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