Picture of the week AND This is why I teach:
These 2 are combined again for this up-date. A few up-dates ago I explained that one of the boys I teach graduated from Springboard. Well, I got a new child, Micah, to teach. He's also in Year 2, which makes him about 6 or 7. Micah moved to Immanuel and St. Andrew's Primary School in January so the teachers and staff are still getting to know him and his background, which we still don't know very much. Although Micah is a sweet boy who will do anything asked of him, he has a very blank stare and seldom smiles let alone laughs (I had never seen either).
As I explained in earlier up-dates, Springboard uses a multi-sensory approach to teaching - which includes learning by visual learning (pictures), auditory learning (listening), and kinesthetic learning (movement). I like to incorporate as much kinesthetic learning (movement) into my lessons as often as possible, as I've found kids LOVE to move (WHAT A CONCEPT!!). Springboard has lots of materials to incorporate movement into lessons, one of them is using the Smart Chute (the picture is below). As you can see in the picture, you put a card with a picture in the top and then the answer (which is on the opposite side) comes out the bottom.
I had used the Smart Chute with Micah a few times - he needed to be able to hear the difference between his short vowels and we were practicing this - and he had no idea how the picture turned into the answer after the card had been placed in the Smart Chute. When we were finished using the Smart Chute, Micah was collecting all the cards and handed them to me and as I was putting them away, I dropped all of them thus revealing that the cards had the pictures on one side and the answer on the other side. The biggest smile I have EVER seen stretched across his face as he realized how the Smart Chute cards worked. This, in fact, made me smile, but what came to follow melted my heart even more. Micah was then given two sentences to write - he was working on capital letters at the beginning of sentences, periods at the end, and spelling all of his words correctly. In the past lessons, Micah needed lots of support with this task, but during this lesson he didn't need ANY of my help and succeeded in placing capital letters at the beginning of both sentences, placing periods at the end, and spelt all of his words in BOTH sentences correct ALL ON HIS OWN!!! After numerous expressionless lessons and thinking the big grin on his face earlier in the lesson was long past and forgotten, when he corrected his own work and realized he had no mistakes, I could feel his whole being beaming with pride at his perfect work. Although I absolutely LOVE teaching children and helping children realize their full potential, I'm blown away at the moment when a child can understand that they are brilliant and they can succeed when they put forth the effort that's needed to reach they truly are capable of. Micah blew me away.
THANK YA JESUS!
Praise God that I've found a place to live for next school year. I've decided to live in a house that I've house-sat a few times. I'm living with an American married couple, named Rebecca and Nat, who have three older children (the youngest just graduated college in New York). I've got a beautiful bedroom with my own bathroom attached, and they have four black cats to keep me company! This is truly something to praise God about because this location is close to four of the schools Springboard teaches in (two of which I'm teaching in now) and is really close to my life group members (Bible study members), who have become like family since I've been here.
Send 'em up to Jesus: I'm away on my last conference this school year, through my recieving organization in England called Time for God (http://www.timeforgod.org/). I'm heading to a place called Bawtry Hall (http://bawtryhall.bawtryhall.
Thanks so much for your continued support and prayers. Please keep sending me up-dates about your lives as well, I enjoy reading about you too :)
Dana
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