Saturday, September 14, 2013

Creation Projects

     Since I teach at a Christian school, I have the privilege of teaching Bible. We use the ACSI curriculum for Bible, which I quickly realized was outdated when I found the workbooks, which are the exact same ones that I used and hated in fifth grade. Needless to say, I haven't used the workbooks for much other than a general guide of what I should cover. Since I am teaching fourth and fifth grade, I chose to teach Bible altogether, teaching everyone the fifth grade curriculum. Difficulty wise, it's fine for both to do the same thing as the only difference is what is taught. My fourth graders will go through the fourth grade curriculum next year.


     The fifth grade curriculum walks through the Old Testament, which some people might think is really boring. I'm excited for it though and hope that my students will see how many times the Israelites messed up and God still gave them grace and forgiveness. My class is an unique mixture of kids from different backgrounds. At my school, it is not required for kids or their families to be Christians, so some of my students have never heard of the Bible until they began at our school. Several other students in my class are pastor's kids or missionary kids. Some know great details of the Bible, and others have never even heard the story of creation or Noah.

     During the first week of school, we began with creation. Knowing that this may be something many of them know, I made it a project where they would teach the class about their day in creation. I was amazed as the students took off with this project! They put more effort into their posters than I had imagined. I quickly learned that they love projects, and it engages them more than other learning activities. Knowing this, I have planned in more projects than I anticipated.

Enjoy seeing their final posters!

 






 

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Currently

      If you are visiting from Farley's Currently Linky Party, welcome! I teach a fourth and fifth grade combined class at an international school in Venezuela.
 
     If you have been following me for a little while, you will remember when I wrote two weeks ago about the fire in my classroom. Well, can I just say that apparently my class is not that bad. This week the first graders purposely started a fire. My students only accidentally start fires. One first grader brought a lighter to school to make their campfire (at recess) more real. So, we are doing just fine in forth and fifth grade and haven't started a fire since that first week. Anyways, here's my currently:
 
 
     Most of this is self-explainable. I have been very stressed at school during the first few weeks (this is my first year of teaching and I'm in a new country). Last weekend was very relaxing. I blogged, slept, and learned not to worry too much about school. My school is very chill. I never have to hand in lesson plans, and I can essentially do what I think is best and works for my class (yes, we do have standards but lots of freedom). A few other teachers have been teaching me to embrace this, relax a bit more, and go with the flow to make me a better teacher by being less stressed.
 
     For my wanting, I miss fall. I would love to be able to see the trees change to pretty colors, rake leaves, carve pumpkins, go to a corn maze, and read a good book outside. Enjoy fall all you northerners.
 
     Well, that's all I have for today. Relax, enjoy your students, and go outside today. Meanwhile, I'm going to bed. Good night!