Falling thru Fall

Whomever said blogging was the best way to communicate with people especially across the ocean should be ...well you know what I mean to say.  I can't decide which is better Facebook or blogging.  Still I am going to try and make our blog a weekly thing beginning today.  I apologize for it not being so frequent but it's been a crazy month.  Here let me explain...

We have attended some awesome school events over the last month.  From CoffeeHaus to Culture Night, Junior Event to Fall Festival, we have experienced great food, opportunities to build relationships, and laughter.

CoffeeHaus

CoffeeHaus is an outreach ministry that is designed to help ICSV students bring friends into a non-threatening environment to learn about Christ.  The nights are full of fun and laughter and sharing the freedom and love of Christ with everyone.  Lots of coffee, music, and this particular night was game night.  We played board games and laughed for hours with kids who would never go to church or get near a "Christian" event.  Through this one event, I've the opportunity to build some great relationships with some of my non-Christian students.  Looking forward to the next one.

Culture Night

Our son, Nathan, is in the 5th grade here at ICSV.  Each year, their teacher Ms. Stevens puts on a Culture Night for the parents of her students.  Each student brings some food from their own culture to share with everyone, and the students put on a skit about culture.  We took Nathan's favorite dessert which is an Oreo Cookie Cake.  We sampled some great dishes from all over the world including curry, South Korean noodles, and Venezuelan bread/biscuits.  It was an awesome night getting to know Nate's classmates and their parents. 


Table decorations made by the 5th graders



Culture Skit

  

My Classes

Teaching to international students (6 out of 7 continents of people) has been rewarding and challenging.  English is a second language to most of them which can really present difficuties in the classroom.  Common phrases we say without thinking cause my students great confusion.  And while they're trying to figure out my English, they miss the concept I'm trying to teach, the more valuable information.  I've had to explain addition/subtraction of positive and negative numbers to my Pre-Algebra kids so many times because they do not understanding me, my sayings, or methods.  Geography takes on a whole new adventure with non-American children.  No "USA, all the way" mentalities, upbringings, and background.  Making comparisons to anything they know is a challenge because they lack common backgrounds.  A child who has never lived in a democracy or a child who has lived in a country with military threats all around them or a child who is more concerned if their country will survive the next tsunami all have different views about what is important in government and culture.  It is always interesting to see the different "take" these students have on the world around them.
I'm learing that God provided so much of the training I needed for this over the last two years at MISD.  I thought half of that SIOP stuff was worthless then.  Now, I use it everyday here.


 I'll add more about the Junior Event and Fall Festival later this week.  For now, let's just say "we've only just begun..."...My only Carpenters memory.  Man, I feel old.