Spring is here! Spring is here!

I have decided that the arrival of Spring in Floresti has nothing to do with the time of year but solely because I wrote about the lengthiness of winter. The day AFTER I posted that blog, winter went on hiatus and Spring finally, well...Sprung!!! And this girl could not be more happy.

The sun is shining, birds (other than crows) are chirping, baby lambs are being born, flowers and vegetables are being planted, people are coming out of their houses to work in their yard, Becca wore a skirt (yes, I know-topsy turvy world....Spring just made me do crazy things), I was able to dust off the sunglasses, and best of all-put away all my long underwear and wool coats!

Oh yeah, another reason I know Spring is here.....I have started sneezing and my eyes are constantly itching. Ah, allergy season - after the long winter, I have even missed you!

Everyone seems to be giddy with the vitamin D we have been lacking all winter. And I can't help myself either. I am smiling more, being more peppy and I've changed my walking music to Hip/Hop and Pop (you're all aghast-I know)!

I've also dusted off the camera and have been taking pictures of the glory that is Spring in Floresti (to date I have taken over 2250 pictures just in Moldova). Right now its all about the little spots of green and the beginning sprouts of plants, but I know that right around the corner the trees will begin to bud and Floresti will be colorful again! I have updated the Season Changes photo album on Facebook to include some of the new pictures I've taken of early Spring. The link is posted below the main picture on this blog.

Spring cleaning is also here. Yesterday (March 24) all of our students participated in a park clean up day after classes were finished. Check out the pictures I posted in a Facebook Photo Album.

After taking pictures of our students in the park, I realized that I have not really documented a typical day in school. So to fix this, I took pictures and videos in all of my classes today. Below are the pictures and videos! I'm so proud of how far my students have come!

A Typical Thursday

I begin with the 5th grade (which is a great way to start my day).

Here are three students reading a dialogue.

Cristian one of my best 5th graders

Practicing our pronunciation of the new vocabulary

This is video of some of my 5th graders reading sentences from their homework (and you'll hear me correcting a student-they always say "where" when they should say "their/there")

The next class is my 11th graders.

Here they are working in pairs on a vocabulary exercise.

Above is Cristi and Luida, then Igor and Cristina

My partner Elena checking attendance and writing grades in the catalog (grade book)

Cristi (I have 2 Cristis in this class), one of my 11th graders, comes in 15 minutes late while another student is getting ready to read. I ask him why and this is his response.

For my third lesson, I have the wonderful 7th grade class

Elena and I (although I am behind the camera) reviewing homework with the students

Gheorghe (George) reading answers to the previous night's homework assignment

Valentina reading a story in the text book

All of the students in the 7th grade are enthusiastic about giving answers (especially on the homework)

Again, its vocabulary time. These are the top three students in the class so while I pronounced the English version of the word, they would give the Romanian variant since they had already translated their new vocabulary at home the night before.

The fourth lesson is with one of my two 8th grade classes.

My top two 8th graders working on a writing assignment in class

The fifth lesson (and the last one for the day) is with the second of my two 8th grade classes. These classes are at very different levels (speaking, reading, writing and comprehension) even though they are the same age and grade.

One of my 8th graders takes his vocabulary serious. Look at the color coding between English, Romanian and Phonetic spelling of each word

Writing the Romanian translation of their new vocabulary as we go through the list

Using a dictionary to find a word he doesn't understand. I love how self sufficient my students in this class are instead of either ignoring that they don't understand or interrupting class by asking another student or us. This is his first year learning English-he was previously learning French and he's come along way!

This is Vasile one of my 8th graders reading an alternate version of "Little Red Riding Hood". The assignment was to put the various passages in the correct order. Again, you'll hear me correcting some of his pronunciation, but overall he did a great job!