Busy School Days
Last week I began my new job in Launceston, three hours from home. It is an answer to prayer that I have a job. I am also thanking God for a place to board, with a lovely elderly lady from the presbyterian church. I only need to be here three nights a week, but I will spend some weekends as otherwise there is too much travelling. My job is three days a week, which is what I wanted. I work with Prep students (5 year olds) as a teacher's aid every day, and also care for Kindergarten students (4 year olds) on two afternoons. There are only 3 Prep students at the moment - all girls. I may soon have two boys as well. There are 4 Kindergarten students, three girls and one boy.
In my first week, my most pressing questions seemed to be "how do I get them to keep their shoes on" and "how do I get them to make less noise". Deep, I know.
On Thursday three children cried, one twice. Two other children were seriously upset. I know, I am scary. I haven't cried once yet though - at least not at school. Today was unusual: no one cried. At least, not that I remember.
I am grateful for a sense of humour. Mum, Dad, and I laughed about my experiences for about half an hour when I got home last Thursday night. Things have been better since I instituted a reward system based on keeping five shiny, laminated cardboard apples on your cardboard apple tree. Apples get removed if you break the rules. If you keep all your apples all day, you get a big shiny, laminated apple to put on your tree. If you get three such apples, you get a special treat.
One child in my class can recite a paraphrase of the 10 commandments, so I'm having her teach the others. No doubt I'll remember them better because of her, too! She also says great prayers. All the children are very excited about praying, and eagerly volunteer every time I ask.
We have been learning the sounds of the letter A, how to write A and a, how to do what "Teacher" says, how to remember that "Teacher" is called "Miss Ward", etc. Everyone is still settling in - me included!
