," is he?). The first class of the day is 12th grade advanced calculus. They're so funny! I didn't talk to any of the students really too much today, but there are a few who I think I have the potential to get to know pretty well. :) After that class, there's a break. Then the second class is 11th grade pre-calculus., then 10th grade geometry, then 8th grade algebra 1 (my absolute favorite!! Those 8th graders just kill me. I like them a lot) and then lunch. After lunch there's 9th grade geometry (which is on a different section than the other geometry class, and also my second favorite class, though maybe tied with the seniors), and then a prep period and then...the pool! ;)

Robinson School is absoluuutely beautiful! It is about the size of Santiam studentwise, and the grounds are just gorgeous. The students speak English in the classroom but when they're not in class it's Spanish probably 90% of the time. I'm glad I can understand most of what's going on, whichever language it's in. The students are super funny. I'm just waiting for when some of them realize I can speak a little bit of Spanish and then they want to hear me try...yikes! :P

JR is super relaxed with his students and jokes around all the time. He must have done something at the beginning of the year to lay down the law, though, because the students do respect him (for the most part). He is pretty loose with discipline, but I sort of like it. It's up to the students to decide what they want to get out of the experience. He's giving them the tools and it's their choice whether or not they want to use them to learn.

I had another discussion (this time with J.R.) about the Spanish language. He told me that Puerto Ricans "eat their vowels", which is sort of silly. But it does make sense from what I've heard. He told me that most of them instead of saying "dedo" will say "de-o" ... the d just sort of disappears. It's so weird. It's also super weird hearing them say "bahtante" or "tu quiere algo?" haha. I do love it, though.

Another thing I'm super intrigued by is how diverse the students are! It's seriously a mixture from super dark skin, features, and hair, to blonde and blue eyes, to a green eyed red-head (I'm not kidding, she's one of the seniors) to Asian! Not joking on any of those. It's fascinating. And they all speak Spanish and English and they all hang out together and it's pretty stinking awesome. Way more diversity than I'm used to seeing. But really, they're all just people that God loves a lot and deserve the best. Well...I guess technically they deserve nothing, but it sure is great what grace can do for you. Okay, education blog getting ready to get all Jesus-y.

Oh well...it happens :)

I can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring!!