Yesterday I couldn’t write a blog post because I forgot to bring the charging cable of my MacBook, so I didn’t have a computer to write the post. Life happens!

Today I came late to school for the first time. I had a very good reason: the train where I was coming to the University ran out of gas, so we needed to wait until being delivered to the nearest train station and then wait for the next train in direction to the University. It was a very funny situation for everyone in the train. I have never imagined a train could run out of gas (I always thought it was an electric train).

Yesterday’s class and today’s class are about superlative adjectives and about being resilient. Here is today’s Power Point presentation: Superlative Adjectives.

Yesterday the students wrote in an index card their biggest struggle in school or at home. I glued those struggles besides the poster I made, inspired in The Butterfly Circus, that says “The greater the struggle, the more glorious the triumph.” I taught them that struggles are important because they helps us learn to be resilient. Here is a picture of our “struggle wall”:

Today’s lesson plan is the first lesson plan where I apply integraction, although it is not applied as a method but as a context. Here is today’s lesson plan: Superlative Adjectives.

Besides all the classroom practice, I made a practice handout for today’s homework. Here is the handout:

Today I made calculations and I realized something very important. I was absent the whole first week of my practicum due the reasonable accommodations needed for the PC Mas (the teaching certification test of the Department of Education of Puerto Rico), so I started my practicum on March 12. Besides that, I need to leave early on Fridays (at 12:30 instead of 2:30) and I am going to be absent on April 26 and May 31 due medical check-ups. For compensating those hours, I am doing six hours of teaching practicum daily (except on Fridays, when I do only five), instead of the five hours required per day. The classes at the school end on May 18. If you calculate the total teaching practicum hours, there is no way to complete the 300 required teaching practicum hours in that time. I can only make 253 hours, or a little bit more if I get the permission, which I asked, to take only half an hour of lunch break instead of a whole hour and to begin at 7:00 instead of 7:30. I can make some extra hours with some extracurricular activities too. Even then, there is no way for me to complete 300 hours. I can only complete them if I am allowed to make teaching practicum hours until May 30, that way I would be able to complete exactly 300 hours, but there are not school classes after May 18, so I am not sure if that is possible.

I made a table with all my current teaching practicum hours and the projected hours calculations to my supervisor professor to illustrate visually that it is reasonably impossible for me to complete 300 teaching practicum hours and to see what the Faculty of Education is going to do about that. The only thing I can do to try to complete them is to request the authorization to have less lunch break time and to begin earlier. I have a reasonable accommodation that allows me to be absent of my classes for going to all my medical check-ups, and I would be able to complete the 300 hours if I wouldn’t have so many medical check-ups and reasonable accommodation issues during these weeks, so I may be receive an authorization to make less hours due that. The Department of Education only requires around 200 hours to certificate teachers, so there is no need of completing 300 hours of teaching practicum besides the University’s requirement. I really don’t know what they do in cases like mine, we will see. I did my part and informed this as soon as I noticed it. It is true that in a regular semester I would have been able to complete the required 300 hours even with all the time needed for medical check-ups, that is something that must be taken in count too: the extraordinary circumstances of this semester, that started in March instead of in January.

This is the importance of having reasonable accommodation, among other reasons: if you have any problem related with being absent due medical check-ups, the issue can be handled without being penalized due needing extra time than others for medical issues.

My students learned something very important today: if they play with any toy during class, I consider that the toy is mine and confiscate it. I got a very nice Play Doh piece today! I love Play Doh! Besides that, I had my hdmi adapter in today’s class (the Amazon order was finally delivered yesterday!), so today I used my own computer to give class for the first time. I also had a clicker for the first time, so today I had a lot of fun with my tech toys too, besides having fun with the Play Doh! The hdmi adapter and the clicker made the process of giving class with Power Point a lot easier: today was the first day I ended my class earlier than expected! This was a little success for me.

Let’s keep growing!