Reflections of the week

*Note: This will more than likely be a long post just in case you are short on time when you are reading this.*

This week has been a long, frustrating week but also a good week. Let's start with Monday. Monday was a Day 1 for us which means it was my duty day. I had morning and afternoon duty. I don't really remember buch of what happened on Monday because so much has happened since then but I do remember that it was busy and rushed especially at the end of the day while I was trying to get the students out so I could get to duty. By the afternoon I know I had a headache and I was frustrated with the noise level of my students. I left shortly after my duty was over to take a nap.

Tuesday came and all I really wanted during Tuesday was 45 more minutes of teaching time. Tuesday started off with Chapel. It was also Megan's chapel this week. It was a very different chapel but a wonderful chapel. First of all we were sitting a different way (kinda hard to explain but think of a rectangle. We usually sit facing the top of one of the shorter sides. This week we were facing the long side. We fit but not as comfortably as usual.) Then the chapel was very different because it was not students acting out a play but students reading a bible story while making a picture out of cloth on the wall behind them. It was beautiful. This started off the morning well.

Once I began teaching though everything we did took longer than expected and we were behind and rushed all day long. Not to mention the weather had changed because a typhoon was approaching Hong Kong and the students were full of energy and were not settling down well. I had to leave early on Tuesday as well because our landlord was coming to look at the air conditioning unit in my bedroom that hasn't worked since I moved in. He was also looking at a few other things.

Well Gostick (the amazing lady that helps all new teachers get in their paper work as well as helping current teachers renew paper work and communicate with landlords as necessary) and I left around 4:30 to head to my apartment. She came along as the translator. It actually wasn't my landlord that came but his brother-in-law, his wife and another lady that I'm assuming was his sister maybe. They looked at both the air conditioner in the dining room and in my room and concluded they were both broken and would have to be replaced. Yeah for me I'll get a new air conditioner, but I havn't heard back yet so it might be a few more weeks until I have a working air conditioner in my room. So basically that was Tuesday and we were all hoping that the typhoon would not turn east but come closer to Hong Kong. Not that we really wanted to be hit full on by a typhoon but that we all were hoping for a day off and it has to be typhoon 8 in order for school to be closed.

The typhoon did not come that close to Hong Kong; we had school. It did got to typhoon 3 which means the kindergarten was closed however.

Since camp for this year has ended, I am now considered the director for the 4th and 5th grade camp since Andy decided I should run it next year. Well I did take lots of notes and ask lots of questions this year in order to be ready for next year but I was not prepared for the headache of Wednesday. Karen Lee called to reserve the camp for next May (the days originally set aside). Well those days were already booked. Keith came and asked me if I would like to move the camp to the fall because we had all previously talked about this. I was open to it and by lunch time Karen had 3 seperate times reserved for us at the camp: one in May, one in November, and one in October. Well the one in May would not work because it was Monday-Wednesday and we would have school the following 2 days. The days in November also would not work because the pool would be closed. We settled for October but then realized that that it was between Chinese National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival which is called Golden Week in China. The more I thought about it the more unsure I was about having the kids away those 3 days because I did not know how many families would have plans for the afternoon and evening.
Well it continued to get more and more confusing. I spent my entire one special of the day conferencing with Keith, Tim, Karen, and Patti about days to have camp. Everyday we came up with did not work. Finally we found 3 days the last week of September. I think they work but I'm still not sure on that. However, during this time we also looked into other camps that were very similar to the one we went to. Tim booked us for our 3 preferred days in October at that camp and Patti and I were going to go there on Sat. to visit. Well we found out on Thursday that that reservation feel through because we were not even allowed to come until 1 in the afternoon on the first day. Let's just say it was craziness. I'm still not sure where camp is and what's going on during that time but I do know that Andy gave me a huge headache when he handed camp over to me. I'm working more on Camp stuff next week. Oh and the interesting part that I found out on Thursday about all of this was that Wednesdaywas the first day any school in Hong Kong could reserve time for next school year at any of the government camps in Hong Kong and we were already having that much trouble. I just wanted to scream during it all.

We finished Wednesday off with a staff meeting. I only half-heard what was going on because I was still working on camp stuff and looking at things on the computer about different camps in Hong Kong. I did keep up with the highlights of what I needed to know and then zoned out while people gave differing opinions on topics that I felt were not a huge issue and just waited for the decision to be made. I was not alone in this because I asked Salome at one point what was going on and she didn't know either.

Thursday was a hard because I was trying to get in serveral retakes of tests and make-up tests in during the day so I really didn't have a break. We were also very rushed in ourl anguage arts time. I feel like I'm trying to get too much done in a very short time. I can already feel the rush at the end of the year here. We still have 3 full weeks of teaching but I have about 5 weeks of things that need to get in. I know it won't happen but we are doing the best that we can. We are also starting Literature Circles which are great but they take a lot of time to set up and they are brand new to the students so they are still learning how to talk about their books even though we have tried to work on this all during the school year with their reading journals. I'm anxious to see how they go starting next week.

Friday went by so fast it's hard to believe it's already Saturday. We finished our Force and Motion unit on Friday with their test and we finished setting up Literature Circles and chose books. We also are working hard on division (long division - it's been so long since I've done long division that it doesn't seem familiar to me. I forgot how much of it starts with estimation and really knowing your multiplication facts). I'm also working hard with those students that are lagging a little behind right now to help this stay up with the class this last term. It takes almost all of my breaks and leaves me with a lot of work to do after school but that's okay because it's just a few more weeks.

I'm thankful the week is over but it's also sad to me. I have a great class and I'm really going to miss them. They were an awesome first class to have and I am having trouble believing that I have almost finished my first year of teaching. They always talk about how hard it is and how much work it is and how it gets better and I can see that now but it came so fast that I am having trouble believing that I really am about to be a second year teacher. I know I grew a lot in my understanding of my profession this year (particularly in classroom management) however I feel like I left a lot of knowledge back at Berry that I want to pick back up and apply to my teaching. I found that in the rush of the year and trying to stay up with the workload that I feel into the teaching styles that were here and not teaching the way I was taught to teach. I don't think I did a terrible job this year but I feel that I can do better and part of that is to incorporate my knowledge from college. What I was learning in college is the recent research in my field and I need to apply that I feel.

There are a lot of changes that I want to make and I realize that it will take time for some of them to be made but some of them are going to have to start right off at the beginning of the year. I want to use what I know about cooperative groups and working with ESL (English as a second language) students and about analyzing students reading and writing abilities. I also want to run my classroom with my own management styles and not those of my teammates because it did not work well for me. It was okay but I know that it can be better. I want my classroom to be more student and teacher centered and not teacher centered.

Okay moving past my professional reflections although there are many more and time to talk about my summer plans. I have been working on them for a few weeks now and during all of my spare time find myself doing only that.

I'm so excited about the summer. Meredith Peterson (my college roommate my junior and senior years) will be coming a few short days after I finish school and we will be immediately flying to Australia. We are going to spend a week there an have been blessed by a family friend of theirs who is allowing us to stay at her home. We will mainly be in Sydney but also hope to fly up and see the Great Barrier Reef. I'm very excited about this and it's only the first week of my summer vacation!!!

We will then fly back to Hong Kong and hang out there for about a week (Meredith is stayin for a month!). Meredith Meeks, another fabulous friend from college, will join us at the end of the week and we will be going up into China. We are going to Beijing and Xian and hopefully a day in Shenzhen just across the border here for some cheap gifts and such. While in China we plan to see the Great Wall and the Terra Cotta soldiers as well as a few other things. It's going to be amazing. Then we will come back to Hong Kong and hang out for another week before they have to head back to the States. I then have 2 weeks of rest and some school work to do before my second year of teaching starts! I'm so excited about this summer and look forward to both Merediths coming to visit. We are going to have so much fun. Anyway, that is the plan currently and I feel so blessed to have these opportunities. It amazes me at what opportunities I do have because I never would have dreamed it a few years ago. I remember thinking when I was a Sojourner in Washington five summers ago (I can't believe it was that long ago!) that I couldn't imagine being an international missionary. One of the girls that I worked with that summer Lezli-O'Neal wanted to be an international missionary and even said she would have gone that summer but she was too young (she had just completed her junior year of high school). It's hard to believe that I am now living and working overseas. Although I am not with a mission board, I am still a missionary because we are all missionaries where we are. God has a purpose for each of us and has each of us where we are for a reason. God has brought me to Hong Kong and I am very blessed to be here but I also know that it is for a reason and I do have the opportunity to share His gift with those around me, specifically my students. I'm so thankful for that.

Oh I almost forgot, today has been a great day too! Athania is moving back to the States this summer and has been selling her furniture. I bought her dryer and today I went to pick it up. Kathie Glenn and I went together because we both had a few small things and we both lived at Granville. I got up early to meet Kathie and we went to Athania's. We had arranged for a van to pick us up at 10 and at 10:15 a van pulls up and backs up to where we were. Thinking it was the van that Tim had called for us the day before we loaded up. On the way home though, Kathie and I realized that it wasn't the right van. Tim had told me that our van driver spoke English well and his name started with an F (I forgot the name). Anyway, the driver asked us as we left where we were going which I thought was odd because I know Tim had told him where we were going. Then we saw his card and it said Ben. Our driver was Ben and barely spoke English. Kathie and I laughed quite a bit and tried to get up with Tim to let the other driver know. It was an interesting experience. Anyway, Mark meet us downstairs and helped me get my dryer upstairs and then helped Kathie get her furniture to her flat. I am very excited to have a dryer!!!!! I have done two loads of laundry and it's so nice to be able to wash and dry my clothes in the same day! I'm very excited about it. I hope to find a better location for it this summer but it will do for now (it's currently in the dining room).

Well I think that is all for right now. It was an interesting week and definitely ended better than it started but still a good week. Now only 3 weeks of teaching and 1 week of fun before summer vacation! Have a wonderful day!