2nd year of teaching

This past week has been a whirlwind. Nothing in this past week turned out how I had planned it and saw going to happen, but God knew. He knew perfectly well and gave me the strength, the wisdom and support from others to walk through it.

School suddenly closed down unexpectedly on Tuesday because of the MERS outbreak in our area. NO end of the year breakfast party or real good-byes instead I have to trust that sending a letter to each of my students will show them just how much I have loved having this year with them even though personally it was a very challenging year. These students showed me so much grace and love. They taught me how to practice more patience and God used them to help me draw on Him for strength throughout the day instead of depending on myself. It’s amazing to think that most of my day is spent with little second graders trying my best to teach them the world and to show Christ to them.

 As I reflect on this past year knowing it was only my second year of teaching my heart feels overwhelmed thinking that God has so passionately placed me in this profession to love on each child that enters my classroom door, to show them the world and grow their knowledge. The past two years of teaching have been hard trying to figure out how I want to teach and help my students grow. As I quickly packed up my classroom this year in the chaos I made a choice to not transfer a lot of my files from the past two years and throw away a lot of papers because I want to change. I don’t think I have been a bad teacher the last two years, but I also slowly was losing my passion- I want to be excited about teaching each and every day. I believe it is something that my students deserve from me. They deserve to have a teacher who is dedicated, engaged and a life-long learner!

Oh, this class of boys and one girl!

This summer is going to be filled with lots and lots of rest and allowing God to refresh me so that my heart and soul will be ready to teach and love on each child that enters into my classroom. I need so much energy to teach so I am going to try to store up on it this summer (that’s how it works, right?! J) This summer will also be filled with lots of research, studying and planning how I want to teach this next year! If you have any great ideas- please feel free to share!

My original class at the beginning of the year!

Anyways, back to my class. My class changed so much this year. We started out as a class of 6 then went to a class of 5 then 6 then 5 again! This class rocked transition and accepted each other so well. We became a little family- the good and bads. How can you not get a little annoyed with each other when there is only 5ish people to be pair with. We enjoyed lots of laughs and even more physically activity with all our energy (not the teacher’s energy though)! We loved learning about camping, and Christmas around the World! Science experiments were our favorite and we enjoyed being tech pals with another second grade class in Bolivia as well as being pen pals with a Kindergarten class in North Carolina! What a fun and challenging year of my second year of teaching! J

What a year it has been with these little ones!