New music+ESL=happiness

Oh man, so if you still haven't gone to southerngothicproductions.blogspot.com you need to! These guys are just amazing and today they posted some pretty amazing playlists from Hilarie Burton and Nick Gray. Listening to new music is one of my favorite things and so when I came across some new stuff today, it made me preety happy.
Last week my ESL stdents came up with an amazing idea. In my 4th grade group, I have one student who speaks Russian, one students who speaks Romanian, one students who speaks Thai, and I speak spanish. Anyways, they suggested that we teach each other a new word in our language and start a language log... so we did. Each day we have been sharing a new word in 4 different languages and so I though I would share.
(The spelling may not be correct but it will at least give you the pronunciation)
Hello-English
Hola-Spanish
Buna Ziua-Romanian
Halo-Russian

Yes-English
Si-Spanish
Ya-Russian
Da-Romanian
Shiy-Thai

Thanks-English
Gracias-Spanish
Spaceeba-Russian
Kapkun-Thai

Dog-English
Perro-Spanish
Ma-Thai
Subaka-Russian
Cjine-Romanian
Thats all we have learned so far. If you guys know any of these words in another language, I would love to be able to share it with my students.

There's Something About Music...

So I am sitting here at work waiting for my students to show up and laughing at how much fun and addicting this blogging thing really is. I mean, I don't really think anyone is reading this and even if someone is, it's kind of cool to be able to just write and talk about random things and have the freedom to do it. Anyways, so as I mentioned before, I love the arts. To be more specific, I love musicals like no other. Man, I could be having the worst day but if I just put on the soundtrack to like "Wicked" or "The Sound of Music" or really just anything, my spirit is just so easily lifted. So yeah, I have just been having a long week... I'm adminitrasting state testing, planning this Costa Rica trip, and this after school program... and it just seemed like I was on the right track with everything but all of a sudden I just kind of felt really overwhelmed. I don't kow about you all but sometimes just seeing how corrupted schools can be really frustrats me. And sometimes, being a teacher is hard when you have to keep playing the rules of someone else's game. Especially this no child left behind craziness. Anyways, this morning I'm driving to work, not really wanting to go, and had my ipod on shuffle and the song "Defying Gravity" from Wicked came on. I'm telling you what... it was totally what I needed. There is just something about music. How can one song change your mood? How can one verse describe exactly how your feeling? Anyways, this song pretty much inspired me to just continue forward. I mean, just the title alone "defying gravity" doing something that everyone thinks is impossible. Making a small difference in my school district that so many people think can't happen but knowing that I can plant this seed and you know what? No one can bring me down.
So, I'm glad I trusted my instincts, closed my eyes, and leaped. Cause whether people like it or not, I think I'll try defying gravity.