Ready for school!

That's right - tomorrow is the first day of school for St. John's Lutheran School! Are we ready? Sure... about as ready as we will ever be. We have been attending faculty meetings since Tuesday, August 16. Items on the agenda have included the faculty handbook, the school calendar, the division of duties between our principal and vice principal, school-wide procedures, management for the first days of school, and many other things. Our school visitor, Mr. Landwehr, has been here since Sunday evening, helping us to prepare for the first day of school. He will be here until Friday when he will go home to St. Lucia. He visits us once a month to observe us in the classroom, give us constructive criticism on where we do well and where we can improve. He is very knowledgeable and is a pleasure to work with.

Classroom library

Student cubbies and textbook shelf

Desks are ready!!!

My desk - I only have one drawer, so
I will have to keep the top very neat.

I have taken much time to prepare my classroom for the start of school. I have been at school, Monday-Friday, for the last 4 weeks, cleaning, sorting, tossing junk, planning, making copies, creating bulletin boards... you name it. I averaged 7-8 hours a day, some more, some less.

Thursday, August 25 was Parent Orientation. All school parents were expected to attend. We began with a devotion and meeting in church. The faculty was introduced and Deputy Principal Mrs. James strongly reminded all parents about the requirements for student uniforms. After this, parents went to the classroom of their children where they filled out registration information and were briefed by the teacher on expectations for the year. Policy here is that if the parents/guardians did not show for Orientation, their child would not be allowed to attend the first day of school! We have had a grace period up through today (Wednesday) to let parents come in and register. On Thursday, I only had 16 families show. Since then, 10 have come in and I found out that 2 will not be returning (would have been nice to know before yesterday...). As of this afternoon, only one child is not registered. I am grateful because that means less hassle for me as parents come in the morning, wanting to register their child. I am also grateful that tomorrow is a half day - I can teach some procedures, get supplies put away, and then let the children out so I can collect my thoughts on the day.

          Here is the theme for our school year, based on Philippians 1:27. We will even have song, written by a member of the congregation, serve us through the year.

                   

Here are some of the little posters in my classroom, helping to highlight procedures that, Lord willing, will make the day to day operation run more smoothly so we can focus on learning and not on what we should (or should not) be doing. We will see how things go! That's what the first days of school are for.