Kouman ou yey?! :)
I hope you all are doing well! I wanted to post something really quick while we know we still have internet! We didn't have internet Wed-Saturday of last week, then none again for 2 days early this week... I'm using it now!! :) lol
God is so amazing!! Here is a little something, and please be praying for Liberty Academy, the teachers, and students...
This week was the first full week of school. It started last Thursday, and was unfortunately a terrible day for me, and I know for some of the rest of the team...Things this week have picked up so much though, and I'm really starting to have fun with my class and getting into a set routine that works!! Praise God!! He is so good and gotten me through a whole lot already... Just a heads up though on what my days look like, here is my schedule:
8:15am Prayer and Pledge (whole school of 35 kids)
8:30am- High School History
I am teaching US History + Haitian History from 1940's until today. We have almost nothing on Haitian history, so this will probably have to start in January and I need to look for Haitian history books or information while I'm at home to print and bring back with me.
9:30am- Middle School History
The textbook is called 'New World History and Geography from a Christian Perspective,' so it's all on North & South America. They did all of the European countries and Asia last year, so I'm not sure yet what I'm going to be teaching. I haven't had a chance to go through the book yet, which is what I'm going to be doing this weekend.
10:30am- High School English
On some days I'm going to give them time to read and do comprehension questions in class for 25 minutes, and other days I'm going to be teaching between vocabulary, grammar, and reviewing the parts of speech... We are reading Shakespeare first, so they picked King Lear as their class book to read, and a comedy of their choice for SSR... I kinda made that up on the fly, so I guess now I'm just going to focus on Study Guides, quizzes, and projects for them to do all on Shakespeare this months of September/October... 2 out of the 3 students have to a research project too, so any help on how to teach them that would be helpful!! :)
11:30am- LUNCH
12:00pm- Middle School English
Same as High School English description, without the research paper, but they will have to write a lot more than they did last year. Haitian schools have almost no critical thinking lessons to them, so we are going to have to do a lot of comprehension questions to get them to think on their own, and I have to teach some of them in an "English as a Second Language" class, but mostly they speak English fairly well. They are at a 4th-5th grade reading level though, so I'm going to have to catch them up if I can... Book suggestions would be great!
1:00pm- teacher break for me
2:00pm- Tuesdays/Thursdays Middle School Study Hall (Mon/Wed/Fri break again for me)
3:00 School is out/ Wed- staff meeting until 4
Here are all the names of my students, so please be in prayer for us and each of them as we start this school year really off. I love them all so much!!! :)
Middle School: Harry, Erwann, Stacy, Alex, Isrielle, Ilishia, Shamma
High School: Jeff, Woodeline, and Luke
We are doing devotions together every morning, so please pray for wisdom and chains being broken through that, and that we may be used to glorify Him in everything we do. <3
God point of the week:
We hired a 'lunch lady' to make food for the teachers and administration (about 15 ppl) everyday at the school. This woman is an amazing woman of God. In a country where 80% is unemployed and have absolutely nothing but a 2 bedroom mud house, this woman is a true testimony of loving the Lord. This is her first job in Lord knows how long, and when we told her we were paying her Friday for this month's work, she said she wasn't even going to look at the amount, and she was donating all of it to her church since our firstfriuts belong to the Lord. (Proverbs 3:9) There is no comparison i could think of on how HUGE of a deal this is... And she didn't say it for attention- she just said it cause she loves the Lord, and that's how thankful she is for having a job. She understands how much this life is not hears, and I am so blessed to be in her presence everyday.
We came to serve, learn, and share with the Haitians- we didn't come to teach them anything other being an example of Christ's love for them, but i am realizing how much we can truly learn from them about loving, serving, and praising the Lord. The ones who 'get it' know how much they need Him, and we have no idea how to live out our faith sometimes, but this woman does.
I can't wait to share more with you, but I'm off to family dinner at the mission and then worship on the beach with a short-term team that's here. I love you all so much, and please continue to keep Haiti in your prayers. <3
Orevwa!