What now?

First off, let’s take a poll….don’t cheat now!

 

Soon I’ll be on way to South America to teach 1st grade in an international school! While the prospect of going down to 1st grade is terrifying, even if it’s only one step down, I couldn’t be more excited (and nervous) for this change. To answer some of the questions I’ve been receiving: This is a two-year contract…at that point, I’ll see how I’m feeling. I will be teaching in English with my own classroom, literally identical to here in the states. They use the Common Core standards, Daily 5/CAFE literacy model, Everyday Math, and more American-based curriculums. They speak Spanish in Colombia, though naturally every country (and city!) has its own dialect and slang. I know it’ll be a rough adjustment, not only coming from English everyday for the last two years, but also because the Spanish I got okay at was “Spain-spanish”. One of my ultimate goals in doing this, however, is to become truly fluent…not stumble along in broken Spanglish with my students’ parents as I have been doing. Any other questions, please comment!

When I fly out on Monday, July 28th, I will be going Chicago > Miami > Bogota > Bucaramanga. Yes, it will take all day, and yes, I’m okay with that. I’m really good at sleeping on planes. 🙂 (You can be jealous.)

My future city is Bucaramanga, although I will be living about 10 minutes south of the city in an area called Floridablanca. Luckily the school has houses and apartments that they place new teachers in their first year. I’ll be living with one other girl in a house within walking distance to school. Yay!

For those of you that want a visual, zoom in and out on the map as you please.