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| New Years is so wonderful! It feels like another chance to start over. This New Years is a little bit more awesome than the other ones because it's not as cold. :) Although, I guess that's not something I should be too happy about since it's a pretty bad sign.
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| ESL is amazing! Probably only because I am a minority, so I feel I can better relate to these children. Most of the ESL teachers at this elementary school are minorities as well. I can't wait to get into ESL and teach these little kiddos! I was helping my cooperating teacher set up her classroom before school started, and I was thinking it's going to be great decorating my own classroom. It'll be scary at first because I'm not really sure exactly what I'll have, but eventually it'll become something I get obsessed with. I can already tell!
My cooperating teacher is obsessed with stickers. She gave out 25+ stickers to each student on the first day of class within the first half hour. It's her way of setting up her classroom management. It's so funny what kids will do for stickers! These past few mornings, I have been staying behind and not going with my class because there are stray kiddos everywhere who don't know where to go! It's so sad that I just have to stop and help them. So, I brought this one girl to her line where she was supposed to be, and the teacher at the front said to me, "She fell asleep during class yesterday. She needs to start going to sleep earlier." And I was like, whoa whoa whoa lady, I'm not her mama! Haha.
So, in my class I have 3 Japanese girls, 2 Chinese boys (I think), 1 Indian boy, 1 Middle Eastern boy, 1 Korean girl, 1 Filipino boy, and 3 Hispanic boys. So, we only have 4 girls in the whole classroom! The teacher split up the girls, 1 at each of the 4 tables, so it was really sad because they had been sitting together and they had to get split up. :(
Anyway! Enough about schools. What have I been doing lately?
- VSA Summer Orientation -- Summer orientation is every Tuesday, and the first one was this past Tuesday. VSA had a table out and we got a bunch of people to sign up! It was awesome! It was also really hot, though. If you have the chance, come out and visit us every other Tuesday! We'll be out there June 24th. Check out our awesome scrapbook made by last year's Historian, Hang.
- Learning Vietnamese -- Today I learned some basic Vietnamese, like vowel/consonant sounds, accents, and basic vocabulary. Thay Thuan from Walnut Creek Elementary is teaching me, Paul, and a couple of his friends. It's awesome because Thuan is a really good teacher, and we learned so much in a matter of hours! I can't wait until I can be conversational in Vietnamese. I've already started learning some from friends! If anyone is interested, we're going to be meeting every Thursday at 7:00PM in the RLM on UT Campus.
- uNAVSA -- Some of our officers are going to the 5th uNAVSA conference this summer. It's a huge conference with keynote speakers and workshops to help build leadership qualities as well as make us more aware of what issues are affecting Vietnamese Americans today. We're excited because it'll be a great experience, especially for Vietnamese Americans. I feel like I should go since I am president of VSA. I asked VACAT, the Vietnamese American Community in Austin Texas to help us raise money because the trip is all out of our own pockets, and a lady from the Vietnamese American Heritage Foundation is interviewing all of us and writing an article to be published in Viet newspapers in Austin, Houston, and Dallas. This will hopefully send out the message to the Vietnamese community that we're looking for help! So, if you're interested in donating to the VSA Fund then send a paypal donation to utvsafund@gmail.com! :) It would be GREATLY appreciated!!! :D :D :D
- Taking English online is so difficult. So many papers are due. Seriously like one paper every other day is due, and it has to be approved before you can send in the next one. I always think I get stuck with the hardest teachers on certain things!
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| I've started a student internship at an elementary school!
My classroom is a pre-kindergarten classroom and has 12 kiddos, 5 girls and 7 boys. The kids are adorable!
Something I've noticed and believe now is that routine is extremely important in their lives. For example, going through the calendar every day no matter how tedious it may be, going through letter rhymes, making a circle and holding hands.
The day pretty much consists of a lot of singing, dancing, and center time. I head the ABC center where I teach the kids how to draw a different letter each week. Pre-k is interesting because they have nap time, and the kids will sometimes still have accidents.
Here are some pictures of the kids:
Jason
Here are some pictures of VSA (Vietnamese Student's Assocation)
I'm Secretary of this organization and we had some recent events:
The girl officers of VSA.
My friend, Matt Doan.
My friend, Lucy Dang. This is a VSA event, Date Auction.
VSA Convention. 130 people! All from UT, UT Arlington, UTSA, UH, UNT, Baylor, and more.
At VSA convention, this was the group I was in charge of. We had a game where we used our cell phones to try to make the tallest tower.
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