Crossing Things Off the List

Summer is in full swing! I have been enjoying time at the pool and crossing things off of my Nicaragua check list.

My next item on the list is to attend an orientation with Commission to Every Nation in Kerville, Texas. All of the new missionaries are required to attend; I believe there will be around thirty people there. I am looking forward to meeting the people who have been helping me prepare for my departure.

Also on the check list: buy plane tickets! This should happen sometime within the next week. Because I am not yet a resident of Nicaragua, I am required to purchase round trip tickets. This works out fine because I will be coming home for a few days in November for my brother Bill's wedding.

Lately I have been thinking a lot about my classroom and how I want everything to be organized (rules, classroom layout, transitions, etc). Without ever seeing this classroom, knowing the kids, or seeing the curriculum, this has proven to be quite the task. I am glad that I student taught in a fourth and fifth grade classroom because I think I will end up doing many of the same things that I saw there, at least for my first year. I have probably been over thinking it, because I have had quite a few dreams about the first day of school where EVERYTHING has gone wrong. You know the kind I'm talking about - I'm in the wrong classroom, there are no pencils, I don't know where the curriculum books are, my voice doesn't seem to work, all the kids are outside hanging from trees like monkeys...

Don't worry, my waking hours are a lot more positive! I have been collecting 4th grade level books and have been dreaming up lesson plans and activities to do with them. Reading was always my favorite subject, and I hope to instill a love of reading in my students like the one I had.

More soon!