Year One...check!

Today marked the end of my first year of teaching.  We had a fun day of getting excited for fourth grade, dancing, watching movies, and eating LOTS of chips!  The buses started honking as they drove away and we cheered and watched the kids hang half way out the window to say goodbye to us.  The tears started falling.  Not sure if I started crying because I am going to miss my kids or just that the most challenging year of my life is over (probably a little of both).  My dad texted me this morning, "Both your life and theirs is better for what has been accomplished"...I couldn't agree more!  The Lord has taught me so much about faith, peace, patience, and contentment over these last nine months.  I have also learned a lot about who I am as a teacher and the kind of teacher I do not want to be (usually through mistakes I made)!  My students also learned so much...I cannot believe they are going to be in the fourth grade!!  Our data was pretty good (math was awesome!!) and I am anxious to get state testing scores back over the summer.

Ahhh...summer! Here at last.  Now I truly understand the meaning of that quote in my parent's bathroom: "The best part about being a teacher-June, July, and August" (minus the August though).  After two days of post-planning, I will be heading home to celebrate Becky's wedding.  Then spending lots of quality time with my family, including a trip to the beach!  On June 13, I depart for a ten day mission trip to Cambodia through my church in Jackson.  So excited for this opportunity and also incredibly grateful for all of you who have supported my trip both prayerfully and financially.  My trip is fully funded plus some extra dollars to help the team!  After that, I plan on spending the rest of the summer in Rome making a little extra money, taking a class online, and preparing for my next year in Hazlehurst.

Speaking of my next year, I have some very exciting news!  I will be teaching ESL!  In case you are not familiar, that means I will be teaching English to students who are learning it as their second language!  All of the 36 (PK-12) ESL students at Hazlehurst are Hispanic and I actually got to meet many of them and their families tonight.  It has been almost two years since I really used my Spanish so I have a lot of brushing up to do this summer because the families will depend on me for a lot.  I am so excited about this opportunity and know that the Lord opened this door for a reason.  I am also slightly nervous with the responsibility of teaching these kids English and working with the families.  I will definitely have to devote a lot of time to it and I know there will be various challenges throughout the year.  But I continue to hold onto the Lord's promise in Philippians 1:6:
"Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you, will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

Be prepared for my next post to be full of exciting summer adventures!

Some of them even threw candy to us! 

Missing 6 on the last day but still a crazy group! #barewalls