and not always angels either! i must say there is scarcely a boring moment at school . . .



before my co-teachers and i went to teacher's institute, my students had fun washing my lil' Focus.




afterwards we had "swate tae" and cookies at my house. what's funny is that i was trying to feed my students these old, stuffy cookies i thought were so gross i'd never get them eaten . . . but then they ranted and raved over them like they were better than their mom's cookies! will wonders never cease.



ronnie



tyler



alex



sit-outside-day



we have a special day at school every other week. the first special day was gum-chewing day. they brought bubble gum and seemed to have a little contest to see who could blow the biggest bubble and make it crack the loudest. giggles erupted from almost every corner.

sit-outside day was rather unhandy for me although the students loved it. it was far too windy to be practical. finally they all agreed to go inside after lunch.


then we teachers took off thursday afternoon to travel to tennesse for CMTI, or conservative mennonite teacher's institute. i must say the social times with co-teachers made the whole trip well-worth it.

co-teacher rosalyn and i giggle at becky



actually, cmti was good for more than just social life. the instruction we received there will greatly benefit us as teachers. granted, there were a few workshops that were on the far side of boring. but others were inspirational, and they encouraged us to make our classes more picturesque and interesting.

i'll say too that it was plenty cold in there! i had icicles growing off the end of my nose and wished for a masai blanket to cuddle up in. i was thinking leggings and winter coat. finally in sheer misery i gave a timely tip to the ushers, who made the auditorium much more comfortable.

from sparta where the teacher's institute was held, we traveled to greenville to visit steve eshes, former missionaries. i especially wanted to see sarah, steve's sister, who was home from kenya for vacation. to make it even more exciting, my family came out that same weekend to visit the same people! we had a wonderful time together . . . it was way too short.

due to weather and my car needing new tires enroute, we arrived so late in greenville that we couldn't return to georgia on saturday as planned. very disappointed to miss communion, we decided to stay in greenville over sunday. but it gave me more time with my family.

we arrived back home again sunday night around 10:00 pm. needless to say, there was no time to recoup from a very brain-boggling and low-sleep weekend.

the following day in school, four students failed their language and only one student made any hundreds. we did have a fun history class. but i came home with deep brain fry, wanting only to crash, but needing to unpack and check books and plan lessons.

so i had this.



life improved after i unpacked and set my house in order. i ran back to school and finished up my grading and lesson planning. and my sleep was sweet.

It took about two weeks to get the walls covered, tests pulled, books passed out, and lessons planned. Ah . . . and it feels good to be done! School starts tomorrow. I am excited, yes, but I am also a bit nervous.

this is my seasonal bulletin board

if they get 100% they get to put something on a banana split. when all bowls are full they all get a real banana split treat!

if they are bad, their hippo mayn't be in the water and they have to stay in at break 5 minutes.

for countdown they get to color in a spot in a giraffe each day

my mess with getting ready (often it looked far worse!)

when they get their work done they may play with the soapstone noah's ark or other fun things i have for them

  on the outside of my door

hmmm. . . wonder how literally they'll take the last rule?

 

finishing off one last bulletin board at home