Week of Prayer

We are continuously humbled by the many ways God blesses and provides for our little school in the jungle of Peru.  Knowing that He hears and answers our prayers we are committing this coming week to lifting up our school, students and staff to the Father, seeking His guidance and provision in all we do.  Will you join us? 

Open House 2016

Open House this year was so much fun!  Besides having a PACKED house in our little comedor (dining hall), the skits and sample work presented by the kids was amazing!  

The student body recited Psalm 139 for their families...we have been memorizing the chapter together as part of chapel this year.  

The Middle School Spanish class presented a version of "Hansel and Gretel."

Our Ensemble sang a Coffee Song while the high school seniors operated a mini-barista as a fundraiser.

Around the school students displayed their work including art projects, school logo designs and class presentations. The World Geography class also cooked food from around the world for parents to sample.

And my personal favorite...
The Elementary kiddos were ECSTATIC to have a drama class this year.  They rehearsed a small play for Open House and are also working on a presentation of Charlie Brown for Christmas.  So for your viewing pleasure may I present....SAM Academy Elementary in The Giant Turnip!

4th grade for President!

My biggest weakness as a teacher, I admit, is teaching writing. Sometimes I feel like I am dragging my fingernails down a chalk board trying to pull little creative muses, kicking and screaming, out of my unwilling participants. Ok...that might be a little dramatic. But writing class has always been a little painful for me because I am OCD and want their writing to be perfect. I am demanding as a writing teacher and I knew this year that needed to change. Thankfully we had a wonderful teacher this summer who came to us on a short term team and led us in a writing workshop. Armed with my new knowledge and a great tool...Writer's Notebooks....I set off to enjoy writing class instead of tackling it like a dragon that needed to be slain. 

I'm in process, but the results have been amazing. Are my kids perfect writers? No. They still forget their apostrophes and use the wrong "to." But they do because they are too busy pouring their ideas onto the page and that is what a successful writing class should look like.

We spent the first two weeks of class composing our "Seed Thoughts," a section of our Writing Notebook devoted just to ideas.  

Now, our writing lesson begins with a five minute mini lesson...direct instruction in grammar, structure, or organization that I am seeing weaknesses in.  After that we write, write, write.  The kids find a comfy spot and pour it out.  There isn't usually a set length though I give them a topic to focus on.  We drew floor plans of our house and wrote a memory from one of the rooms.  We've drawn a graphic and written a 5-7 sentence caption.  And this past week we worked on persuasion.

After reading "So You Want to Be President," and with the elections in full force...literally...we thought we would tackle our own campaigns.  Usually I conference with my students and we tweak just one or two focused areas.  For this assignment we worked toward a polished piece our parents could see at Open House.

Wow!  Just wow!  At first I was tempted to analyze their supporting details.  But then I realized, hey, this is what they feel makes a good president.  So if they could defend it AND prove how as president they would in actuality do it, it was fair game.

I love that some of them tackled hard-core issues like abortion, while others felt it was important for there to be free wifi.  In discussion all of them agreed that choosing wise Supreme Court Justices and being honest was important.  (Out of the mouths of babes...)  It was humbling to see their perspective too.  Living as foreigners in a different country, but blessed by the existence of our school where they can continue in English while learning culture and the Spanish they will need in this country, one of my students had a powerful argument for having schools for foreigners.  How awesome their world view is.

So if you are unsure about the ballot this year....I have a few Write-Ins you may want to consider:)

Place Your Vote!

With school well under way our students have begun to campaign for StuCo our school's student council.  The students really got into the spirit of the campaign with posters and vote "soliciting" (all legally of course) during free time.  But the most impressive thing to me was my fourth graders spiritual maturity as elections approached.  During our morning prayer time, on their own, my kids began to pray for wisdom in choosing the right candidates and also, if chosen themselves as the elementary rep, that they would represent their classmates wisely.  It makes my heart full hearing them pray in such way!  I am super excited how far my kids have come in their writing and long division, but more than any of that, my heart sings that they have begun walking in the way of the Lord in all areas of their lives.

And the winners are...

Back in the swing of things

Just a few of our recent activities...

Place Value Yahtzee...

A Little Brainstorming...

Long division card games...

And Cell Models

 

On to 4th grade!

It must be a sign that I love my job when the first day rolls around and I get all giddy! My third graders are now 4th graders and loving them as much as I do I moved up with them! Taking their role seriously they have shot up a foot over the summer and are amazing me with how much they have grown maturity-wise too. That's not to say we don't have our silly days still. We have one new student and two on furlough who will join us as the year goes on. Alright school year....we are ready to take you on!

Where has all the summer gone???

What a crazy, full summer!  I planned on updating the blog frequently…then I blinked and it was August!  Our vacation was more of a working vacation.  But even being busy we managed to squeeze in some fun family time. 

We hit the ground running in June by helping host a short-term team that consisted of team members from Mike’s mom and brother’s home churches.  Emmanuel Baptist from Parkersburg, WV and Mt. Moriah Baptist from Smithfield, PA did an INCREDIBLE job helping to install playground equipment and spruce up the Orchard Children’s Home in nearby San Jose.  The Orchard is run by Kids Alive International.  MK’s from Kids Alive attend our school and we were able to connect our friends from the states to this work.  It was an amazing, blessed time getting to reconnect with friends from the states and watch their interactions with the great bunch of kids that live at the Orchard.

Mike’s mom and brother were able to stay after the team left and his dad came and joined them so we were able to spend a special week with them introducing his dad to the wonders of Peru.

The entire month of July Mike, Marcy and another SAM teacher, along with his two teenage sons worked on our Spanish learning with a local professor.  It was definitely a challenge but a great learning opportunity.  Our teacher Ernesto was very patient! 

 In the afternoons we began work around the school, remodeling and cleaning out classrooms.  So much was done this summer!  Mike’s science lab was completely revamped and overhauled with new walls, paint, tables and a huge clean-out.  Several other classrooms had walls put in to replace the rough wood and new coats of paint to brighten the place up.  The library received the biggest transformation.  Much of July was spend sorting and organizing books, moving shelves, updating technology and giving the place a new look.  While there is still some minor decorating touch ups to do the library is more usable and kid-friendly now. 

Towards the end of July, we received a wonderful blessing from a short term team with IMB. The team contained three teachers and one of the ladies led a professional development workshop for all of the SAM Academy teachers with some really great stuff!  She also led us in a writer’s workshop which I know has helped revamp how several of us will be teaching writing this year.  The training was very inspiring and refreshing.

Our final days in July we took a quick trip to Lima so that Mike could take his drivers’ exam.  He is now officially licensed in Peru…yay!!!  The funny thing was that same week our car broke down so he couldn’t drive..haha.  But its up and working now so we are back on the road!  Since Mike passed the first day we were able to catch our breath and relax a little.  Mostly we just hung out in some of Lima’s parks.  We especially enjoyed La Parque de las Reservas.  The waterfalls there were amazing!

So now we are in August and school starts tomorrow!!!  I am so thankful for the ways the Lord blessed our summer.  Sorry this has been more of a newsletter than a blog…I’ll try to do better.  What’s that Yoda says?  “There is no try...only do, or do not.”  Working on it!