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My sister sent me a Hello Kitty doll from the UN!! She has on a UN shirt and has "UN" embroidered on her feet! I love it. She also sent me stickers!! I've gotten so much mail lately. It's been great.

Stickers go a long way. I know it sounds silly, but really, students love stickers. In high school stickers are usually neglected, but I put stickers on everything and the students can’t get enough. It is such a small effort and the students really feel like it is a reward. Not only do I give praise on their assessments, but also I am getting better at giving different forms of assessment. This week alone, they’ve had essays, quizzes with matching and multiple choice, they had to write a story, and draw pictures, all different assignments, but all demonstrating their understanding of the content.

There are a lot of ESL students here, and that is also challenging, but I really like it. People seem to just ignore their needs, or they think they're dumb. I'm not sure. One girl is from France, but her parents are from Liberia, I've been working with her a lot and she told me that I was the only teacher she talked to, it made me really happy and sad at the same time. She’s so smart, but she really struggles with reading and writing, but not comprehension. Maybe I’m more patient because I’ve had so many exchange students in my life, practically one my senior year in high school. I had to teach her everything from the US History class she was taking. I did not have enough patience at the time and sometimes my dad would take over, but I realized how hard it is to comprehend detailed history in a different language. She comes to me at lunch for extra help and stays after class to talk.

I'm going to Switzerland this weekend. I'll post pictures as soon as we get back! I love and miss everyone!