Friday, July 25, 2008

I am so exhausted! This week has been a blur. Monday happened to be very chaotic and I wasn't sure how the rest of the week was going to go. But, Tuesday was much better, as well as the rest of the week. I really enjoyed teaching the fourth graders. We had 18-20 every single day this week...with about 25 registered. Tonight is the closing program, but I am unable to attend since I have a college class to attend. This is the last one for the summer!

One of the best things about today was that one of my girls got saved!!! That's what it's all about. From what I heard, there were about 20 decisions about salvation this week and that's the highest number of decisions in at least 8 years. It's wonderful!

I know I haven't been posting regularly, but life tends to take over. :)

I may get to see some of my family this summer after all! My sister is moving to Maryland, about 2 hours from me! She's renting a U-Haul truck and dad's going to be driving it and then helping her move into her new apartment. I told them that I'd be willing to help if they could come and get me. I'd either get lost or my car would break down (if it's fixed by then, that is). Or I could see where the Metro line runs and take that. I so miss my family right now! But, with Nessa a bit closer, we could possibly get together every couple of months.

Well, I think I need to catch a catnap before class or may not survive tonight.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

I just finished reading an excellent book for my TM class entitled "Teaching to Change Lives" by Dr. Howard Hendricks. He laid out 7 laws or principles of the teacher:

Teacher- Stop growing today, stop teaching tomorrow
Education- How people learn determines how you teach
Activity- Maximum learning is always the result of maximum involvement
Communication- To truly impart information requires the building of bridges
Heart- Teaching that impacts is not head to hear, but heart to heart
Encouragement- Teaching tends to be most effective when the learner is properly motivated
Readiness- The teaching-learning process will be most effective when both the student and teacher are adequately prepared ( Hendricks, Howard. Teaching to Change Lives. Sisters, Oregon: Multnomah Publishers, 1987, p. 129.)

I've seen some areas in which I need to work on, that's for sure. Some of the most influential teachers in my life have been those who went the extra mile. I remember 4th grade because the teacher made it a point to make learning fun and hands-on. I remember a particular college instructor that came over to the dorm after school hours to look for me and give me suggestions on how to improve in a certain area. I've also had teachers who bored me to death. They did not have any variation in teaching technique and were so engrossed in what they were saying that they weren't listening. Some tend to "dump" information rather than teach it.

As a teacher, I want to reach my students not only academically, but spiritually. I know my parents have a hard time figuring out why I wanted to be a Christian school (since it's known that that specific field does not make a lot of money). I want to be able to be used of God to touch these children. I've have already been in the lives of at least 60 children. To me, the best result of teaching is seeing how the children that I have taught have grown up, what kind of adult they are going to be.

I stress to my students that they have two choices in EVERY thing they do: Do right or do wrong. It doesn't stop in the classroom, but extends into every area of life. I want to see them succeed as Christian, living a full life for the Lord.
I can not believe summer is almost over! Right now, I'm taking my second set of summer classes and I double booked myself. This class is two weeks long and during the second week we have VBS. Now, I've never actually done a VBS (I've done NBT's) so I'm not too sure how it's going to go yet.

This afternoon, a friend called me and asked me to fill in in the pre-school. I only had 4 kids to watch, but boy, were they a hoot! They got the biggest kick by me pretending that the plastic chicken nuggets were hot and tossing them (the nuggets) about. Then, as one of the boys was describing the car he was holding (it was given the off-road muddy look) and I said that it needed washed. Another little boy piped up that it didn't since it wasn't really dirty. It was only pretend. lol!

Anyway... there's not much else going on that I'm going to blog about right now. Perhaps another time.