Well, I've gotta say, I'm glad it's Saturday. This past week has been pretty full, and I'm glad to have some time to just chill out a little. So, here's what's been going on:
Classes
Are going pretty well overall. This past week has been tough because as we're getting into some more difficult subjects in both Greek and Hebrew, students' efforts or lack thereof are starting to show. I've got some students who I can tell are nailing this stuff to the wall, and others who are a good week behind. The good students are the ones who keep me coming back every day....the others (the ones who aren't applying themselves) tend to drain my energy. I came to the realization this week that I'm probably going to end up failing several students who are just missing classes and quizzes left and right, which is kind of depressing : ( I keep having new students injected into the classes, even though we're like two weeks into it right now, and that kind of adds to the stress.
Because new students just keep coming to the school, I keep having brand new people injected into my classes. Between Greek (40ish) and Hebrew (33ish), I've got over 70 students right now! It's great to have the opportunity to impact that many students, but it's also presents a few problems. 1) Connecting with classes that large is hard, 2) Catching the new students up to speed is tough, 3) Grading - class attendance and quizzes both get a lot more interesting with 70 people! All in all, though, the students are learning, grades are looking good, and hopefully they'll leave the class with some good tools to help them in ministry.
Kiddos
Been getting to spend some more time with the kids this week. One of the nights earlier in the week, Jacob, Jean, Christy and I all sat down with a bunch of the girls and helped them with their English, read stuff to them, etc., which was a lot of fun. Up to that point, I'd mainly been hanging out with the boys, so it was good to get to connect with the girls a little.
Speaking of the boys, I'm making some good progress with them. I had been struggling up to this point to find a good balance between having fun with them and getting mobbed. You see, if you pick one of them up and swing him around, etc., you automatically have a line of like 10 other guys pushing each other to get in line so that you can do it to them. Well, this week I started playing this finger/number game with them. Basically, you hold up numbers and they try to guess what the number is (it's not usually what you're holding up - there's a secret they have to figure out). Anyway, they really like it, and I think it's a lot better for them than me just being a human circus ride, haha.
From day one, there has been this one little guy, Esaran, who has always kind of made a point to find me whenever I'm around. He's 11 years old, I think, and really seems to be mature for his age and has a great attitude...not really grabby like some of the kids can be. Anyway, I've kind of been trying to make sure I get to hang out with him a little more lately. One of the things that God's been teaching me in the last week or so is to really envision the potential in people, my own actions, whatever. I have no idea of what impact I could have on Esaran or someone like him, but God has great plans for him, and anything that I can do to invest in him is automatically worth it.
Caleb! oh fun fun fun, I like reading your blog. sorry for the frustration with your students... have you talked to 'em about why they're skipping class and quizzes and stuff? maybe there's something y'all could work out if they're overwhelmed or have family issues or somethin'. I'm sure it's all very challenging... keri and I are going to have a party for people who busted the brains over the summer and are looking forward to everything being much easier back at school, I think you should probably join :)
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