Teaching!

Hello faithful readers!

I'm sorry that its been awhile since our last post, but we've been rather busy doing what we came here to do... teach!

The school year got off to its official start a week from this past Monday with the First Bell ceremony. It wasn't an official full school day, but it involved a ceremony to mark the start of the school year and a chance for the parents to come to the school and hear about the school, policies, etc. while the students got their schedules and locker assignments. The ceremony is meant to mirror the traditional start of school in Russian public schools. In Russian schools the first day of school (September 1st) is a holiday of sorts called the "Day of Knowledge." Our apartment is right across from a Russian school and it was all decked out with colorful balloons to mark the start of school.

The next day (August 31) was the first day of actual classes for us. It went well for both of us. Amanda has the 6th graders and has a great class of 10 students. She teaches their social studies, reading, language arts, and math. Amanda is also responsible for teaching the 4/5th grade class language arts. As you can imagine, this keeps her on her toes dealing with all of these different subjects and the high energy levels of the students:-) A few of Amanda's students are having a bit of a rough time dealing with some cultural adjustments as they are fairly new to Russia, but all of the students are friendly and everyone in the school keeps talking about how this year's 6th grade class is one of the best classes the school has had.

On my end of things, I have 15 students for a 9/10th grade U.S. History course, 11 students in 11/12th grade Russian history, and 9 students in 7/8th grade U.S. History. To top it off, I found out last week that I need to teach an environmental science course for our seniors because they need an additional science course for their transcripts but they have already taken all of the science courses that IA usually offers. I've been given pretty much a free hand to do what I want with them (and as much and as little as I'd like), and I am working on trying to figure out things to do. So far I've just let them do reading in class until we can cover some basics and I can pull some things together. I would appreciate some prayers for this course! I have the option of just letting them work independently through the textbook, but this would be extremely tedious for them and for me, so I am trying to find ways of making this more interesting with the limited time I have to devote to this unexpected course.

All of these classes are going well and I am enjoying teaching. Not being a trained educator, I wasn't sure how I would feel as a teacher, but I like it (I'm not sure if my students agree:-P I think they're still trying to figure me out). In addition to the wide array of grades I have, I have a range of ability levels too which is posing a bit of a challenge as I try to prepare material. Added to this is the fact that in my two U.S. History courses I have a total of 24 students of which only 3 are Americans (the others are Korean, Japanese, Swedish, and Canadian).

Our days fill up fast with teaching and the large amount of additional time spent planning lessons, writing assignments and tests, and doing battle with the school copy machine, but we have had a chance to get out a bit. We've gone out to eat with friends and our fellow teachers and last Sunday we were able to see the last day of a Picasso exhibit at the Hermitage. These have been enjoyable moments of rest and relaxation. We also started our Russian language work this week. We meet three times a week after school with Katya, who teaches the 2/3rd grade class at the school, and she works one on one with Amanda and I. Its nice to finally be working on learning more Russian than trying to get by on what I remember from 3 years ago and what I taught myself in the intervening time. Language study is an important part of living in another country, so please pray that this will be a profitable time for Amanda and I!

We are only midway through the second week of school, but Amanda and I can already say that we feel blessed to be able to be a part of this school. The environment is so positive, our colleagues are great, and God is present and at work in our students and our school! These first two weeks haven't been without the bumps and rough spots that life always has, but we feel very encouraged by the way things are going and are continuing to adjust and adapt to life in Russia.

-Matt