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:)