So much for student teaching...

I was intending to keep this blog updated for ST2 but it was too stressful. Haha. The good news is...
Why not wear an academic hood on your head if it's called it a hood anyway? Bye bye, PBU days. I now have B.S. Bible and Master's in Education......and no job. Congratulations to me. Hahahaha

I love hearing children sing...

These are from chapel one day... it was Hat, Hair, Face Day during Spirit Week, so please excuse the outfits. Haha.











The following video is an added bonus... special message to Andy from special people who watched his "break dancing" video too many times

And then it was over...

I guess you might be wondering where I went. The last post was on Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday went by smoothly. Oh, and PS... Ivan wrote his German phonetically so apparently he wrote that The Duke is a good friend or something along those lines. Whatever it was, it was positive. Haha.

I don't remember anything too significant happening on Wednesday. The kids got more dots which was great because they kinda failed at the dots on Tuesday. I tried to get them to evaluate my teaching, but they were mostly funny and not very helpful. Oh well.. some of them liked how I taught them math. HAHA. Dr. Mac, if you're reading this, I have proof -- they wrote it in their goodbye cards! The only other thing was an awkward conversation with 3rd grade when they asked me if I had a boyfriend and one kid told me to Skype him when I get married (he also yelled that request across the parking lot).

Thursday was the field trip. We had a good time... I took a ton of pictures but I'm too lazy to reduce them and upload them. Haha. One of the kids brought brownies -- very yummy. :) Nobody got eaten by crocodiles, so it was a pretty uneventful trip. Haha.

After getting back, I got kicked out of the room so the kids could write farewell letters. After their 2 specials at the end of the day, we had a little party. They gave me cards, we had some brownies, and we played a funny game called "Hovering Bunnies." I'll try to post a video if I remember to reduce it sometime.

We left on Friday... I had to pry Ivan the Terrible off of me because he kept hanging on to me. He can be so cute. He didn't want me to leave. Actually, I had several "attachments" when I was trying to leave the school. Funny kids. We got back to Manila with our very overweight baggage, but we survived.

Saturday we went to Corregidor with Eunice. We had a nice sunny day.. took lots of pics... got annoyed at a couple who were always first off the bus and planted right in front of whatever we were supposed to be looking at. They took a million pictures at each spot. Weird. I doubt they heard a word of the tour... they were probably planning their next photo op.

Sunday night people came over after church. That was fun! We had a good time fellowshipping and eating food. :) Monday morning was our flight. We made it in around 8:30 last night. I slept pretty much the whole way. Also, I lost my cellphone charger. It was at Jenn's house when I left but now I don't have it so it went missing somewhere between here and the Philippines. Hmph. I guess I'll have to find a new one. My phone is useless, so if you were intending to call me, don't bother. I won't get it. Haha.

I'm at PBU right now. I spent the day running all over the place. I bought some books at the children's booksale! I got some good ones! :) Then I finished putting together my student teaching notebook and gave it to Dr. Severns. I can't believe it's all over! There was another girl going to meet Dr. S. to ask about overseas student teaching. :)

Anyway, I'm tired so I need to figure out how to keep myself awake.

Those who try to get away with using another language...

...don't realize that there are online translators.

Today, dearest Ivan the Terrible was working on his vocabulary sheet in their leveled reading groups. Let it be known that he cannot get along with the Duchess Whines Too Much and the Duke of Earl-y To Finish. Anyway, he had a question on his vocabulary sheet and handed me his paper. My eyes traveled down to the bottom where I saw two sentences:
"The Duke of Earl-y to Finish ist dum!" (except he used the duke's real name)
"The duke ist gans gut und ich mak ien."

I used Babel Fish to translate it and I couldn't figure out what the last two words were, but the second sentence said something about being a silly goose and I "mak ien." We had gone through a whole chart on what good group work looks like and sounds like and one of those had to do with kind words. I pointed to "ist dum" and asked him if those were kind words. His excuse? "Well 'ist' isn't really the same as 'is.' It means kinda dumb but not really." Of course, the easily amused one had to slap her hand across her mouth and she snickered. I mean really... I don't even speak German, but how dumb does he think I am? I need to stop laughing. I recovered quickly and told him that wasn't nice and the second paper he turned in said "The duke is cool!"

Yesterday was a bad day for dots on the sticky notes. The fair Princess Talks-A-Lot, who should be re-named the Princess Dream Student, got a prize for the 3rd day in a row. She tied with one of the other boys today, though. Yesterday people got 3 dots at most. Today the two winners had 8, four had 7, and two had 5. The ones with 5 were the Duchess Whines-Too-Much and Ivan the Terrible. The Duke really improved in his ability to work in a group which gave him mega points during social studies. He worked with Prince Ants in the Pants and was very helpful, patiently waiting for him, highlighting the words on the computer that he needed. I was sooo proud of him and praised him several times. I even told him at the end of the day that even though he didn't get a prize, he was close and had earned 3 just for being such a good helper in social studies. He beamed and said, "Oh thank you!!!"

I taught math today and got observed. At the beginning of the morning, I told my class that a visitor would sit in on one of their classes. The Duchess Whines Too Much very obnoxiously said, "Why????" I said, "So she can see if you're well behaved." She got a glint in her eyes and said, "I know! It's to see how YOU teach." I said, "Yes, and to watch how you guys behave." She folded her arms and said, "How come WE have to be involved?" Wow... strike 100. Then in social studies, the kids were doing a webquest and were on a challenge section asking them to figure out how many double decker buses could be stacked together to find the height of the Great Pyramid. I didn't have a chance to play with it much before class, so I said I hadn't figured it out. The Duchess said, "So if we figure it out, we're smarter than you!" One of them did figure it out and she said, "Miss Hofmaier, he's smarter than you!!!" Wow. Obnoxious points.

I can't believe tomorrow is my last day teaching. I'm finally getting into the swing of things and I'm learning more about classroom management. However, I'm looking forward to my next placement as well.

The kids hugged or gave me a high five as they left. I found my feet a couple inches off the ground when the dear Prince Ants in the Pants left. Ivan gave me a very nice hug though. Cutie.

Sometimes I need to stop laughing....

When the teacher is laughing, there isn't much hope for order in the classroom. I laughed several times at the kids when I should probably have kept a straight face and restored order. Ivan the Terrible didn't know his verse and was "innocently" saying that we didn't have a verse this week. His eyes widened and he looked so funny trying to play dumb that I accidentally laughed and then he laughed too. Oops.

Later on, we were singing the 12 apostles song to the tune of "Jesus Loves Me" and we got to the part "Yes, Jesus called them, yes Jesus called them..." and it was too high for one of the boys. His voice squeaked and I covered my face with papers and then gave up and just started laughing. Ivan couldn't stop giggling for the longest time after that.

When we were lined up to go out to lunch, Ivan was taking forever to come back from the bathroom. We prayed without him and he made his grand entrance at the very end. Everyone else left and I kept him behind to ask him what happened (he tends to goof off in the bathroom -- he usually scares the other boys or splashes water around). He said that one of the boys was trying to throw the soap at the ceiling. I said "Well why did it take you so long?" He looked at me and announced very loudly, "Well I had to pee!!!" and I lost it. I sent him out of the room right away because I was cracking up. Maybe I just have a warped sense of humor.

Last Friday, Prince Ants in the Pants hugged me and picked me off my feet in the process. Apparently that has set a precedence for the other boys to try it. (He ran out the door and announced to Janine, "I can pick up Miss Hofmaier!") Apparently he can pick up the 2nd grade teacher too. Anyway, he tried it again today but I was ready for him but then Ivan decided he'd try it. Ivan is short and skinny and not very strong. He wrapped his arms around my waist and then couldn't do anything. The other Colombian boy tried several times because he couldn't let his fellow countryman, Prince Ants, beat him. He failed. Silly boys.

I'd just like to say that Princess Talks-A-Lot has really toned down on the unnecessary comments. She's really a sweet child and the dream child for teachers. She is so nice to everyone, works well in groups, and does what is expected of her. She's so cute.

The pros and cons of Spirit Week

Some of the teachers, particularly the 1st and 2nd grade teachers, get really into Spirit Week. They've had quite the outfits lately. The 1st grade teacher dressed up as Raggedy Ann. It's fun seeing some of the outfits that kids come up with but the problem is that the kids are all wired and classroom control is a bit of a nightmare!

I have been teaching every subject all week and it's been really good. I've been learning much more about classroom management because Janine isn't in the room much. I've had issues with kids just going crazy and we're having a hard time getting things done. However, it's been pushing me to be more firm about things.

Ivan the Terrible has been having a lot of difficulties lately. He is a really emotionally needy child and my heart breaks for him. He doesn't seem to have all that much parental involvement at home and this morning he had a run-in with his older sister. I don't know what the conversation was about since it was in German but both of them didn't seem too happy with each other. Ivan tends to act out for attention. He's seems older than he really is because he hides his feelings a lot. I think he could be a really neat kid if he had more love and attention. Sometimes he says something funny and I laugh, sharing in with his little joke. He gets a surprised look on his face and then his eyes widen and he breaks out into a huge grin and laughs too. It's really cute. I really do like him, even though he's very trying. I wish there was more I can do for him, but right now it's just love, firmness, and prayer. A couple times he has wrapped his arms around me and given me a big hug at the end of the day.

Wow...

This was the first day of dressing up for Spirit Week. It was team color day. I'll upload a few pictures later. It was also one of the WORST days yet for behavior issues. The kids could not focus and they needed their hands held for every single assignment. They stopped thinking and would just wave their hand around and point to something and go "I don't get it." It was beyond frustrating. They were bothering both of us for stuff that they could do on their own if they tried. We didn't even do language arts in the morning because they were all not focusing. I decided to switch to social studies for the hour and a half before lunch and it worked REALLY well. They settled down and were very interested.

This is the first time I've attempted to do centers. I thought it would be chaos, but it wasn't so bad. I've been figuring out how to be more firm and expect more from the kids. I tell them something and I expect them to obey. I think they're beginning to realize that I mean business and they are cooperating. We studied mummies today. I started it off by calling 3 people up and telling them to tilt back their heads so I could remove their brains out through their nostrils. They were a little horrified and then laughed and then order was restored and we began.

First, we talked about death from a Biblical perspective. They said that when people die, they go to Heaven or Hell. I asked "What people go to Heaven?" Princess Talks-A-Lot said, "People who trust in Jesus to save them." I was in the middle of saying yes when Prince Ants-in-the-Pants said, "Yes, and if you do really good things." Screeching brakes. We stopped right there and discussed salvation, grace, and good works. (We were talking about grace in Bible too) He comes from a Roman Catholic background of some sorts, so it wasn't too surprising, but I thought he would have known by now. Then one of the boys said that if you disobey the 10 commandments, you lose jewels in Heaven. Theology issues. It turned into a mini-theology lesson.

I had set up 4 centers around the room. I changed up the pairs because Ivan the Terrible hasn't been working well with his current partner. I had forgotten how well Ivan works with the talkative Princess but I was so proud of them at the end of the lesson. I praised both of them and pointed out the good things they did during the lesson, because the other groups tended to be high maintenance and incapable of working together (except Prince Ants-in-the-Pants did pretty well with his partner). Anyway... that was a rabbit trail.

The first center was an audio book. They sat at my computer and listened to a book and followed along in their own book. That was nice because they didn't have to write anything and all I had to do was press play. (They used earphones.)

The second center was the chicken leg. They got to feel the chicken leg that we're now drying out with salt and then they had to wash their hands, come back, and read a book that talks about mummification. They had to sequence the steps of mummification.

The third center was another book called See-Through Mummies. They had to answer a few questions as well. (By the way, they were each given a "Passport to the Land of Mummies" with specific questions to answer as they went through all 4 centers... except the audio one).

The fourth center was on the classroom computer. They explored a website called "Clickable Mummy" and had to find out how they mummified certain parts of the body and various other things. We had a slight crisis when Prince Ants-in-the-Pants kicked the powerbox and turned the whole computer off. It took a couple restarts to get it back up and running. Thankfully I had a back-up book for them to find the answers they needed. The next pair that came to the center was able to go across the way to the computer lab (no class in there thankfully!). While they were at that center, the computer finally came up and I was able to set it up so that the next rotating group didn't have to go outside.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun. We're going to close the lesson with some discussion and clarification since some of them didn't really read well and missed some questions. Then they're going to do a think and respond about how the Egyptian idea of mummification and what God says about death.

At lunch, they played a crazy game called "Cross the River." (They play games at lunch for Spirit Week). They had to carry their entire team over the river one by one. It was pretty funny to watch. I have some pictures and videos.

After PE, they came back less wired (amazingly enough) and I was able to get through language arts. It was a very trying day, but after social studies, things improved. Whew!

Weekend fun

Jenn said my blog makes it look like I never have any fun, so I decided to write a quick update about what we did yesterday. If you really want to know all the details, ask Jenn. She documents my life outside of 3rd grade. (Well, her life... but I'm in it)

Ok, so I am frustrated with the lack of being able to Google directions to places I want to go, so I'll put them up here in case anyone happens to Google "How to get to Samal Island." If you're by Marfori Heights, you can get any jeep to around Marco Polo or Aldevinco (7 pesos) and you get off and find a jeep somewhere around there that is heading to Sasa. I saw there were different signs for Sasa, but I just picked one and it worked. You can take it out to the Sasa Wharf or the ferry (which I forget the name) and that's 13 or 14 pesos (I forget). If you catch the ferry in time, which we did by 2 seconds, you can take that across and it's 10 pesos. Then you can get a motorcycle and hope they don't overcharge you. I think we might have gotten overcharged, but it worked out well because 1) the guy was a safe driver and 2) he waited for us when we stopped by the Hagimit Falls for an hour before going to Maxima. He charged us 75 pesos one way (and it was pretty far down the island from the ferry dock).

By the way, the motorcycle guy was really nice. I know that you have to be careful with the motorcycle guys, but this one wasn't young but was pretty old... around 25. JUST KIDDING! (That was for you, Peel) Anyway, he wasn't a young teenager... probably in his late 40's or possibly his early 50s but that might be pushing it. I was glad he took us, not the other young guys hanging around at the dock.

Anyway, the guy told us that Hagimit Falls was on the way, so we stopped there first. One website I looked up said the entrance fee was 5 pesos, but they upped it to 20 because they started putting in tables and chairs and stuff. Anyway, not bad. So we went down and surprise! The Farlins were there because Angela had a birthday this weekend and they were celebrating with some of her friends and a couple other people from school or SIL. Mrs. Farlin took us up the rocks so we could jump off the waterfalls into the pools below. That was fun! I had visions of Daranak Falls, aka Beka Falls (according to Joash) and broken bones resulting from floating down the rapids. Well nothing of the sort happened, thankfully.

After we left Hagimit, we went to Maxima Aqua Fun. It's owned by the same people who own Crocodile Park. Anyway, it's still fairly rustic, other than the tarp water slide and the clean bathrooms. It's not very big, not very commercialized, and pretty nice. I liked it better than Paradise (a beach resort on the same island). We were there for a little over 2 hours. We got fresh buko afterwards. Mmmm. At the same place, there was a huge hanging bridge called "The Canopy" but you had to be strapped into a safety harness and wear a helmet and I thought it looked a little silly, so we didn't do it. I don't think the helmet was all that necessary. Someone was walking across and she was creeping like a baby. Oh come on. It wasn't THAT scary.

The same motorcycle dude took us back but I asked him to take us to the bangka (small boats) because I knew the ferry was on a schedule. The bangkas go regularly. We got on one just as it began to rain. Hooray! The bangka at Babak takes you across to the Sasa Wharf. It's 13 pesos.

After getting to the Sasa Wharf, we had to weave ourselves through crowds of people at the fish market. I wish I liked fish because it looked fresh and good. I didn't know exactly how to get back, but we just figured it out. We crossed and I saw a sign for GMall and Bajadan which was perfect. That was 13 again. Then we ate dinner at Jollibee and I started going the wrong way to get the jeep. I realized after a few steps that it was the wrong way, so we turned and found the right direction (I knew Chinese Baptist was behind the mall so I just had to find that). Anyway, you then just take a jeep (Route 1, 10, or 13.. I think) that's going to RMC Gym/Mt Apo.

So yeah. Mom, you'd be proud of me. I spoke Tagalog, looked like an idiot, but managed to get around even though I had no clue where I was going. Sometimes........you just gotta wing it! :)

Sometimes you just gotta wing it....

So I didn't have anything really planned for language arts for today other than a spelling test and I thought the only period of language arts for today was the half hour between recess and art. Oops, there was another whole hour and a half after art that I forgot about. So I made something up on the spot and it was GREAT! The kids loved it.

I drew some random shapes on a piece of paper and photocopied it. This week of language arts focused on realism versus fantasy and the kids don't have much of an imagination and have a hard time making up something that is truly fantasy. They don't invent imaginary creatures, or think up stories with dragons and fairies and all the other fantastical things they could think of if they used their imaginations. So today I gave them the weird piece of paper and told them that they could add to the lines and draw more but they had to connect it together to make a fantasy creature. They had no idea where to start so Janine ran up and drew some random shapes on the board and I turned it into a horrible creature. Then I made the stipulation that the creature needed to be able to use the 5 senses -- therefore they had to have some way to hear, taste, touch, smell, and see. I told them that the creatures didn't need 2 eyes, one nose, one mouth -- they could have 10 eyes! They could have a crazy shaped nose! I said, "COME ON! Use your IMAGINATION!!!" Then they got going!

After they finished their creatures, I had them name them and introduce their new friend to their partner. Meanwhile, I wrote on the board:
My creature's name is _______. He lives in ____________. His favorite food is _________.
If I were to hang out with him for one day I would... (4 sentences or more)

Then they had to write all that information in their journal. Some got into it and had way more than 4 sentences about what they'd do with their creature. Ivan the Terrible complained that 4 was so long and he got sentenced to 6. Then we went to the carpet and shared our fantasy stories. It was really fun! The kids loved it and I loved getting them to actually use their imagination. They weren't allowed to look at each other's which was GREAT because the Duchess Whines-Too-Much has a bad habit of copying everything because she thinks it's better.

Next week is Spirit Week! The kids were divided up into teams and they're all pretty excited. Tuesday is team color day. I forget the other days, but one of them is pajama day and one of them is twin day. It should lend itself to lots of pictures! Haha.

The lovely creature above was created by Ivan the Terrible

Princess Talks-A-Lot made this one. Apparently the creature stuns the world by its cuteness...

Oh and this is out of order, but this is the starting paper with my random shapes

I think Oggy is my favorite

Pharaoh! Pharaoh!

Thanks to Jenn, we had a visiting Pharaoh all the way from Ancient Egypt. I got inspired to dress up like a Pharaoh right before my lesson today. I wanted the middle school social studies teacher to teach it but he was in a class. He had just been teaching about Ancient Civilizations in middle school and all the kids really like him, so it would have been fun. Since he wasn't available, I found Jenn and got her to dress up and carry around a hideous crook and flail that I had made 20 minutes before class started. Haha. The kids asked dumb questions like "Do Pharaohs wear glasses?" They have no imagination. Tsk tsk.

Ivan the Terrible did ALL of his homework today! Hooray!!! That means they got 25 kernels in their little jar. Once they fill the jar, they get a popcorn party. They haven't gotten kernels in a very long time since Ivan seldom turns in all his homework. Shame on the kid.

I should be writing lesson plans....

Just because I'm sure you'll appreciate another Ivan story, our dearest knight in very rusty armor swept in the door and gallantly announced, "I have done my homework! And I read!" Of course, the teacher and student teacher were heartened by this announcement... until one of them beheld his little reading log. Now, the dear knights and princesses and dukes and duchesses of this 3rd grade kingdom are required to read 15 minutes a night 5 days a week (plus reading time in class) for a whole month in order to get a pizza from Pizza Hut. Everyone except for Ivan got a pizza for August. Well, according to Ivan's reading log, he only read 10 minutes. Upon exploring his assignment notebook, it was discovered that the little master of deceit, Ivan the Terrible, had added next to the "15" a dash and the number 10 so that now his assignment notebook read "15-10 minutes." First of all, how dumb can you be? Normally, one would write 10-15, not 15-10. Secondly, it was so incredibly obvious that the page had been worn down in an attempt at erasing the 15. After confronting the impenitent little sinner, it was also discovered that he had written over Janine's purple ink with a thicker blue pen so that the pen would match the inserted "10." The time he took to trace over all the words could have been used to read an extra 5 minutes. He was sentenced into the dungeons of disgrace and assigned to write an apology letter, which he did, most ungraciously and without much thought. Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child...

Sticks and stones will break my bones....

So today Senor Guapo raised his hand and said, "Ivan the Terrible called me a rambutan!" Senor Guapo had gotten a haircut over the weekend and yesterday he kept wearing his hood up because he was embarrassed. I looked over at Senor Guapo and had to bite my lip to keep from laughing. Rambutan was the perfect description. I told Ivan not to call him a rambutan and Ivan said, "But I LIKE rambutans. Can I call him a mango?" I had to walk away because I kept thinking about rambutans and how perfect of a description it was. Hahahahaha.

"Name some of the 12 Apostles."

"Deuteronomy?"
"That's in the OT, and that's a book, not a person."
Hello?!?!?! I have weird kids.

We sang the fishers of men song. Ivan the Terrible loved it. He wanted to "sing it at home." Haha. I love corrupting children with my vast repertoire of children's songs.

We were doing a spelling pretest and one of the words is "complain." As soon as I said it, the Duchess Whines-Too-Much looked up at me and smiled and apparently several kids turned around and looked at Janine. They're all guilty. Hahaa.

I'm really tired and I have much to accomplish. Tomorrow is hieroglyphics day.

And it's on to the 4th week!

It's hard to believe that I've taught something like 28 lessons already. Hahaha. (That includes the little spelling and grammar lessons too...) That's more than I've ever written for school.

Today was a pretty good day. I decided the kids were a little too self-centered in their prayers and made them pray for something other than themselves and their family. They had a REALLY hard time with that. Captain Obvious wanted to pray for the poor people in the world, and Ivan the Terrible wasn't paying attention and decided to pray that Captain Obvious would have enough money to feed the poor. After prayer time was over, Captain Obvious said, "I don't HAVE any money to feed the poor! I wasn't feeding the poor!" Oh dear... I also found a prayer calendar on the VOM Kids of Courage website so we can pray about modern day Egypt. We prayed for the rulers of Egypt today. I was just waiting for someone to accidentally pray for a Pharaoh.

Oh yeah, I feel like you've all been deprived with the lack of Ivan tales. Well, yesterday he marched in and announced, "I did ALL my homework!" I turned to him and said very enthusiastically, "GREAT!" He got a shocked look on his face and he said, "You scared me!" I said, "Why?" "Because you said 'GREAT' so loud!" I said, "Well you did a good job and I wanted to praise you." He said, "I'm not your God. You can't praise me." So then I had to reword things and tell him that I was glad he did all his work. I think Ivan doesn't get much attention at home and tends to think that the only way to gain attention is to act out and be bad. He can't believe anyone would ever pay attention to him for doing something good. Poor guy. I feel really sorry for him. However, he has been a bit trying lately. He wasn't reading the directions on his spelling paper and he was supposed to put the correct word in a group of 3 words (the word came from the spelling list) and the first one was "easy, easier, _____". The word, obviously, was 'easiest' and it was on his spelling list. He kept saying, "I don't get it!" I told him that easy, easier, easiest is part of a group. He got a smart-aleck look on his face and said "Ahh yes.. hmm.. you do have a good point." He kept doing that until I wanted to smack him.

For social studies today we went into the computer lab and watched a very informative video on the Nile River. I found it on Youtube. It was about 6 and a half minutes long and it contained really good information. (A 6th grade teacher made it apparently.) They were really into it and loved it. Then they all looked up two websites about the Nile River and took notes as they read. They wrote down quite a lot of things. I was really surprised! They were really into it! I mean come on... who is interested in a river? Apparently it's interesting to 3rd graders. Haha. They were writing so much that I decided to write up a response sheet right while they were still reading. After getting back to the room, they used their notes to help them come up with at least 3 sentences about something they found interesting about the Nile and then 3 more sentences about why the Nile was so important. Dearest Ivan wasn't paying attention to the video (he claimed that he looked at the pictures and didn't listen to the voice) and he turned in a terrible response sheet. Oh, and the video opened with a quotation from an Egyptian song and it talks about how the "sun god" made the Nile. I asked the class who really made the Nile and they said, "God." Well Ivan couldn't come up with 3 things that were important about the Nile and he said that the sun god made it. I could have clobbered him.

Speaking of clobbering children, most of them totally bombed the Bible review sheet today. I started the lesson by asking them what two events prepared Jesus for the ministry. (Baptism and the temptation.) At the end of the lesson, they did a review sheet. They had no clue! They were writing things like "Mercy and Holy God." I mean.. come on! Their memory verse (that most of them failed last week anyway) was "And Jesus grew in wisdom, and stature, and in favor with God and men." The review sheet had them fill in the words. It said "And Jesus grew in w____, s____ and in favor with G____ and m___. Well a few of them put "Savior" or "salvation" for the s. Ivan put "Miriam" for the m and when we told him that was totally wrong he put "me." Wow. Fail.

Every week, one student is picked to be the star of the week. On Monday, they get to bring in something to share about themselves and then on Friday they can bring something else in. Also, the star of the week gets sent out of the room while everyone writes a little note to the star on a star shaped piece of paper. They're supposed to tell the star something they appreciate about him/her. Well, Ivan's seatmate was the star of the week. Our dear knight wrote her a beautiful note and included 2 hearts. Then he asked if he could write her another letter. Hahahaha. So apparently, the knight has a soft spot for a fair maiden.

The pictures above are of reading buddies. 3rd grade goes to 2nd grade and reads with the 2nd graders.

Another summer day... has come and gone away...

Except it's not summer anymore.

Well today went ok. We had chapel this morning and we were singing a bunch of Sunday School songs (that I happened to be listening to while doing language arts lesson plans last night...) and the kids were singing heartily. We started with "Hallelu, hallelu, hallelu, halleluah! Praise ye the Lord!" and alternated standing up and sitting down... and lines -- first one side, then the other and later boys and girls. I love hearing a lot of kids sing.. in tune.. and I know all the words anyway because I know the songs. Hahahahaa. We sang "Father Abraham" which has no theological value and they made the teachers get up there and do right arm, left arm, right foot, left foot.. etc. Some of the teachers were quite into it. Hahahaha. Anyway, the whole singing thing made my day.

My language arts lesson was mostly a review but they flew through it and we had to kill time. Woops. It worked out fine though.

We're doing suffixes in spelling and how to spell words properly when you add -er, -est, -ing, etc. Because of our increasing difficulties with the Duchess Whines-Too-Much, I introduced spelling by writing "WHINE" up on the board and identified it as the base word. Then I asked them how to spell it if I wanted to add the suffix -ing. They spelled it and then I asked them if they knew what "whining" meant. Janine (we had planned this) raised her hand and said in a very whiny voice, "Why are we doing this??? This is dumb!!!" and the kids followed suit and demonstrated what whining is. Ha. Then I had them look up Philippians 2:14. The fair duchess had a guilty look on her face the whole time. She found the verse first and said, "It says no complaining!" Hahaha.. So we all read the verse together! Too bad I didn't teach them my Steve Green song...

Do everything without complaining!
Do everything without arguing!
So that you may become blameless and pure
Children of God!
Without complaining!
Without arguing!
Do, do, do, do everything!!!
Do everything without complaining!
Do everything without arguing!
So that you may become blameless and pure
Children of God!

We talked about our classroom rules and how whining breaks our rule about being respectful. They went to recess and I printed out an octagon with the word "WHINING" in the middle with a line through it. I put the no whining sign on the whiteboard so they could see it. Later I stuck the Philippians verse next to it. A couple times throughout the day the fair Duchess would start to whine and then look at me and smile and stop. I think she got convicted. Haha. Hopefully they'll remember!

http://www.sermons4kids.com/fishers_of_men_ehk_song.pdf

That's what we're going to teach the kids next week. I found this version online and decided it had a little more to it than the common version that just repeats "I will make you fishers of men if you follow Me, if you follow Me..." for the whole song. :)

Today was ok. One kid was frustrated and another kid whined all day. Tomorrow we're going to give the kids a demonstration of whining and then talk to them about why whining is not respectful and discuss their attitude issues.

And that's my interesting post for the day.

"Sometimes I talk a lot..."

Such a funny picture!

Costumes

Classic! Captain Obvious, Prince Ants-in-the-Pants, and Princess Talks-A-Lot
Captain Obvious is probably going to repeat a question someone just asked, the dear prince is probably formulating another question in his mind, and Princess Talks-A-Lot already knows the answer.

Checking out the shaduf

The shaduf up close

My Nile River that looks more like a chicken foot

Flooding the Nile from the melted snow in Ethiopia

Those words were uttered by Princess Talks-A-Lot. I thought I would lose it laughing. She also has a habit of raising her hand before the question ends and thinks of the answer on the spot. Today she did it and she started talking and then stuck her tongue out and made a funny noise and said, "Oh. I forgot what I was going to say." HAHAHA. I laughed at her... couldn't help it. Good thing she's so easy-going. In fact, she really is a sweet child. Today one of the boys accidentally smashed into her arm with his chair when he was going somewhere and she started crying quietly. I saw her sniffling and I asked her and she told me it was an accident. She never said anything to the kid who did it and just sniffled quietly to herself. She's really the most selfless child in the class.

The kids were crazy today. The fair Duchess Whines-Too-Much was whining at every opportunity today. I was so annoyed. She complained about everything. She even started the day complaining. She complained all through language arts too. In fact, her whole group was off-task during language arts. She didn't pay attention to math and kept asking us to repeat the directions. She's very insecure about herself... she's used to getting A's on everything and she's paranoid if she thinks she just might get something wrong. Therefore, she doesn't try. They were doing rounding today and Janine has a really cool rounding chart. It has numbers on hills with multiples of 5 at the top of each hill. She illustrates it by saying that there's a gas station at the 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, etc. If you run out of gas at the 8, it's easier to roll down the hill forwards to the 10. If you run out of gas at the 3, it's easier to roll backwards to the gas station at 0. If you're at the 5, you're trying to visit your friend at 100 and it's easier to roll forward to the 10 rather than backwards because then you'd have to drive back up and waste gas. It was a cool chart. One of our slower kids was on a roll today. He really got it! He was so happy that he got it too. Cute kid.

We did the long-awaited social studies lesson today. I split the lesson over two days because I need the computer lab for the other part. The first part of the Nile River lesson only took a few minutes, so they were able to finish their costumes and dress up for a picture. For the Nile River, I dug up the volleyball court (it's sand) and made a relief map of the Nile River. I poured water from "Lake Victoria" to show how it ran all the way down (north.. rather than south as some of the kids thought would happen) to the delta. I had also made mountains in Ethiopia and Central Africa and demonstrated melting snow flooding down into the valley in Egypt. I ripped up some weeds that were growing all over the court and I stuck them all along the edge of my river to make it look more fertile. The sand was damp underneath which was perfect because it made it black and Egypt was called "Kemet" or "Black Land." We made a little irrigation ditch and flooded that too. I also made a model of a shaduf and stuck it in the sand and demonstrated how they were able to easily get the water out of the Nile into their irrigation ditches. Anyway, it was fun. I'm going to put a few pictures here but the rest can be found on Facebook. :)

On the twelfth day of 3rd grade my teacher said to me

It's the night of Open House!
What is true beauty?
Identify the sentence subject!
Let's make Egyptian costumes!
Where is Ivan?
Memorize your verse!
Study your spelling!
Did you read?
Don't stick your finger in the socket!
What is a digit?
Be respectful and act responsibly!

Well there you have it... the first 12 days of 3rd grade! The song got worse as it went on but I had to finish it. Hahaha. I can't believe we just finished the 12th day. Today I taught Bible and language arts and tomorrow I have those two and social studies. Janine and I put together a last minute bulletin board for the Ancient Egypt unit (as you can see in the picture). All along the Nile will be pictures of things we do. Once we get everyone together, the kids will dress up in the costumes they made and we'll be able to put that picture (along with some other pictures of them making the costumes) at the bottom of the board and build up as we go "down" the Nile. (I hope some smart kid doesn't complain that the "Down" is at the bottom of the river when the Nile river flows down towards the north.) I hope to get pictures of Pharaoh masks, mummies, pyramids, and whatever else we do. Haha.

The kids were pretty zoned out this morning. They're pretty bad on Monday mornings. They usually come in extra tired from the weekend. When I was teaching language arts, I was going over the vocabulary words and one of the words is "college." I told them I was still in college and they were shocked. They said "Is Miss Meisner in college too?" Um.. no. Hah.

Tonight is Open House from 6:30-8:00 or whenever. I'm hungry so I'm going home to drop my stuff off and find food of some sort to snack on... I'll probably cook some bananas. Haha.

The blessings of technology

Due to kind friends and a hi-tech communications engineer, I was able to tune into Cebu's evening service via Skype. That was really nice. Pas Nene preached on the sovereignty of God. Very good sermon. This morning I went to Davao Chinese Baptist and that was also pretty good, but they don't have an evening service. Actually, they have 4 services, but the 2 in the afternoon are the same sermon as in the morning. So yeah, it was a pretty good Sunday.

I am looking forward to this upcoming week, but it will be busy. We have open house on Monday night and I need to get a headstart on lesson plans for next week (particuarly language arts and Bible since they are every day and language arts is more like 3 lessons every day).

Opinion of the day...

Chris and Janita should update their blogs.

On the eleventh day of 3rd grade my teacher said to me...

What is true beauty?
Identify the sentence subject!
Let's make Egyptian costumes!
Where is Ivan?
Memorize your verse!
Study your spelling!
Did you read?
Don't stick your finger in the socket!
What is a digit?
Be respectful and act responsibly!

I forgot to mention that during prayer time yesterday, one of the kids shared a prayer request that about her friend's cousin or cousin's friend (I forget which) had dengue. Some of them didn't know what dengue was so I told them it was really serious and that I had it when I was 13 and that you can die from it. The Duke of Earl-y To Finish, in all his brightness, said "And did you?" I gave him an "Are you for real?" look and laughed at him and the kids all laughed and then I realized he was serious. He suddenly realized it was a dumb question and he got all embarrassed. Hahaha. Speaking of laughing at kids, today Princess Talks-A-Lot, who reads everything with a dramatic flair, read a Bible verse very dramatically and I smirked/snickered and glanced back at Janine who was hiding behind her paper snickering too and some of the kids in the front caught us laughing. Woops.

Today we managed to finish our Egyptian costumes (for the most part). I did a little lecture on true beauty too. I asked "What is beauty?" Prince Ants-in-the-Pants said, "Beauty is when you're really beautiful." Wow. Profound words from such a young lad. Anyway, we talked about heart beauty and being right with God. After we looked at some verses about the heart and being right with God, I asked if it was wrong to look nice and take care of ourselves. Princess Talks-A-Lot said, "No because if you're scraggly on the outside, you might be scraggly on the inside too and not beautiful to God." Scraggly? Hahaha. Yeah, so we talked about that and then went on to talking about who made us and why we should take care of our bodies (because God made us and it is glorifying to Him).

And now I'm trying to figure out the Language Arts curriculum. I realized we really aren't trained much in how to use the types of language arts programs that many schools use now. There's so much to fit in! We're also not really trained on guided reading groups -- how to plan lessons for so many different groups and run everything smoothly and tie it all together. Sigh..

On the tenth day of 3rd grade my teacher said to me,

Identify the sentence subject!
Let's make Egyptian costumes!
Where is Ivan?
Memorize your verse!
Study your spelling!
Did you read?
Don't stick your finger in the socket!
What is a digit?
Be respectful and act responsibly!

The kingdom can rejoice -- our dashing Knight in Clanky Armor is back -- Ivan the Terrible! He wasn't his vivacious and naughty self, though. In the morning he was a little out of it. I think he picked up by the end of the day. He did have a cough and used it as a way to cause havoc in the classroom by having a coughing contest with Prince Ants-in-the-Pants from the Land of Hyperactivity (the peasants formerly knew him as Prince Charming). By the way, Princess Talks-A-Lot still lives up to her name, but she has toned down considerably on her number of comments that she used to interject within every fraction of silence that she could find. She really is a nice kid -- painfully slow to do her work, but pretty smart, fairly insightful, and always does her work cheerfully... unlike SOME people. The Duchess Whines-Too-Much has been driving me crazy with her complaining about every bit of work she gets. She pretends to not enjoy anything, even if she really does like it. She was whining about her Egyptian dress even though I knew she really liked it because she kept smiling... while whining. She whines about her heritage class, the fact that she doesn't get to change her desk yet, the partner she gets in group work, the time frame allotted for assignments, and basically everything else she can think of. I think I'll teach her a song! "Are you humbly grateful? Or grumbly hateful? What's your attitude? Do you grumble and moan or let it be known you're grateful for all God's done for you?"

In prayer time today, one of the kids prayed for everyone's "Hurtness and sickness." I almost laughed. Then later, our Resident Hypochondriac (who always has a story to go with his every ache and pain that he wants to pray for -- his neck, his elbow, his cheek, his leg...) raised his hand when I asked "What do you call growing in what you know in your mind?" during Bible class and announced, "Internationally!" What a good MK. I said, "You mean intellectually..." and smirked. He's a gem. I like him a lot.

Tomorrow we finish our Egyptian costumes. I don't know what I'm going to do with the Duke of Earl-y To Finish because he rushes through everything like it's one big race and does a messy job. I think I'll make him go back and add more detail and make it look neater.

On the ninth day of 3rd grade my teacher said to me...

Let's make Egyptian costumes!
Where is Ivan?
Memorize your verse!
Study your spelling!
Did you read?
Don't stick your finger in the socket!
What is a digit?
Be respectful and act responsibly!

Well, Ivan is still inflicted with a horrible bout of influenza. That means he's woefully behind since we made Egyptian costumes today. The kids were really into it and loved it... they read books on it first and listed some of the things that the Egyptians did. They were fascinated with the perfumed animal fat. Hahaha. We're going to finish the lesosn on Thursday, much to their disappointment. "Why can't we do it tomorrow???" They were happy that they were the first 3rd grade class to do Egyptian costume making too. Hahaha. Cute kids.

On the eighth day of 3rd grade my teacher said to me...

Where is Ivan?
Memorize your verse!
Study your spelling!
Did you read?
Don't stick your finger in the socket!
What is a digit?
Be respectful and act responsibly!

The poor Knight, Ivan the Terrible, was inflected with some kind of disease and was not present at school today. The whole class seemed different without our sunshine boy . Even Princess Talks-A-Lot had little to say today.

I blame Ivan for my cold. I bet he has a cold too and he probably gave it to me. That's probably not true, but I blame him anyway. :) I have one of those delightful colds and I'm really tired. I took some medicine right near the end of school which gave me a burst of energy so I could paint arm bands and wigs and stuff for 2 hours in preparation for tomorrow's big Egyptian costume day. Woohoo! Hopefully it's not utter chaos. Tune in next time to hear the results.

On the seventh day of 3rd grade my teacher said to me

Memorize your verse!
Study your spelling!
Did you read?
Don't stick your finger in the socket!
What is a digit?
Be respectful and act responsibly!

I have no grand tales of our favorite Knight and Princess, so I'm sorry to disappoint my faithful readers. Today went pretty well. I did teach my first lesson, which I thought was an epic fail towards the end. They kind of zoned out at the end. Oh well. The one thing that worked well was how I paired the kids up and assigned them different passages. The Ezekiel passage was a little more complicated so I gave it to two of the boys who are pretty good readers and have decent comprehension. The one boy nailed it! He really understood what it was talking about.

I need to write my next Egypt lesson for Tuesday. I'm going to have them look through books and read about the Egyptian's hygiene, makeup, and clothing. Then we'll divide into centers and we'll make costumes. The first center will be Egyptian wigs, the second will be neck pieces, the third will be dresses for the girls and kilt-like things for the boys, and because the boys have it easy, they're going to make armbands. It might take 2 periods, but if not, we can compare the Egyptian's idea of beauty, style, and hygiene to what we do today. At the end of the unit, which I might not be here for, I want to have Egyptian Games and they can come dressed up in their costumes and play Egyptian Jeopardy. That will be a good assessment for how much they got out of the unit. Haha.

On the sixth day of 3rd grade my teacher said to me,

Study your spelling!
Did you read?
Don't stick your finger in the socket!
What is a digit?
Be respectful and act responsibly!

The morning started out well with Princess Talks-A-Lot marching in saying, "I couldn't do my homework. I took Ivan the Terrible's take home folder home by mistake." I'm not entirely sure how that could have happened since we had moved their desks on them and Princess Talks-A-Lot now sits in front of Ivan the Terrible. Ivan the Terrible marched in a little while later and was completely clueless as to whose homework folder he had. I asked him if he bothered to look at the name on the homework. The fair Princess only had to do her 100's booklet whereas the evil young chap had a TON of homework, including an apology letter. Somehow, Ivan's brain went on vacation and he didn't even notice the lack of homework. He didn't look at the front of the 100's booklet and just started filling it out. Genius. The Princess was a lot more responsible because she even recorded her reading on a separate sheet of paper when she realized her reading log was in her own folder in the possession of the space cadet Ivan the Terrible.

Elementary had their first chapel today. The kindergarten teacher led them in a bunch of songs I didn't know. I liked them a lot. The kids can really sing! I've never heard so many children sing so in tune! It was beautiful! Of course I had to cover my mouth to keep from laughing because I happened to glance down the row and I noticed Princess Talks-A-Lot singing with gusto and great drama.

I learned more about Ancient Egypt today... and last night. I think I dreamed about Egypt too. I have to come up with my next lesson plan about Egypt... I think I'm going to talk about clothing and makeup and hygiene and have them make costumes.

On the fifth day of 3rd grade my teacher said to me...

Did you read?
Put your homework in the inbox!
Don't stick your finger in the socket!
What is a digit?
Be respectful and act responsibly!

Continuing the Mid-Evil tales, the knight of doom, Ivan the Terrible, managed to have to write an apology letter in his music class today because he pulled the hair of the fair maiden of the Land of Motor Mouth, Princess Talks-A-Lot. Shame on the young brat. On the other hand, the blue-eyed and sweet-tempered Prince Charming (who just happens to struggle with dyslexia) got a special note from his computer teacher for being so well behaved or something. He was all smiles. What a cute kid. He had a couple frustrating moments in school today, poor guy.

The day went rather smoothly. I wasn't paying attention for the first half of the morning because I was writing a lesson and doing some lesson observation stuff. Last night I compiled a list of ideas for the Egypt unit and it was really fun. I enjoyed it, and I hope I get some more creative ideas online. I wrote a lesson plan on Egypt in the Bible and I have the kids divided into 4 groups. They're looking at various passages that mention Egypt and are going to write down stuff they learned. Then in the end, I tie it in with the fact that though Ancient Egypt might be fun to study because it's interesting and maybe "cool," the Egyptians didn't honor God and God judged them and took away all the riches that they were so proud of before. I have a group looking at some passages in Ezekiel. I want them to keep thinking about that as we study the unit -- and think about the Israelites, God's people, who were in the midst of such a land and culture and did not always have the happiest of times, but God was with them every step of the way. Because my lesson needed different pairs than the ones already set up in the room (because of the amount of reading and writing that the lesson requires), we moved everyone around while they were in computer class. They came back and were confused and couldn't find their desks at first. Hahaha.

I have a video to watch on Ancient Egypt. My next lesson is going to be on the Nile. We'll see how that goes.

On the fourth day of 3rd grade my teacher said to me...

Put your homework in the inbox!
Don't stick your finger in the socket!
What is a digit?
Be respectful and act responsibly!

Surprisingly, there isn't too much to report in our ongoing saga of our Mid-Evil fairy tale concerning Ivan the Terrible and Princess Talks-A-Lot. Ivan came barging in this morning and told me he had actually done his reading, but he failed to record it on the little green sheet and my co-op thought he had forgotten again. The boy was sentenced to the dungeons of recess detention so he could do his reading, but then we found he had recorded it in his homework book instead and did not have to undergo such tortures. I sat in the back and took pictures, particularly of Princess Talks-A-Lot as she constantly reached for the sky in an effort to take over the world of spoken communication in the room. Ivan sat next to her bouncing his leg and waving his hand at break neck speed in order to beat her at her quest for linguistic domination. That was my entertainment (and frustration) for the day.

In other tales, the kids are starting a social studies unit on Ancient Egypt. I'm at school and I need to write some lesson observations and start brainstorming the unit. I'm really excited because it looks like it could be a lot of fun. I don't know much about Egypt other than mummies and creepy guys that wear a lot of makeup and also happen to rule the land of the pyramids and camels. I would love to read The Golden Goblet to them, but I'm not sure if that will fit in. It would be a great book to go along with the unit, though.

On the third day of 3rd grade my teacher said to me...

Don't stick your finger in the socket!
What is a digit?
Be respectful and act responsibly!

Yes, Ivan the Terrible, who is not really named Ivan, stuck his finger in the electric socket. Sheer brilliance. What a naughty boy. He was pretty bad today, especially in Filipino Culture class. Princess Talks-A-Lot was in fine form too.
"What are the three main regions of the Philippines?"
"Well... the three main regions of the Philippines are Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao."
She loves to add excessive detail to everything comment she makes. They usually begin with, "Well... I think that's kinda like...."

One of the boys is dyslexic. They had a Bible puzzle where they were supposed to shade the shapes with the letter "b" inside. They formed letters to spell the name Jesus. The other letters chosen were b's and p's. Dyslexic nightmare. Poor guy. He's the sweetest kid, but really struggles in school. It will be interesting trying to figure out how to differentiate instruction to meet some of his needs. At least he's not an annoying kid. He always hugs us when he leaves. So cute!

Tomorrow is the first day of the new Language Arts program. After that gets underway I think I will start picking up lessons. Social studies also starts tomorrow. The unit is Ancient Egypt. That could be really fun! Apparently they mummify a chicken leg. I wonder if we could mummify Ivan the Terrible too... you know, just temporarily.

I read three books today. I have another one waiting for me at home, but I need to write lesson observations before I forget. I need a total of 5.

On the second day of 3rd grade my teacher said to me...

What is a digit?
Be respectful and act responsibly.

Sometimes I'm not sure what I like better -- the class or the fact that the elementary and middle school library is a few doors down and I tend to stop in to get books and visit the guinea pig... Hahaha. Gizmo is quite the guinea pig. He has personality and class. I miss my guinea pig(s). They just have a tendency to die.

The second day was good. I have a ton of notes but I took those mostly for my lesson observations and I don't want to bore you all with the details. The kids did some more introductory things. I really like the kids in the class, even though two are a little more challenging. The one girl that talks incessantly put on her life goal footprint (for a bulletin board) that she wanted to be a preacher. Hmm. Hahaha. Her favorite thing to do is shoot her hand up as high as it will go and then pause and say, "Well I think that's kinda like..." and ramble on for a while. Cute kid, but too talkative. When the kids leave for the day, Janine has this thing called "3 H's" -- they either have to give us a handshake, a hug, or a high five. It's so cute that the little boys still give hugs. Of course, Miss Extreme Talkativity nearly hugged the breath out of me, but the other little boys were sooo cute.

I really like the school and environment and Davao itself. It's a city, but it feels nothing like a city -- mostly because my previous city experience has been Manila.

Next week is the first full week of school! I'm excited! :)

On the first day of 3rd grade, my teacher said to me...

"Be respectful and act responsibly."

The first day of school is halfway over! I was up at 5:45 and was over to school a little before staff devotions at 7. I'm wearing a skirt with bright flowers on it and a white shirt that I just managed to spray water all over when I was trying to rinse my plate off in the teachers' lounge sink. Brilliant. I also have really loud shoes on... clack, clack, clack... Not as bad as the "clompers" that I had as a kid, though.

One of the first activities of the day involved the students coming up with classroom goals. One student misunderstood the directions (write some goals to make 3rd grade a fun and safe classroom) and wrote stuff like "Do some crafts" or "Read as a classroom." They brainstormed by themselves and wrote ideas down on their papers and then got together into two groups and wrote down all their ideas. Those got posted on the board and read and then Janine went through and helped them bring them down to two main classroom rules: Be respectful and Be Responsible. (One of the groups came up with the rule "No burping.")

There are 4 sequential consequences for breaking the classroom rules. Each day is a fresh start. These are the consequences in the order that they happen:
1) Write name on board
2) Stay in class and miss part of recess
3) Write a note home to parents or call them in the presence of the teacher
4) See principal

Of course the most makulit (the word that best describes this child -- no English equivalent can be found) boy shot up his hand and said, "What if we keep doing it after we see the principal?" This is also the kid who snorted several times and then announced that he needed a Kleenex and then proceeded to twist his tissue into a point and began to drill his nose. I tried to tell him not to be so dramatic about it but unfortunately... I was laughing. It was really funny. I sat in the back covering my face at various moments because I was laughing at the kids. They're funny... and one of them talks waaaaaaaaaaay too much. It reminded me of some of the older adult students in classes in college. They talk way too much and ask questions at every opportunity (as they studiously scribble the answer word for word in their notebook and formulate another question that takes about 20 minutes to answer). The girl that talks too much is really spiritually tender and insightful, but she still talks too much.

One classroom management strategy that Janine uses to get the students' attention is to say, "Show me five!" as she holds up her hand. Each finger represents one thing: Eyes facing the speaker, ears listening, mouth quiet, hands still, and body not moving.

Anyway, two kids were absent today so there were only 6 kids in the class. They did 2 math speed tests/diagnostic tests and one really long spelling test. I felt sorry for them. Today they have PE and Library so they won't be back until the last half hour of school. Today was just a lot of introductory stuff and so is tomorrow and probably some of Monday as well.

I used to be jealous of the teachers because I thought they never had to do any work. We students had to take all the tests and do all the homework. Yeah... well now I know how much work goes into teaching and preparing and setting up a classroom. I'd rather be a student. :)

Last day before school starts...

It has been a busy week. I haven't updated in a while, I know, and I apologize. Saturday-Monday was a staff retreat held at Mergrande Resort, about 40 minutes from Faith Academy. We had lots of school-related meetings on Saturday and Monday. It was a little overwhelming, but ok.

Tuesday and Wednesday have been work days designated to setting up classrooms and getting ready. I helped my co-op do various little tasks here and there.

Today I turned 22. It was a different kind of birthday, due to some sad news of two deaths in the past 24 hours -- one of which was news that a fellow student, friend, and co-worker of mine died on August 1st (we just got the email today though). Although it was kind of a sad day for me, it was a good day for keeping various friends in prayer and reflecting on the life that God has given me. Redeeming the time and living fully to the glory of God is what I desire to do because only God knows how much time He has appointed for my life here on this earth.

Anyway, along with those sobering thoughts for the day, the people here (and Jenn -- who I think put a lot of it together... thanks, Jenn! :) ) have been really nice. Janine, my co-op found out it was my birthday by accident (she got to a section on kid's birthdays in her planner thing and she asked when my birthday was and I said... "Today...") and spread the word. Several teachers all went out for lunch at an Italian restaurant. Then later this evening, 3 other teachers came over for cake and ice cream. (Thanks, parents, for the cake contribution!) Marla, the science teacher, brought me flowers! I love flowers. So yeah, it was really nice of them and I really appreciate their thoughtfulness.

School begins bright and early tomorrow! I am excited to finally meet these students we've been praying for and preparing materials for! (That is a poorly constructed sentence, I know.)

HI!

Hello fans!

Being here has had a strange effect on my semi-bilingualism. Why do I suddenly feel the inspiration to constantly use Tagalog at every opportunity? In Manila, I ask directions in English. I talk to random people in English. Here, I try my Tagalog out at every opportunity. Maybe it’s because the Visayans aren’t native Tagalog speakers and probably won’t care that I sound like a terrible Tagalog speaker. I have also discovered that Tagalog gets me around really well… compared to in Cebu. Oh well. The point is: my Tagalog has improved. (Yeah right.) I like to pretend my knowledge of Tagalog and Visayan is overwhelming. Too bad the only thing I can say is “Pila?” for “How much?”. Fail.

So today… we went to a different mall. This is the oldest mall in Davao (I think). I was busy talking to my co-op and Jenn came by and said that her co-op and family were going to McDonalds and Victoria Mall and wanted to know if we wanted to come. We decided it was something to do and why not visit another mall? I mean come on… having 5 malls within 10 miles (or something) is a novelty. (Whatever) Anyway, apparently tsinelas are out and my one pair of sandals is kind of sad looking so I ended up getting a pair of really cheap shoes that I’m not a huge fan of but hey, they work. They’re also white which means by the end of the first day teaching, they’ll be black.

Apparently there’s a big handicraft store somewhere around here named Aldenico. I have yet to find it. It was supposedly nearby Victoria Mall but Jenn’s co-op didn’t know where. I asked the guard in terrible Tagalog if he knew where it was and he didn’t and neither did anyone else I asked. Oh well. One of these days we’ll find it.

So… today the teacher we live with was supposed to fly in. We went with the principal to pick her up and she wasn’t on the plane. She had missed the plane in Korea or something. I don’t really know where she is, but I got meat for dinner just in case. Oh well. We needed to eat too anyway.

Oh and in case any of you are interested in my culinary endeavors, it’s not that interesting. Hahaha! Ok, Jenn and I took the tricycle down the road to the market a couple days ago and we got a lot of vegetables for stirfry. Vegetables and fruit are relatively cheap here, which is great. My marketing skills aren’t great, but I just picked a couple places that looked good. Who knows if I got a real bargain or not… Mrs. Farlin said that she doesn’t really bargain because most of the prices are pretty good. I also don’t know how to bargain in Visayan or Tagalog. So we had stirfry (with chicken mixed in it) and rice last night. The chicken breasts I found at one grocery store weren’t deboned (it was cheaper that way I think) so I mutilated—I mean—deboned them myself. Then for dinner tonight I made adobo (PS – I think I like cooking the pork before adding the sauce) and steamed vegetables (cabbage, sayote, and carrots). So even if you think I’m an unimaginative cook – we aren’t starving! Oh, and for breakfast I got inspired to go all out. I found some luncheon meat (reminiscent of Spam, processed stuff that probably clogs your arteries) and chopped it up and fried it with cubes of potatoes, salt, and pepper. We had it with eggs and rice… ok, I had the rice. We also had fruit salad (pineapple – which is really cheap here – mangos, and bananas). I really enjoy having a kitchen to play in… and a market to discover.

My chief entertainment right now is killing ants. We have a bad ant problem in the kitchen. They tend to find the TINIEST piece of food and all congregate around it. They’re pretty annoying little things, although I do enjoy spraying them with Raid. It’s like a deadly version of hide and seek – find where they’re coming from and BANG! Spray them down. At least they’re not roaches. I think if they were roaches I would freak out. Ants, however, I can handle.

Tomorrow, which will be today by the time I post this, is new teacher orientation. We are going to, you know, get oriented! Should be loads of fun. Word just told me that the previous sentence is a sentence fragment. I know.

I talked to my co-op a bit today. She grew up in Nasuli. Interestingly enough, she went to Faith in Manila for 9^th and 10^th grade and her flute teacher was MY flute teacher! Cool! I am realizing that this American missionary world is really small. Who knew! At least now I feel cooler because I can say “Oh yeah, I met that person…” It makes me feel “in.” Hahaha! Joke lang. Oh yeah, the point of this paragraph was to say that my co-op said that her two strengths are math and science and her weakness is English and Language arts. PERFECTO! There are only 8 kids in the class, but is apparently a very challenging bunch. This should be fun!

And that would be my update for the night. As you can see, I can write a lot about nothing.