This is why I teach

Good morning!

Now that it's Wednesday morning, I can finally send all of you an up-date!

This is why I teach:
There have been so many amazing stories in the past few weeks, but this one sticks out the most (probably because it happened yesterday and is still fresh in my mind!):
For those of you who have been sitting on the edge of your seats every Wednesday morning waiting for my weekly up-date (and I'm SURE that's all of you!) you may remember me describing Felix - the boy who wrote me a card and gave me a daffodil because he was 'crabby' (as the card said). Well, Felix comes from an incredibly loving family and yesterday his mom came in to say "Hello!" because we hadn't seen each other for a few weeks. I invited her to sit down so I could show her how well Felix was doing. I explained to her that when Felix first came to Springboard in September, he was sounding out every word in every sentence on every page, he would take a whole page to write one sentence because his handwriting was so big, and he needed a lot of support sounding out words to spell them and his mom completely agreed. NOW, as I explained to his mom, he's able to read books with 15-16 pages FLUENTLY (that means NO sounding out!!), he's able to write at least five sentences on one page and he can write those sentences without me having to sound out ANY words. His mom also completely agreed but she also commented on how much more confident he is with his reading, handwriting, and spelling than he was at the beginning of the school year, both in class and at home. This is exactly why Springboard exists and why I teach: to increase confidence in the children we teach which will then in turn allow them to feel they can learn to read, write, and spell. I love what I do :)

Picture of the week:
On Friday, the Springboard Centre at Kingswood Primary School (one of the schools I teach in) had an end of year party. We enjoyed amazing food, great drinks, and wonderful company. The picture below is of the coordinators (from left to right - Caroline, Beata, and Rebecca) and me. There are 43 children that Springboard teaches at Kingswood, which is why there is a need for three cooridnators and all of their brainy knowledge. Rebecca (and her husband - not pictured) is the lady I'll be moving in with at the end of July. The coordinators and the other part-time volunteers so loveingly put together scrapbooks for two of the other volunteers and me as a thank you for our time at Kingswood. I'll bring it to the U.S. this summer, so PLEASE ask to see it, as it's an amazing collection of letters and pictures from the kids I teach and other volunteers.



THANK YA JESUS!
I've got a few of these:
Praise God and THANK you for praying hard for direction concerning my role at Springboard for next school year. Three of my school days have been confirmed as a transition coordinator at local secondary school. This is really exciting not only for me, but also for Springboard, as working in secondary schools is something that will be brand new next school year. Because it's new, next school year will be our pilot year to measure how successful Springboard can/will be in a secondary school setting. We're not sure what our teaching will look like yet, but I'll be working closely with Springboard's Strategic Educational Director and we'll be working out what teaching model we think would work work best. I can't wait to use my knowledge to help kids in secondary school!
Praise God for sorting out my living situation for next school year. As I mentioned above and in past up-dates, I'll be living with Rebecca and Nat. They have a beautiful three story home - which I'll pretty much be taking over the third floor with the bedroom I'll be living in and attached bathroom. It's a perfect match - they're Americans and have four cats!
Send 'em up to the Big Man:
Amazingly enough, God has laid out my path for next school year concerning my living situation and my role within Springboard. It's now my turn to put my faith in action - on Sunday I'll be running a 10K to raise money for my flights to the UK in September and back to the US in August 2012 - so I can continue teaching children. If I'm honest about running, I'm a bit nervous, there's going to be THOUSANDS of people (not that all of them are going to be there watching me...) and I'm not that confident in my endurance for this run. If you could pray for God's strength and endurance to reign in me on Sunday, that would be incredibly helpful.

Hope to hear from all you soon!
Dana

--
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight.

- Proverbs 3:5 -

Dana's running again, check it out:
http://www.justgiving.com/Danasrunningagain

Hot chocolate, football, and the sea

Now that I’m back to my normal everyday routine, I’m able to sit down with a cup of tea and type out my weekly up-date (that I’m way past due on). Enjoy!

This is why I teach:
I was refreshed during the conference I attended in Doncaster last week and I survived the amazing but rainy camping weekend with some of the year 5 and 6 kids we teach at Springboard. There were only 12 of us volunteers at the conference but it was incredibly soul satisfying with lots of talking about saying good-bye, transitioning into a new part of life, discerning God’s calling in our lives, and (of course, it’s me) LOTS of laughter.
Following these few days of rest was an activity packed weekend with 16 ten and eleven year old children. For the past five school years, Springboard has partnered with a boarding school, called Milton Abbey, and they have hosted around kids and the chaperones from Springboard to camp in tents on their grounds. Believe it or not, a lot of the kids that went camping with Springboard have never been outside of the area they grew up in London, let alone leaving London. All of the students at Milton Abbey live at the school in dorm-like halls, and most come from very wealthy backgrounds. After the camping weekend, I thought about the fact that the teenage leaders who have access to anything in the world led children who come from practically nothing. The interaction between the two groups was incredible to observe. A few of the kids from the Springboard group had never seen the sea, live animals, or the countryside, yet for the teenagers at Milton Abbey these, and so many more experiences, are part of their every day lives. None of these external experiences hindered the relationships they built. Yes, these two groups were polar opposites (based on their background), but you wouldn’t have been able to tell that throughout the weekend: they both missed their parents, they both loved hot chocolate before bedtime, and they both wanted to stay up later enjoying the fresh country air. There were so many more similarities, as these were just a few, but these observations have reminded me that all humans have basic needs no matter what we’ve been through or where we come from. Sure, there was a bit more rain than I was expecting but to see the children from Springboard forget their past for just a few days and enjoy missing their parents, the wonderful hot chocolate before bed, and drinking in the fresh air was priceless ☺

Picture of the week:
Below is a picture of all the Springboard full time volunteers at the 'sea' (as the British call it) during the camping weekend. Tobi, Edwin, me, and Caroline are on the bottom row. Jeralee, Klara, and Erin are on the top row. Tobi, Caroline, and Jeralee have been my housemates for the past school year, and Edwin, Klara and Erin live together in another Springboard house 5 blocks away. It's been great getting to know them this past year, and I know they will be missed next school year.


THANK YA JESUS!
Thank you JESUS that camping with the Springboard children was a blast! All the kids had a wonderful and memorable time and the adults had enough energy to endure the constant energy that follows any child.

Send ‘em up to the Big Man:
Realizing I've been away for a whole week from teaching, there have been class trips and more days off that have yet interrupted my teaching of children. Please pray that the kids come back to Springboard this week with a fresh mind ready to absorb all the targets I have yet to introduce to each child.

I know some of you have been asking how you can help support me during my third year at Springboard, so here's your chance :) I'm running another 10K this July and have a hefty goal: run it under 50 minutes. I'm praying I'll be able to achieve this, but nonetheless I'm running on behalf of Springboard for Children. All the funds will get me back to the UK in September and to the US next August (this means all the money raised goes towards my flights). I've set up a JustGiving website, which is UK based and really easy to use: http://www.justgiving.com/Danasrunningagain . I know it uses the £, but if you go to this website: http://www.xe.com/ucc/ it will convert $ to £ so you can see how much you're donating. Every $ and £ helps me continue to teach the children at Springboard.

Thanks so much for all your support and prayers. Look forward to hearing from you :)

Dana