The children listened quietly as I explained some simple grammer rules. I was passing out papers for the game I'd planned when the bell rang. Class dismissed, and I was glad it was done. It had been an unusually hard class- despite it's rough beginning, the class was unusually quiet. This was probably one of the roughest classes I've had yet. Despite that, I walked out of the class room with a slight feeling of having made more of a connection with the kids. That made the whole class worth it.
My sister refers to Wednesday "hump" day. Around here, at least in Kinmen, it seems to be one of the harder days. For me, it's the day I go to one of my favorite schools. I look forward to it because I get the entire class time (forty minutes) to teach what's in and out of the books. It's a great challenge- especially getting "out of the books"- a concept which I've yet to master. So fourth graders have to learn about "f?" Like they don't know that already. Alright- time for an out-of-the-book a creativity call. "Ok, repeat after me: Fifty-five fire fighters fight five fires." Good job. Ok, so that took about ten minutes for them to be able to say, but they eventually got it, and got a good laugh out of it as well.
Score.
So the goal for next week? Teach "out-of-the-book." You know, I've never found a book that had everything a person needed to learn in it- except One. The best Book ever written- with a story of love that continues in my own life, and never ends. Yes, I mean the Bible.
From the island,
Ginger Jernigan
