First Day of School

No matter what job you have, there are always days when you Just. Can't. Take. It. There are always times when you want to quit. So I am writing this post for those days- which I know will come- as a reminder for myself: I really do actually love my job. I enjoy what I do. I'm good at what I do. And not everyone has that privilege. 

It was a good first day of school. I have tremendous colleagues. Seriously. None of them are allowed to leave or transfer to other departments because our 6th grade team rocks. And we had multiple awesome people jump in and help us this morning as we taught roughly 100 eleven year olds how to open a combination lock. In humid 90 degree weather. In outdoor hallways. That's a lot of little sweaty hands. 

And I have amazing students. I had one 6th grader assigned to helping some new students navigate their first week at ICS. She wrote to me today about how she might be talking in class a little bit but that I should not be concerned- she would be helping her "ambassidees" (she being their 'ambassador'). And sure enough, every time I saw them today they were a little trio. Others treaded through their first day in the midst of last minute schedule changes or broken lockers or extra long lunch lines. My 7th grade Spanish class followed along and got the gist of things and even laughed and smiled as I started off their introductory level class with some language immersion. One of my former students, now an 11th grader (have I really been here that long?) spent part of her summer watering my plants. She stopped by today to give me my keys and chat for a bit- and I love it when my old "kids" stop in. 

I love how new school years give all of us a fresh start. Even when I get behavior reports or academic scores for a kid, if I haven't met them they still get to make a first impression. But it goes the other way too. I get a fresh start with the students I haven't taught before. I get to find better ways to relate to them, better strategies for teaching them, better ideas for supporting them. 

So first day of school, thank you. Thanks for reminding me of why I do this and what I love about it. But also, you are a bit exhausting, so thank for being over too. 

Bulletin board

Why yes, yes I did make this bulletin board today! School year prep is in full swing including one of my least favorite teacher tasks: bulletin boards. I don't really do creative, but I can print out a few words and use the die cut machine and imitate a Pinterest idea. 

End of the school year

I don't have a lot of words today; my head is too full of emotions and too low on sleep to put many coherent thoughts together. This week we will wrap up the school year and 18 hours later I will board a plane bound for Tokyo, and then on to Detroit. While I am ready for my alarm to stop ringing at 5am, I am not ready for the departures that the end of this school year brings.  When I come back at the end of July, there will be too many faces missing. These are precious days as we celebrate friendship even in the midst of heartache and rely on our God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 

End of the year staff banquet with a great group of ladies! 

A smoke day!

In Michigan we have snow days, ice days, and the occasional day called for extreme cold. I have all that up moving to Bangkok, and yet I find myself in my pajamas at 10am on a random Tuesday morning.  My first year at ICS we missed a few weeks of school due to massive flooding across Thailand. In January we missed a day when massive political protests threatened to cause massive traffic disruptions. Today we are off because a garbage dump nearby is on fire. Yesterday our campus filled with stinky smoke and they are still working to control the blaze. So far this morning the skies are clear and sunny, but there's also a strong breeze and if that dies out, I have a feeling we would be back in smokey land. 

It was good timing for me. I've been under the weather and not sleeping well for a few days and have been in the edge of a sick day for several days now. This saves me the trouble of lesson plans, even if it means rearranging lots of things in the next month (the downside of block schedule is that when you miss a day it changes what day of the week your classes meet and with standardized tests and spring break on the horizon it will mean making some changes to my plans). 

In the meantime, I'm going to make another cup of tea and tackle a paper I need to write for my online grad class and enjoy sitting around the house a while longer. Here's to "snow" days in Bangkok! 

Countdown

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the teacher is probably counting down longer and harder than any of the students...

15 alarm clocks and 14.5 days, just so you know. And back in Michigan in 23. Where hopefully it won't be high 90's with crazy humidity.

I know I can't really complain about the weather because its not snowing, and believe me, I am grateful for that, but the last week or so has been unbelievably hot. Hotter than hot. Unbearable. So I will be happy for a few weeks of Great Lakes State summer. Until then I shall do my best not to melt.

The last weeks of school are crazy at any school, and that only gets magnified at an international school where there are a multitude of events associated with The Great Turnover. And at ICS, always a host of bridal showers for that year's crop of summer brides as well. It's grat fun if I pace myself. Tomorrow is the big collective garage sale after school, in the school cafeteria, where everyone who is leaving tries to sell all their stuff. Perhaps there will be some sanity for sale to carry me through :)

Actually though, year two has gone remarkably well.  I have had good kids and great colleagues, serveral of whom are leaving and will be dearly missed.  It's the never ending story of the expat life!

MS Ignite Retreat

This past weekend was our school's annual middle school retreat, called Ignite.  I went along as a chaperone and re-entered the world of middle school youth retreats.  I went on plenty of similar trips when I was in middle school, then accompanied our Jr high youth group at my home church on plenty more, but this was my first one with ICS.  We left school at 2pm Friday for a 5 hour drive(!) to a resort that also sort of functioned as a youth camp. They had great facilities for sports and swimming and a bonfire, in addition to a small ropes course. 

The weekend was high on fun, if low on sleep.  At least the teachers were able to share rooms with teachers, so as long as I couldn't hear the kids from my bed (which I couldn't, bless the Lord) it didn't matter to me how late they stayed up in their own rooms (natural consequences, right?).  We spent Saturday morning doing the ropes course- one of my favorite parts. I loved watching my group try new things, succeeding at some and being able to laugh at themselves on the things they fell off of (into a pond/lakish bit of water).  It was especially great to see the student in my group with special needs be able to participate in most things right alongside her peers. 

My other favorite bit was swimming during the freetime on Saturday afternoon.  After a nice nap I went up to the pool, which had a small slide. The kids were so excited to have a few teachers get in the water and were eager to go down the slide with us. It was cute, and a great way to just spend time with the students in a way that I certainly don't every day!  

This was the first youth trip I'd ever taken that wasn't with Knox, my home church, which made it pretty odd for me. There were so many things I realized that I assumed just happened, or happened in a certain way, because of my time with Knox. The older I get, the more I really appreciate the youth pastor and program that we have there! 

I crashed last night after some dinner and a massage, and felt surprisingly normal today.  The students were already asking me yesterday afternoon if I'd go again next year. We'll see. 

Busy busy busy

Yesterday I had dinner with a Thai friend, and for the first time since being here, we ate "Thai style".  In true Asian community-orientated fashion, Thais generally order for the table when they eat out, and then everyone shares.  As a newcomer to Thailand this is great because I got to try a variety of dishes.  It's also nice to not have to choose just one menu item and it makes the whole experience more shared and communal.  Good times, great food. 

I am finding that life here is a lot busier than I anticipated.  For one thing, I think I am working longer hours than ever before because of my planning.  I have this awesome smart (Mimio) board in my classroom and I love it- so much that I use it for every lesson.  The downside to this is it takes a larger chunk of time to create the lessons in Mimio.  The upside is that it will all be done for next year!  In the meantime I may need to find a way to quicken the process.  I know there are plenty of people in the world who work much longer hours than I do, but this 6:30-4:00+ is killing me. 

I'm also adding to the busyness by volunteering to lead a Life Group at school, which is basically an after school small group/ Bible study for students. I'm going to co-lead a group of 8th grade girls. I'm so excited about this because it is a chance to go a bit deeper with a few girls and to help them grow in their relationship with God.  So although the time for that and planning for that will be another thing on my schedule, it is completely worth it. 

In addition, I am making some feeble attempts to exercise more often.  And I have not signed up for Thai classes yet, a huge must.  And last night my friend and I discovered that we both really want to get involved with outreach to an orphanage or children's home, so we're looking into a trip we can take to do that.  I'm also spending lots of time (often over dinner) socializing and getting to know people better.  I collapse into bed around 8:30 or 9:00 every night. 

Living on campus it's pretty easy to forget that I live in Thailand, that I can't speak the language, that this place operates in a completely different way than I am used to.  Over time I want to stretch and reach outside of the "bubble" more and more, even with the frustrations that will bring.  The more you get out and interact with the culture the more you encounter the differences and little problems they entail- but without those things I might as well just stayed home!  

First Day Highlights

The first day of school is always a bit crazy, but definitely lots of fun.  Here are a few of my favorite moments:

• When my kids came to homeroom first thing and I wasn't really sure if they should go in or wait outside for the anthem (we generally line up outside our rooms while we raise the flag and hear the anthem) so there we are, a big bunch of newbies, trying to look down the hall to see what everyone else was doing.  
• Giving locker assignments to 6th graders, their first year with a combination lock.  The classroom is well air-conditioned.  The hallway is not.  There were 20 of them and 2 of us to help them.  Sweat sweat! 
• Homeroom ends and I have to send my babies out into the world and I didn't get through even a quarter of what I needed to in homeroom...
• Accidentally calling myself Miss Messink several times throughout the day.  Old habits die hard.
• One of my new kids choosing electives with me in the Registrar's office:

Registrar: You marked 'strings' class (orchestra). Do you want to take strings?
Student: Is that where you play guitar?
R: No, it's violin or viola or cello.
S: What is band?
R: Clarinet or saxaphone or trumpet or things like that.
S: No guitar? 
R: No guitar.
S: How about choir?  Do you play guitar there?
R: No, that's singing.  There's really no guitar class.
S: So what is drama? 

• Spilling pineapple smoothie on my white skirt at lunch.
• Teaching my first Spanish class. All we really did was go over the syllabus and class rules and procedures and stuff like that.  But, I got to speak to them in Spanish and they took a group "quiz" over common cognates and that was fun. 
• Showing the kids my new Mimio (smart) board in math class
• Trying to learn 60 new (almost all Asian) names in one day (with another 60 to come tomorrow)
• One of my homeroom boys who just can't get the hang of his combination lock. I think even I have the combination memorized already! 
• About 15-20 minutes after school ends when they come on the PA looking for one of my homeroom kids who is new this year.  
• And then 5 minutes later when they announce AGAIN for him to report to the front of the building.  At this point I considered walking down the four flights to help look for him. 
• And then 5 minutes later when they announce it AGAIN and come find me to see if I had seen him (which I hadn't since 10am). 
• And then when we find him shortly after, at 'Starbooks' the bookshop/cafe on campus (on the ground floor of my apartment building) with a smoothie in his hand.  

Overall the day went really well (I had two prep periods so I even had time to eat and drink and pee, a rarity on the first day) and I loved meeting some of my kids and getting the school year going.  I'll meet the rest of my math kids tomorrow and then the other Spanish classes over the next few days.  There are many Thai students, but also quite a few from Taiwan, India, Korea, the US, and other places and I love getting to know them and help them feel at ease in ICS.  And now, I am home with my feet up eating Oreos :)  

Summer Job!

God has been so faithful in providing for me this year (and always).  Ever since roughly Thanksgiving I've had extremely steady work, and most of it has been at my favorite school.  My subbing schedule is nearly full already for the rest of the school year, though I am taking the last week of school off in order to go Up North to Long Lake with my family.  I've been so blessed to be teaching in a great building, where I hardly feel like a sub anymore.  And last week the Principal asked me if I would be willing to teach their 3 week Summer Academy.  It starts immediately after school ends and goes until July 8th, leaving me 10 days until I leave.  The program will run from 8:30-11:30 in the morning and I can do my (paid) prep and planning at school, at home, by the pool, etc.  Because this program is similar to a summer school program, the pay is comparable to teacher pay so I will actually earn more per day just working in the mornings than I do now subbing all day.  Nearly 50% more.  The job also has the advantage of getting me up and out of bed and being productive, while still giving me every afternoon off. It won't be easy an easy job- it's a tough group of kids- but I'll only have 10 kids at a time and should be able to do some fun/interesting things with them.  The job and extra money will be such a blessing in my first weeks and months in Thailand, helping with so many up front costs to moving into a new apartment, paying baggage fees with the airlines, etc.  And I love how God provided this completely out of the blue- it literally walked into my classroom and was mine for the taking (the teachers at the school had first dibs I guess, but big surprise, no one wanted it, so they asked me).  Jehovah Jireh! 

Treasures in Heaven

Wow, I can't believe it's been almost a month since I've blogged! Lots going on, in life, in my head, in my heart. I've been working hard in another long term sub position, and finding it much more challenging than the last. At the same time, I have enjoyed the consistency, especially being in the same building as before, where the staff has really welcomed me and made me feel at home.

During spring break I had the opportunity to stay with two of my cousins for a week while their parents were gone and really enjoyed hanging out with them. Unfortunately I got the World's Worst Cold during that time, which was just hitting it's peak when two of my friends came to visit for a few days. It was awesome to see the girls, but I felt really bad not being able to do much with them. By last weekend I was beginning to be able to sleep a bit at night, but also came down with laryngitis- not a great thing for a teacher! I limped through this week at work and am finally back to nearly 100% voice.

I'm also plugging away on preparations for Thailand and have taken great steps in completing my paperwork. Emotionally, the preparation is coming along as well. I'm working on various plans and places to go and people to see before I leave (in 3 short months!). God has definitely been at work in my heart, helping me to appreciate these moments while still getting ready for this new chapter.

Lately I've been struck by the fragility of life and the hope that we have in Christ- how all the rest of it just means so little. Ecclesiastes resonates in my head, 'meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless!' as it becomes more and more clear to me what really lasts. I was watching the third Narnia movie last weekend with my friends and one scene jumped out with me: when Eustace finds the dragon's treasure and his eyes get real big and he starts scooping up as much of it as possible. We, the reader/viewer, know how futile it is, how no matter how much he picks up, he can't take it with him. How much time and energy I spend trying to gather up what I can't take with me! My prayer is that no matter where I am, here or Thailand or elsewhere, I would spend my time and energy and resources to store up that which lasts.

Something More

I've been watching a fair amount of "The West Wing" lately and have been finding myself drawn to something in the characters that I couldn't quite put my finger on at first. How could a television show make a job working 18 hours a day in politics and public policy look appealing? How could they manage to make it look fun? And then I realized what it was about these characters' lives that was appealing: they are working, giving all they have, for a cause that they believe in, a cause that one of them describes as "the real deal".

It made me realize what is so appealing about serving as a missionary teacher in Thailand- that I'll be a part of a team, working together, striving together for a cause we believe in, something more than a cause in fact, but the real deal. One of the things I loved about teaching at BAICA was the sense of family among the staff. Were staff relationships perfect? No- de ninguna manera. But, there was a sense there that I don't get in any other school or job, a sense that we are striving together for something that is worth something. And I am looking forward to that sense of community and family and purpose in Thailand.

In "The West Wing", they are not, obviously, working for what is true and lasting, no matter how noble the effort is. How much greater is it when the cause and ideal that we are putting our time into is the very one that lasts forever.

To be bored, therefore, does not mean that we have nothing to do, but that we question the value of the things we are so busy doing. The great paradox of our time is that many of us are busy and bored at the same time. While running from one event to the next, we wonder in our innermost selves if anything is really happening. While we can hardly keep up with our many tasks and obligations, we are not so sure that it would make any difference if we did nothing at all. While people keep pushing us in all directions, we doubt if anyone really cares. In short, while our lives are full, we feel unfulfilled... Henry Nouwen

And the winner is...

I love it when you have a big decision to make that isn't really a decision at all in the end- the answer is just clear, obvious even. That is how it was for me this week as I accepted a job at the International Community School in Bangkok, Thailand for next year. In the end I had 3 schools to choose from and by the time I had heard back from all three a clear ranking had developed. I wasn't agonizing over where I was going to go- I knew exactly what to say when they asked me if I wanted the job. ICS is a K-12 Christian school with a student body of about 850. I'll be teaching MS math- 6th grade and Pre-Algebra, to be exact. And, I also get to teach an Intro to Spanish class:) In HS the students have to decide whether to take Spanish, French, or Chinese (in addition to the Thai they take every year) so the school wants to start giving them a taste for each language in MS to help them decide what they want to take later on. I am very excited to be able to use my Spanish in some way!

There isn't a whole lot else to tell right now- I'll be leaving sometime in mid-late July and make an initial commitment of 2 years. I'm hoping to find a way to start learning some basic Thai before I go, right now I don't even know how to say hello! Bangkok will be a challenge and a change , but one I am looking forward to. It's never easy to leave home, to say good-bye to family and friends here, to be so much farther away (esp in time zones) than friends in Argentina, but I feel confident that this is where God is calling me right now. He has been so faithful in this whole process. I've grown closer to him through each twist and turn in the journey to this point, and will certainly continue to do so on the journey ahead.

Science Teacher!

Yesterday I started my temp job as a 7th grade science teacher. I'll be subbing for this teacher at least until Christmas break, and most likely a week or two afterward as well. Luckily, she is extremely organized and the other 7th grade science teacher is very friendly and helpful, so it's not to overwhelming. I do find it a bit ironic though, because science is really not my specialty. Today we did a lab, which had its rough moments but went well. Only 4 test tubes were broken and one substance spilled all over- luckily it was just salt:) The first two days have been fun, but have also brought out the stark contrasts between the large public school and the small international Christian school.

• The distance between teachers and students seems weird to me here. I am so accustomed to interacting with the students on a deeper level, not only because of class size (though that definitely plays a part) but also because of the nature of the school and teacher-student relationships.
  
• My instinct to pray with the kids or talk about prayer with them is still there, and I find it pops into me head fairly often. The teacher I am subbing for is out for hip surgery, and I keep wanting to pray for her in class or with other teachers or something like that. A few weeks ago a second grader told me in class that his grandpa was in the hospital. I couldn't think how to respond other than saying we could pray for him!
  
• Then there's the difference between teaching 5 classes once each verses one class 5 times a day (which is what I do now). Mostly, it's just a difference in the size of the school. As a sub, the set up is nice because I only have to get my brain around one lesson per day, but I will admit, I'm pretty sick of it by the end of the day, or by the time I've read the same answers 120+ times.
  

I'm very thankful to have this job and bit of consistency in my life. The staff and teachers at the school are wonderful and have made me feel very welcome- something you don't always find in the public schools.

Better than free

I'm fresh off my first day of subbing, well, my first day since January of 2004! I spent my day in an elementary CI classroom- for the non-educators out there, CI stands for cognitively impaired, which is the new term for mentally impaired. The day was 9 kids, 2 aides, me and some vague lesson plans. I was suddenly very grateful for the week I spent filling in the PreK class last year at BAICA- it gave me a few ideas for what we could do and how we could structure our time. The day went as well as I could have hoped, I suppose, for a challenging assignment, and I found myself thinking about fishing on the way home.

We all know the line about teaching a man to fish instead of just giving him a fish, but what I realized today is that many people around the world don't need either one, the lesson or the fish, they just need the opportunity to fish. Many, many wonderful family and friends have helped me out this summer, whether it was a meal or a ride, a tank of gas or a place to stay. And all of that has been absolutely incredible. But it still doesn't compare to the feeling of being able to work, to do something you know, and to contribute something to the world. The few dollars I made subbing today or prepping roses last week (long story) are meaningful to me because afterward I am tired- I have done something called work, and it was good. I look forward to that first paycheck when I can go buy some black work shoes (I wore through my last pair on the cobblestones of Argentina), not simply because I need the shoes, but because I will have worked for them. The work is the gift, and despite the price of blisters, aches, pains or frustration, it's still better than free.

It makes me think about those who live day in and day out in poverty, who struggle to survive in developing countries. We send aid, but how much better would it be if we created opportunities to work? Opportunities which paid enough to lift them out of poverty (even if it raised the price of our t-shirt), opportunities that gave them something meaningful to do, something that they could take pride in. Imagine a world where farming and harvesting paid the bills, a world where lettuce was more expensive but those who picked it could afford to buy it. And yes, some of those people will need to "learn how to fish", but whether they're learning or they already know, it doesn't matter if they don't have the opportunity to do it.