"The dawn is breaking, a light shining through"- Howie Day

The last few weeks of school has been a different experience for me. I can’t quite explain it, but God is doing something there. I’m actually starting to enjoy teaching these children. Now, there are still days like this past Wednesday where the kids are little horrors…only 5 kids ended up on green! However, despite the hard times, the kids are blossoming.
This weeks spelling tests were the best ever, especially for one child who at the beginning of school didn’t know his letters and this week he got a 5/6 on his test! The math test yesterday proved to be a success as well. Finally these kids are understanding the adding concept and how to draw out a word problem! Praise God, my first Parent-Teacher conferences went really well! One of the parents said to me, “You know, you may not have heard much about what the other parents are saying, but it’s a good thing. So many people are talking about what a good job you are doing with our kids.” That really touched my heart. A week or so after that, I had my first official observation by the principal of the school. I had to type up a lesson plan and fill out 2 pages about how I was going to run the lesson and reach the kids. I decided to teach Language Arts for the lesson since that is the main thing I am working on with these kids and also something I can expand on with my own creativity. We re-read a story together about kids on a walk looking for certain things. Then I pulled out a map I made of the school and we went searching for lily pads and a pile of rocks on campus using that map. When we came back we discussed it and did our spelling review worksheet and then exercised to our high-frequency words. I had a meeting the following week as a follow up with the principal. I got an “excellent” review! In fact, in the section where it said “Weaknesses” she had to ask me what to put in there! I was elated. I have never done amazingly academically so to be told I was “excellent” really lifted my spirits. After our observations, she is assigning us to observe other teachers so that we can better ourselves. She asked me at the end of the meeting how many teachers she is allowed to assign to observe me! Wow! Praise Jesus that he has blessed me and the people who taught me how to teach!