Week 2

I have learned so much about Rehoboth this week. For instance, I was out on a run and was climbing some rocks to get to higher ground so that I could see the sunset over the mountain tops. I found myself overlooking a Reservation, and as I did I heard some barking coming from the distance. Some "Res dogs" were coming toward me. Apparently "Res dogs" are a thing and are not very friendly. Thankfully I was too high and the dog ran off. At this moment the sun was setting and I became overwhelmed with thankfulness to be in such a beautiful place.
 In addition to this finding, I learned a lot about myself this week. I have been asked so many times why I have chosen to come here. I honestly have no idea, but I am being constantly reminded that I am where I need to be. God is so good. I have learned that I am a scared person, I worry too much, and I am too hard on myself. My cooperating teacher pointed out this week that I am too hard on myself. He asked me how I thought I was doing. I responded with, "Fine, but I think I could do better." He told me to stop being to hard on myself and that he is very impressed with how I am doing. I never thought that I was too hard on myself, but after a lot of thought, perhaps I am. I am choosing to be kinder to myself and to be thankful for the small victories each day.

What has happened this week in the life of Ms. Disselkoen and her 6th graders?

This week I took over teaching Bible in addition to Reading, which I took over last week. I have found I loved teaching Bible. It is a great time to get into discussions, debates, and really dig deeper into our faith as a class. The students love sharing opinions, but not out loud...at least not right away. I found quickly that if I want them to share and participate I need to have them write down their thoughts first. For example, I taught a Bible lesson where I had them discuss how people should prepare for worship. I had them write down three absolute "musts" for preparing for church (take a shower, dress-up, prayer,etc.). This led into a heated debate about whether or not God cares if you dress up or not for church. Playing devils advocate has been an interesting role and has gotten my students into some awesome discussions. It is fun to see youth discussing their faith.

In reading, we are doing a unit on the book Holes. The girls drew character charts based on what they read about the characters in the book. They will be adding post-it notes describing the characters after each time that we read. By the end of the book, we will be able to see how the characters have changed and grown.

I was able to observe math class this week. They use Singapore math, which involves bar models. This is the first time I have see this done in a school. I think it is a great system. They are using it for all grades, so each year it builds on each other. It is visual and uses bar models as a way to solve everything in math, which makes math easier I think. I am still learning how to use the bar models accurately, but I have enjoyed it thus far. I take over math in two weeks and I hope to incorporate a partner system. They do all of their math individually, but I think that it would be beneficial to see them partner together and hold each other accountable or what they are learning. I am excited to begin preparing for what that might look like.

This week, the whole school has been a part of the January Series held on Calvin College's Campus. They have been projecting it live in the Church and classes have had the opportunity to go to a few of these. My class went to one on "Children of War" and "Autism". I felt that both of these were appropriate for my students to learn more about. We had some hard discussions after about them. Many students did not know what is going on in other countries and how children are being forced to kill and be a part of war. It was a huge eye opener and now we are trying to come up with something that we can do as class and school to help others.

In the 6th grade we had "the talk". This week Hands of Hope came in three days to talk to the students about puberty and their bodies. The girls and boys were separated and were taught about his and were given the chance to ask questions. Surprisingly, I learned more about the Navajo culture through this. When women in the Navajo culture become a women, they celebrate with a  Kinaalda.  Through this talk, I also learned of a lot of hurt in this community. Many girls were sharing stories (anonymous) about things they deal with at home or have dealt with. My heart hurts for these girls and boys that I teach. Something surprising that I learned was when in an emergency, they advice to you call a loved one before 911, because often times 911 will not answer or are very slow to answer. This is amazing to me, especially coming from Grand Rapids and Chicago.

Next week I will be adding social studies to my workload. I cannot wait!

I hope to learn and discover more about my teaching in the week ahead. I want to see how I can make learning fun by incorporating fun activities that get students excited. Sometimes in the 6th grade, it is easy to have boring teaching and learning through lecture. I want my classes to be more than lectures.

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