Week 6

What an adventure it has been to be a part of the 6th grade and Rehoboth! I get tears in my eyes when I think about the fact that next week is my last week. God has been so faithful and good to me while I have been here. I am thankful for the students, teachers, friends, and community I have been able to get to know and be a part of. This week was a short week, which was quite unfortunate because it meant less time with my students. Although it was short, it was amazing. I feel so confident with my teaching after this week. All of my lessons ran smoothly and we had a ton of fun learning together. I was full time teaching again this week.

In math this week, we started a partner project on unit rates and grocery shopping. I wanted my students to be able to cut out various foods from grocery adds and find the unit rate and identify the best deal. It is important for them to know how to find the best deal and it relates to real world problems. They have been working on these and have honestly struggled a little bit with it. They did a great job and had no problems finding the unit rate when it was a problem out of the math book, but as soon as they had to identify the problems and solve it themselves, they were confused. We will have to spend an extra day next week looking these projects over again. This was good for me to see that they can do math out of the book, but they have difficulties when it is in real life.

In reading this week we wrapped up the book Holes and started discussing irony. The book has so many examples of irony, so we spent a day looking at what it is and I found a ton of goofy examples of irony. They laughed and laughed at all of the silly examples of irony that I found. We made a list of irony that is found in the book Holes and then started designing t-shirts with ironic slogans on them. They had a blast and they really understood what irony was by the end of the lessons. They also took an assessment test on Holes this week and I asked for feedback on my teaching in reading. I got a lot of positive feedback and I was very happy to see that they liked how I had taught reading and worked through the book with them.

In social studies this week we played review games and studied for their chapter 4 test. We played "trash ball", which is basically basketball with a trashcan and ball. The LOVED this review game and it really did help them study for the test. On Wednesday they took the test an they all seemed to do very well on it.

In Bible we did a lot of hands on activities and games. We played follow the leader and I took them outside and they had to do whatever I said and follow my every move. We came back to class and discussed how hot, tried, hungry that they got and talked about how they are a lot like the Israelite's who wandered around in the dessert, It is easy for us to get grumpy and grumble. The picture to the right is one of them before they started to grumble...


This week I also led Monday morning kick-off. This is an all middle school chapel at the beginning of the week. I was super nervous about leading this in front of the whole middle school and teachers, but it went very well. We talked about what kinds of things stop us from living out our faith and I shared the example of Moses. Moses had a stutter and he did not feel that he could lead the Israelite's out of Egypt because he was not a good speaker, but God still used him and surrounded him with community and help from Aaron.

Last, I helped out with Track and Field practice in the high school after school. I am stepping in as their distance coach during my remaining time here. I wish I could be here longer and help out. I am having a blast already getting to know the high school students a little bit and run and train with them.

Next week is my last week, so I am planning to still teach full time, but have my cooperating teacher in the room to possibly co-teach with them. I really do not want to leave!

As for adventures this week, I hiked Pyramid with some of the Rehoboth teachers and we had a blast. What a beautiful hike and fun time with new friends.