Day 56 - Orientation Day

Orientation Day, Tuesday, August 23

The SCCLC has a day for students and their families to visit the school.  It is a day to meet teachers, get schedules, decide on electives, and a million other things.  As the name says, it is to get them oriented.

We began the day with a parent meeting for all the students in grades 7, 9, and 12 and their parents in the Chapel.  That might seem like a strange mix together, but the idea behind it is these three grades are in transition.  Seventh graders are becoming junior high schoolers.  Ninth graders are becoming high schoolers.  And twelfth graders are about to leave high school for college.

Mr. HAuse (yes that is how he spells it) opened the session with prayer and a few words about the year, then introduced Miss Barlow, the high school principal.  Miss Barlow’s job was to introduce all the high school teachers.  There are quite a few, most teaching 3 or 4 classes, and a few are elementary teachers that are teaching maybe one high school class. 

After the introduction, the teachers went down to the Eagle’s Nest.  This is the lunch room and has other purposes, which I am still learning.  Matilde, Melissa, and I were handing out locker assignments.  Melissa and Matilde are the other secondary English teachers, like me.  From my little time with them, I can see how much they love these kids.  Melissa loves the tough ones.  I like that about her.  Kurt was getting kids to sign up for various sports.  Keith was taking pictures.  Jessica and Debbie were working on schedules with the kids.  Craig, the PE teacher, and Mary, the science teacher, both so young they could have been students of mine, hung around with us while we did those various jobs.  Both of them have a heart for these kids.  They will do just fine.

After a few minutes the kids began to pour in.  Honestly, this week I had begun to wonder what I had gotten myself into.  The school is a lot more complicated that it was back in the 80s and I retired here to take it easy.  But when the kids began to come in, and I listened to them talk, and saw their interactions with other teachers, I began to feel more at ease.

These are the same kinds of kids I taught in the 80s.  Some are kids from American families, mostly missionaries, and the rest are Bolivians.  I had seen the names of many and realized a lot were Asian, but until I saw them it had not made much of an effect on me.  I think I will be teaching more Asians this year than in all my years of teaching combined.  How cool is that?

And I have a lot of boys.  A lot!  I mean about two-thirds of all three classes are boys. 

As I am watching them, I notice personalities.  Some are shy.  They will need special care to be included and not embarrassed.  Some bold and bright-eyed.  They will take some work.  There are friendships that are already strong and new ones being made.  I saw some that have the light of Jesus in their eyes.  I can’t wait to learn about their testimonies.  And there are those that will need prayer.  I believe God brought them to this place for a reason. 

So if you are reading this, say a prayer for me this school year, that I may be a witness for Christ and a quality teacher of literature.  Say a prayer for those students who have Christ in their hearts, that they may grow and become strong witnesses for Christ.  And especially pray for those who don’t know Jesus.  I want this to be their year.

! John 5:14 says, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask according to His will, He hears us.”