Quick Recap of the Week So Far!

First off, sorry, no pictures today.  The camera lens is on the fritz again, so we took it back to the camera shop in Ružomberok today after school, and we hope they can fix it permanently this time!  

MONDAY:  Was a normal teaching day until after 7th hour, when we had a required staff meeting for the end of the semester.  It was only 2:30-4:30, so not too bad.  And we sat in the far back so Zuzka could translate from Slovak to English, which is always nice.  :-)  We played volleyball at our school that evening too.

TUESDAY:  Was also a normal teaching day, followed by our Slovak lesson, then my two adult gals in the evening.  We also did some fun skyping!

WEDNESDAY: Started with an all-school worship service at the church, first thing in the morning.  We got there a little earlier than most, so we had fun greeting all the kids as they came in, and Tim even put on his administrator hat for a while when some of the boys were throwing snowballs while waiting to come in.  :-)  It was rainy on the walk to the church, but we got a ride afterwards from Pat'ka, who also translated for us.  Zuzka had brought us an English Bible from school, and we sang several familiar hymns (including "Give me that old time religion" in Slovak!), so it was a much more participatory service for us than some other times.  :-)  In the afternoon, Tim taught a lesson while I had drama club.  The kids are learning and creating a new play (Pat'ka is writing the script) which is kind of a gender-reversed Snow White and the 7 Dwarves ---- this version is with a young prince, dastardly step-father, and Dwarfettes ---- due to the fact that we have many more females than males in Drama Club!!  :-)  Very funny and clever!  And as mentioned, we also made a quick trip to Ružomberok too.  

Tomorrow is our "Friday", since it's the last day of our school week.  (We get Friday off because of the end of the semester.)  We have a lot to do tomorrow at school - papers to grade and mark in the grade book, lesson plans to write, and getting ready for a long weekend.  Woot-woot!!  :-)   We've been working individually with each of our Speaker's Corner participants, so that has taken up a lot of time this week, coaching them for the regional competition. 

This week, we also found out about a few extra things coming up....

• I will be helping at the Basic School in a sort of teacher-coach role, as part of a big project (I think with government grant funds) to integrate English into content areas at the elementary level.  I will be working with the teachers in planning and teaching lessons for five classes per week.  I'm hearing rumors that the elementary teachers are all terrified at the thought of me coming into their classrooms, so I'm hoping to really put the first few teachers at ease so the word gets out I'm not an ogre!!  ;-)  

• Tim and I will be going along to the high school level regional English Olympics competition, we assume to help as interlocutors (like I did for the younger kids a couple weeks ago), a week from Monday, in, you guessed it, Žilina, our favorite city outside of Liptovsky Mikuláš!!  

• Tomorrow I get to substitute for the music teacher for one class!!  I haven't seen any sign of lesson plans yet, but I guess they figure I can "wing it" on this one.  LOL!!  

For our long weekend, we're heading to Bratislava for some heavy-duty "culture" --- the Bratislava Symphony Orchestra on Friday night, and an opera on Saturday night, both with the Fredells, who teach there.  We'll stay in Katie's flat, and we'll get to go to the English worship service Sunday morning.  :-)   So, hopefully news and photos will follow soon!!