dc [and surrounding areas]

After our fantastic time in the wilds of Maine, the DC area came as quite a shock to our small town selves. While the city is impressive, city living is not for everyone. We are not city people, and this became quite apparent during our brief stay in the greater Capitol region. Though, I will say that cities that have public transportation figured out do have that going for them. And DC seems to have it figured out (based on our limited interactions with the transit system).

We did manage to merge one of our joys - camping - with the big city. The city of Greenbelt is home to Greenbelt Park, a nice little NPS parking that boasts affordable camping and a couple of nice trails just a mile and a half walk away from the College Park metro station. We camped, did some trail running, and eventually made our way to the metro. We rode into the city and walked the day away, taking in the sights.

sculpture garden

Throughout the day we meandered through a variety of Smithsonian Museums and through the National Mall. We saw the popular monuments and memorials that are scattered around the mall and then hopped off of the Mall walkways and checked out MLK, FDR, and the Jefferson Memorial. For future visits, I think I would be happy just seeing MLK and FDR. Both really strike me as being memorials that our lives are modeled after - working to provide opportunities for all, regardless of their life circumstances. 

MLK memorial

The following day we made it to Teddy's Island and added a third site in the city that we would be happy to return to. Theodore Roosevelt helped to expand the National Park Service and for that we are forever grateful. We think of him every summer when we travel, and try to live a lifestyle that promotes conservation and ecological awareness. 

our friend teddy

Our time in the DC area ended with some time with friends. We had a great lunch with our former country director from Peace Corps and then made our way north to Baltimore (which took far longer than it should have - really, city people, if you have public transportation, use it!) to visit friends that we met during Peace Corps. It was a nice way to break away from the overstimulation of the city.

from our wanderings at ARTSCAPE in baltimore

get it done

As usual, the weekend has been full of getting things done. School things, home things, life things. It's nice to have the weekends to help make the rest of the week run more smoothly.

Yesterday I had a fantastic day of food, fitness, and a little bit of fun. I took a break from my usual long run and did some walking to accommodate for a slightly sore ankle. I walked downtown to the farmer's market and co-op and came home with a couple of bags full of goodies. Our countertop filled up with fruit, veggies, homemade jam and bread. 

After dropping off those goodies I drove out to the state park and hiked my favorite local trail, Pyramid Rock. With all of the rain that we have been getting the desert is green, green, green. It's fabulous! I followed up my hike with a trip to the grocery and wrapped up shopping for the week. 

In an unusual mood for making food, I started prepping food for the week. I got fruits soaked (in water and white vinegar to help them last longer and clean off any junk that they acquired in transit) and put away. I prepped a veggie lasagna with squash, eggplant, and mushrooms. I made hummus from scratch. I made beans (also from scratch, a habit that we acquired in Peace Corps). Things are looking pretty spiffy around here considering we have two nights of grad school this week that we'll need quick food for.

We topped off the evening by going out to Gallup's monthly Arts Crawl. We saw a friend perform with the local belly dancing group and watched some other friends workout with a local fitness group called Iron Warriors. We also got rained on. After checking out our favorite art stores/galleries we decided to call it an early evening and got to the car right before a blinding downpour began.

Today has been equally productive with cleaning and laundry done before noon. Grad school has been thrown into the mix, with the mister wrapping up one of our group assignments for our technology in education course. We've had some more good food and are building up energy for a busy week to come.

Happy Sunday! Remember to rest and rejuvenate!

yo hablo español

One of the joys of having a couple of Spanish speakers in my classroom is that I am able to use the language that I grew to love in Costa Rica. Earlier this week, the grandmother of one of these students came into school to visit during lunch. She came up to me and immediately began a conversation in Spanish. It was fantastic. At first I had to make the connection between what she was saying and what language she was speaking, but after a brief half-second we were on our way to catching up. 

When we first found out that our placement for Peace Corps was going to be Costa Rica, I was a little hesitant. Costa Rica, the land of beautiful beaches, volcanoes, and a tourist hot spot? Did they really need Peace Corps volunteers? While I left the country still unsure of my response to that second question, I left knowing quite a few other things for sure. I knew that I wanted to begin my career as an educator (preferably in the younger grades) after endless hours spent working with the pre-K through first grade students in our community. I knew that I had met and befriended people that will always be a part of me, and that helped to change my outlook on life. I knew Spanish. 

There are a lot of people that serve in really unique places during their Peace Corps commitment. They learn unique and obscure languages. They become a part of communities where foreigners may not otherwise be accepted. And while they generally leave their communities at the end of their service with a better idea about what they want to do with their lives and having had their lives changed by the people that they came to know and love, the language skills that they acquired may never be used again. I am fortunate to say that Spanish is not a language that falls into that category.

I am so thankful to have this language skill. While I may be speaking with a Costa Rican lilt, using some of the local idioms that roll off of my tongue, and using a word that is more Tico than Mexico, I am able to communicate with these families that have come from across the border. Through language I am able to form the connections that will help the families have a positive experience within the school community, and I am able to help these students when they do not understand the common phrasing in English. 

I speak Spanish. Yo hablo español. 

la llorona

This year I have the pleasure of teaching some native Spanish speakers. During class I am able to clarify questions by rephrasing information in Spanish and I can facilitate the sharing of their language. These students share the Spanish translation for words that we come across in stories and we are able to do fun activities like count in Spanish as an entire class.

Yesterday afternoon I was waiting with one of my students and his sister at the end of the school day. In the time that we were sitting outside before their dad came to pick them up his sister asked me if I had heard of la llorona. Thanks to my time in Costa Rica I could honestly say that yes, I had heard of la llorona.

For those of you that do not know, la llorona is a folklore throughout Central and South America. La llorona translates to "the crying woman." La llorona wanders stream and river beds crying out for her lost children. While I was talking to these two children, the conversation evolved toward a discussion about the differences between the Mexican version of the story (their dad is from Mexico and they spend summers there) and the Costa Rican version of the story.

In Mexico, la llorona wanders the river bed crying for her two children, a boy and a girl. The woman has lost her children. My student's sister informed me that she had heard two different versions at this point. In one, the woman had murdered her children; in the other they had been kidnapped, or taken from her in some way and she wanted to find them.

In Costa Rica, la llorona also wanders river beds crying for her child. In this version there is only one child, and if my memory serves correctly she threw her child into the river rapids because they would not stop crying. In return she cannot stop crying as she searches the river banks for her missing child.

It is moments like this one that remind me how fortunate I have been to lead the life that I do and to have had the experiences that I have had. Thanks to learning about la llorona from my Language and Culture Facilitator during Peace Corps training, and having the legend reinforced through conversations with my students in Costa Rica. Yesterday I was able to bring those experiences with me into a conversation with my student and his sister here and build stronger relationships based on a mutual understanding. 

balance

Today we are having a gathering of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) that are teaching in Gallup as a part of the Peace Corps Fellows (PCF) program at Western New Mexico University (WNMU). At the beginning of the school year we all come together to meet the new fellows, to talk about teaching, and to mentally prepare ourselves for the school year that is to come. This year I have volunteered to talk to my fellow teachers about balance.

Balance has been an important component of my life for as long as I can remember. I grew up as an honor's student, a student athlete, and a dancer (all of my own choosing, no helicopter parents here). All of this meant that I had to carefully budget my time. In high school this had me doing homework in the time between the end of school and the start of practice (soccer, cheerleading, tennis, swimming, and a couple of times theater). I fully utilized any study hall periods that I had and hit the books as soon as the final bell rang to ensure that I would have all of my work completed for the next day of school. Once practice started I was engaged with my friends as we ran, stretched, and completed any number of crazy drills. Once practice was over my mom picked me up and faithfully drove me to my hour and a half long dance class 30 minutes away. This was my life. As you can see, balance was key.

I may not have thought much then about how this practice was a valuable life skill to have, but now it is what keeps me sane. I have years of experience with juggling tight schedules and meeting deadlines while being pulled in a million different directions (again, all of my own choosing), and it suits me. I plan everything so that I can make it all work because I am stubborn and do not want to give any of the pieces up. So, as an adult what does this crazy schedule of mine actually look like?

My days during the school year are pretty full. Building off of yesterday's mental meanderings about teaching for time off, I do not have time off. I am a teacher. I am a grad student. I am a human that has personal interests. As I mentioned earlier, I do not want to give any of those things up. They are all a part of who I am. I wake up at 4:30 in the morning so that I can workout and still get into my classroom about an hour before it is required. I need to work out so that I have the patience and energy (yes, I am energized by working out) to keep up with my kinders all day long. I need to get to my classroom early because it gives me peace of mind to know that everything is in its place and all of the materials that I need to keep the day running smoothly are in place. I need those three hours before the school day begins to make sure that I can be ready to greet my kiddos as the enter the classroom and let them know that I am excited to see them and to learn with them.

As a kindergarten teacher I never stop moving. From 7:30AM until approximately 3:00PM I am with my students (yes, I have a couple of breaks here and there, but I am always thinking about what we have done and what we have yet to do before the final bell rings). I run around trying to meet all of their needs, I read stories in funny voices, I dance and sing with them during wiggle breaks (or just when teaching in general), I demonstrate how to write letters and/or numbers over and over again, I tie approximately a million shoes a day (something that I am hoping to eliminate this year), I hand out tissues for runny noses, I remind kiddos to flush the toilet, I pick up the random learning tools that have rolled into corners, sharpen pencils, and help students develop fine motor skills through cutting, building, and creating. Every one of those activities needs to be built into my schedule so that I can show the powers that be that I am actively engaging my students in an attempt to meet the standards and the individual needs of each student that I interact with during those seven and a half hours.

Once my students leave my time in the classroom does not come to an end. I work on lesson plans and prepare materials for the coming day. This is a huge part of how I balance my life. Last year I managed to create an after school schedule that helped me to pinpoint the important components of lesson planning (standard identification, how that standard will be assessed, how I will make sure my students learn the skills to pass the assessment of said standard, copying and/or creating resources to be used to help students develop those skills) and assigned one component to each day of the week. By scheduling these specific activities I was able to have my lesson plans done and my materials ready for the coming week by Friday afternoon at 5PM. I learned that I could walk away from my classroom on Friday and feel that I did not need to work (on teaching stuff) over the weekend. I also rarely stayed at school past 5:00 (sure that makes nearly an 11 hour day, but this is how I found my balance).

Two nights a week my day does not end when I leave my classroom. Instead I go to grad school where I sit and learn more about the components of education that can make my teaching experience better for both myself and my students. From 5PM until 9PM I sit and absorb whatever it is that I can take into my classroom and improve my practice. On the nights that I do not have class I typically have assignments to complete. This is the work that will often be carried over into the weekends because I do have a life outside of teaching and school. This is where I can nurture the parts of me that are devoted to my family and myself.

I think that the true nature of balance is finding time for yourself. I love to dive into crafting as time allows. I try to make a point of not buying gifts for my beautiful nieces and other family members, instead I try to knit or crochet most of them (this year I may try to ease myself into sewing as well). I love to eat delicious food with my mister and relax in front of the TV with something from our Netflix queue. I like to make occasional trips to the pool, to go running, and to inhale as much of nature's beauty as I can while hiking and/or climbing. I love to read, and to write. I enjoy getting together with friends for game nights and pot lucks. I like to go out and sample the fabulous restaurants in town. I love going to Gallup's monthly Arts Crawl downtown and hanging out with friends while listening to good music and seeing people's creations. These are things that make me complete as an individual and so I squeeze them in as often as possible.

My life is all about balance, about nurturing all of the unique components that come together to make me me. In order to be the teacher, student, and individual that I want to be, this is how I find balance.

And I still manage to go to bed by 8:30 most nights!