Thanksgiving

^Thanksgiving hand turkey that my 6th graders and I made

For Thanksgiving, I wanted to do an activity with my 6th graders for Thanksgiving as part of the cultural exchange part of my job. So, instead of giving them a lecture about the history of Thanksgiving which they have heard before and will continue to hear from future Auxiliares and others, we decided to do a hands on activity for them -- literally. I talked to the head of studies at our school, Alicia and we came up with the above product! I had originally wanted to just to individual turkey hands so that they could take them home to their parents. However, I realized that we had this spot of wall we had originally planned to use for Halloween and had not! So I talked to my teachers and we decided to use the space for a collaborative hand turkey! So each kid outlined and cut out their hand on different colored paper and wrote what they are thankful for. I explained that this isn't the only day of giving thanks, but rather a extra opportunity for us to really express our thanks for things in our lives because often the things we appreciate in our lives go overlooked.

^By one of my students, Manuel

My students really love arts and crafts activities. What I really liked about this activity is that it highlighted the talents that my students have. For example, one of our students, Marcos, is the class clown. He often doesn't pay attention, messes around and doesn't necessarily get great marks in class. However, he is so artistic and really gifted. His hand was more bold and reminded me of comics almost. I thought it was really great that he was able to shine for this activity. Pretty sure I haven't seen him this focused on an activity for the whole year!

The hand below was made by one of my students, Fatima. I couldn't help but take a picture of the hand she made because at the bottom she wrote that she is thankful that I am one of her teachers! It made me so happy because I didn't think Fatima liked me that much. Guess I was wrong! :)

^Made by one of my students, Fatima

Just a few of the things I am thankful for this year:

Family

Friends

My job

My fellow coworkers and teachers

My students

Madrid

Opportunities

After school, I went to teach a private lesson and then hopped on a plane to the UK! So, while Erin and Willa had a Thanksgiving get-together at our place, I spent the rest of Thanksgiving at an airport and on a plane. I felt dumb that I had booked a trip for Thanksgiving, as at the time I was solely looking at prices...but I have no regrets. This Thanksgiving I was/am also very grateful for the friends I made abroad and that I got to go visit Kirsty and stay with her in the UK! I'll detail what we did in my next post!