Long Day

So, generally Friday is pretty fun because we get to wear jeans and most everyone is in a better mood because the weekend is flirting with us. In my 9th grade Bible class, it was good. I mean, I actually had a student ask me a question about Psalm 20 on her own initiative!! That was encouraging. But on the lower side of things, PE was pretty much chaos. I had the middle school boys doing an indoors study hall since there was snow outside and because there is an elementary chapel going on which we would be pretty sure to disturb (where we need to go). So, maybe I made the wrong choice, because I had lots of ignoring me when I spoke, talking to each other, disobeying, punching eachother (in anger more than fun), kicking desks in anger, knocking over shelves with binders and books going everywhere, others laughing at the mad one, ripping papers and throwing things all over the place, etc.
I felt like I was being too gracious probably, but I still gave out 4 or 5 tallies (punishments/warnings), and had a few serious one-on-one discussions.
So, another teacher complimented me on my patience that was around for a little bit of it, but I still was pretty frustrated. I think I was on the edge of just giving detentions out like candy. I'm not sure if I maybe should have done that... there are always so many factors to situations like that, that make it more complicated. History.
Then after all of that chaos, Anne and I got work done after school, ate kebaps for dinner (a turkish gyro thing), and then went to the high school coffee house. It was a fun time of playing cards and talking and line dancing lessons. Well, I opted out of the dancing, but Anne was loving it. :)
After that - the usual ride home on the Strassenbahn and the UBahn. A little walking in the COLD (maybe 10 to 20 degrees F), and then in our apartment and straight to bed and sleeeep. A long day. whew!

Snow in Vienna

It snowed ALL day today! Yahoo! Huge flakes, too. I love watching it out my classroom window. Snow brings different challenges in Vienna, though, than it does in the Midwest. For one, we have no car, so we have to walk a lot in the snow. Secondly, the UBahns and strassenbahns run no matter what, therefore NO snow days. Sad news. Thirdly, they don't really plow here. You plow your own way. It's especially funny when you have to run through snow to get to the strassenbahn before it leaves without you. So, tomorrow I'm breaking out my boots no matter how dumb I'll feel in them. My feet will thank me because I have outdoor afternoon duty this week, which means I stand outside and watch kids play from 3:20 until 3:45, snow or no snow. EVERY kid at V.C.S. loves snow. I think that's cool, only when I'm not on duty. So it goes:).

I just had the 9th graders do an assignment of translating Psalm 1 into another language. For half of my students, they looked at the NIV and translated to their mother tongue. For the ones that English is their first language, they translated into "surfer" or "valley girl" or "cowboy" language. They've been spending a lot of time studying Psalm 1 in various ways, and I'm trying to help them focus a little more on interpretation right now.
I think it went over pretty well and most of the students read it outloud for the class. It was cool to hear the passage we all have been studying in so many different languages - Greek (modern), Shona (Zimbabwe), Malayalam (India), pidgin English, Indonesian, Sinhalese (Sri Lanka), Swahili, and German. I wish you could see some of the scripts that they use to write some of the languages - truly amazing that they write with such intricate and detailed and ornate lines and curls and stuff. Wow! :)

So it seems

that Annie has been quite the blogger recently. Way to go ACF!
I don't want to be left in the weeds - plus I have some things to say.
In just a minute....

Living Hell

You'd never imagine a blog title like this from a fourth grade Christian school teacher, huh? Well, life is not so predictable in Room 104 at Vienna Christian School.
I started a new novel with my class today called Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, by Judy Blume. Hilarious book, if you haven't read it. No further were we past making predictions about the book from the cover and title when I asked my class what their thoughts were about having siblings, since the book deals a lot with 2 brothers and their relationship.
Gabe, a boy with a U.S. passport but who has grown up his whole life in Austria, immediately stood up, growled (no joke) and said, "it's HELL, LIVING HELL."
As you can imagine, I was shocked, while the rest of my class howled with laughter. I never expected this to come from his mouth, but in retrospect it might give me an idea of the realities of some kids' households, whether public or private, U.S. or foreign.
It's easy for me to laugh now because my student growled and yelled, but the truth is that Gabe's story is probably common among kids all over the world. Kids need love. That's why we're here.

Islam

This month we've been studying Islam in fourth grade. Interesting because I teach at Vienna CHRISTIAN School. It's part of our Social Studies curriculum, and it's paired with a study of the Middle East. I've been learning just as much as the kids!
We've learned biblical history of the Arab and Jewish nations, similarities and differences between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and the five pillars of the Islamic religion. It's been really interesting, but the best part is when the kids begin to think out loud how this religion mixes with what we learn in Bible at V.C.S. and what most of their families believe. Today I was asked questions like....

Did people worship Jesus even though he was just a kid?
Which came first, creation or dinosaurs?
Where do animals go after they die?
Why should the Bible make sense for me if my name is not in it?
Don't Muslim people KNOW that what they believe is wrong?

These questions boggled my mind, but they led to interesting discussions about what means to share about Jesus with Muslim friends of ours, what heaven and hell will be like, and why Muslim and Jewish people don't believe in the New Testament because it makes so much sense to us.

Fourth graders are amazing. I am shocked daily by what they say and how they think about life and God. The other day Benedict asked me if Abraham was the hairy on the in Bible. I think he meant Esau. :)

Thank YOU for allowing me to teach them here. It's my favorite.

In Case

the link to the pictures that we sent in our email didn't work for you, you can click on this below. It should work.

Frank Fotos

Orange Party

Hey!

We're having an ORANGE PARTY tomorrow night for my birthday!

Yahoo! I'm so excited!

Fourth Grade Meets David Crowder

This week in fourth grade Bible we've been talking about how God made man in His own image, which means for them that God knew they would have freckles, be athletic, or have hazel eyes before they were ever conceived, and that when God looks at them, He must see some of himself too.
On Wednesday we talked about David, and how God planned all the days and events of David's life, and we recounted what we knew about David and read some in 1 and 2 Samuel, too. On that same day I told my class that in the Bible it tells of a time when David had such exploding love for God that he felt compelled to remove most of his clothes and dance in the streets while the ark of the covenant was being brought into the City of David (2 Sam. 6:12-16). 2 Samuel 6:14 says that "David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might." As you can imagine, my ten year old studnets cringed at the though of David dancing in his underclothes in public, but after we moved beyond that, I explained to them the reason why. He loved his LORD so much that he was moved to dancing. I want to be like that, and opened the kids to that idea, too.
I then remembered a song by the David Crowder Band that fit this idea, so I brought it in today. The song goes like this...

I will dance, I will sing
To be mad for my King
Nothing, LORD, is hindering this passion in my soul
And I'll become even more undignified than this
Some may say it's foolishness
And it's all for you my LORD

The song repeats these words, and recounts that event I told my class about David dancing. I played that song for my class today, and they loved it so much we played it three times! My day is made when things like that happen. I teach for that reason. To see kids get excited about something true. David danced for God in his underclothes, and hopefully my fourth graders will be moved in that way, too.
Thanks for praying for them, and please continue to pray that God will open opportunities like He did today with that song, and that I will take each opportunity like that to better prepare my students for eternity.

Comings and Goings

Winter is a time at V.C.S. when lots of students come and go. It seems strange to leave or begin school halfway through the year, but it's a reality here in Vienna. Many of the students' parents are diplomats from their home countries to Austria. Therefore, they are not governed by the school calendar so much. This is specifically true for Korean families.
Many Korean families come to Vienna because one of the parents is a Korean judge. Korea has a program where they send judges to other countries for one year to study another country's judicial system with the intention to come back and better the Korean system. This exchange year begins each February.
I have a student who will be leaving V.C.S. February 1st. Her name is Jeong Eun, and her father is a Korean judge. She has learned proficient English during her year here, and she has made friends too. She will go back to Korea in a few weeks, where she will return to one fourth grade class of five in her school, where each class has between thirty and forty students. She told me today that she was sad to think about leaving Vienna and V.C.S.
I believe, because of Jeong Eun and other students, that V.C.S. leaves a special imprint on students' lives forever, regardless of whether they come for one year or ten years. It is truly a place where God is honored and the goal is to prepare kids for eternity along with preparing them for the next grade. Kids frown at the thought of going home each day, let alone leaving for what may be a long time like Jeong Eun. I'm really not joking, either. My students are sad to leave each day, because in this culture lots of kids live in apartments in the city and their friends live far away. There is little opportunity to just play with neighborhood kids like in the U.S.
So, all of this to say, it's sad to anticipate Jeong Eun leaving, but I'm trusting that God will go with her back to Korea, too, and bring new students for us to love here in Vienna.
Please pray for those students leaving and coming, that V.C.S. will hold a special place in their hearts and that they will trust Jesus with their lives because of what they experienced here.

New Units and Hot Cocoa Club

When January comes, it's a great time to begin new units with fourth graders, so this week we've begun many new things! We are studying the Islamic religion and culture along with the Middle East, and we're reading books about how to do and make things so we can then present some new skills we learn to the class. We even have parents coming in to do guest workshops next week. Hopefully this will motivate the kids to do their very best. So that's just an idea of what happens in fourth grade every week.
Just for the month of January as well we have Hot Cocoa Club. This is a time when students can enjoy a warm, fresh cup of hot cocoa from the U.S. if their behavior has been good that week. It's usually on Wednesday afternoons after recess. The kids really love it, but the only missing piece is falling snow outside. Unfortunately, we've only had flurries this year, and that was in November. Shucks. Hot cocoa is still worth it, and it spices up the January blues of being in school with no sight of spring yet.

Vacation

I guess we really took one. I mean, we had just over 2 weeks off for Christmas time, and we didn't write anything on our blog since Christmas Eve. Woah.
Now we're back and fresh into the new year. I guess that's not really such a big deal, cause so is everyone else - fresh into the new year.