Country Rican

It pains me to say it, I know. So many of you have said "You would be a great teacher Lisa", I know you meant it. I thought so too. But I am not. I could be, but we do not live in the world we once did. First of all there is the work load. You have to test, quiz, give homework and all that good stuff to see where they are academically, and then you have to grade it all. When you have 95 students it all adds up. Also, these kids are used to being entertained and they are under the impression that everything should be fun. We guess what, life is not fun and most things worth having take hard work. Before every test they expect you to give them a study guide. I have informed my students that the study guide is the notes they take on their own and the work they did in class. Study guide my ass! Then there is the fact that most of them do not want to learn anything. Which brings me to the second reason I hate teaching: I feel like an under paid babysitter. I went to g...

So, my dear friends, I have survived my first full week of teaching. Oh my god, I am tired!!! So on day one I asked my kids why were they taking Spanish. Predictably, most of them said they needed to fulfill a foreign language requirement in order to go to college. One of my cheerleaders said because she wanted a boyfriend that looked like Enrique Iglesias. One of my funny boys mentioned Spring Break in Cancun. Another boy mentioned how beautiful latin women were. I told them I appreciated the honesty. A couple of them said their parents were making them, and my personal favorite: "I have too. If it were up to me I would not take it and if they come here they have to learn English." My response was: "OK. But you want to go to college don't you? So you will do your best, right?" I have three one hour and a half blocks of 30 or so students. The first one is 28 and smart and sassy. They know their Spanish I, they brag about their accomplishments, and a...

Dewy Rose is a small community in Elbert County outside of Elberton. It is not a town or a city, it is a community. It has a post office and it's own zip code (30634), but not much else. I live on the Davis family land. The land includes a green house business, my in-laws' house and a lovely double wide mobile home where my hubby and I currently live rent free. It is somewhere around one hundred acres of country, and outside my window I see trees, cows, squirrels, birds and occasionally chipmunks and rabbits. Sounds like a Disney movie right? Except I am so not a country southern belle. I was born in the projects of the South Bronx, I grew up in Cabo Rojo Puerto Rico ten minutes away from beaches, I do not drive, I do not drink sweet tea, and I have a irrational fear of insects. I am a Puerto Rican girl living in a small town who is about to start teaching Spanish to High School students whose parents might call Spanish "Mexican". Michael and I discussed starti...