8 Days Left

Well, in 8 more days we'll be on our way. Yesterday, I completed year 1 of 8th grade Language Arts. Overall, not a bad year. I still have some adjustments to make, and some things I want to add (and a few I'll subtract), but things went reasonably well.

Adults mark our 8th graders' progress by how many pass the WASL--we'll find that out in the fall. The 8th graders seem to mark our progress by how well we adults relate to them. On that count, I had some successes, and a few failures, too. The "relational" highlight (read, what the kids enjoyed most with me) was the bargain we had about my beard. After a week or so of verbal wrangling, letter writing, proclamation declaring, and decree announcing (I did this back and forth with one class of kids; they did their part with the social studies teacher's encouragement), we came to an agreement--for two weeks of "improved" behavior, I would shave my beard. They did it, so I did it...in class. Everyone had a good time, and, fortunately, my beard grew back in about 10 days.

I hope the Lithuanian students don't all the sudden hanker for me to shave.

As our month progresses, I'll try to update this blog, so you can know what we're doing. Thanks for your prayers, interest, and support.