Posting

Wow. I hadn't posted in a while because I thought I had nothing to say. I was wrong, yet again.

My, my, how could I resist ya?

Can you believe that the school year is already half way through? I can't! I am now a .5 year teacher. Yay me!

We ended the last week before break on a fairly good note. On Thursday we had our class holiday party. I was anticipating craziness and an exponential hair loss on my part. Boy was I wrong. It went surprisingly well and the kids listened and followed directions very well. We had a great time and I think it helped that we had several stations for the kids to rotate to. There was cookie decorating, ornament making, draddle game, tortilla making with Mr.Sosa, and then the food and drink station where they relaxed and chatted it up with friends. There were a few parents there and they were a tremendous help. I manned the tortillas and they did everything else. It is nice to have fantastic parent support in the classroom.

That evening I went to a "Dirty Santa" party with some of the younger/crazier teachers from my school. It was a blast. We enjoyed some adult beverages and some hearty conversation. Then we did the white elephant gift exchange. The gifts that were brought were up to the interpretation of what you thought "Dirty Santa" meant. Needless to say I headed home with my very first set of cock rings.

Friday was pretty much a bust as far as classroom management goes. The kids were done and ready for their vacation. Needless to say we did a lot of filler activities and spent some time in the computer lab. The free computer lab time was part of my gift to the kids and I think they liked that more than the gift I actually gave them. Which was a set of pencils with their names on them, a tiny ruler, and a legit hand lens for investigating.

The bell sounded and the students cleared out for their winter break. The faculty and staff were headed off to Chuy's for happy hour to celebrate a great 1/2 year. I headed over after putting my Christmas decorations away and tidying up my classroom a bit. When I got there I was amazed to see the entire bar area taken up by my school. It was pretty funny. As I walked in I was greeted by everyone with a "Yay Jesse is here!" I felt like a celebrity. A good time was had by all.

Saturday is where my blog title comes from. Jackie and Katie are the 2 friends I hang out most with so we were going to get together to have our mini Christmas gift exchange. Katie and Jackie came over to my apartment and we had lunch before opening presents for each other. I was certain that I would get the movie "Mamma Mia" from one of them, but to my dismay I didn't. I did get a lot of nice gifts from them. When we were done somehow we got into talking about how I needed a puppy. We talked about how we all saw a sign down the road from me that advertised puppies. We decided to check it out. I really hadn't anticipated getting a puppy, but boy was I wrong. They were in a little trailer on the side of the road and I was skeptical. However, they were pretty legit. They had their papers and were up to date on their shots. They even gave a bag of dog food away with the pup. We were playing with a few of them. Jackie got out a little boy pup and Katie and I got out little girl pups. One of the girls we got out was the littlest of the litter, however she had spunk. She was beating up all the other dogs who were bigger than her. I fell in love. Jackie got the boy she had picked out, and I took the spunky, feisty little girl. I named her Mia. I knew I would be getting some type of Mamma Mia that day. My Mia Farrah is a salt and pepper miniature schnauzer. Pictures will be posted soon!

Las Posadas!

The past 2 weeks the third graders at my school have been studying different Christmas type holidays for different cultures. There are 5 Third Grade teachers so each of us took a different holiday. There was Hanukkah, Diwali, Kwanzaa, Traditional Christmas, and of course Las Posadas. I was in charge of teaching the entire 3rd grade about the Hispanic tradition of Las Posadas.
Here is basically the synopsis of Las Posadas taken from Wikipedia:

"Las Posadas (Spanish for "the inns") is a nine-day celebration with origins in Spain beginning December 16 and ending December 24. It is a yearly tradition for many Catholic Mexicans and some other Latin Americans and symbolizes the trials which Mary and Joseph endured before finding a place to stay where Jesus could be born, based on the passage in the New Testament, the Gospel of Luke (2:1-9):

"Now, at this time Caesar Augustus issued a decree for a census of the whole world to be taken. This census -- the first -- took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria, and everyone went to his home town to be registered. So Joseph set out from the town of Nazareth in Galilee and traveled up to Judaea, to the town of David called Bethlehem, since he was of David's House and lineage, in order to be registered together with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to a son, her first-born. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them at the inn. In the countryside close by there were shepherds who lived in the fields and took turns to watch their flocks during the night. The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them."^[1]

Typically, each family in a neighborhood will schedule a night for the Posada to be held at their home, starting on the 12th of December and finishing on the 24th. Every home has a nativity scene and the hosts of the Posada act as the innkeepers. The neighborhood children and adults are the pilgrims (peregrinos), who have to request lodging by going house to house singing a traditional song about the pilgrims. All the pilgrims carry small lit candles in their hands, and four people carry small statues of Joseph leading a donkey, on which Mary is riding. The head of the procession will have a candle inside a paper lamp shade. At each house, the resident responds by refusing lodging (also in song), until the weary travelers reach the designated site for the party, where Mary and Joseph are finally recognized and allowed to enter. Once the "innkeepers" let them in, the group of guests come into the home and kneel around the Nativity scene to pray (typically, the Rosary). Latin American countries have continued to celebrate this holiday to this day, with very few changes to the tradition. In some places, the final location may be a church instead of a home. Individuals may actually play the various parts of Mary (María) and Joseph with the expectant mother riding a real donkey (burro), with attendants such as angels and shepherds acquired along the way, or the pilgrims may carry images of the holy personages instead. At the end of the long journey, there will be Christmas carols (villancicos), children will break open piñatas by striking these colorful papier-maché objects with bats while blindfolded to obtain candy hidden inside, and there will be a feast. Traditionally, it is expected to meet all the invitees in a previous procession."

I had a great time teaching them about Las Posadas. We even read a book by Tomie dePoala called "The Night of Las Posadas". I had each class for 2 days. Day 1 we learned and read about Las Posadas. Day 2 we had to come up with an activity to do to go along with Las Posadas. I had us make tortillas. It was a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed it. It was funny to see how some of them made their tortillas who had never experienced one. A few of them thought that after you rolled it out it was ready to eat. The did like the dough, but really enjoyed it after we took what was left and cooked it on a griddle.