Teaching and Learning

Boy have I been a slacker in the blogging department.  I've left all of you on the edge of your seats - and I'm so sorry!  Actually, you've been doing just fine without me.  I know better than to think there is anyone out there waiting breathlessly for my posts.  The Pioneer Woman I am not.  I don't ever offer giveaways of Kitchen-Aid mixers or fabulous jewelry.  Sorry - I have no sponsors!  I do have some fantastic mid-century light fixtures and several back-issues of "Real Simple" if anyone's interested!

"So what have you been doing Becky?" you ask with a yawn.  Well, since you asked...

Things with our adoption work have been hopping and since our ministry director has been in Ethiopia for several weeks, I've been trying to 'hold down the fort,' so to speak, in her absence.  That means answering multiple emails, talking to many prospective and currently adopting families on the phone, posting blog updates from Ethiopia, processing new children from our orphanages and trying to stay abreast of the current updates to the legal process in Ethiopia.  Last month, five children were brought home to their forever families here in the US - two in Ohio, one in Kansas, one in California and one in Hawaii.  All were children who had no hope or future in Africa.  All are now in homes with a mom and a dad who will love and hug and disciple and provide for them.  It just doesn't get better than that! 

How am I so blessed to be a part of something so wonderful??

I have also been doing a little substitute teaching.  And while I'm much more comfortable in the primary grades, where I am (usually) loved and listened to...

I have recently accepted several requests to serve time teach in the SIXTH GRADE.

Did I tell you I am a primary grade teacher?  I use puppets and stars on the board for motivation.  I tell silly stories and tie shoes.  I have an invisible flea who keeps the class mesmerized.  I open packages of fruit-by-the-foot and read Ramona the Brave.

So when I got a call at 7:00 am asking me to be there by 8:00 and to teach dividing integers and graphing equations using the sympodium, I'll admit I sort of panicked.  Would they all be quiet when I showed them my puppet?  Would they like my "Anything Family" story?  

So you're getting the picture here.  I knew I wasn't prepared.  Forget the Masters degree.  Forget the confident, in-charge person I like to think I am.  They were going to eat me alive.

When you think of a substitute teacher, doesn't something like this picture come to mind? 

But guess what?  They were a bunch of little kids!  Yes, they were in some pretty awkward bodies.  But they were totally motivated by earning stars for extra free time and they cracked me up with their dramatic presentations of the Civil War.  One poor kid would not stop (loudly) describing the zit on his chin and a sweet girl talked to me at length about the children's book she was writing.  What great kids! 

So, I survived.  Then I came home and collapsed on the couch. 

How about you?  How was your week?