Spirit Week!

So not this past week, but the week before was Spirit Week and Mao Wars at my school.  Monday was Cosplay day (dress up like a superhero or famous character), Tuesday was Fashion Fail, Wednesday was Fake-an-Injury day, and Thursday was Spirit Day (where everyone wore their ISW apparel).  Mao Wars is a competition between the classes to see who can raise the most money for a certain cause, this year it's to take the children from the local orphanage on a field trip.  It was a really fun week full of lots of energy and interesting outfits that ended in a pep rally on Thursday afternoon!  There were ballet dancers at the rally that were very good and we got to find out that my second grade class won Mao Wars!  Not only do the kids from the orphanage now get to go on a trip to the park, but I will also have the opportunity to accompany my students as we get to go play with those children as well :)

I wish I would have posted about this week prior to now so that I could have told you everything I had experienced, but life has been rather busy here.  I know that my students have been very enjoyable, but also challenging at times.  I'm still working on perfecting my classroom management skills, and I am definitely getting the opportunity to practice those skills with my students.  My cooperating teacher was at a conference on Monday and Tuesday, so I was able to take over the class during her absence.  I became very frustrated at times, but it truly was an amazing learning experience for me. Sometimes we learn our best lessons through our most difficult situations.  I'm learning how to love my kids through disciplining them in addition to really picking out the good things they are doing to emphasize positive behaviors.

I know that I probably missed out on a lot from this week, but there's a short glimpse for you! I know I also got to experience a restaurant called Hot Pot where we cooked our own food in a pot of boiling oil in the middle of the table.  I tried quail eggs there too which were actually pretty good!  There will be a post coming soon as well about my trip to Guilin and Yangshuo that I got to go on for spring break with 5 other amazing teachers from the school.  I'll post some pictures from the trip on here, but there are already pictures on FB if you would like to check them out! Thank you once again for all of the love and support!