BKD Withdrawal

It's officially been one week since I departed with my dear ol' BKD,
and I have severe BKD withdrawal.
It's like an addiction. The more I tell myself not to think about how amazing my summer was, the more I think about everyone and everything from Denver. One memory here triggers something from there, from my homestay, to the students, to the weather, to the staff, to just everything. And I try to bother myself with things of the upcoming year, but I just keep thinking about BKD all the while.

Maybe it'll get better once I actually get back to school. Hopefully. Time can only tell.

But I'm actually kinda scared about my student teaching experience. Because although BKD was an awesome experience, I'm trying not to hold that has the regular, expected  teaching experience. But I still want to hold on to making learning fun and exciting. I mean realistically kids HAVE to be at school and don't choose to be there, so why shouldn't I make it fun for them, in the process of teaching them something. I don't want to think that I know what I'm doing then completely bomb ya know. I mean I'm very sure everything it going to work out in the end. They always do. So I'll  try not to worry about Student teaching,
instead I'll probably continue to think about BKD, even though I probably shouldn't.

that's all, just a random little post.
peace
a-sauce (no calls me that here, which is also very weird)

Life without BKD

It's manageable....but I just think about it all the time.

This Monday was horrible! I didn't know who I was. It's like I went from being this teacher to now this person laying in the bed all day, I just didn't understand. Without BKD, I felt like I had no purpose, like I have no one to teach, no yellows buses to yell at, no BT pledge to repeat, no staff meeting, no spirit clap, no students, no lesson plans, no nothing.

But I'm slowly getting it over it as I'm coming to the realization that I'm a college student going into my senior year, and I have to plan for it in like 3 weeks, when I usually take a whole 2.5 months. So that's like the hectic part I suppose.

I just really miss BKD, it's a hard reality coming back to life just being a student.

But I think I'm going to make this my teacher blog, I'll eventually change the title, maybe not, but I'll update here about how I'm progressing in my profession so yeah. Keep reading, I am not finished!.

That's all.

peace
A-sauce

Last post in Denver......

SAD :( man my journey is coming to an end. I seriously can't believe it. I just remember coming out into this situation so hesitate, not knowing exactly what I was getting myself into. But truly, this has been a life-changing experience. I've learn so much about my self mainly,  I WANT TO BE A TEACHER! ahhhh. Finally, I got some type of clue what I want to do with my life. This whole summer was a validation of what I've been saying I wanted to do since senior year high school. But to finally put into practice was so amazing. I just felt so comfortable in that teacher role, like it's totally made for me and mine.

And I'm totally gonna miss all my students. They were my 1st students there's no way I could ever forget them. Man, best students ever, even if they didn't alway do well with the material or do what I told them to do,  I still love them ultimately. Who would've known that these 17,18 teenagers would have such an impact on my life this summer.

I'm totally gonna miss all the staff as well. Tomorrow is my last day with them. It's amazing how even though I was only out here for about 2 months, I feel like I've known some people for so much longer, and that's really, really amazing to me. Like I wish I could bottle some of them up and take them with me back to Illinois, because I know we would have so many good, funny times.

I'm just gonna miss that Breakthrough spirit, and I know for sure my student teaching experience will not be as fun, but I'm hoping just as rewarding. This summer just made me want to go straight into teaching, forget about this last year of school, but I totally gotta go through this so I can get my degree and certification, poo-ey.

I'm excited to go home though, and see my family, and eventually make it back to E-town and see all mis amigos, gosh I wish you guys would've went through this experience with me. It was just so great.

I definitely want to come back to Colorado one day, maybe as a teacher??? idk. Probably not, but who knows at this point. I definitely want to come back and visit the Denver area, and of course the Breakthrough community, where ever that will be in the future. Will I return next year? I don't know. But I heard something about a Chicago Breakthrough, if that happens  I'll definitely get involved with that for sure.

Well, that's really all I got this point, this is probably my last post on this blog in Denver, unless I randomly update tomorrow night, my flight's at 6:00 am so who knows....
peace.
a-sauce.

Last week with the kiddos

I haven't really thought about, that I'll probably never see any of my students again (unless I come back next year), cuz if I did think about it I  would probably cry for awhile, so I'll deal with that when the time comes (This Friday).
For now it's just my last week, and I'm just hoping to make it the best, by being excited everyday and teaching system of equations like my life depended upon it. Just wanna go out with a bang. But I'm really gonna miss my students, they were my 1st students. Gosh, anywayz lets move on.

On Wednesday, I went camping along with 27 STARS students and the other STARS teachers and 2 admin (Christine and Jackie). It was my first camping experience, and I must admit it wasn't that bad. Probably for one I didn't have to set up a tent by myself (it's actually pretty simple). I didn't have to worry about food (admin brought and COOKED food. Omg those hamburgers we delicious and that potato salad. omg!). All I had to do was be with the students pretty much. We left that wednesday after lunch (well about an hour and half after lunch. See one of the superheroes (previous students of the program hired to help out everywhere basically) got fired, because she was doing inappropriate things with a student, which is a no, no. and anywayz the admin had to have an emergency meeting about it, to fire her so yeah). Back to camping we stayed until about noon on Thursday.  It was a lot of fun. Those students are a trip. Funniest thing from the trip (warning kinda inappropriate) one of my students, yells out 'TITTIES!' so hilarious.

also the boys got the girls back from the sleepover, by concocting this militaristic plan to wet the girls with water. One of the boy teachers, got all mad at the girls, saying there was inappropriate (such a BT word) behavior and that some of the boys were missing, because the boys and girls were separated. anywayz after saying Scott for a second time all the boys ran out and squirted the girls with water, SO Hilarious. The boys were so happy! They stayed up for about 30mins singing this song that was a ridiculous mess about how they wet the girls. But that was like the second highlight of the camping.
Overall again I had a great time, and can say I've officially been camping now.

Also this Friday was YO! which stand for Your Opportunity. This was just a time to get students to think about their future, including high school and college and careers. There was a portion where all the students got the opportunity to be interviewed, which I think was really great. You know you don't get that opportunity when you are in the 7th, 8th grade to practice interviewing. usually you gotta bomb a few first. but that was really kool to see.

There's alot other things I could talk about but I'm just gonna stop here. Need to go to sleep soon for my last week.
oh, here's some pics from the camping trip.

(team-building activity that the students failed at)

(waking up in the woods *rocking the red bandanna*)

(really the mountain are so beautiful)

 ( i was standing on a tall rock thingy)

(it was this rock thingy)

Alright that's it. 

peace. 

Asauce. 

I suppose I should update now-ish

though SO much as happened, there no way for me to recount accurately all the great things that have transpired since the last time I updated.

Teaching
Is pretty great. I can definitely say the original beauty of it as worn off, of course I still enjoy it, but it went from a point from being 'fun' to being WORK. but teaching the kids are great, even discipling them it pretty fun as well. I love how I can get total silence in a class, just by getting very serious. But my goal for these last two week teaching is to make it as fun as I can , and just teach them something.

so we had the sleep over this friday, which means I spent 24+ hours at Kent Denver. It wasn't as bad as the former people made it seem, maybe it was because I didn't participate in the boys' pillow fight, which was pretty crazy. But i did end up staying up until 3:30am (mind you I woke up at 6:00 am) to only be awaken 15 later by screaming girls throwing water on the boys, luckily I didn't get wet, some of my co-workers weren't to luckily.

I also experienced my first (couple) Red Bulls. I had so much energy, but I didn't seem that hyper, it was really fun though we had a dance for the kids, it was pretty great, music blasting. And all the teachers had to be Bouncers to prevent inappropriate dancing, which their wasn't too much off. It was a really fun dance though.

We also had a talent show on Friday ( i mean it was a long day) and it was the BKD awards,  so every teacher was a celebrity. I was originally supposed to Cedric the Entertainer, but then the last minute I changed to Cleveland Brown, and here's what I did.



Yes Justin Beiber. Amazing.

So what else has happened? Oh this week I did a Micro Madness, which the fun time of the day. I did Improv Acting. It was really kool even though I only had 2 students in for M-Th. But then we did again on Friday, and got more kids. I'd never led a Improv before, so I just did some games I found online. But it was fun and laughter ensued.

And I'm going camping AGAIN on Wednesday with all the Stars Students, so this should be interesting. This time though I actually have sleep outside in a tent. and stuck with about 35 14,15 year olds.

Alright that's it.
I really don't know the next time I'll update, I can't predict this things.
peace.
Asauce.

Guess it's about time for an update...

It's been about a week....

Things are going pretty well. I'm fully immersed in teaching and Breakthrough. I love it! 

I think teaching is what I'm gonna do with my life. Being the teacher is so GREAt! and I just love my students so much, and I just love the program. 

Funny thing happened this friday though. On the previous day we learned/reviewed AREA, so I basically had the students "build" my cousin Q-sauce (from Barb B Que sauce) fence for his walrus. Each group got a different shape rectangle, trapezoid, circle, and triangle. But the shape had to have 24 square feet. So for my first class, we went outside, and what did we see>: A SNAKE, a gardensnake. So of course all the students (esp. the girls) were freaking out. But then one of the boys, is like taking a yard stick ruler and picking up the snake, playing with it, while I'm steady like "BUILD your fences!". any ways the snake starts moving, get around the bottom of a small tree, and the boy is still playing with it. Then its starts hissing. And that's when I was like let's go back inside. It totally made my day though, because you definitely can't lesson plan for that. Btw I did know that there was snakes back there, the admin had told us early to be mindful of that. But I hadn't seen any snakes since we had been there, so I didn't think nothing about it. 

Also I definitely took pictures of the snake

(see my student with the yard stick playing with it, I guess I wasn't making better by taking pictures of it)

(cool shadow picture)

. 

Sometime last week, I think it was Wednesday, it was like celebrity dress up day. and I was eating lunch with this students who were Indian (not native american) or is the term South East Asian. Anywayz they were telling me who they were dressed up as, and they were like differently celebrities from Thailand. It was really cool, for them to be so open with me to share they're culture and language. And it make me realized how diverse the program is. Like there's Blacks (including Africans), Latinos, Mulisms, Asians, Middle Easterners, you wouldn't think Denver would be so diverse. And not only is this program culturally diverse. The students are at all kinds of different levels. Like I have students within my 18 member family, who know everything I'm teaching and those who are struggling. It's quite amazing. I didn't think this program would be this diverse.


Also I can officially say this now, I actually feel apart of the Kent Denver Breakthrough family. Last Wednesday (my mom's bday), I had to give Vision, and vision is where a teacher stands in front of the students and gives their vision for the day, what they would like people to do. It's highly motivational. And I talked about people who gave up something for us to be here. And I don't I felt something. It was really cool. And it just let me know not only can I be a GREAT teacher, I can motivate my students to be something and to Do something. But as I was saying I feel so much apart of the family. It's great when students I haven't even met (we have about 200 students) say "ASAUCE!" it so kool.

I think that enough updating. Wait I did want to mention that I played the trumpet on Friday. How on earth did this happen you ask? Well friday was Olympics Day so families were competing against each other. And Christine had the idea for opening ceremony and it involved me playing the trumpet. Of course I didn't bring one with me, but she go so I played it. Even though I really didn't want to play my trumpet in front of everyone, I did it and it was fine. That's one thing though we are trying to get the students to do, step outta their comfort zone, do things they never did. So as teachers we have to example. Otherwise I probably wouldn't done it.

Okay that's really it.
Hope you read all that if you didn't, BOO!
until I update again. Same time next week? Idk.

Peace.
Asauce.

Week 1. Done.

I meant to update earlier this week, but I was too busy. Even last night I was going to but then I fell asleep at 9 something, I guess my body can't handle stay up late, hence I am up at 7am in the morning on a Saturday  typing this. Nah, actually it can I was just dead tired from the day. 

Friday was Spirit Day which equal tons of screams, jumping, around acting crazy, and basically having fun. First week overall was great though, so much happened I can't really type it all here. But I finally met the kids they are pretty awesome individuals. As I've said before they have been in for 2 years already, and they pretty much love Breakthrough otherwise they wouldn't be back I suppose. My family (Family 9!) like every other family split up into two groups, by how they performed on their english and math test. My first class of the day I love, these are the lower achieving students, but the other groups not so much (mainly because they think they know everything).

 But I feel really comfortable in the teaching role. For some reason I thought I would be really nervous in front of the students, but it's not like that at all. It's also kinda awesome because I can kinda do what I want in the class for the sake of learning (i.e., doing random things). The one thing that I don't like is lesson planning. it sucks. I guess it good though because you always need to be prepared, because honestly some topics I could wing, like come up with problems for, but others I definitely could not. But I  think it's great to have a game plan otherwise we would definitely get off subject real quick. 

What else can I say....

Phone calls we have to do weekly phone calls to parents, which was interesting. All the parents I called were happy that people call to say good things. I'm just glad none of them are mean or nothing like that. 

Um that's pretty much it. I just kinda find something to do this weekend. I"m thinking about exploring Denver. 

peace

Asauce

On Monday, It begins.

The students arrive. And Breakthrough Kent Denver goes into full effect.
Each day waking up probably 6ish, going to bed probably 10,11 ish.
Working on Lesson plans, teaching math and reading, playing games, getting to know the children.
I'm so excited, and still scared. Even though know I definitely feel SO much more prepared than 2 weeks ago, I just don't know who the students are, and how they'll respond to me and such. But I know everything gonna work out eventually, and I'll be like "why was I scared?".

As I said before, I'm teaching the STARS and this is their third and final year as a student in the program. They do different things than the other students, for instance they will be doing community service day one a week starting I believe the 3rd Week. They also do an outing, in the past it has been going out to dinner. We (6 of us) as STARS teachers go with them of course. Each student, including 7th and 8th grader is put into a family. Each family has 3 teachers, who each teach core subject. My family consisted of 20 students. But then each teacher teaches two classes, so I will have 10 in each, which is not a big class size at all.

But crazy place where I'm teaching, the GREEN Room, and let me tell you, it's so creepy. It's in the dungeon (the basement of the school) and you like walk down this stairs, makes you feel like your in a dungeon cuz of brick walks and short 'circular' stairs. and then you walk down this hallway to get to the classroom, and there's like writings on the wall. My first venture to the GREEN room, the hallway lights were off, so it was just extra creepy cuz we had no idea what was on the wall. but the actually green room is nice, and a good thing is It'll be cool all summer.

Other updates, I finished all my lesson plans, and all my worksheets I believe too. Tomorrow I have to call six of the students' parents in my family, just to let them know about Monday. so that should be interesting, considering I have to speak to two families that might only speak Spanish.

Oh I almost forgot. So the STARS unlike the other grades usually come together for everything they do (there's only two families as compared to the 4 for 7th grade and 3 for 8th grade). and each family has a theme, our is STAR WARS, so we got to like draw trace pictures of Yoda and R2D2 and color them and stuff on Friday. yeah. my r2d2 is so cool.

Oh yeah I can talk about Bruce, Bruce is the Math Master teacher. He's been teaching math for a long time. But I just wanted to say Bruce is pretty awesome. He's funny, and so knowledgable. But he was really intimidating at first because he's SO TALL. Like that was my reactions we I first met him. I literally was like 'ur tall'.

As usual, everyone's been good, the staff and admin everything. I'm just ready to start teaching, and begin this awesome summer.

okay that's it.
peace

A-sauce (I really love this nickname)

Week 1.

So I've been in Denver for one week. Seems like its been like a Week and a half (it must be because I'm getting less sleep, but that's okay, mi'es well). But I've been having a good time, getting to know people, and enjoying this great weather (apparently it was really hot today 89 degrees?, idk).

I'm just taking a break from lesson plan, we have to turn in all our lesson plans for the first week on friday. I can definitely do it. I'm just kind stuck at a point. So all lesson points start with the objective, and this is where I am stuck at. The Dilemma: Should I just make it into two separate ones or will that be too basic or too detailed for the students to know? Or should I combine all the information in one. I think I'm going do two, but not sure. The problem is I don't really know who my students are so it really hard for me to judge where they are mathematically.

Good thing is I'm teaching the STARS (this 9th graders, well rising 9th graders). They have been in the program for 3 years now, so they know the reason for being at Breakthrough and they obviously enjoy it and learn from it, cuz that's what they are there for. I really can't wait to meet them. Classes start on Monday!!

Also today, I learned my elective, which is going to be Reading Comprehension/ Math Boot Camp. Basically I'll be co-teaching a reading comprehension classes, helping students to think while they are reading, giving them some skills there. Which I'll admit will actually be fun, even though I don't like reading. I gotta make it fun. I also suppose sometimes I will be doing Math Boot Camp, basically giving some students basic math skills they may lack, idk.

I'm just excited in general about Monday, and getting all my lesson plans done, and just helping the students learn, get excited about learning, and just doing their best that's all.

Oh, Kinda a crazy thing that happened. my homestay 'mom' got into an accident yesterday. and her car was totaled, she's fine, she's got a couple bruises from the air bags, but um, apparently her accelerator got stuck and she ran into a wall or something I'm not really sure. It was just really weird this morning cuz I woke up and someone else was here, all awake talking and stuff.. but yeah it was really random cuz I came home from work yesterday and she was just like yeah I got into a carwreck.

Other than that's all happening here pretty much. I need to get these lesson plan done.
peace,

A-sauce.

A-sauce.

That's my nickname at Breakthrough.
what's funny is after I had said I had no plan of changing my name to a nickname (see the last post),
I got my nickname. Us 3 Adrian/ennes were trying to come up with nicknames. and 1 was like "whose the oldest?". so she was like to me you will be A1, and then that lead to A-sauce. so now everyone calls me A-sauce.
Only problem is I still gotta get used to when someone says Adrian that they aren't talking to me. It's kool though. I'm debating whether i will have my students call me Mr.Adrian or Mr. A-sauce or Mr. Sauce.. Any thoughts?

Now the retreat was awesome. I can say I learned some things about myself.
1.) I'm definitely not scared of heights.
I did the high ropes courses and zipline without any sense of vertigo. I was just afraid of falling and injuring myself. Btw at the end of the high ropes course we had to jump off this high platform at the top of a tree and try to catch a trapeze. I was one of the few ones who caught it. The only thing I didn't like was how the harness on both the ropes course and zipline affects the crotch area.
2.) I don't play basketball, and should probably just give up.
I tried to play basketball, failed miserably, but I was just trying to do stuff outside my usual-ness since I was in the mood. I did make one free throw shot, that surprised me.
3.) I think mountains are so beautiful, even though it just a bunch of rocky materials and such.
4.) I actually 'lived' in the rocky mountains for two days. awesome!

Speaking of that, Here's a couple views I woke up on those days.

(my personal favorite)

(turn your head)

(yes that's snow)

the view was so amazingly pretty. there's even more views from like when we were coming up and down the mountains (apparently we were 9,000 feet up there) that were juts so amazing, but we were driving so it was really hard to get pictures. 

Other than that, 

I think everything is going good. I'm getting more excited/scared as the days approach when I'll have to stand in front of those students and teach a lesson. But I will be fine.

I think that's enough, I need to finish my homework: our Philosophy of Teaching. 

peace. 

A-sauce. 

day two (official day one)

wow. today was a long one .
but good.

I met all the staff of Denver Breakthrough (including all the teachers).
Most teachers are from the Denver area, but go to college all over the place. Some people are even seniors in high school, but most of those individuals went through the program themselves ( and its kinda amazing that their here with us college students, cuz I haven't really taken into account how old everyone is). Interesting tidbit, Sarah is also here in Denver (she's actually the only other person with a homestay), and she so happens to be from Northwestern and a Sec Ed major. but its good cuz I know someone.

Another interesting thing about the staff there's three Adrian's total (including me). Both of the others adrian's are girls, but one is spelled exactly like mine while the other is spelled Adrienne. Adrienne has opted to be called AD (which is what my grammy calls me, weird). but um the other Adrian has not opted for another name, and I don't plan on either, but it's just the first day. I'm sure one of us will get a nickname or something later down the road.

Once again all the admin staff is amazing. Christine is gonna be like my mom away from home, she's really trying to make sure everything is kool with me which I really enjoy. Oscar is awesome, he led some sessions today,  I learned about active participation (basically make sure every students in participating and learning) and VIPs (Visual Instructional Plans, basically a step by step diagram how to do a certain skill). funny thing is he graduated from NU like 2 years ago. so he's like my age, but that really hasn't clicked in my head yet. Sister Girl, today I learned how she got the name sister girl, and I'll get to know more about her i think has time goes on, but she's pretty kool as well.

Also met my homestay 'mom' Mrs. Clark. She was doing guitar lessons today,  and she's really awesome as well. She took me to chiptole for dinner (Denver seriously has like everything). and she brought her dogs. they have this little tiny chi-wa-wa (I'm to lazy to look up how to spell it) so cute. but um yeah she also took me grocery shopping which was the second time today I went grocery shopping, Christine had took me earlier. Which I admit was kinda weird cuz I was it was like "What do i eat?". I mean I usually don't do the shopping at home so, I kinda get to decide what I want to eat which was pretty kool (btw I Def. got bacon & chicken = necessities of life!).

other than that, everything is awesome, I'm excited! (i'll probably say this on every post)
yeah
peace.
Adrian

First day

I feel like it's kinda early for me to be updating already, but I must start somewhere. 

First thing I saw was the mountains, which look amazing and fake, like someone painted it in the sky, but apparently I'll be spending sometime in the mountains later on a retreat. mmmmmmm we'll see how that goes.

Didn't get a chance to take any pictures of it, but um here's one I found on the internet.

(more amazing-er in person)

But I've met some great people already.

Jaclyn - she picked me up from the airport, and was super nice, and helpful. 

Christine- she's the executive director (i think that's the title). and she's really amazing, she basically set up my homestay, and made sure everything was fine with me. 

Oscar- he's the education director and an NU alum (whoot!). He's awesome as well very supportive

I also met Sister Girl (real name: Sharlita Ramirez) I'm sure I'll get to know her as well.

I also went on the campus of Kent Denver, which is a legitimate word used to describe the area, it looks nothing like a regular school, well it does, but you know what I'm saying. But the building looks extremely nice and large, and I'm excited to teach there. 

After visiting the campus I headed to my homestay along with Christine where I met Andy Clark, the owner of the home, he won't be here much because this is his winter home (weird? right most people have a summer home). But his son, whose name I can't remember now, will be at the house during my stay. 

I have my own little room in the basement, don't worry the son's room is also in the basement. But it good because there's no air conditioning in the house (because its a winter house), the basement is pretty cool (temperature wise though), considering today it was like 80-something degrees.

Andy is pretty awesome and very nice and welcoming, basically everything is open for grabs, it seems. I guess what I found so surprising is that everyone was so welcoming (I don't know why I didn't expect that). Still I'm on my own, but it was great to know there's people who have my back and are they just in case stuff happens.

some random tibits. 

Apparently I close to Denver University, which is kool. might have to go check a college campus out.

Also guitar lessons are going on in the room right next to me. Weird, huh. Well apparently Meg (Andy's wife) teaches guitar lessons, but right now another guy is doing it, Nick. It was just funny because I was trying to take a nap, I was exhausted, and in walks this dog (who I later learn is Barkely). (What type of dog? I don't know). But for some reason I wasn't like 'OMG! it's a dog busting in my room!'. I was just like 'hey, it a dog'. Apparently my room used to be a guitar lesson place, so the dog just waltzed in like regular but it was fine, even though it was pretty random. 

My first impression of Breakthrough: supportive. I know people are there for me. They like understand my situation, me being miles away from home and ignorant about every single thing, and they are here to help. I'm thinking this will probably ring true as I continue my time with Breakthrough, especially as I begin to teach. 

Overall though, I'm sure I'll be overwhelmed with tons of information in the next couple of days, but eventually I'll get comfortable. 

wowza, hope you read all of that.

peace.

Adrian

What's this blog about?

Hello world,

This blog will document my experiences with Breakthrough Kent Denver. Not really sure what it will entail, pictures, stories, but obviously it will be about things that I have learned and done. I will try to concentrate on my interactions with the Breakthrough program and not my whole Colorado experience, but we will see.

I hope you enjoy this blog.

Peace,
Adrian