School has started! It's going well so far but it's A LOT of work. I'm currently teaching 5 classes: Algebra I, Algebra II, Chemistry, Trigonometry, and Physical Science. I'm also helping out with 6th grade math. I started out with teaching another class as well, Physics, but (thankfully!) the student ended up not needing it and so dropped the class. Sixth grade math might end up being another class for me though, instead of just a class with which I'm helping. It's the biggest grade in the school at 15 kids. The class might end up being split into two with me taking one half and the other teacher, Barbara, taking the other. It would be better for the students that way but so much more work for me since I already have 5! Even with very small class sizes (my two biggest are Physical Science and Algebra I with 3 students each) the planning load is the same. The students are great though, and I don't anticipate any problems. The biggest challenge, beyond planning, will be teaching to the different ability levels. In this case, having a very small class is almost harder because for example, in Algebra I, I have one student who is so far behind and should be re-taking 8th grade math, another student who is right where he should be, and the third student is 2 chapters ahead. How do you teach to that?! Hopefully, I'll figure it out :-)
One day this past week was a teacher-in-service day to organize our classrooms. Meg and Amanda (two roommates) decided it would be fun to do a wacky dress up day! See above picture :-)Also, this week I had my first cockroach in my bedroom. It was huge and scared the heck out of me! I screamed and scared the rest of the girls. Amanda killed it for me :-) See picture!
We also got a puppy. Well, it's Jules' (another roommate). The puppy's name is Roxy, she's about 3 months old, and she's a German Shepard. She's cute but Jules went to the store a little bit ago and isn't back yet so Roxy is outside crying to come in. If any of you know me at all: I'm so not a dog person :-) See
picture, though!Well, those are the highlights, I think. I've been missing home a lot, especially since football season has started. I know it sounds silly, but that's what you DO in Columbus during the fall :-) So, I've started thinking about why I'm here in Ghana and I haven't quite figured it out yet, or at least God hasn't made it super clear to me yet. I'm starting to think that maybe my purpose here is more to help the school be more organized and to help with curriculum writing and things like that. I'm not sure but I keep praying that God will tell me what to do and why I'm here! During my Beth Moore Bible study this morning, I read part of the story of Abraham where God tells him to "Go from your country, your people, and your father's household..." That's what God has told all of us here in Ghana to do! We all left our country (literally for most of us) and our homes. And Beth makes the point that how "God hones us is rarely within the parameters of the familiar" and Ghana is definitely the unfamiliar. Please keep praying for me and the work being done in Africa!
Missing you all!
E
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