Year 3hree

So, year three. This year has brought many new changes for me. This year I returned to the same flat we were in last year and then moved the last weekend in September to our new flat. I posted pictures of our new flat. We decided to call it the Penthouse, in honor of the new Batman movie (where he moves into the Penthouse), but have now decided that we should keep Wayne Manor or go back to the BatCave. Such serious things to decide.

I started two new roles at work. First, I am now the head of the Languages Department (English, Spanish, German) at my school. Basically, I am now an administrator. I must hire and fire teachers when needed, hold staff meetings, attend millions of administration meetings, answer questions, deal with unhappy parents, defend teachers, observe teachers, deal with grade problems, and any other things that comes up. Basically, put out fires all day long.
This year was especially hard as we started the year short one teacher. We put out ads, asked friends and colleagues and came up with no one. So, we started the year with everyone subbing more and having the special ed teacher working part time for us. We finally got a few applicants and I excitedly started interviewing. Only to be amazed when the first had to ask our principal to translate for her and the second could only speak in the present tense. So, we kept searching until another canidate appeared. She seemed perfect. Her English was good and she really wanted the job. So after doing the interview, watching her practice teach a lesson, we hired her. Well, long story short, things did not work out. So, in December we told her that we would be letting her go at the end of January. So, we started the hiring process again. Thankfully, last week, we hired someone. She will start this week. I am praying that everything will go smoothly this time and I will be done hiring for a long time.

The second big change is that I am now a class teacher. This is kind of like being a homeroom teacher. Which means that I have opening (15 minutes) with them each day, and deal with any problems that come up with them. For the first week of school, before we had regular classes, I had them all day. And again at Christmas time and I will at the end of the year too. Thankfully, I have a Slovak teacher who helps me with this job. I also have to fill out the classbook. This book is where every teacher must write down every lesson they teach. Kind of like a plan book for the grade. So every day my students take it to every class. The teacher must fill in their lesson plan (ie - Past Continuous), mark down who is absent and sign it. If the teacher forgets, which happens more than it should, I have to track them down and get them to sign. And you cannot mess up. If you do, it may mean you have to get a new one and start all over. So, not a fun part of being a class teacher.

Year 3hree has been rough, but I see how God is working in it. I am continuing with my Slovak lessons and just this week I had a wonderful blessing. I have two Slovak tutors who come to school every Monday for 2 hours to work with me. We only speak in Slovak and they prepare lessons based on what mistakes I made the last week. I brought a children's book in Slovak to my lessons in September, so we have slowly and painfully been reading through it. The language in it is very difficult and I only understand the very basics of the storyline. In December, my principal brought an "Our Daily Bread" devotional book for 2009 to a meeting and gave one to each administrator, so I got one for the Languages department. So, I decided to bring it to my tutoring lesson. When I showed it to the girls, they got really excited about it. So, I read the devotional for that day. And amazingly, I could actually understand most of it. I really do not know what kind of relationship these girls have with Christ, so it was a great open door. I will bring it again this week, with the hopes that it will be a way to promote some good dialouge.