Teacher Status?

So we're four weeks into East Florence Mission, and in case you haven't noticed from my other blog posts, it's a pretty important piece of my life! These past few weeks have been so good at EFM. My kids.. I'm so proud of them! It is amazing to me how much of a difference having our own classroom has made. I have their drawings on the wall, their names on the board.. They love it, and I love it. My heart is just sooo full! We have been studying Moses these past few weeks and they really seem to understand and enjoy it. I love when at the beginning of the lesson, we review last week and they REMEMBER what we learned from last week. They can answer all my review questions, and they are all so eager to answer.  I love that. I finally took some pictures of my classroom to share!! I didn't get any pictures of eating dinner but I got all of our other aspects. I'll try to caption each picture as it goes. Okay sooo first lemme show some pictures of my classroom… And yes. I did decorate the majority of it by myself, with some sweet friends who helped me. I'll admit, I'm kinda proud of it. I definitely feel like a teacher!!

 So first we have a panorama (I love my iPhone and its camera) of my whole classroom. It's not huge, and it's not tiny. It works with what we need it for.

 On one wall we have our white board. Normally we teach from this side, with whoevers teaching in the chair and the kids on the floor. The felt board is one I made really quickly last week, and I was really surprised at how much they LOVED using it. Even with my not-so-great felt figures. And for the record, I didn't write my name at the top of the board, one of the middle school girls likes to come in my room and write on my board before class (: Although the kids do call me Miss Alana, and most of the younger ones say yes/no ma'am to me which makes me laugh.

 So on this wall we have our class rules, which are based off of Bible verses. I copied them from one of my sweet older friend who home schools her girls. They're great rules/verses.. Listen Carefully, Speak Respectfully, Love Sincerely, Obey Quickly, Always Do Your Best. And they all have verses that go with them. Whenever we have anyone who gets in trouble, we try to tell them what they did wrong based on our rules and how we want to follow the rules because the Bible says.. and explain the verse. I was surprised at how well that worked, and the few times I've had to talk to any of them they haven't had any problems with me again.

Okay so this is the same wall as the pic above, but you can see it a little bit better here! The white pennants above the chalkboard are "All About Me" pennants that we did the first night. The kids, especially the girls, love seeing their work up there. And then on the chalkboard we have some of the papers from an activity we did two weeks ago that went with the lesson. I thought it brought a little color to our room!

So on the chalkboard we have our attendance charts. Oh my goodness I can't begin to explain how much this helps. You see we have a big Christmas program every year where we give Christmas presents, toys, to the kiddos. But the rule is that you can only miss 3 weeks of Bible Study in order to come, for what we refer to as "Christmas". It used to be that every week we would have to take role. Which meant a good 10 minutes was devoted to writing down names, spelling names, etc and then we would have to go back through and look through all the weeks to determine who was there and who could come to Christmas. Last year we started keeping a chart and would mark the kids off but it still took time away from class. Well this year we don't have that problem!! The first week of class we took everyones name down and put it on the charts. There's no difference between the two charts. Every week when the kids come in, they get their name tag (more on those later) and come over and put a sticker beside their name, in the column for that week. What a timesaver! Whenever we have a new student we just write their name down and they start their stickers for that week. We do make sure to have a teacher over there when they're putting stickers on to make sure that there isn't any cheating of the system and they put their sticker in the right column. But so far so good! And I think they really enjoy being able to put their sticker by their name. It's the first thing they ask about when they walk into class. And it it so much easier for the teachers!

So on the other side of the green chalkboard, we have the closet. And then on one side of the purple wall (I have no idea why it's purple) we have our birthday balloons. One for each month of the year and we have first names written on them. At the end of each month, the birthday kids get an extra piece of candy and recognition in front of the class. 

And then on the other end of the beautiful purple wall we have our bulletin board, which I love. This season is fall and so we are Falling For Jesus! With our dollar store fake leaves and our teacher store fall cutouts. It's fun, and one of my favorite things in my classroom. I'm excited to change it as the months go on. 

On the final wall we have lots of things that are important!! First we have one of the bookshelves, filled with Bibles, age-specific books, etc. On top we have a basket used for storing papers etc. And then on the wall we have our Life Points. These are 6 points that came from the curriculum and each one goes with a lesson. 

And then on the other end of that wall we have.. well everything else. Basically this is the teachers desk plus storage plus a lotta other things. 

At the top we have two big bookshelves, filled with educational/Christian movies and tapes. These were given to me by EFM and so we just stacked them all here. Also we have painted EFM letters that were a random end-of-summer craft I did and the clock. I'm thankful for that clock. I need it. Also you can see the big blue bucket! That is THE candy bucket. You might be able to see the index cards on the second shelf that have a big blue rubber band around them. Basically, we use those as "tickets". At the beginning of each class we pass out the index cards, which are different colors and laminated, to each student. If you break any of our class rules.. you talk when the teacher is talking, you play around during the lesson or distract anyone than your card is taken, and you lose your ticket to get candy. At the end of class they can trade in their ticket for one piece of candy. We try to give 2nd chances, but sometimes we have to be strict on it. We didn't use to be and the kids knew that even though we threatened we wouldn't take it away.. this year not so much! We respect them and we want them to respect us. Actually, this past week I had to take several away. One from one of the oldest kids, and the sweetest. He's nine. And normally he is such a great leader, but he was slipping up this time and talking when Mrs. Dee was trying to teach, as well as distracting others. After giving him a warning, I took his ticket away. He had never had that happen and I could see the disappointment in his face. When class was over, I pulled him aside and talked to him about why I had taken it away, and what he thought about it. He agreed that he had been talking and disrespectful and he told me it was fair that he had to have it taken away. I explained to him that I saw such potential in him and knew that he was such a great leader. I told him that I could see how much the younger kids follow his example, and I want him to continue to be that leader. He promised that next week he would be a good leader and follow the rules. I was so proud of how he acted because I knew that last year, he would've been so disrespectful to me for taking it away, and would've stormed off after class instead of speaking with me. God is working in his heart and I love that. His name is Joshua. Please pray for him. Okay now that I've gotten off topic, let me finish!! On the rest of these bookshelves we keep crayons in little bins, markers etc. 

Underneath these bookshelves serves as our "teachers desk" so to say. On the left side of the pic we have the books from my house that the older girls sometimes come and read before class. And construction paper in front of it. Then that tan colored bucket is full of really random craft supplies, ribbon, stickers, glue, everything. In front of that bucket was COOKIES we have yet to enjoy but have been sitting in our room for a two weeks. We just haven't found a time to give them out yet. Beside the tan bucket is the stack of workbooks, which we tear out pages from every week. Then there are the three mason jars, which you can't really see in this pic. One has scissors and pens and sharpies, one has pencils, and one has fine tip markers. Also we have the big green collection tray that has random papers that I need to hang on the walls. And then a big tub of markers! 

The only other thing in here is the three tables, one of which is shown here. It has our name tags on it! They love having their name tags and even though we know most of them by now, it's helpful. I'm bad with names and a lot of their names are similar. I prefer to call them by the right name, and I'm getting there with correct pronunciations. As a child who has had her name mispronounced since she was in 3k, it's important to me to say it right!!

One other thing, we use these two big pieces of carpet as our rug. The carpet was leftover from my house.. actually the carpet in my bedroom which the kids think is hilarious. It fit perfectly, and I love being able to say, "Go sit down on the rug please! Move onto the rug please!" The regular routine is to come in, grab your name tag, put your sticker by your name and sit on the rug. We do the lesson, introduction, story time etc. And then afterwards we move to the back two tables, and the other one that's seen above. Which is where they do their activities. 

I think that's pretty much it as far as my classroom tour goes!

Okay I'm gonna put up some "action shots" from the lesson this past Tuesday.

Hanging out before class on the basketball courts.

Listening to the lesson. 

Doing their best to pay attention!!

So that's it! 

I wanted to give everyone a glimpse at our Tuesdays. We're excited to have First Pres and more churches involved as the year progresses. But we still have LOTS of spots to fill! We are also still looking for volunteers to teach.. it's never too late! Come serve with us. 

Another note.. so thankful for everyone who has prayed for us. It is SO appreciated, and I can tell that it has made so many differences. Keep the prayers coming. 

Thanks for reading!