Update Classroom

It has been a month and a half working for San Diego County Department of Education as a Deaf and Hard of Hearing teacher. I actually enjoyed my job very much to work variety of students from age six to nine years old (first through fourth grade.) Working variety of grade levels are not easy to do. In fact, I had to break into three groups in order to get their instructional lessons from me and the aide. One of the groups get an independent lesson for a few minutes. Then, I routine the group. For instance, one of the groups will be keeping themselves busy by practicing their skills from the Writing Center. Each student has their name in the box.

This is the first time in a long time, I have to work lots of paperwork over the weekend because of high demanding parents. In a way, it is good to see many students have supports at home than I had in years. Thus, I had to keep my work up over the years, including using the practice book from the curriculum books at all subjects.

While I have high demanding parents, I came up lots of visual aids and hand-on activities. For instance, I had students created their Geography diorama: Desert, Forrest, and Mountain in time for the Open House. Another thing I have done was having each students making Earth after they had learned recognizing 4 oceans and 7 continents.

Since I kept the class under the control yet keep them motivation at the same time, I came up with the ideas of positive rewarding the tickets. Earning a ticket or two are for: having positive behavior all week, reading five books per week, doing all of the homework from the spiral book, and getting 80 % or better on Quiz/Test. At the end of each month, we do the prize drawing. THEY LOVE it!

Not only students loving my ideas, my BIG boss from the County expressed to me, " I am SOOO thrilled to have you here. I always get exciting whenever I walk in your classroom. You are a good teacher." Don't you know how I feel when I see that statement from my BIG boss from the County?" It inspired me.

Collections

Do you remember you collect things while you were growing up? If so, what did you collect? I did collect several things: rocks, shells, pennies, and owls.

Both of our boys like to collect things as hobbies. It was a good thing because they can earn their badge for having a hobby. Dylan started out collecting Pez. As of right now, he has 74 Pez. His destination is to get over 1, 3000 Pez. Do you think he will make it? He also collect shells after he liked the idea from his brother, Ryan. Not only collecting shells, they collect the quarter states. Didn't you know it is also include Puerto Rico?? I sure was stunned to see this one.


Ryan started liking shells when we were on our lastDisney tour, Cast Away. He did find some of the amazing things: the smallest white squirl shell on the beach. From that moment, he wanted to collect more. Lucky, he was able to get it more from my mom's work. She works at the Sea Shell Store. It was perfect for him to collect new things he likes. In fact, Ryan was so happy to get it more shells from my mom. He got the biggest shells which made Dylan envy. But I had a pin point to him that he has lots of PEZs. He settled himself down. Not only collecting shells, he only likes Snow Globe that I got him from the Disney store. He will get it more on Christmas.

Since both of the boys like to collect shells, it means we will have to change their bedroom theme. It is a matter of time because they are growing up like a weed.

Update of My New Classroom

As some of you already know that I got a teaching job for San Diego County Department of Education, it is relatively new program for all six teachers, speech therapist and few other important people for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program.

When I first returned to work from a long two weeks of vacation, I was amazed how much storage I have had in my classroom. The other six teachers had the same thing, too. It helped a lot to hide the junk stuff in the cabinets. However, I had a difficult time to setting the classroom up because I was assigned to teach Pre K- third grades or able to create the class assignments at once.

Instead of pushing myself too hard on the first day of returning to work, the matter was putting everything away in the classroom before the students arrive. I had an aide and a volunteer helping me with only 29 boxes to put things away (Just remember: I was forced to give all of the coolest things back to the previous district.) The teachers had more than 100 boxes to put them away. But even though I only had 29 boxes, I still had a difficult time thinking on how to create the lesson plans when teaching with the wide age groups in my class: Pre K- third grade.

Since I have had a volunteer and the aide setting the classroom up, they both made my room more welcome. I was very fortunately that they both are brilliants with the ideas and arts. The teachers love my classroom instead of making it look like they are in the residential school.

For the last two weeks, I have tried to manage to deal with variety age groups by splitting into three groups. I found it was impossible for two reasons: there was no computers and no curriculum books. I could come up with the lesson plans with the curriculum books for temporary. But it was impossible to keep my younger kids: Pre K and Kindergarten on-going hands on activities while I have two other older groups in my class. Truthfully, I did want to give it up on teaching until my co -worker, who we work together last year, told me not to; otherwise she will find me.

Despite of being difficulty creating the plans for two weeks, I had the parents obligate about the age group to the boss. I sort of was glad because it made senses that working and teaching students in ASL all at once. ( I could not image how the teacher taught students from K-12 back in 1800's in one big class room.) The parents were not complaining about my teaching, but was complaining about the age ranges. After that, my boss and I had a very good talk; she had a very good relationship. She admitted that she will move the younger kids to another class and hire a seventh teachers. Also thanks to the speech therapist who begged for the seventh teachers.

The County staff are currently in the progress on interviewing the teacher over the Video Relay Conference. It happened to be one of my friends from California State University of Northridge. This will be an exciting moments if they hire her. Hiring her will relieve for all of us, especially my class.

Once it settles it down, this will make difference for students' education. My boss knows and understands my destination: impact for each student's education with a smaller classroom. This will make parents happy. Who doesn't blame them? For those of the parents who came to observe me as a hawk, later admitted that they were glad to hear this will work it out by hiring another teacher. Also, they admitted they are happy to have their child placing in my class (two of them) because I am the only ones who is skilled in American Sign Language besides the certified interpreters.

Now, we just finally got the computer and the curriculum teacher's manuel and textbooks two days ago. From that point, we can proceed to write our standard lesson plans. It was so awkward not to have any valid lesson plans. Let's hope this will make difference for all of us: especially for each student.

Visting South Carolina

A day after we finished Disney Cruise and touring around Disney World Parks, we all took an Amtrak train from Orlando, Florida to Charleston, South Carolina. It took us eight hours riding on a train. This was the first for the boys-- they LOVED IT!

While riding on a train, there was some rain on the way. This did not bother us because we had some relaxing over watching the DVD movies, taking short naps, and eating our dinner. The boys chose over pizza than eating adult food! As soon we arrived South Carolina, it was LATE at night: 10 P.M. From there, it took my mother an hour and a half to drive back to her home. By the time, we got there, the boys definitely were pooped out!

The next day, my mother took us to her favorite beach site: Huntington Beach, South Carolina. We were amazed the water was literally warm-- a lot more warmer than in California water. Not only staying in the warm water, the waves was PERFECT! There was no need to worry about the high waves at all. Dylan learned to do a boogie board that my mother and Bruce brought to the beach. Ryan played both in the water and busy making a mud birthday cake. After the beach, she even stopped by where the alligators usually hung around. It was not far from where we swam. Not only finding the alligators swimming near the beach, we also discovered them in the marsh nearby my mother's home. I could not image if they would dare to walk up to the front door. Fortunately, my mother's home live farther away from the marsh. It would be impossible to have them walk on the the street, unless one of them dared to scare any of the neighbors.

We also visited the places where my mother worked: a cozy Sea Shell stores. Both boys were fantasized how much they like to collect shells. Ryan started to collect more shells after we llanded in Castaway island. It was a good feeling for me to him having at least a hobby. While I was there, I admitted that I dreamed about collecting some shells for my teaching: Ocean Theme.

While we were squeezing our tours, my mom was kind enough to take us to Charleston where there were lots of old and beautiful buildings. We even stopped by seeing more beaches and Shrimp Boats. At both times, we stopped for an ice cream especially during the hot weather. With the hot weather, we had a chance to see many lightening. The cutest statement was Ryan thought the lightening was chasing us.

On the last day of spending the time with my mother, she took us to McClellanville town. It was neat to see our last name being in a small town. David's eyes lit it up when he saw the signs before we left for an airport. After we spent the last couple of hours before leaving for an airport, it was nice feeling seeing my mother and understanding what her new home is like.

Disney's Amusement Parks

Believe it or not, we stayed five days in Florida in order to visit four out of nine amusement parks. Each day was non-stop activities.

The first activity was to visit the Animal Kingdom. I can promise you this park was far much better than any zoo in California. Personally from my point of views, there were so many amazing improvising animals creatures all over the world at one park. We were able to go all rides including Kali River Rapids- the wettest and wildest ride in Walt Disney World. It was a true business because I got really SOAKED, but felt so good especially during the humidity weather. While we were there, we were fantasized how the workers created the Tree of Life. This man-made tree is 145 feet tall. From far away it looks like any other tree. But when you get up close, you will realize that this is not an ordinary tree. It's covered with 325 animal images! I am pretty sure that Mark Twain would love to live there. Not only fantasizing the tree houses, there were shows such as "Finding the Nemo." This show provided us a rear reflection. David and I could not complain because it was better than not understanding what the show was. Another show we visited was "A Bug's life." We were warned that it would scare us out, but it didn't including our kids. This show made a great place to watch a 3-D movie. We also visited DinoLand U.S.A. I thought it was brilliant when they created a Dino-themed fair and attended the thrilling ride back to the last few minutes of Cretaceous Period. It made look like they lived while riding on a rough ride.

The second activity was going out to Disney Hollywood Studio. This place mainly showed lots of indoor places unlike Universal Studio. While we were there, it poured rainy for at least three minutes then it all dried out. It was weird! There were some good and so-so rides. We especially like the two rides: Star Wars (though I'm not fond of watching Star Wars movies) and dropping 13 feet down from The Hollywood Tower Hotel. The boys were somewhat exciting and scared at the same time. It felt like we were in a Twilight Zone. While we were there, our disappointment was not going to Toy Story Rides. That was the only LONG waiting line while the Hollywood Tower only at least 5 minutes of waiting. Perhaps next time will do. Just before the day had ended, the boys wanted to meet the "UP" from the characters so BADLY, though they have not seen the movie yet. But at the end of the day, I barely could walk because my hips were killing me.

While having sore hips, I managed to go on the third amusement park: Typhoon Lagoon. Boy, I admitted this place is a ten thumb ups! Way much better than the Soak City in California! Wish Disney would have thought about this first before building few Soak City Parks in California. (Note: please ignore Ryan picking his nose.)

After spending the day at Typhoon Lagoon, we returned to our hotel for a couple of hours before going Disney's Downtown. We managed to get in Cirque Du Soleil until 10:30 P.M. There were times I could not watch where I evoked the performed got injured on the show. Nope, they were AMAZING! I honesty would not mind to watch the shows again at another place.

Going all of the four out of nine amusement parks were too much for all of us ! Without having any choice, we had to do this while we were in Orlando, Florida for five days. We honesty would not mind to visit the other amusement parks that we had missed someday in the future-- only when the weather is not too hot and humidity!

Disney Cruise

What can I tell you about Disney Cruise? The answers are AMAZING and OUTRAGEOUS FUN! It was worth life time memories.

On a very early morning, David and I had to wake up at 4:15 A.M. in order to take a shower before waking the boys up. We were astounded that the boys did not have any obligate to wake up at 5 A.M., getting dressed before the bus shuttle came. Dylan especially was all ready to get going because we knew he was extremely exciting to go on a cruise. Once the shuttle bus came and took us to the airport, we had a McDonald's for our mini breakfast in order to fill our stomach while the airplane only served us a drink-- no more T.V tray meals until we arrived to Denver airport. We grabbed our pizza before taking off to another airplane for Orlando, Florida.

A day after we arrived Florida, the reality came true-- going on a Disney Cruise with 25 of us (David's family.) There were 8 rooms in a row on the eighth floor especially reserved for David's family. It was really nice to greet each other in the morning, or before we hit for bed. We especially greeted each other at breakfast and dinner meals. At the meals, we have the same waitress and waiter at the same table. At the table, we also have two professional interpreters: Marvin and Tara. The best part was seeing every one dressing it up differently, especially on Pirate Night. Not only the best part seeing everyone dressing it up, my family and I enjoyed being served without needing to cook for an entire week. It felt like we lived in a mansion lifestyle.

After the meals, we had the interpreters interpreted for us at every single night at the play. They were incredible amazing interpreters. I have learned that they had been on the cruises more than ten times because they had several other deaf clients on the cruises. This gave them the advantages to practice the plays. The entire family were impressed with their awesome body and facial expression along with the play. Believe it or not, they are automatically part of our extended family members and became our friends on our Facebook.

The boys especially like to play with the computer at the Oceaneer Lab. It pleased us because it gave us some time to ourselves such as going out for a swim. Swimming was one of my favorite relaxing time. Of course, the boys had the chance to swim at the Mickey Mouse Pool and the slides. Next to the pool, there were junk and healthy fast food restaurants. The meals were included the fee.

While not being on the cruise, we visited three islands: St. Martin, St. Thomas and Castaway Island. Each of the islands was different. On St. Martin island, there were two completely different world: Dutch and French. On the Dutch part, there were really poor people trying so hard to renovate the building. On the French side, there were many sophisticated buildings. We visited the Butterfly Farm. It was HOT and HUMIDITY, but we were awed to see the huge size of butterflies in the green house.

On St. Thomas island, there were many beautiful views especially overseeing the clear blue water from the tram. On the top of the tram, there were parrot shows and stores. The boys and David did watch the show briefly while I was drooling for pairs of earrings. At the top of the tram, we greeted two families: The Grants and the Morgans. We all sat down for a drink in order to cool ourselves down, but none of us could not resist the beautiful views.

The last island was Castaway. In case you did not know, this island is owned by Disney. They did create many awesome activities: souvenir stores, food, beach sports, outdoor activities and BBQ meals. The boys enjoyed swimming the WARM lagoon beach. Both Dylan and David enjoyed lying on the lounge while Ryan found his new hobby: collecting the shells. He discovered a BIG shell in the water. Of course, we only could posted for a picture. While we were on the island, we had an interpreter interpreted "Feeding and Swimming with the Stingrays." Dylan and I were too chicken to feed the stingrays. I only was able to swim around withe stingray, but not Dylan. He was too afraid to have some one forgetting and taking out the stingray's poison. But we did not let this small part spoiled our fun, we walked back to to souvenir stores where David and Dylan collected the Disney pins.

On our last day of riding on a cruise, we met at the table for a breakfast. There were an International Show. It was a beautiful show, but it was hard to say good bye to the wonderful waiter and waitress, especially the two awesome interpreters. Still, these BEST memories on the Cruise would NOT erase our life time.

Catching It Up

Oh my goodness, I have been SO FAR BEHIND writing posts. Before and after the Disney Cruises, I certainly have been EXTREMELY BUSY. Before the trips to Disney Cruises and South Carolina, I had to pack both of my sons' and my suitcases. Not only packing our stuff, we also had to double check that we got everything in order: passports, tickets, confirmations for the hotels, and few other things as well.

After I got back from the trip, I ONLY had one day to do at home before returning to work for the County. Mainly, I washed few clothes because I was fortunate to wash many of our clothes at my mother's before we headed for home. It helped because we were exhausted from having on-going activities for the last two weeks.

A day after arriving home, I just had to drop the boys on their first day of Y.M.C.A. while I went straight to my first day of working for the County. On the first week of returning to work before the students resume their school, I either had a long day of meeting or decorating the classroom. There were TONS of things to do, including I had to take care of my boys' school supplies.