...still smiling.

It seems like there is so much, and so little, to update here from the two weeks since my last posting. Ground zero: I'm still smiling. :) God is good.Teaching is continuing to be a very steep learning curve, but I have many people at the school who are encouraging me, and providing both constructive and positive feedback on my preparation and delivery of lessons. I have two ladies doing the majority of my assessment, and both have expressed how impressed they are with my work after only three weeks in the classroom. This week I will be adding a fourth class to my full time schedule. So far I have been teaching novel study units to a grade seven class and two grade eight classes. This week I will be starting a similar novel study unit with a grade eight "literacy" class of seventeen students who are currently reading at about a grade three level. I will be reading aloud to them from our novel (The Outsiders) each day, and then they will work on the same coursework as the other grade eight classes have been completing. Their only set-back, really, is reading - I expect they will perform with incredible success once we establish a routine this week.

Last Sunday could have been a brutal Superstore survival exercise, but yay for cameras! Jackie, Jess Rispin, and I joined a line 25 deep for the self check-out till, and avioded boredom by doing a tag-team relay scavenger hunt in the store to find items beginning with each letter of the alphabet. Our finished product is now posted on the house white board as the "don't forget to buy..." list.

Last night, Jackie, Melissa, and I went to a concert on campus by The Hunter Family Singers. The family is Mom, Dad, and five boys (age 27 - 14), and they all sing incredibly well. It is almost unfair how much talent has been packed into that family! Melissa has known them for quite a while, and along with a superb Country Gospel set, we had a blast hanging out at Tim Hortons for a while after the concert.





I think that's all for now, folks. I need to get back to lesson planning for the week. My weekly and daily plans are becoming more elaborate as I add classes to my list. I am thankful that three are working on the same curriculum, though they are all at different stages of completion. It has two major benefits: I can produce one lesson plan for two or three classes at a time, and I have the opportunity to improve my teaching of a particular concept with three extremely different groups of students. It truly is a great growing opportunity.

Until next time, all my love. Jessica.