This year I am teaching 7th and 8th grade Science as well as Bible. I teach the first 4 periods of the day and counsel the reminder of my day. I have followed my 6th graders to 7th grade to get on their nerves...some of them think :) ! The first day of school it was nice to start my day with students that I knew. When I asked how many of them were nerves about junior high, most raised their hands. I tried to calm their nerves by sharing my nerves too! We agreed it was great to start the day with each other. It has been great to continue to teaching them. My last year in the states I also got to move up to 7th grade with my students, and it was one of the best years I had at Crabapple! I do miss being a Husky some days!! It took a couple of days for my 8th graders and I to warm up to each other, but I really enjoy them!!
I teach Life Science to both 7th and 8th grade as well as "Discovering Our Amazing God" with both grades for Bible. Three out of my 9 years of teaching in the states I taught Life Science so it is familiar to me, but Bible is another story. Obviously, I am familiar with the Bible and enjoy spending time reading it myself. Teaching the Bible as a daily Bible class to junior high students can be a challenge, especially when all there is to guide me is a workbook. I have never been a lover of workbooks, so it has taken me until now to see some good in it. It can be very easy to assign pages, discuss them a bit, and wait until the bell rings. That is so boring! I have fought the temptation to go page by page, but some days I fall short. The last 4 weeks I have had a student teacher that has done a great job of using the workbook as a guide and throwing in some outside information to make it a little less boring. Esther, my student teacher, did a creativity unit with my students and had them show the creativity that God has given them. Here are some pictures of some of the projects turned in.
Cell Process Skits
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| Diffusion |
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| Osmosis |
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| Osmosis |
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| Endocytosis |
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| Exocytosis |
Classifying Toys
I teach Life Science to both 7th and 8th grade as well as "Discovering Our Amazing God" with both grades for Bible. Three out of my 9 years of teaching in the states I taught Life Science so it is familiar to me, but Bible is another story. Obviously, I am familiar with the Bible and enjoy spending time reading it myself. Teaching the Bible as a daily Bible class to junior high students can be a challenge, especially when all there is to guide me is a workbook. I have never been a lover of workbooks, so it has taken me until now to see some good in it. It can be very easy to assign pages, discuss them a bit, and wait until the bell rings. That is so boring! I have fought the temptation to go page by page, but some days I fall short. The last 4 weeks I have had a student teacher that has done a great job of using the workbook as a guide and throwing in some outside information to make it a little less boring. Esther, my student teacher, did a creativity unit with my students and had them show the creativity that God has given them. Here are some pictures of some of the projects turned in.
Last month, I did a unit on "Discovering God's Love". I enjoyed looking for videos, songs, and stories to help me get out of the workbook and into the real world. I worked to make this a unit that my students will not forget. I wanted them to come out of the unit knowing, seeing, and experiencing the love of God through His word, myself, their parents and each other. All I could do was pray that their hearts and minds would be open to the love that God has for them. I pray that God revealed himself to them in ways they never knew, and that he continues to show them how much they mean to Him. I told them from the beginning that my prayer for them was Ephesians 3:16-21.
"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in you inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."
I ended the unit with a day of letters and another day of feasting in God's love. I secretly asked parents to write their students letters sharing how much they loved them. I also asked that the parents would get letters from other adults in their lives. The students knew they were getting letters from their classmates and myself, but did not know about any other letters. When I gave them their letters to read, some were very shocked and others were brought to tears by the words that their parents and others shared with them. It was so fun to see them experience the love God has for them through others.
The next morning we feasted on pancakes (I made close to 80!) and other breakfast yummies to celebrate the love that our Heavenly Father lavishes on us everyday!!
Please pray for these 7th and 8th graders! This time of life is up and down, hormones throwing them into crazy moods and feelings of confusion creeping in at any moment. Pray that they know they are loved and cared for by God even when they feel unlovable!
