How much am I loving this trip?

Too much? No, I don't think that's possible.

We're two days in to our teaching experiences here in San Pedro, and I think mine is going well. I'm still trying to piece together a schedule that will most benefit my students while also being as considerate to the other teachers as possible, which is tricky. I've also been gathering my pool of students, and I've nearly put together a little roster for myself. Let me introduce you to one of my students, Eliany:

I'm working with Eliany and her mother on communicating using photos.

So, my approach to this experience is to do what I know. On Monday, I just observed all eight classrooms. Based on what I saw (which wasn't much because a lot of my potential students were absent), I created a schedule for Tuesday for pulling out students to do some probing. That schedule was altered several times throughout the day, and after school, I revised it even more. I've learned a lot about my students, though. And I can show you because I kept data (note to self: photographs are really great for data collection). For example, I took a picture of Zachary after he wrote his name:

How proud of his work does he look? I also probed Kyla today; during my time with her, I gave her frequent, short breaks to draw on my tablet. I saved several of her "drawings." How interesting is this:

(She copied our names from my personal whiteboard). I've decided that Kyla and I will be working on communicating through sign language. She currently has no system to communicate, but today we worked on signing, and she seems really receptive to it. Here's a picture of her finger spelling her name:

Overall, there are nine students I will be working with. Additionally, I join a class during their reading lesson to read with a small group. After probing, I created some goals for each students, and these goals will help form my lessons. I'm loving all of this (even though it is definitely hot), and I'm feeling positive about the possibilities for the next several weeks.