Latest Grade 2 Newsletter

Below is my second to last newsletter of the 2014 - 2015 school year; I will send one more to parents and students on the last day of school.  You will get an idea of how the year is closing out and some fun things we are doing.  The large group picture is from our annual field trip to the caves, a couple of weeks ago.  

Now that it is coming to the end of my third year of teaching at Dalat, and having the opportunity that has seldom happened in all the years of teaching of being able to be in the same position for more than 1 year, I am feeling much more confident in leading a class and also comfortable knowing the rhythm of the year and what is to be expected.  Even though it has only been three years of teaching at Dalat (that have gone by incredibly fast), I feel a little bit like an "old-timer" as so many of my colleagues in the elementary school have gone on to other pastures and I am one of the teachers that has been teaching in the elementary school the longest.  As of the end of this school year, of about 15 teaching staff and including the principal, I have been there the fourth longest; in other words, 11 elementary teachers have been there less than 3 years.  That is a lot of turnover though I have heard that for an international school that is a low ratio.  I don't think there has been that much turnover in the middle and high school.  

I still love my job, even though it has stresses, and can't imagine doing anything else to earn my living and help to provide for our family.  I can say that God has given me strength and joy every day, even on those many days when I really did not think I could make it through the morning, let alone a whole day.  Some of the joy each day comes from seeing the sweet faces of my students every morning too.  At the same time, I am looking forward to a rest after this final week of school coming up and the push of report cards due a week today.  I am counting the days until the end of school and counting them also until we can go back for a visit in Canada, but I am also careful to enjoy every day here, a precious opportunity to live in Malaysia for which I am very thankful!

Service Day, by Kate

On March 28, we had Service Day.  For Service Day we had orphanage kids come and we did things for them.  They were all ages from about 6-18 years old.  Kalia, a girl in my class, had a 16 year old boy.  I had a 10 year old boy that I was matched up with that I made a card for.  The first thing we did was we went to the Student Center and we gave them our cards we made for them.  My card was very simple because I did not really have much decoration because I was more busy practicing the skit.  Then we had worship with them and we did actions to the songs.  We did not know the songs but the orphanage kids knew the songs.  After, a few people and I went to do a skit about the Good Samaritan.  The skit was modernized to make it more interesting.  The man in the skit who was walking was a banker.  The two people walking by were a religious leader and a president.  Instead of a Samaritan helping the man it was a hobo.  Instead of an innkeeper there was "Mabel's Bed and Breakfast".  There were also two police officers, gangsters as the robbers, and two detectives.  In the skit I was a police officer and a religious leader.   After the skit was finished we split up into groups and we went to the different stations that the other student set up.   The stations were games, crafts, and sports.  At the craft station there was the chance to make toilet paper ninjas, do nail art and face paint.  At the game station there was a treasure hunt, video games, and Dan Ball, which is a game where you are trying to get a ball to the other side.  At the sport station there was soccer, hockey, and basketball.  After going to one of the stations we had a snack and then we went to the other two kinds of stations.  After everything we had lunch and we let them eat in the cafeteria.  The kids really enjoyed everything.  After that we took a group photo and then we had time to do whatever we wanted. I went with a little girl, who was about 10 years old, to the swings and we swung together.  She knew no English so it was hard to communicate. Overall the day was really fun and I really enjoyed it because I got to hang out with the girl. 

This is what the kids looked like but I do not think they are the same kids.