. . .because everyone in the world is busy. Schools are in full-swing. My family has at least 7 soccer games a week. After school clubs are getting started. Interim grades are almost due.
Wait! I'm already almost half way through the first quarter of school?!?
When did that happen?
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There are so many things that I haven't told you. . .so many stories that I wanted to share and didn't have time to write down and now they're vague memories. I guess I'll just have to settle with a traditional update for this post
6th grade--Today, I decided to nickname my 6th grade class the "FAQ class" which stands for "frequently asks questions" in this instance. They are positively full of questions. They would ask them non-stop if I let them. I know this because one day, I did. They spent an hour and a half asking questions while they worked on something for class. I dearly love them. They are adorable kids who work hard and want to please their teachers. I'm kind of frustrated with myself right now because my 6th grade classes aren't going as well or as smoothly as I would like. I feel like it's taking me a long time to get the hang of block scheduling and how to make the best use of our time in studying the Book. I am actually very thankful that my schedule should be changing soon so that I will see both 6th grade classes every day, but only for 50 minutes. I think it will work out so much better. I think right now what I am lifting up the most to the Father is that our classes together will be productive not only academically. . .but also in their personal lives as well.
8th grade--Of all my classes, I feel the most confident about what I am doing in this class and therefore, I am the most comfortable and therefore, I enjoy this class the most! My 8th graders are really good thinkers and we have had some really good discussions. The more I get to know these kids, the more I love them! They are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. . .but I'm glad I'm teaching them! We're getting ready to start a big project on Friday and I know they will flip out, but I'm really excited to see what they will come up with. A lot of them are very creative!
Journalism--oh, journalism. . .the analogy I've come up with to explain how I feel about journalism is that it's like I'm in a boat and these leaks keep springing up. . .and what I really need to do is dock the boat and fix all the holes or build a new boat. . .but I'm stuck in the middle of the ocean, so I have to work frantically to plug the holes so that the boat doesn't sink. Basically there is a lot of new-ness in journalism this year. I'm new. . .half the students are new to the class. . .the other teacher who is helping me is new. . .most of the programs we're using are new. . .and in the middle of figuring all of the "new" out, we have to publish a newspaper. The students have been really great and really working hard. So, I'm almost certain that we will eventually publish a newspaper. . .I'm just trying to adjust to the feeling of having absolutely NO idea what I'm doing.
Fall Camp--Last weekend, we took the entire middle school to a city 3.5 hours north of QD for fall camp. We stayed in a youth hostel, played on the beach and had a fantastic time! The kids had a chance to sail, play some beach baseball, build rafts out of bamboo, go bowling and just play in the sand and surf. It was an amazing time. . .exhausting, but amazing. I was the lucky teacher who got to organize the variety show. Like everything else that weekend, there was not a lot of planning that went into the variety show. I had some ideas and a handful of kids that signed up to do a couple acts. All I knew ahead of time is that we were going to have a hotel conference room. I didn't even know what kind of sound system would be available. But amazingly, it was a lot of fun. All of the large groups of students participated. . and while they were preparing their acts, I organized the rest of the acts and another teacher helped me communicate with the guys in the sound booth. Everything went smoothly and I was really impressed with the talents of the students. We ended the evening with the song, "500 miles." We used to do motions for the song every year at Mexico and it was so great to be able to pass it on to my kids here.
Well, I still have some school work that I should at least look at before I get to bed! I hope you are enjoying the fall, where ever you are, and remembering to get some rest in the middle of the busy-ness.
Much autumnal love!
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