Update

The hardest part of this semester is not the workload or the stress or early alarm clock. The hardest part is getting adjusted to the huge decrease of time that I have to spend with the people I love when I get home from school! I LOVE AND MISS Y’ALL!

My heart sang on Wednesday during Social Studies as an ordinary group lesson turned into a harder lesson about kindness and teamwork. This is what teaching is all about I think: to be able to be “real” with students in the midst of learning. This is how I fell in love with teaching in the first place!

I had the students work in groups to become “masters” on a particular section of their Social Studies book. I didn’t anticipate the disagreements that would arise or the tears that would fall from students being frustrated in their groups, because I thought it was such a simple assignment. Turns out I was wrong, but I know it was for the better. I kept hearing myself say in a warm-demanding way, “Teamwork is hard. I understand. Be kind. Figure it out.” The project has only just begun so we’ll see how it turns out! :)

Then, I believe that God Himself must have ordained me to grab this particular book to read at the end of the day, because it was the perfect book to go along with the lessons in kindness and teamwork we had just talked about. The book was The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss. It’s packed full of life lessons, and we talked about every single one as the students were being called to the buses. It felt like a family. Again, this is what teaching is all about.

Update on Brazil:

§  We’ve applied for Visas!

§  I’m trying to learn some Portuguese!