Teaching and Relationship-Building

Hello again!

We've got some new stories and new photos, so we'll get right to it!

Wai Krue day at school - i.e.: Teacher Honoring day

Teaching:
School has now been in session for 5 weeks.  At first, teaching was a bit rocky.  Learning names, establishing classroom order, figuring out what the different classes did and didn't know, and developing a strategy for how to proceed in each class's English learning was... daunting.  There were a lot of late nights, some tears, some frayed tempers, and a heck of a lot of sweat.  However, these latter few weeks (with much prayer on the part of our parents and a few key texting-buddies!) we have felt like we're starting to not figuratively splash around in this new pool quite so much - we might actually be beginning to tread water and possibly even swim!

We'll briefly introduce you to each class:

(Note: the photos we're sharing here are intentionally chosen to not reveal much of our students' faces as a security measure for these kids, including some that have been rescued out of dangerous situations)

Grade 1 has 10 girls and 4 boys in it.  They are adorable!  Before school begins for the day, they start trickling through our classroom to greet us - which includes everything from sneaking up behind us to "scare" us, to a bold running/jumping action into our lap, to a shy wave from the doorway.  Every morning they eagerly line up outside our classroom door and wait for us to come out of the door to say, "Good morning, students," to which they respond, "Good morning, Teacher Gabe and Teacher Dani; may I come in please?"  They love songs, they love to use crayons and draw, and the color pink is a predominant class favorite.  Castles, butterflies, princesses, and flowers are frequent additions to homework assignments :)

Two of our 1st graders

Grade 2, on the other hand, has a boy-majority with 7 boys and 3 girls.  These kiddos are active!  Wrestling, karate kicks, wiggles, and competition dominates this class.  They quickly progress through classroom materials, so we have to keep a stock of fun learning-oriented activities on hand for the times that we run out of lesson plans!  We have this group of students up until lunchtime, so especially at the end of class we have to be creative in keeping them distracted from their hungry tummies!  Dancing is a favorite pastime of the boys, so our daily "brain break" an hour into class is a popular time to get some energy expended!

Dance Time in 2nd grade!

The boys brought a friend to class last week.

And then there is Grade 3.  Grade 3 comes after lunch every afternoon, when the classroom is reaching its hottest point of the day.  Grade 3 has 22 students in it, equally split among boys and girls.  The main word I can think of to describe this group of kids is "social."  They LOVE to talk with their friends!  A secondary word that applies to them is "diverse."  Grade 3 is the most challenging for us at this time because we have 8 brand-new-to-our-school community member kids that appear to have had very little English instruction, along with a strong group of students that have now had several years of English instruction.  Dragons are quite popular among this group, as are princesses.  Play dough is a big hit, as are connect-the-dots and (surprisingly) copying spelling words from the white board into their English notebook.  And looking through picture books (reading comprehension is low to nonexistent, I think) is a HUGE passion for these kids.

(Sadly, we have no photos from Grade 3 because we never think to take out our iPad and snap a photo - we always feel like they need both of our eyes on them AT ALL TIMES or else the class will fall apart!)

Church/Relationships:

We've been attending an English-speaking church where many short and long term foreigners worship.  We've met a fair number of people and have been enjoying getting a chance to get to know some of them over after-church tea and coffee fellowship, lunches after church, and even a few outings.

One weekend we joined a group of young adults at some floating houses on a lake for some swimming/hang out time.  It was a combined birthday/going-away party celebration for several of the attendees.  The day was a restful, fellowship-filled time for us to get to know some of these like-minded, inspiring peers.

Our transportation to and from the floating houseboat village

The lake/houseboat crew

Gabe and the guys did some fun stunts off a rickety platform

En route!

Last weekend we met three students from a Bible School in Canada that are here doing a 5-week intensive ESL training, and we've enjoyed lunch with them as well as a fun evening of exploring the Chiang Mai Sunday Evening Walking Street Market.

The art area of the Sunday Walking Street Market.

Life/Food/Us:

We feel like we're adjusting to living here.  Physically, the temperature is still quite warm (as we write, it's 9:30pm and the temperature here in our living room has cooled down to about 88 degrees), but we find that we're not always as "energy-zapped" as we were when we first came.  We try to be very disciplined about drinking water!  Of course, one of the HUGE blessings is having fresh, cheap, delicious fruit available all the time, including one of our favorites right now:

Mangosteen!

We purchased a 125cc scooter to get around the area, which has been an extremely convenient addition to our life here.  For now, Gabe does almost all of the driving and Dani does most of the praying from her position behind Gabe, but we're working up to Dani feeling road-ready as well :)

For now, our weekdays are dominated by teaching, lesson planning, and preparing materials for classes.  For the most part, we don't leave the "grounds" here were we live and work until the weekend.  Sundays, of course, we head into town and that's when we do any running around in Chiang Mai.  Saturdays we use for more time at the school if we need it, laundry, cleaning the house, adventures (if we have the energy), or just sleeping in and trying to recharge before the next week starts :)  Every so often we'll head off to a coffee shop or go to a movie or out for lunch and get a salad or some other such luxury!

Getting some "alone" time at Starbucks in town after church today.  Gabe on his half of the 3rd story veranda.

Enjoying guacamole at a local Mexican food place!

Our $3.75 meal on a Saturday lunch date recently.

We're enjoying getting to hang out together throughout the week!

Of course, we also continue to have our regular adventures with exotic critters!  Geckos, large spiders, cockroaches, millipedes, centipedes, lightning bugs, extra-large wasps, scorpions, and itty-bitty ants seem to just be a part of life here!

A recent unwelcome bathroom invader.  The alarming thing is that this location is about 3 feet from out bed!

One of our constant prayers is for wisdom in how best to reach the hearts of our students while also helping them grow in their English language skills.  We also ask God for wisdom in how to best be an encouragement here in our little world - demonstrating honor for those around us and recognizing their value and unique gifting to participate in God's Kingdom.  As always, we would appreciate you joining us in those requests, if you feel so inclined!