Alcatraz, Golden Gate, Bread Bowls, and Ethiopia

My post is about 24 hours late but oh well!
So much has happened since we've been in sunny San Fran! If I started listing everything I'd be here typing for another ten hours. I guess first off the weather has been gracious and maintained a constant mid 60s about everyday we've been here. All the places we've visited are so much fun! The food is absolutely the best thing I've ever had. Last Saturday we got bread bowls of chowder that were huge! Best clam chowder ever. The Chinese food is fantastic, the pizza is amazing, the seafood is incredible and they have a Popeye's! I've never been so excited about food!

Well enough about great food. Teaching! My classroom is great! I was a bit nervous at first because I was the only white person in the classroom and it was second grade. To me, second grade is barely out of kindergarten. Surprisingly though these second graders are fairly well behaved and well ahead of most of the third graders! I taught a math lesson a few days ago about different ways to multiply and most of them caught on really quick! Probably because I'm an awesome math teacher, but really these kids are quick to learn and exceptionally bright.

The first day I was in the classroom they got two new students. One Hispanic girl who is cute as can be and then Beza from Ethiopia. Beza has kind of been my focus in the classroom because she speaks a little English but needs help with just about everything. She is also remarkably bright. It's really fun to work with her teaching her some English as she teaches me Amharic which is the native language of Ethiopia. I'm known as Mr. Andrew in the class because I didn't get a chance to really introduce myself early on but it's totally fine. I like the sound of it every five minutes from my students when they all need help reading a word or getting pencils sharpened. Working with such a culturally diverse population has really opened my eyes to more of the world and also confirmed my passion to teach. All kids need a teacher who will love on them and walk them through the challenging stuff. I know that have a limited time with these kiddos but I'll try my hardest to let them know that teachers care about them deeply.

Overall I am having the best January of my life. Totally mutant.

Andy