Motivated students are my crack....if only there were more of them

I've really come to realize just how lucky I am to be working with the students I'm working with. The majority of my americorps team, working in their respective schools, are assigned to target the problem students, the ones who act out, who really need help being convinced that doing their work is worth it. However, the ESL students that I'm currently working with actually want to do well! They buckle down when everyone else is doing nothing, they ask me questions when they don't understand, and they do their entire assignments.

In particular, 2 twin 9th grade girls, who I've had since the beginning, have become much more confident in expressing themselves, especially in English. They greet me warmly, constantly ask questions (not just work-related questions), and speak English with me the majority of the time. Bernarda also puts forth effort, although it's obviously more difficult for her to speak with confidence when she doesn't know the language. HOWEVER, I'm definitely seeing progress in her skills--she can now pronounce and write her numbers quite well, without as much thinking; she can recognize more English words on paper than at the beginning, and she is becoming less shy about asking me questions. There's definitely still a long way to go--for English she has to do internet research and write a paper about an author (in Spanish). It's pretty hard to do internet research when you can't really type, or for that matter, don't have any familiarity with using the internet. Progress is progress though.

In sadder news, I just learned today that a 7th grade girl that I've been working with after school was diagnosed with a severe form of leukemia. She's going to be stuck in the Seattle children's hospital getting chemo for the next 7-10 months, and her family had to move there as well. It's especially tragic because she is one of the sweetest, most well-behaved kids at that age group, so she has always stood out to me. I am hoping she pulls through.

Back to happier news: I have officially secured a Christmas tree for the trailer! My principal, living on the edge of a tree farm, has some direct connections there, so he's going to chop it down and deliver it to the trailer on Friday night. Finally our place will smell like Christmas magic instead of smelling like it's previous owners/the disgusting carpet shampoo used to clean it. Also, Santa already brought something for my stocking--buffalo jerky! He knew I've been craving my favorite meat since I've been here....Santa always knows.

Freshman boy quote related to Thanksgiving, very revealing of the typical family situations in East Lewis County:
"My Thanksgiving was boring because I didn't really know anybody. It's really weird when you're surrounded by all of your immediate family and you don't really know them."