Zenaida Arroyo

Welcome to the September edition of the Ultimate Coffee Date hosted by Coco and Deborah.  It’s also time for another edition of Fit Five Friday hosted by My First 5K and More, Running with Attitude, Run Laugh Eat Pie, Runs with Pugs, and me!  

Now, grab a mug of your favorite beverage, and let’s chat briefly!

If we were having coffee…
I’d tell you about my first week of school.  Wow!  Tough, challenging, but I know we will have fun!  My kids will learn a lot too.  The AC broke on Thursday and we were all miserable.  Our school wasn’t the only one.  The whole situation was handled very poorly by the people above.  We all knew it was going to be HOT those days.  Administration should have let us do remote learning.  That is what ended up happening with another school.  I was really disappointed in them.

If we were having coffee…
I’d tell you that we have a new Reading curriculum and have already had to do assessments – in English and in Spanish.  Let me also tell you that we weren’t really trained in doing these assessments.  It was a very short PD with minimal hands on exposure.  Don’t you love it when training is like that?  But thanks to a Reading Interventionist helping me, I am almost done with the assessments.  

If we were having coffee…
I’d tell you that as I was doing these assessments, I was very disappointed with how my students were doing.  Almost all CANNOT read.  Wow, I am still shocked!  I kept looking at the reading interventionist to tell her how they were doing.  I know last year some of my kids were low but I had some really good readers.  This year maybe 1 or 2 are readers.  It will be an interesting year.

If we were having coffee…
I’d tell you that I have a tough group this year.  Besides many being non readers, I have a couple with behavior issues.  And many just talk so much.  I know they’re kids, I get it.  But I tell them that there is a time to talk and there is a time to be quiet.  We are still working on the latter.  I may just have to bribe them.  I mean, reward them for good behavior.  I am off today and I think I will miss a little bit those kids.

If we were having coffee…
I’d tell you that I need to keep reminding myself to not do so much for work and to take care of myself.  I’ve stayed late almost every day since school started.  I’ve also gone in early too.  Work will never be done.  I don’t have “official” lesson plans but know what I need to do.  I don’t have emergency lesson plans done.  My classroom library isn’t set up.  I’ve mentioned the new reading curriculum and some changes were made to the dual language program.  Did I mention that our school day is now 30 minutes longer?  And the countdown begins till Winter Break!

The topic for next week’s Fit Fit Friday – 5 tips for fall running/fitness.  Feel free to write about this or any fitness topic you’d like.  We hope you’ll link up with us!

Welcome to the August edition of the Ultimate Coffee Date hosted by Coco and Deborah.  It’s also time for another edition of Fit Five Friday hosted by My First 5K and More, Running with Attitude, Run Laugh Eat Pie, Runs with Pugs, and me!  

Now, grab a mug of your favorite beverage, and let’s chat briefly!

If we were having coffee…
I’d tell you that I am excited to see Desi at the Chicago Marathon.  I won’t be running but will be at my usual spot spectating.  It is much more fun than running!

If we were having coffee…
I’d tell you that we are two weeks out from our first day of school and no word on when we can go into our classroom to start setting it up.  That is stressing me out because it takes me DAYS to set it up.  We have two days of Institute (8/18 and 8/21) with our first day with our students on the 22nd.  I have a few meetings in the next two weeks and I am doing a couple of things at home for my students – time is precious!!

If we were having coffee…
I’d tell you that a friend of mine invited me for the weekend on a trip to Mexico City.  She is going with her daughter and sister-in-law.  I was interested and bought a ticket.  It is for 4 days but it is still enough for a nice getaway.  The other day I had lunch with my cousin and she also invited me to go to Mexico (Aguascalientes) for her daughter’s wedding.  That is tempting too!  Now I am torn on which trip to take.

If we were having coffee…
I’d tell you that I had Southwest credits and got a ticket to go to NY in November.  I will be there to visit my nephews and spectate the NYC Marathon.  I am looking forward to this trip for many reasons.  The only thing I don’t like is that I have parent/teacher conferences on November 6th so I would need to be on the first flight back on Monday morning.  That is what I did in March.  I guess I can come back Sunday night.

If we were having coffee…
I’d tell you that after looking at different venues for my mom’s birthday party next month, I secured a place for it.  It will be lunch at Paisan’s Pizzeria.  I already sent invites to family members and a few have already confirmed.  My sister and I will be picking out the menu.  Luckily there are several options to pick from since we don’t want pizza.  I will get some decorations and confirm the guests’ attendance closer to the date of the party.

The topic for next week’s Fit Fit Friday – Your 5 ways to avoid fitness burnout.  Feel free to write about this or any fitness topic you’d like.  We hope you’ll link up with us!