Finishing Well

Then There Were Two ...

It happens every school year for me, I begin gearing up in August prepping my classroom and resources and getting everything ready for the coming invasion of little, excited bodies. I watch them learn and grow and soak in an amazing amount of information in a seemingly short time. Although the dark winter months seem to drag by, Spring hits in a blink of an eye and I am left standing in an empty room in June, wondering how we got here so soon!


This year I began with 5 students - 5 nationalities speaking 5 different languages. People have often expressed to me how amazing and hard it must be to teach such a diverse group of children. Though it can be difficult, I find it so inspiring to see these kids relate to one another; to go from survival mode of communicating through hand gestures, squeaks and even animal noises, to full English conversations in a matter of months even weeks. It astounds me every time.

I think the hardest part of this job is the nature of the beast that is international school life - people leave. Due to the transient life of the expatriate community we will have many students come and go throughout the year. We had many goodbyes this year and our class of 5 ended the year as a class of 2. It was hard for us and we prayed many prayers for new friends to come. We continue to pray for more students for the Fall and I look forward to seeing who will be joining us next year.

Now for a quick look at what we have been up to for the past two months.


Classroom Fun

There are many new things to explore in grade one and one of my favourites to do is to introduce new things to my students that they may have never seen before. The wonder of discovery just warms the heart of any teacher and hearing exclamations of "WOW! How did you do that?"  I think what is even better is when you teach these concepts to adults who never had the pleasure of experiencing them during their childhood. One such experience happened when I invited a fellow co-worker, our high school History teacher, to come play with us during our science experiments in discovering liquids, solids and what happens when you mix them together. Oh the joys of something so simple as cornstarch and water :)

 

My favourite moment was when one of my students was surprised that Mr. Bowan had never done such an experiment before and exclaimed "Didn't you go to first grade?"

Just to get an idea of the fun that comes from teaching grade one see the video above as MinJu desperately strives to make a snowman.


Field Fun Day ... With No Field

This year our all school field day got rained out so we improvised and had Gym Fun Day. It was neat to see our older kids interact with the little ones and the fun that was shared by all.

 

Spring Concert

Our kids recited Psalm 23 and sang Man of Sorrows. They did a great job though the first line of  Man of Sorrows got stuck in one of my students' head. For the remainder of the year, multiple times throughout the day, I would hear "Man of sorrows what a name..." on repeat, over and over and over. I guess there are worse things that my kids could sing on repeat. Sure beats Jingle Bells Batman Smells which was the previous month's favourite.

Taking the Monkeys to the Zoo

Nothing like an end of the year field trip to the zoo!

 

 

Year End Fun!

Water balloon fight on a hot day to celebrate reaching our reading goal.

 

 

Playing so hard is exhausting :)

Let's Celebrate

So we had reason to celebrate this year! It was our 10th year as a school and so we had a grand 10 year party. We celebrated with games, a fun run and a 5km race followed by a BBQ and short presentation with encouraging words from our first graduating class.

 

 

 
 

Our first CISP Graduating class

The following day we sent out our graduating class of 2014. They were an amazing group of kids and I look forward to hearing the stories about where they go next from here.

Celebrating as a Staff

We finished out the year with our staff year end party. where we went on a boat cruise on the Vltava. It was a lovely time of visiting, seeing the beautiful city we live in, saying goodbye to leaving staff members and celebrating a year well done.

Our TeachBeyond Team

 

"I will be here forever"

Saw this on the wall as we were nearing the end of our tour on the river. Saying goodbye to many friends had me ponder the question "how long will I be here?" I really don't know the answer to such a question and when people ask it I answer:
"I will be here until God calls me elsewhere." So I may not be here in Prague forever but I will be serving the Kingdom forever, wherever that may be.