Reflection about Zinn's questions

What make you happy at WH? When did you feel sad(or)lonely? What kind of things make you bored?

I am happy both inside and outside class. Inside class, I feel really good when my students understand my lesson or make a connection with what we are learning to their own lives and experiences. It's always so interesting to learn about how each of their minds works in a different way and interprets a reading or a movie or a picture many different ways. Outside of class, I really enjoy sitting and talking after dinner and playing football in the afternoons. It is when I feel most connected to my students and when we can relate to each other as human beings. Thank you for those moments!

I feel sad when I feel like I am teaching in a way that is confusing for my students. I hope I can find new ways to make my lesson clearer for everyone. I also hope my students feel comfortable asking for my help. I want them to know that I am here to answer their questions and that I love doing it! Sometimes in the evening, I am very tires, but I will try my best to help them as much as possible.

Thanks again Zinn for the interesting question!

Reflection 1: Super Power

If I could have one super power, I would want to be able to breath under water. Ever since I was a little girl I have always loved dolphins. Growing up, I dreamed that I would be a marine biologist. After I graduated high school, I went to marine biology camp. I lived on a research vessel for two week where I learned how to study wild dolphins. One day, after our data collection was finished, we were allowed to jump into the ocean and swim with the dolphins. There were many of them swarming all around us and they were all so playful. I was swimming along the surface of the water, when suddenly a dolphin was swimming just beneath me. He was upside down, so our stomachs were almost touching! I was so thrilled! We were so close, that I even saw his eyes pop out from the side of his head and look up at me. We looked at each other as we swam for almost a minute. I had never felt so connected to an animal as I did in that moment. But unfortunately, I could not hold my breath any longer, so I had to come up to the surface and break our eye contact. The dolphin swam away and from that day on, I have always wished I could breath under water.

Blogging has begun!

So we have finally set up our blogs and now we are trying to get everyone connected. It has been so cool reading what everyone has to say: their thoughts, poems, pictures. Their creativity amazes me and I like seeing how some students who may be quite or reserved in class are really expressing themselves in their blogs. I am learning so much!

Just warming up!

I just have to say that not a day goes by that I don't have the "Wide Horizons" song in my head. Whether a student is singing in passing, or I wake up with the tune in my head...it's always there and I'm always smiling when I hear it.

It has been about two months since we have started the Wide Horizons program and I have learned so much about and from the 23 students that make up our amazing group: their artistic abilities on the democracy wall, their athleticism when we play volley ball and table tennis, their culinary gifts with every new curry I taste (including the extra SPICY ones!), and their fascinating insights into life, their experience here, and the world around them. I am so proud to be their teacher and I can't even put into words how much I enjoy, no LOVE, being with them. They are all truly truly amazing people who have a gift for changing the world...and I can't wait to see it happen.

So, as we have just begun these 10 months of living and learning together, I will use this blog to tell you about my experiences, opinions, feelings, reflections, and stories about our time together.