What a busy, long week.  I don't know where to begin.  I guess I'll start with Monday.  A good day.  We have band on Mondays in the morning.  We haven't quite figured out how we can manage the students who get taken out for band at different times and yet effectively use our time with the rest of them.  That's ok, no harm done.  We will figure this one out.  We had  soccer and volleyballl at St. John Monday.  Phew!  Tough games.

Tuesday the 7th grade went to Wheeler Mission to put up bulletin boards.  This is a cool ministry that Mrs. Hougesen does.  The sixth grade did some amazing writing that day.  8th grade started Flowers for Algernon.  Great day!  We had our first Bible Quiz practice.  Great turnout.  I may try to post study aids on this site.  Exciting.  Volleyball and Soccer Games at home that day.  This is also the day my computer keyboard died.  I have been improvising with netbooks, other computers, and jumpdrives all week.  Bummer.

Wednesday was the first day of NFL, Night for Learning.  I did the childcare.  We had a schedule change because we had chapel on Thursday this week.  The 7th grade read The Monsters are Due on Maple Street.  It's a Twilight Z one.  I was surprised to learn that several of them had no idea what The Twilight Zone is.  This is a first!  Adults...we are getting old.
The Sixth grade read a Ray Bradbury story All Summer in a Day.  It's from the Martian Cronicles.  Again, surprised to learn that most of them hadn't really heard of the science fiction genre.  Hmmmm.  Now they have.

Thursday we had chapel and chapel families for the first time.  Loved talking to my chapel family about manners.  Such great kids.  Soccer and Volleyball at home against Our Shepherd.  Soccer Won!  Yeah!

Friday is a whirlwind.  Fortunately it was a good day.  We are all looking forward to Outdoor Ed next week.  What an experience that will be.  We spend a few days at Camp Lakeview, learning in nature.  It will be fun, but really exhausting for me.  That's ok.  It's a labor of love.  What a pleasure it is to serve the Lord by loving these kids. 

This week has been a good week. Short week after Labor Day weekend, so it went fast.

On Wednesday Mrs. Hougesen and I  did chapel. David and Goliath. We did this same chapel at Lutherwood and LuHigh. This time we think it was for the last time. She had Christian in 3rd grade be Goliath and Romeo in 1st grade be David. It is a funny chapel because they dress up like the people in the Bible and act out what Mrs. H  says.

Our Olweus Anti-bullying program is going well. We had class meetings this week. Bullying rules 1 and 2. We will not bully others, and We will help those who are being bullied. 

The Windy City Players came on Wednesday. They performed a cute version of Tom Sawyer.

The JV volleyball team won last night at Zion!!!  Varsity lost. They have some learning to do. They go to Lafayette this weekend, so some learning will certianly happen there. The Soccer team lost 0 - 3. They almost got 3 goals though, so maybe it's almost a tie.

The first week of school has been great.  Here's a few highlights:

In art we are making Name Collages.  They are made up of words that describe us found in magazines. 

In all of our classes we have used technology.  In English we are using computers to wordprocess our first journals.  We also made wordles in 7th and 8th grade using our names and nicknames.  They look really cool.  We have used netbooks, the smartboard, the internet.  It's just part of what we do.

We had our first class meetings for the Olweus bullying program.  It's been great

I am so impressed with our new students.  They have great attitudes and are a great addition to our family. 

I have to say, I love my job.  I thank God for it.  What a blessing it is to serve Him.