Attempt at a Project #2

Perhaps my greatest challenge thusfar was the 3-day teacher training workshop I recently held at my school. Not only did it involve months of my investigating Spanish literacy (largely through trial and error with my pull-out groups), but I also wrote a 70-page guide IN SPANISH. During the writing process, of course, my laptop completely died....at which point I had a mild heart attack and then called Lori to borrow hers. I would like to add, however, that my printer is my FAVORITE toy ever (Thanks again, mom and pop!). I also had Robyn in town with me for almost a week and she was a GREAT help. I mean who else will sit up with me at 2:00 AM when we haven't slept for DAYS, cutting/pasting/plastificar-ing words for a word wall (in the dark, mind you, as the electricity se fue)???? She was definitely a lifesaver. Robyn, Zahira, and myself each had a full day of presentation, and it was really great information, if I do say so myself : )

The first disaster came when I went to retrieve those aforementioned guides. After spending about 6 months writing it, all of my sweat and labor finally paid off because I had, in my hands, 20 copies of the COMPLETED manual. Then, I quickly flagged down a motoconcho and he threw the box of my new guides right on the front of his motorcycle. Approximately 10 seconds later, he attempted to depart and the entire box fell right into the MIDDLE of the road! I had to scurry around like a madwoman to pick up my precious books, as SUVs and motorcycles were trying to run us over!!! Only in the DR....

The other disaster came when my slightly witch of a directora came in on my day to present and informed me that even though I had the dates of my taller planned since FEBRUARY, we would have to postpone my presentation for another day, as they had something ELSE to do. The best part was that the teachers were in uproar because they were very excited to talk about the reading manual that I had prepared for them and we quickly had a one-hour session (Good thing my rapidfire speech has carried over into Spanish). I definitely left a bit frustrated but, all in all, I think we had a really successful workshop and hope desperately that some of my teachers actually EMPLOY some of the things we talked about! For once I have a project that, as of now, I can call a success.