Today I was surprised by another unexpected visitor!!!
*[Read about it here]*
Friday, February 25, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
surprise visit
Today I was blessed with a surprise visit from a former student of mine. Because we are on the same campus as the high school I see many of my former students every day. This particular student, however, no longer attends BFA and is currently visiting from Korea!!
Not only did Karen bring her sweet smile and hugs, but she also gifted me with my nerdiest obsession: office supplies!! [Koreans seem to have the most innovative and ADORABLE pens, pencils, etc. and I have recently fallen in love with them.] Karen specially chose the pencil with the teddy charm because she knows I like hot pink, and I will always think of her when I use the pen (it has three colors of ink) because the model name written on the barrel of the pen is "Karen"!
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| sweet Karen |
Saturday, February 19, 2011
recap
This week has been jam-packed with activity! Rather than just posting a bunch of pictures, I put them into a little recap video for your viewing pleasure. There are no descriptions or explanations so you may wish to read below. Or, just skip to the good stuff. :)
Monday: Valentine's Day. Students at BFA play a little game where the girls wear a paper heart (usually with tasty candies attached) and refuse to talk to any boys. If a boy gets a girl to talk, she gives him her heart. Some boys compete to see who can get the most hearts, while some girls decide ahead of time who they will speak to so they can give their heart to a special someone. My 8th grade girls made some really neat hearts.
Tuesday: Science presentations. My life science students have been researching the human body for three weeks and the projects culminated this week with oral presentations. We saw the human body as it's never been seen before! One group brought in a pig heart from the butcher to give us a visual of a four-chambered heart, while another group made a marble drop to demonstrate the path of blood through the excretory system. Tuesday was also the awkward middle school Valentine's After Party. You can use your imagination on this one, as we played "The Friendship Game" (aka the Newlywed Game) and Battle of the Boys and Girls (aka, Battle of the sexes).
Wednesday: My group of seniors led Chrysalis tonight. We taught on Matthew 20 and the parable of the workers in the vineyard, encouraging the students with the fact that God's grace is for everyone. For the game time, we played human foosball with about a dozen balls of various size! Watching the kids pelt each other with giant exercise balls was probably the best 20 minutes of my day.
Thursday: In math class my students worked on challenge problems in small groups. This might not sound like a big deal, but they worked out the problems on my classroom windows using Expo markers! At first they were hesitant but once I assured them it would wipe off, they went to town solving problems using their new knowledge of proportions and cross products. Yay math!
Friday: Our last home basketball games of the season. I ran the scoreboard for a few games and enjoyed hanging out with students and friends during the other games. Even though we lost almost every game this weekend, the BFA Falcons played incredibly hard and ended the season well. The Pep Band also made their last appearance until next season.
If you actually read all that, way to go.
Monday: Valentine's Day. Students at BFA play a little game where the girls wear a paper heart (usually with tasty candies attached) and refuse to talk to any boys. If a boy gets a girl to talk, she gives him her heart. Some boys compete to see who can get the most hearts, while some girls decide ahead of time who they will speak to so they can give their heart to a special someone. My 8th grade girls made some really neat hearts.
Tuesday: Science presentations. My life science students have been researching the human body for three weeks and the projects culminated this week with oral presentations. We saw the human body as it's never been seen before! One group brought in a pig heart from the butcher to give us a visual of a four-chambered heart, while another group made a marble drop to demonstrate the path of blood through the excretory system. Tuesday was also the awkward middle school Valentine's After Party. You can use your imagination on this one, as we played "The Friendship Game" (aka the Newlywed Game) and Battle of the Boys and Girls (aka, Battle of the sexes).
Wednesday: My group of seniors led Chrysalis tonight. We taught on Matthew 20 and the parable of the workers in the vineyard, encouraging the students with the fact that God's grace is for everyone. For the game time, we played human foosball with about a dozen balls of various size! Watching the kids pelt each other with giant exercise balls was probably the best 20 minutes of my day.
Thursday: In math class my students worked on challenge problems in small groups. This might not sound like a big deal, but they worked out the problems on my classroom windows using Expo markers! At first they were hesitant but once I assured them it would wipe off, they went to town solving problems using their new knowledge of proportions and cross products. Yay math!
Friday: Our last home basketball games of the season. I ran the scoreboard for a few games and enjoyed hanging out with students and friends during the other games. Even though we lost almost every game this weekend, the BFA Falcons played incredibly hard and ended the season well. The Pep Band also made their last appearance until next season.
If you actually read all that, way to go.
AGIS
Last weekend I and five other BFA teachers had the privilege of traveling about five hours away to Hannover, Germany for a conference of the Association of German International Schools. Hardly anyone knew about BFA so I had an instant conversation starter, though I did run into a few people who either knew students who left their school for BFA (sad for them, haha!), knew someone on staff, etc. I had the chance to talk to one woman who was completely blown away by the fact that BFA does not pay salaries and that each teacher raises his own support to serve here. It was a neat opportunity for me to explain the heart of BFA to someone who is also working internationally but in a different setting.
I also gathered a quiver full of great ideas and resources for teaching middle school. This week I've already started implementing a few little things here and there, and over the next several months I hope to incorporate a few bigger ideas into my teaching methods. The weekend was jam-packed and left me hardly any time to prepare my lessons for this past week, but I've survived and am ready for another week to begin. The conference wasn't very photogenic, though the science workshops were pretty exciting. Here are a few randoms from the weekend as well as an awesome video from the "Kitchen Science" workshop I attended.
Science is a blast. Check it out:
I also gathered a quiver full of great ideas and resources for teaching middle school. This week I've already started implementing a few little things here and there, and over the next several months I hope to incorporate a few bigger ideas into my teaching methods. The weekend was jam-packed and left me hardly any time to prepare my lessons for this past week, but I've survived and am ready for another week to begin. The conference wasn't very photogenic, though the science workshops were pretty exciting. Here are a few randoms from the weekend as well as an awesome video from the "Kitchen Science" workshop I attended.
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| The TV knows my name! Can you say, Big Brother? |
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| Making gasses in the Kitchen Science workshop |
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| Conducting an inquiry in a Science and Language workshop |
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| Waiting for our ride home |
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| Relaxing on the train after a full weekend |
Science is a blast. Check it out:
Monday, February 7, 2011
long weekend
A long weekend is just about over. On Friday and Saturday we hosted home basketball games, and once again Katrina and I worked the table. She kept stats in the book and I ran the scoreboard/clock. Unfortunately we lost all of our games this weekend, but BFA still put up a pretty good fight! Our next home games are in two weeks.
Today we had "winter break," essentially to provide a day of recovery for everyone who stayed up until 4:30 am watching the Super Bowl last night. I chose to skip said Super Bowl and get a full night's sleep. This morning I ran a few errands and finished up lesson plans for the week, then went on a little excursion up to a quiet place in the hills surrounding Kandern. Here are a few pics from my afternoon (yes, I had a photoshoot with my Bible).
Today we had "winter break," essentially to provide a day of recovery for everyone who stayed up until 4:30 am watching the Super Bowl last night. I chose to skip said Super Bowl and get a full night's sleep. This morning I ran a few errands and finished up lesson plans for the week, then went on a little excursion up to a quiet place in the hills surrounding Kandern. Here are a few pics from my afternoon (yes, I had a photoshoot with my Bible).
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| I have pink skin. Darn sunlight. |
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Opposite Day
Today was a middle school spirit day! The theme: opposites. Check out the creativity and fun costumes!
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| Sunny/Stormy, Up/Down, Departure/Arrival, Milka/Ritter, Good/Bad |
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| Good and Bad |
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| Milka and Ritter Sport |
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| Bad Girl and Good Girl |
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| Four Seasons |
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| Peace and War |
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| White and Black |
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| Nerdy and Popular |
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