Carissa's (Continuing) Adventures

This school year is shaping up to quite different as I have a younger group of students. Instead of mostly 7-9th graders, I have mostly 2-6th graders. Today was one of the days that reminded me of my new position. When the students came in from recess, they were happily heading off to class. Then, in the space of one minute: - a girl who had fallen outside decided she needed me to clean her knees - a boy somehow punctured his arm on a thumb tack and was bleeding - dog poop had been dragged in on someone's shoe and was getting everywere - the sink broke and the girls' bathroom floor was drenched I don't know how many calls of "Miss Carissa!" I heard in that minute. I should start charging per use. After a moment of confusion, you'll be happy to know, knees were cleaned, band-aids administered, poop-shoes taken outside, and the sink problem delegated (I don't do plumbing). Just case you didn't know, teachers do way more than teach! That...

This week I went through a teacher rite of passage: leading my first field trip. As a student I never gave much thought to these beyond how nice it was to have a day off school. Now I totally understand why the school made all us students wear red polo shirts when we went out.  After much emailing and list-making, I took my nine students downtown to see two churches in order to give them a visual aid for our history classes. Two of the other teacher-moms came along as we boarded the metro (a first for some of my students) and walked around ancient Sofia. First, we went to St. George's Rotunda where we indulged in the treats of Byzantine Era construction, Justinian restoration, and Roman Ruins.     Back view of St. George's, probably built around 313 AD   The frescoes on the inside of the church (This picture is from the web) We left St. George's, stopping to take a group shot by this fun fountain: After stopping in a nearby park for a...

In English, when children learn the alphabet, we give the letters names that don't necessarily make the same sound of the letter in words. Like, calling b "bee" or c "see" or f "eff." It's a little strange to me now, because I realize we don't say "eff-ar" for "far" or "bee-reeze" instead of breeze." One thing that makes Bulgarian a nice language to learn is that they don't have these peculiarites. A letter makes one sound, and that's all it makes. And when you learn the Bulgarian alphabet, the letter that makes the sound "sus" (c), you call "sus" not "see." (I've also realized the complete pointlessness of the letters "c" and "x"... think about it.) The other day, while teaching 3rd Grade Grammar, I was explaining why we use "a" and "an" before consonants and vowels. I was telling them, "See how the first letter in thi...