Friday, November 25, 2011

The end of the tunnel is in sight...

Today was our Christmas music assembly (which was my bright, not thinking "Oh, that's report card wee!k" idea...), and thought it went for almost two hours, I think it was really good. Some people could have practiced more, the heart-stopping technical failure was a little much (PtL it was able to be fixed), and overall I think a good time was had by all. I want to do that again next year, but I hope it will be shorter, and I hope to have things organized better.

I'm still plugging away at report cards--I have till tomorrow midnight to get them in. The server is down tonight so I'm about to head home to pack since I can't get at the report cards. I have to have my luggage over at Kalene before Sunday because we'll be full on Thursday, so over I go. It's really weird to be packing to be a guest in my own home...

I only have one more final to mark--the grade 6 grammar, and then it's just the long process of trying to write intelligent comments. I find that the tireder I get, the worse I see, hear, type, walk, talk, and pretty much do everything. I think I might have to take a celebratory nap on Sunday...

Okay, enough rambling. Back to packing! It's a month from Christmas today!

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

I have officially started filling out my report cards, and despite minor setbacks I made a good start tonight.

If you think about it, an extra prayer or two for me would be appreciated. For this last week of school my work load pretty much triples, and there are some days that if it wasn't for clinging to the promise that God can and will bless my little effort and make it bigger than anything I can do on my own. I'm also holding onto the knowledge that I'll get to sleep on the plane next Friday. NEXT FRIDAY!

I can't wait to be home.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Only 10 more crazy days!

Well, the last week and a half of school are here! The insane, crazy, hard-as-all-get-out, final last weeks, and I’m already starting to feel a little crazy. Thank goodness we have a great God who shows His strength in my weakness!

I have to laugh the other day when I was talking to one of my fifth grade students, and we were discussing what classification Psalms, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes falls under. I commented that it was so cool that the wisest man, Solomon, had left us his wisdom, and my student said, “Well, I don’t think all of his books are really wise.” Somewhat startled, I asked him which one he had in mind. “Oh, I started reading The Song of Solomon and I don’t think he was in his right mind.” Sometimes it’s so hard not to loose it right then and there…

I’ve started this extremely hard nosed policy with nameless work—you didn’t name it, it doesn’t exist! I had a kid re-doing his castle layout because of namelessness, and when he turned in his very nice replacement, it still didn’t have his name on it. Oh dear…

One thing that makes these two weeks so stressful is the compiling of reports and making some hard decisions about promotions or lack thereof. There are a couple of students who are coming up in staff discussions quite a bit, and we would appreciate your prayers for us as we seek to do what is best for each child. It’s so hard when the kids are often a year old for a grade anyway, and then there are all the social as well as academic ramifications of holding someone back. I’m so thankful that I’m not the headmaster with the final say! We are also in the process of doing interviews, so wisdom on who to accept into our Sakeji family for next year will also be appreciated.

I can’t get my head around the fact that two weeks from today I’ll be home. I’m trying to prepare mentally, and I’ll admit I’m already setting things aside for the trip and planning travel knitting and reading (yes, I am that bad!). When I think of all that has to be done between now and then I feel my soul start to quake a little—praise the Lord again for His goodness and unfailing steadfastness. I don’t know how teachers who aren’t Christians do it…