I can't believe it's been 10 years since I came home from Georgia. That was the last time I lived outside the United States (living = a month or more). I had all these plans when I got home. I was going to do City Year for a year, and then maybe a teacher residency in DC. From there I would look into non-traditional classroom work (with a traveling circus or TV or Movie on set education. There were some really cool options I was looking into.
Instead I spent two years of AmeriCorps in Boston, got my Masters in Cambridge, and spent the last 7 years at Chelsea and Revere High Schools teaching History (and English) to students who are learning English. PS, thank you Georgia, because when I was first hired, it was my teaching English in another country that made my resume stand out. I got back to the Boston area and I couldn't leave.
I'd really loved bouncing around before I came back to Boston after Georgia, but I was blown away by how incredible it felt to return to my childhood community as an adult. I got to teach at the Shule I'd been a student in. I got to lead the singing at Workers Circle events where I'd always been a participant before. I am so happy I came to back and tangled my roots more deeply into Somerville, but I sometimes wonder about that alternate universe Pauli, teacher to the stars.
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| She'd look a lot like this I think |
Anyway, after a world wide traumatic event cancelled my Summer of 2020 trip to Spain, I now FINALLY have the chance to travel to a new country. After hanging around New York for a couple days with my siblings and Bubbe (National Museum of Mathematics, here I come!) I will head off to COSTA RICA for the next 6 weeks as part of a Spanish Language Immersion program for Educators with Common Ground International. My high school students have been teaching me Spanish since I started (my very first phrase was "escribe en sus propias palabras" and it is likely my most used phrase of my teaching career). I like having a very beginner level spanish when I speak with them because it models learning, and speaking even when you're not sure of the whole sentence (or of any forms of grammar). But speaking with their families is another story. My main goal out of this experience is that I will be able to speak with students' families and know that we have both understood one another. It is one of my greatest fears as an educator that someone will tell me something important and I don't have enough language to understand and consequently do nothing. I know something like that could happen with any family in any language, but I am absolutely going to take this chance to minimize the risk. And hey, tri-lingual sounds pretty cool :)
About updating the blog:
When I get to Costa Rica, reality will likely alter the system I have in my head, but I am PLANNING to devote only 1 hour every few days to anything English. So if you want to see/hear what I am up to, sign up to get an email when I post, because it might not be so regular (not that I was EVER a regular writer)
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| Here we go! |
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