Be Cool, Walk in School

Hola!

Today my kids were once again on a roll and continually making me laugh! I honestly don't think I could have a better job, or a more entertaining one at that.

Every morning our principal sends out a message to the students via email as we don't have an intercom or speaker system in our school. The end is always the same message. It used to be about reminding other students the rules if you see them running inside during break. This week he changed it up a bit to say "Be cool, walk in school!" My kids loved the change and have fun reading it with me every morning. Well today Mr. Colin popped in my room for a while to just observe and to have a chance to be around the kids more. When he came in we were talking as a class about some rules we should have for working on writing (part of the daily five). I was so happy because my kids were on task and sitting super nicely. They weren't blurting out and they were coming up with such smart rules... such a good time for an unexpected visit! :) The kids noticed Colin in the room but just kept going about with the discussion, that is with exception of Bean (nickname taking after Mr. Bean...) He rose his hand and proudly said, "When we work on our writing we should be cool and not run in school!" As he said this he slyly glanced back at our principal and gave a little smile. I have to admit it was hard not to laugh at how amused he was by his swift comment!

While Mr. Bean's comment was good and fun I must say the best part of my day was during our last block together. Right now we are doing a social studies unit on character traits. We have learned about honesty and responsibility and this week we have been learning about being kind. My kids had been doing a really good job with it and I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with them today, so I was heading into social studies with about only half of my block planned. Right before break ended I had an idea to have the kids draw names and write a few nice things about that person on a note card, then I would read them aloud and the student could keep the note card to take home or use as a book mark. It was also a great activity because we have been learning all about adjectives this week (I love when lessons integrate various subjects)! The kids wrote their nice comments then I collected the cards and read them out loud. So many of them were so shy about what they had written about other kids and what was written about them, but they LOVED it!! What second grader doesn't want to talk about themselves for a few minutes anyways? So many of the kids put their classmate was "handsome" or "beautiful" and a lot of times mentioned how they were smart or had helped them spell a word in the past. It was probably my favorite teaching moment in these past few weeks. It was so great to see all the kid being genuinely nice to one another and to see how HAPPY it made them. None of the kids needed help thinking of a nice word to say about their peer, which I found to be impressive and quite mature for second grade. The whole time I was reading I could not contain my smile and sometimes a few giggles came out as well!

Now I have one more day of school before the long weekend. While I am more than ready and excited for a three day weekend and some beach time, I have to admit I will seriously miss my kids! I'm quite positive I have the most wonderful class in the whole world :)

Cheers!

Michelle

Fat and Hairy

Hello Friends,

Hope all is well where ever you may be! To start off, I need to wish a wonderful birthday to one of my nearest (not literally) and dearest friends, Emily! Hope you have a wonderful day!!

The real reason behind this post to give you a little insight as to how blunt Vietnamese people are. Last week my friend Michelle had a cheers dedicated to her and her 'hairy body.' (Her arms) It was pretty funny when it happened and still is. Well the next day in school, one of my little boys, Phat who is now Max... some of you are quite fond of him via his picture, asked me, "why you have feathers on your arm?" as I was helping him with writing. I explained to him that American people have hair on their arms and he just looked at me with an expression that said, "whatever..." Today I had another student ask a question you would probably not hear back home from a second grader. As the kids leave for home I stand at the door and they give me a hug or a high five. This girl always gives me hugs and today before she did she pet my stomach and said, "Oh Ms. Michelle, why you tummy so fat?" and started to giggle. I simply replied by looking at her and saying, "What, I'm not fat!" and laughed too. At home I would feel a little more offended, but that is just how the kids are here. Compared to all the teeny tine Vietnamese women, I will always be fat! (Even though I have been loosing weight... apparently my kids have yet to notice!)

I guess it's true, kids say the darnedest things!

Michelle

P.S. Here are a couple updated class photos! Hope you enjoy :)

 

A nice picture, with the exception of Thai's tongue!

 

And of course a silly one, because second grade is oh so fun!

Everyone Said...

Before coming to Viet Nam I had heard a ton of people say, "The people there are SO nice!!" Until tonight I agreed that everyone was great (minus one bad cab ride)..... but I wasn't mind blown. Tonight totally changed that!

After a successful parent night I was nowhere near ready to sit around my apartment at 7:00 so my friend Michelle and I went to our friend Amber's apartment because it sounded like there was a lot of stuff going on. We got there and had a glass of wine then went to see what the commotion was.Within thirty seconds of leaving her building we had been invited to join a table of Vietnamese locals and have a drink. Two of them spoke broken English so we joined and we were able to communicate a bit. They were constantly offering us food and drinks and trying to get us to karaoke (which we did and it was my FIRST time EVER!!) They then proceeded to tell us how beautiful we were because we had hair on our arms. To cut a long story short they were super nice and extremely welcoming. We had a ton of fun and got to try some new food. When we were getting ready to leave we asked how much we owed them. They proceeded to tell us that we owed nothing even though we each had three beers. They said that since we were forefingers they wanted to welcome and wish us safe travels!

I'm so glad to be here and experiencing the culture. It also really made me think of how I treat people. I can only hope to be as nice to forefingers, especially those who don't speak the same language, as they were to us!

In short, everyone was right... Viet Nam is home to some awesome people!!

Yours turly,

Michelle

Good Luck, Chuck! (or Lindsey)

As I type this blog, Lindsey is on her way to college in the big city! It is hard to believe my little sister is 18 and moving to Chicago for school... scary!!! It seems like just yesterday we were playing dress up or sneaking downstairs at four a.m. on Christmas morning to see what Santa brought us. Now I am living in Vietnam and have a big girl job and she is leaving home for college.

So Lindsey, I would like to give you some advice for school.....

One: learn how ride the L and use your GPS, while you have a better sense of direction then me, I promise you will get lost or ride the wrong line.
Two: Find your classes before the first day of class and don't walk around with a map. I know UCI has a smaller campus than State, but everyone always laughed at the freshmen walking around with huge maps out.
Three: Don't stress about one or two bad grades. You are smart and it will work out in the end.
Four: Make new friends and have lots of fun. College will fly by and before you know it you'll be in the 'real world.' So try new things and don't be afraid of messing up.

I wish I could be back in the States to see you off and come visit, but Skype and Viber will have to do. I love you lots and you will BE amazing and HAVE an amazing time... I am always here for you and can't wait to hear about all your fun adventures in Chicago!

 

Graduation day in May

 

Right before I left for Nam!

Love you XOXO!

Michelle

Saigon From my Eyes!

Hello all! It's Sunday night here in Vietnam and I have had quite the lazy day (all I did was nap and go to the pool... :)) I am happy to say I had a lovely first full week with the kiddos! It went by so fast and was a lot of fun! Then on Saturday we had professional development. I have to admit I wasn't too thrilled to be going to school on a weekend, but it was a great day! We learned a ton about the A to Z program and the daily five. We also talked more about our report cards being standard based without percents and letter grades. I learned a lot and I am feeling a lot better about planning. After our PD all the teachers went to a bar called Red Room. It was fun relaxing and hanging out with everyone, plus they had awesome food! Krystal and I shared a New Zealand steak sandwich with a fried egg and aoili sauce! :) After Red Room we did a bit of bar hopping and ended up at a place called the Cheeky Monkey who had a really fun live band.

That pretty much sums up my week! Nothing too exciting happened, I am finally starting to get into my routines and life is becoming normal again. Since I have been here I have been really, really horrible at taking pictures. In fact about 90% of the pictures I have taken have been out with friends and about none of the actual city. To say the least, my mom is not too happy at my lack of pictures. So I have taken a few videos. I promise I will take pictures soon, but for now you can see where I live and I see on a daily basis! Enjoy :)

 

This video is from last Saturday, we were having a few drinks in the backpackers area

 

Also from last Saturday. People are constantly trying to get you to buy things and a lot of times they have their kids try to sell you stuff. It's really sad, but this kid was great! He was so funny, Krystal and I caved and bought a couple of bracelets, but he couldn't get Michelle to get one!

These are the only videos for now as it is taking a super long time to upload them! But I have a couple of cab rides that I promise to share soon!

Until next time,

Michelle

 

 

Back to School!

"Back to school, back to school to prove to dad I'm not a fool. Got my lunch packed up, my boots tied tight, I hope I don't get in a fight!"

Every year (or semester in college) I think of that song on first day of school, so I thought I'd share it with you! Seems appropriate since my first day of school was last Thursday. It's hard to believe that I am actually an adult now with a big person job! Even though it's been over a year since I have been taking classes, it just seems like I should still be back at Iowa State ready for the first day of classes or getting ready to student teach. Even when I was subbing, I didn't feel like I had a real job, I loved it, but I was never in my own room.

I was so excited to start orientation the first week of August and it was great meeting all the new teachers. I was even more excited for the few days of 'inservice' before our kids came. It was crazy walking into an empty classroom and basically having three days to get ready for students. When I first turned on the lights in my room it looked like this...

 

Note the lack of books... They came in boxes over the next few days!

To say the least it was a little overwhelming, but I had been warned that in international schools it is normal to be a little behind at the beginning of the year so I manged to stay pretty calm, which to those of you who know me, you should be thoroughly impressed! My main reason for being able to stay so calm is 100% because I have an AMAZING teaching assistant, Ms. Anh. Before I had even met her she had seen my name tags sitting out and had them laminated and ready to go! She then continued to decorate the room beautifully with everything I asked for! In Vietnam construction paper isn't as common as back home, instead they use a foam type material. I love it though, it's really durable and Anh, as well as the other TAs and nannies, can make amazing decorations with it! I am still getting used to having Anh helping me so much. Sometimes it makes me feel lazy when she insists on making copies for me. Today she saw me making copies and said there was no need for me to be walking up and down the stairs, she would do it! I feel like I am going to become lazy and spoiled, but it is great to save a bit of time while I am planning lessons!

Not only do I feel extremely luck because of Anh, but I also have so much planning time it is unheard of! Every week I have 12 planning periods plus an hour and 10 minutes each day for lunch, snack, and recess.... What??!! (I know this will make my teacher friends back home a bit jealous!) It is great having so much time for team planning and team teaching with the other grade two teachers. I am really excited to see their teaching strategies as well as getting to know their kiddos!

Now that you know about all the boring stuff I have to take a while to brag and gush about my kids!! (Yes my kids, not just my students) Today was only the third day of school, but I am already in love with them! I have an adorable class of 12 students, all of whoe are Vietnamese. So far I only have 11 kiddos, but I get one more girl on Wednesday and I am really excited about it. It will be nice having an even number of students and our girl-boy ration will be a little more even now! It is crazy to only have 12 kids, but I absolutely love it!

The biggest difference I have notice between my kids here and the kids I have taught in the States and in New Zealand is how quite my kids are when it comes to class discussions. Usually at home I have almost every kid raising their hand (and usually just blurting out) because they want to talk to badly. Here the kids aren't used to class discussion so they are simply waiting for you to tell them and teach them. I've been starting to get them to open up a little more, but it's been a bit of a challenge. I am definitely improving my questioning skills! (Dr. Olson would be oh so proud, Michelle? Ellen? Liz?) So far all of my kiddos are incredibly bright! They are really hard workers and they love doing worksheets and getting to draw/color! I haven't had too many problems with language barriers, but it is definitely noticeable who has attended AIS as their English is a bit stronger.

I could probably sit here typing all night long about how in love I am with being here and about having my own classroom with such great kids and how the staff at my school is also incredible, BUT I will save you all that time and end it here and let you see for yousrelf how darling my class really is!

 

 Our class! When I got my camera out I suddenly saw 24 peace signs, you can still see a couple :)

  

Silly picture!

 

The kids all took first day of school pictures holding the sign, we will also do it on the 100th day. That board will soon have their picture on each lily pad, we are a room of frogs!

 

My room a bit more put together for the first day, it's changed though already!

 

Another view!

 

  

 Ngoc

 

Long

 

Nghi

 

Dung

 

Danny

 

Phat

 

Dong

 

Lucy

 

Tuong

 

Thai

 

Bean (yes, as in Mr. Bean.. he thinks it's hilarious when I call him that)

  

They love movement songs after they've been sitting a whit in the mornings!

  

I love them too, it's so fun watching them!

 

And finally, I couldn't resist putting a picture of our first day of school snacks Thursday night! We deserved it :)

As always, thanks for reading!

Michelle  

One week down, 103 to go!

It’s hard to believe I have already been in Saigon for one week, I feel like it was just yesterday I was at home saying goodbye to everyone! Although it’s only been a week a lot has happened! First was house hunting and moving in. Since then I have done lots of shopping for apartment things, signed up at the gym attached to our building, been to school, and I’ve finally ridden on the back of a motorbike!

Shopping has been pretty easy, at least a little easier then I thought it would be after our initial shopping trip with our realtor! There are quite a few large shopping centers, similar to Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club. We have bought everything from bedding and towel to kitchen dishes and utensils. It’s also getting easier to figure the exchange rate and determine whether or not something is priced well. Our cable was recently hooked up in our apartment, however we don’t have many English channels. We have been able to watch some of the Olympics on ESPN but it seems that archery is the only thing that is ever on! We are still waiting for our internet to get hooked up which is becoming a bit annoying, but we are surviving! Luckily we have some great neighbors (they also teach at AIS) who have been kind enough to let us come use their internet a couple times. I have also never been so happy for my iPhone and 3G :)

Signing up at the gym was a very interesting and funny experience. The biggest thing I learned was just how blunt Vietnamese people are! Before I tell you about that though I feel it’s necessary to describe the gym for you. It’s called California Fitness and Yoga and it is basically a nightclub to work out in, I love it! They play loud American pop music and all the TV’s are constantly playing a fashion channel (besides the TV’s attached to the machines). They also have lights in the ceiling that shine words onto the floor, such as ‘sexy.’ Now that you can get a feel for what it looks and sounds like I’ll tell you about our initial tour. A Vietnamese man named Tom gave us the grand tour and told us all about the various classes that come with a membership then we all were weighed, our body fat percentage and BMI were figured, etc. Tom then sat us down and we went over our fitness goals. He was not shy at all about pointing out where we may want to lose some lbs and exactly how much we should lose. It was so funny because it’s nothing like I am used to in the States. He wasn’t being mean or snide in anyway, just honest and helpful. So we signed up and with signing up received a free session with a personal trainer. Our trainer was very similar to Tom in asking about our bodies. At one point he asked, “Have you always been like this or you use to be skinny?” It was great PT session, I am still sore two days later, but I don’t think I’ll ever be as skinny as all of the Asian girls here!

The last three days I have spent my mornings at the elementary school for orientation. It has been awesome getting to know the other new teachers! Everyone seems so nice and friendly. There is good mix of new and experienced teachers. Some have taught a few years in other countries and for some this is their first international experience. I am excited to get to know everyone. Our principal is great! He seems laid back, but very on top of things and ready to have a great school year. It seems as though last year was a little rough with some drama at the school and there has been a turn around with some of the administrative staff. Everyone is ready to leave the past behind and move on. I love the optimism and think there are a lot of great people working for the school! Wednesday and Thursday we had ‘meetings’ in the mornings and the afternoons to continue getting settled as a good chunk of teachers were still looking for housing and what not. I am very glad we got here when we did and got settled in! Today was an optional day to organize your classroom and dig for supplies in the school’s supply closet. I was lucky to already have a box of some supplies so I grabbed a few things to start. It seems that most of our planning will be done with the returning teachers next week. It is a very scary thought because our students come on Thursday, but what I have learned from the teachers with lots of international experience is that this is how must international schools start the year and it always works out! So what I mostly did today was start to organize my desks and what not. I also received my class list. I have thirteen students and three of them already have American nicknames, one’s name is Bean! :) I am debating on how to do nametags, as all of my students will receive American nicknames. It’s hard to plan that sort of stuff without having talked to the teachers from last year. I know next week will be very busy and probably very stressful!

This has been yet another long blog, but I promise I am almost done! Leaving school today I was alone as Krystal had loads of boxes to go through! So I thought I would take a xe om (pronounced za om) home. It is basically a motorbike taxi but seems a little sketchier. These guys sit on the side of the road and if they have two helmets you know they are a xe om, plus they wave you down if you look like you are looking for a taxi. Before you go, you negotiate a price and you should never have to pay more than 40,000 dong (2 USD).  So I showed him where I wanted to go and asked for three, which I talked down to 20,000 dong. Not bad only paying $1 for a ride home! It was also my first time on a motorbike in general. It was a lot of fun and not nearly as scary as I thought it would be. I may actually decide to rent a motorbike after a few more rides!

So that is about it for now. I am sure I will have tons to update you on as next week begins and I start planning and really gearing up for the school year!

As Always,

Michelle