Student Teacher

I appreciate your prayers for me and Nathan Lattanzi. He is going to be my student teacher starting Monday. He arrives from Chicago on Saturday morning and he'll stay until May. He'll be observing me teach science, as well as other teachers and other subjects.

I've never had a student teacher before so I am both nervous and excited about it. Nervous, because he'll be learning from me! Excited because at some point he'll have to teach my classes on his own and that will be helpful for me as I go into my third trimester of pregnancy.

Please pray for the following:

• that Nathan will learn a great deal (not just about teaching) while he's student teaching here
• that he has a smooth transition from college life to working life in a different culture
• that he quickly develops good relationships with other singles here (he already knows two women who live here now...small world.)
• that I have wisdom while working with him
• that we both will have complimentary personalities and it won't be an awkward thing to work together
• that my students would be respectful towards him (he's in his early twenties)

Thanks!!!!!

English Language Institute (ELI)

Unfortunately I am battling a cold right now. Yesterday my nose was SO sore and I was really tired, but had to teach ELI.

ELI is a free night of english classes during the week. Many hungarians are participating and appreciate the teachers. Attila Hajdu (pronounce Hi-Doo) teaches Hungarian and European history at ICSB and really has a burden to share the love of Christ with the community in Diosd. So he is the organizer of these classes. There is another group that organizes classes on two other nights during the week, but I wasn't available those nights, so I was excited when Attila announced he would be doing this. (Being a teacher in an english-speaking school all day kind of limits me to getting to know a lot of Hungarians.)

There are four levels of English that we are teaching and I am the teacher for level three. Many of my students know english quite well, but need confidence in speaking and listening. Well, because I wasn't feeling well yesterday and my voice sounded funny, I decided to give them a lot of worksheets for writing activities. There were times that we talked, but not as much as I normally do. BUT I HAD FORGOTTEN ABOUT COMBINING CLASSES! We have had temporary teachers for Level 4, which is mainly conversation. So, my 15 students plus the three students from level 4, brought my class size to 18!!! It was quite a full classroom. And I'm not sure how much the level 4 students got out of it, with them being used to mainly speaking. I'm sure it was helpful, and they always say "thank you" to me afterwards, but I'm going to have to think about some different strategies now so it can be worthwhile for everyone.

And there is a 30 minute break in the middle of the classes that Attila uses to spark spiritual discussion. There is usually an odd short movie to watch, which leads to questions that Attila wants the students to discuss at their table. And there's always water and pretzels or cookies too. (Oh, and this part is in Hungarian.)

I appreciate any prayers for these classes and the relationships that develop from them!

Pinewood Derby

Today Justin went to a Pinewood Derby organized by the Boy Scouts. The Cub Scouts built their cars and participated. Here are some pics that my hubbie took of this fun event. You can check out his blog for a video or two, but probably not until later this week.

the cars

the track

Trevor, the son of our 5th grade teacher at ICSB Noah is one of my 7th graders (he's the big kid in the middle)