The Open House was the first school activity that I attended, along with my colleagues. We decided to help the table set up by the other English teachers.

Twin's Day was the first school activity that I participated in. My Cooperative Teacher (Mrs. Morales), Ms. Coreano, and I decided to dress up as triplets for the Twin's Day.

These two pictures are part of my side of the wall. It is titled "A Work in Progress" because I have yet to fully finish decorating it.

Why is this important?

If there was something I wanted to do right away when I started this experience, it was decorating the wall. Not only do I enjoy decorating and crafting as a hobby, but I felt that it was important for the students to have a visual of my name (other than my ID and uniform). I believed that it would be easier for the students to learn my name that way, and it is working!

For Valentine's Day, rather than decorating the door, I decided to decorate the classroom instead. I adorned part of the bookshelf with blue paper, hearts, clouds, and a pair of curtains I made a while back. It is intended to look as if it is raining hearts, thus, the quote "Shower kindness" in the middle. As you may know, I am a firm believer in kindness and active participant of, therefore I would like for my students to nurture it as well!

The other half of the bookshelf had pockets filled with compliments for the students to take. This is also another act of promoting kindness in the classroom. As for the television, I gave it some flare with more hearts.

As the title states, this was the first Seminar that was held during the semester. It had been a while since many of us had seen other of our colleagues, so it was a jolly day for many of us!

This was an activity that was targeted for my students to practice fact and opinion. The students were divided into pairs, and each of them were given a folder with documents about an investigation inside it. They had to read it and distinguish the facts from opinion. As a little bonus, I decided to recreate the crime scene for them to fully enjoy and immerse themselves in the experience.

The Door:

The door was prepared for the Door Contest during the English Week, and its' theme was based on Dr. Seuss' "Oh, The Places You'll Go!" . And let me tell you, it was team effort that completed the door! While Mrs. Morales put the blue backdrop and borders, I worked on creating the hot air balloons. Ms. Coreano printed the students' pictures, and the students helped gluing everything else onto the door. In the end, all the hard work paid off; it looked great!

The Hallway:

The hallway was decorated with the trees simulating the ones from Dr. Seuss' "The Lorax". It was also decorated with paper socks, which was one of many activities done during the English Week. The students were given a sock to color and to cut, and some of the teachers displayed it in the hallway.

This was the final activity I had planned for the unit 9.4. "It's a Matter of Opinion!". To set the atmosphere of the activity, I organized the classroom by using a red duct tape and placing it on the center. By doing so, the division of the arguments was clear to the students. Not only that, but I also set the students' desks facing each other.

The first picture was one of the many activities done throughout the Physical Educational Week. Along with the school personnel, the students had to go to the nearby track and field, and walk (or jog) for 30 minutes. Some students were very excited about this activity as they ran around the field, while others preferred to take it more leisurely.

The second picture was from the Goofy Games, a sports tournament in which the students went up against other students. What made this interesting was that the groups were often mixed; students from higher or lower grade levels were working together. For instance, a team could be composed majorly of eight graders, but there could also be sixth graders.

After I finally finished covering the unit 9.4. "It's a Matter of Opinion!", I began discussing the unit 9.5. "Making Connections to English as a Second Language". One of the concepts that I needed to cover was cause and effect. For this, I decided to create my own illustrations as seen in the pictures. When I finished explaining this to the group, I decided to use it as decorations for the classroom.

The last activity was part of a project I had assigned my students to complete during the school recess (Monday, April 11th to 15th, 2019). Two of the concepts of the unit 9.5. "Making Connections to English as a Second Language" were adjectives and characterizations. These served as base for the project. The students had to create an original character (and describe them), and feature their character in a Mini Saga of 100 to 200 words.

I was surprised by the student's Mini Sagas. They were all so creative and different from each others, that I thought it would be a waste to not do more with it. That is why for the last project, the students had to create a book about their Mini Saga! They had to include a book cover, an inside book cover, the final draft of their Mini Saga, and an autobiography.

The following pictures illustrates the wide variety of crafts provided by Ms. Coreano and I for this activity. The students went crazy when they saw this.

Although it was bittersweet knowing that I would part from my colleagues, students, and school, it was a wonderful day filled with surprises that I will dearly treasure. What these surprises were, it will remain as a secret! For now, I have included the following "selfie" that Mr. Bonkosky took with all of us.