The Week One Done!

Well, The first week of school has come and gone. It was one of the strangest weeks I can say that I have ever had. Satan is really working in all areas to keep the school from running smoothly and for the kids to be distracted. I will not go into details but just pray for all of us. I would love to share each child's name, but I am not sure that is a good idea. So, just pray for the students of Indian Bible Academy, there families and community. Since this is a mission school, any prayer is really appreciated. Each of the teachers and the administration need prayer also. I will list our names at the end of this blog post.

We have 15 students in our school. Last year there was only two teachers with 16 students between us. Last year, I taught all subjects to 9 students and the other teacher had 7 students teaching all subjects.  I think this year will be much better.

I have 6 (1st grade through 4th grade) students in the morning and 5 (4th grade through 7th grade) in the afternoon. I teach reading, language, spelling and math. The other elementary teacher, teaches science, social studies, health, and writing. We switch classes at lunch.

My class room is 12 ft by 19 ft, that is 228 sq feet. It is not a big space. Making the most out of it is a must! I am glad I only have a few students, if I had to fit more than 9 or 10 in the class it would not be doable.

taken from back of classroom

taken from front of classroom

East Wall

West Wall

This year I have had time to get ready for school knowing I was going to be teaching full time. Last year it was hard because I basically found out the day school started that I would be teaching full time. I had no time to prepare. So, needless to say my classroom feels more organized at least even if it isn't. I also have been lucky that my daughter is here. She has helped a bunch and I am sure will continue to help. My teaching desk this past week was a whiteboard on a filing cabinets. I bought a new black table that is adjustable.

makeshift teaching table

I need to stop buying things... it doesn't help my budget any.  But I needed the bulletin board for calendar time activities and I wanted to have a birthday calendar this year also.

Birthdays

Calendar Activity Board

I made prayer cards for the students to start praying on their own. Talking to God is important to do daily. God just wants us to talk to Him like He was a friend sitting right beside us. He already knows our hearts He wants to hear us voice it. I think that is a part of the day that most of the children like. Especially one in particular. Last year he wanted to pray during group time out loud. Unfortunately, his brother laughed at him and it made that time and the rest of the day less productive for us all. This year he is very eager to pray, I think not only because we split the two of them up but also because it is an individual time.

Prayer Cards and Brag Tags

I am trying everything I can think of to make this year run smoothly, one thing I hope will help is progress reports every 2 weeks and caught being good tickets. So far, the caught being good tickets are working, and my hope is that with the progress reports the parents will begin to take a more active role in the education of their children. There is a lot of work to still be done, I know God has a plan and I hope that I am following it. We will see as the year progresses.

Thanks for reading. God Bless You All!

Please pray for:

Indian Bible Academy (Louisiana)
Pastor John
Ms. Erika (High School Teacher)
Mr. Andy (Elementary Teacher)
and Me, Ms. Vanessa (Elementary Teacher)