3.9: First day of teaching

9.3 Today was our first day of teaching. Our schedule is quite confusing because we’re trying to fit a three-hour routine into two hours with only three teachers, so I thought meeting with Guyla to organize things would help. However, the only time Guyla was available to sit down with my teachers and me and discuss a workable routine was an hour before teaching was scheduled to start, and she threw us several curve balls. We discovered no one knows for sure how many students will be in the program or what ages they will be, which makes lesson planning and progress charts complicated (nearly impossible); also, we learned that one class is too advanced for the Catch Up program and will have to start Basic Reading, an ILP method class that I’ve never been trained to teach, no less trained to teach someone to teach it. When the kids arrived, we realized that we had the advanced class with the seven-year-olds and a class with three-year-olds who hardly even speak Russian and a class of five-year-olds with minimal English skills. Although the youngest kids were absolutely adorable, I feel they’re too young for the program as their attention spans hardly exist and their motor skills are still undeveloped. Padima and Alysia are identical twins: they wore coordinated black and white dresses; there is also Sofa, Paul, and Felix. Felix, who is barely three, may be taken out of the program because he’s too young and can’t focus on the lesson. He’s cute, but a handful. Most of the children are very well behaved with only the typical child-like attention spans and energy. Today we had thirteen students; in total, since classes can have a maximum limit of eight per teacher, we will only have sixteen—Ally will be teaching Basic Reading instead of Catch-Up. In general, the day was chaotic and exhausting. We all came home totally spent, and I let the girls relax instead of holding yet another training meeting. I was feeling rather discouraged—the Lord has allowed everything before this to fall right into place, making these less stressful for me; I suppose I got comfortable and the Lord decided to remind me that I need Him to get through this. I definitely know that I can’t do this without Him; I feel very inadequate in this position, and oftentimes completely overwhelmed and confused; however, I know that if I put Him first in all I do, everything else will fit and work out. This is why I’m challenging myself to start my day with a heart-felt kneeling prayer and scripture study; I want to get to the point where I simply can start my day without doing so because it’s habitual and thenceforth a daily necessity in my mind and heart. I can’t fall asleep at night without praying, but for some reason I don’t have a habit of saying a real morning prayer except over my breakfast. My goal is to change that; I have faith that doing so will lighten my burdens and brighten my days. It makes sense to say a prayer in the morning: why not ask God for help during yet another opportunity to prove your allegiance to and faith in Him? When I feel discouraged, like I was today, praying and scripture study always brings comfort to my heart and mind.