Tuesday, January 29th:
I could still feel the headache lingering when I woke up this morning, but did some stretching and took some pain reliever. It was more of a Tepid Tuesday than a Terrific Tuesday. It's been raining most evenings, leaving the mornings a little cool and wet. (Thankfully I've only had a little leak since they plastered over the cracks outside.) Fifth grade seems to be doing fairly well. They don't seem to ask as many questions on the tests and their scores are improving.
In 6B we started the class with a Q&A assignment: why do you think your class isn't learning? what does teachable mean? how can you be teachable? They didn't like it, but I started to see a glimmer of understanding in some of their answers. In 6A, we'd already had the lecture on caring about what they learn and caring to learn. Today we talked about why they come to school. "To learn." I explained that this is supposed to be the outcome, but what motivates them to come to school to learn? Their homework assignment was to write out three "factors" (it's always good when I can throw a math term into the lecture) for their being at school.
Sarah and I taxied home, picking up some groceries on the way. I made a baked potato for lunch and tzatziki (we ate this in Greece a lot - and it is easy to make!) After I finished grading, Sarah and I had our "girl's night."
Wednesday, January 30th:
Sarah left early this morning to take the 9th graders to Suly. Since Mary didn't have any students to teach, it was just Lisa and me on the way to school. All of my classes went well. I finished early in all but 6A. The kids were happy to have some in-class free time. In 6B, I wrote dashes on the board to spell "free time" and they had to earn each letter with exemplary behavior. It took 20 minutes for them to catch on, but by the end of the class, they were raising their hands quietly, not asking unrelated questions, and not talking with their neighbors. Their frustration with each other (when someone would start talking, etc.) provided a good opportunity to show them that their performance in class isn't the fault of their teachers. (Some of them wrote yesterday that they would have better marks if they had more free time...)
It was a clear day, so I walked home after my classes. I did some grading, read for a little bit, then took a nap. When I got up, I spent some time reflecting and meditating. I was feeling very discouraged about my purpose in being here, but God brought peace as I wrote out some of my thoughts and prayed over them. At 5, we had our team dinner over at John and Mary's. Lisa brought the kids (Andy is in Suly too) and we had an amazing Mexican dinner. Mary made enchiladas (with corn crepes ... mmmmm) and Lisa made a rice, bean, and corn salad. I brought the salsa and sour cream and was on KP (Kitchen Patrol for those who don't have military dads). Dinner was laid back and restful. We split up around 7, and I went home to take a shower. At 8, we had a Skype call with the home office. I went over to John and Mary's and we joined the conference call with Lisa (at her house) and Dave (in Nashville) - technology is amazing! There wasn't much to talk about - John and Henry are sick, Mary has a four day weekend, Andy and Lisa are waiting on the governor's approval for the basketball clinic, and I ... was sitting on the couch getting text messages from the curriculum coordinator with questions from the parents of my students. :) I was worried I was in trouble, but he reassured me that they just wanted to know what their students should bring for the project tomorrow. (At least it shows they care about my class!)
When we ended our call, I came home and Skyped with Mom. Of course she wasn't online, so I sent a message to Dad to ask Mom to log-on. It is fun to see how many people need to get involved in order to get Mom on the computer. At times I've asked people from church to text her, other times it is my sister in Portland who gives her a call ... one of these days I will probably have to ask a friend on the East Coast to call her. At least I know she doesn't spend all her time on the Internet! We had an encouraging conversation and I got to talk to Eithen for a little while. He is growing so fast, I know I will have a lot of catching up to do when I get home!
