Ninoy Aquino Day

As my last blog stated, "We're off to a roaring, or meandering, start." Today is Monday and we have no school due to a national holiday. How can a week get any better than canceling Monday altogether? It makes things a touch difficult as we try to get into the swing of things but it is so very nice for catching up on some much needed sleep and quiet.

Week One is complete. It was a challenging week but I think we started off the school year on a good note. Three preps takes so much mental energy but as soon as I get things truly organized in my head, I think that I'm going to have a great semester. I did try to get in some extreme, semester-long planning done today so that should get me on the right track.

One of the highlights of the first week of school at Faith is the opening ceremony. (I really like the closing ceremony too but that's another blog entry for May.) The entire school skips out on a few minutes of Period 1, comes to the Circle in the center of campus, hears prayers asking for a blessed school year, and then raises two flags - the Christian flag and the Philippine flag. However, the part that I like the most is the 5th-graders who carry in the flags of the nations. This year they paraded 20 flags of the students and teachers of Faith Academy. A pretty incredible sight as we think about the diversity in our school body. It's also fun to hear the cheers of each nation as their flag is announced and paraded into the Circle. It is a great way to start out the school year!

Our superintendent welcomes us to the 2008-2009 school year.

Here comes Great Britain!

The Korean flag represents the 2nd largest student population at Faith!

The Philippine flag is at the end of the line representing the 3rd largest student population.

The US flag representing our largest student and staff population.

One Week of Pure Chaos

I have now been back in Manila for one week. I vacillate between the feelings of "I never left" and "Didn't I fall asleep in my bed at Gramma's last night?" It has been an incredibly full week of emotions, hello's, retreating, setting up shop, and all the other fun stuff that goes along with the beginning of a new school year.

The staff retreat was amazing. The planners did such a good job of planning a rejuvenating retreat. I came back to Manila still feeling the pressure of the beginning of a new school year but in a much better place emotionally.

I encountered some unexpected changes when I arrived on campus this past week. A variety of things happened to change the schedule I thought I was to teach this year. These include only 2 Grade 7 classes. They are going to be a bit bigger classes by Faith standards but still smaller than most classes that you find in the US. I am teaching a speech class this semester rather than an Oral Interpretation class. Those don't sound so different, you say. Yes, but they actually are quite different. Same principles for the most part but fairly different content-wise. I am grateful for another teacher who has taught this class (in fact taught this class to me) for many years and has all of her materials and curriculum together. And finally, the one that I did expect - World Literature. It has been a cramming week as I try to pull together everything that I need for 3 preps while spreading stuff out between the four spaces that I will claim for the year. I have one room for middle school, two rooms for high school, and an office. I'm setting up shop in the office for the year in hopes of having an airconditioned, central place to work. I'll most definitely be getting my workout as I hike around campus.

Some things are hard about being back. The reality of some of the changes from last year is difficult to deal with. There are families and friends that have left Faith and their presence is sorely missed.

So here we are at Year 2, 2008-2009. It promises to be crazy and wonderful and difficult all wrapped up into one. I started one of my four classes today and my other three will start tomorrow. Off to a roaring, or meandering, start.

I have only a mere 24 hours before I head to the airport. Although I am not looking forward to the excessively long flights between here and Manila, I am looking forward to having all of my bags packed and being done with it. I have felt that my time in Michigan has been one big whirlwind of not getting enough in. I haven't been able to spend time with all of the people that I wanted to spend time with. I have not been able to spend as much time as I wanted with the people that I have been able to see. Not enough quality sister time. Not enough quality grandparent time. Not enough quality cousin time. I don't want to say that I live with regret living after this summer but in the back of my mind there are a lot of "I wish"-es. I'm going to try to be as proactive as possible today and get as much done in the little bits of time here and there that I have. So right now that means going and making my bed and putting my hair up for church.