First Week of School

 

Well, the first week of school was great, but so hectic!  It has turned out to be a blessing that I am teaching 4^th and 5^th grade, which I knew it would be. 

Fun-loving 5th Grade

First of all, my kids are so sweet even though I have had to be really hard on them.  (and, no, I am not just saying that.  I have had to be tougher than I ever have before, in a good way).  Fifth grade was the
grade that worried me
most simply because
it was older than what
I had taught before, but
they are great kids! 

Secondly, because they are learning
English as their second language, I am having to use some of the curriculum that I had used for third and fourth grade before and it is sooooo helpful to have a background with the curriculum!  It makes lesson planning so much easier when you know what is coming up in the curriculum! 

Adorable 4th Grade

My teaching partner Julie is so wonderful . . .

Julie and her husband Domingo

      so kind and very helpful.  She teaches Spanish to a lot of the missionaries so she speaks English pretty well.  That is a huge blessing because my Spanish is terrible!



Here are some of pictures of my classroom, although it is hard to tell what it really looks like. 

Before . . .

My favorite part of the room - this beautiful cabinet
to keep all of my books,etc. in!



My desk, books, and chalkboard

Making progress: the chalkboard and calendar are up and there are 21 desks in the room now

And after  . . . (My theme for the beginning of the year is volleyball, in case you couldn’t figure that out).

Good work "bulletin board"

 

Classroom jobs.  It is not posted, but the verse that is
supposed to be next to this is Philippians 2:5-7 "Let this mind
be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who . . . took upon Him the form of a servant"

Class Rules

"Getting to Know You" activity for the first day

Psalm 9:1

This morning I read Psalm 9:1.  “I will praise Thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will show forth all Thy marvelous works.”  That’s about as far as I got because I really had to stop and dwell on the words. 

“with my whole heart” – I need to improve in the area of praising Him, but with my
                                                        whole heart?  Now there’s a challenge.  When was the last
                                                        time I thought about pouring myself out solely for Him,
                                                        reserving nothing for me?

            “show forth all Thy marvelous works” – in my words I say that I am going to do
                                                                                             exactly this but frequently my actions are
                                                                                             more about me than Him.  It is so easy to
                                                                                             get up in ourselves and miss what He is
                                                                                             doing!  Forgive us, Lord!

So we all know that God always surprises us in the way He works . . . well, I know very little Spanish, yet today in church each of the first 3 songs were speaking of praising (alabanza) Him and His works (obras) – 2 words that I know!  I always sing along, but this time I was able to sing of what I had been reading that morning and truly praise Him for it!

Speaking of His marvelous works . . . we had a college student get saved today!!!  Luz lives near the new director of the school and they invited her to come to church several weeks ago even though they speak little Spanish and she even less English.  She came and has been coming.  I had the opportunity to go to lunch with them all last Sunday and meet her.  Today she came to church and after a powerful message from Titus 3 accepted Christ!!

God is good all the time . . . all the time God is good!

Traveling

Day 1 in the DR

It’s time!  We left the house at 4:05am to head to Port Columbus International Airport.  After spending a week of packing and re-packing, checking lists and re-checking lists, I was ready to go. 

My itinerary was:
6:00am – 7:30am Columbus to Atlanta.

Board in Atlanta immediately after landing.
8:15am – 11:55am Atlanta to San Juan , Puerto Rico

Arrive in San Juan and stay for 6 hours
6:20 pm -7:32pm San Juan to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Arrive in Santo Domingo, go through customs, meet the person picking me up at the airport.
Drive about an hour to San Pedro de Macoris.
Meet my new home.

Traveling to San Juan and Santo Domingo by myself was interesting.  Although I have flown overseas more than once, this was the first time on my own.  I have to say, I think it is more fun traveling with other people . . . it is kind of hard to entertain yourself in an airport for 6 hours with no cell phone and no internet J  Really, though, there were no problems – I made it through security, my bags weren’t overweight, they arrived properly in Santo Domingo, no major “mishaps.”

So far the only thing that I realized I don’t have is my camera cord to post pictures from my camera L  Will have to figure out how to fix that . . .