My First Professional Development Class...in Spanish

Last night I held my first professional development class for the teachers here at the Eva M. Russell School. We decided to split the teachers into two groups to better meet their needs. So last night I focused on grades 1-3 and next week I will work with the 4-5 grade teachers and the 6-8 math teacher. Our focus was number sense (numeración en español) and we used most of our time to talk about tools we have to help our students understand place value, number sequence, and comparison. I was incredibly nervous about teaching adults - I wanted to make sure that I wasn't belittling them or their experience since they have been working at this school for much longer than I have. I've only been here for 3 weeks! But I trusted that the Lord had led me to cover these topics, and based on my observations, I truly felt like I had some valuable and helpful strategies to share. 

We began our time by reviewing the number sense standards for grades 1-3. The teachers had never read the standards for any of the other grades, and the 1st and 2nd grade teachers were shocked to see that children in 3rd grade are expected to be using numbers through 999,999. It was a great reminder that what they're teaching in their classes is the foundation for what the children will have to learn in the following year. Then we identified the biggest areas of weakness that our children have within these standards. Finally we covered strategies that we can use to make our teaching more cohesive, more engaging, more hands-on, and more conceptually correct within those areas. The teachers here had NEVER seen a 1-100 chart!! I was shocked! There are already two teachers using them with their students today and I'm so happy to say that thanks to some wonderful friends and family, I already have 6 large poster-sized 1-100 charts on their way to our school from my amazon.com wishlist! Thank you to those of you who have checked out our school wishlist and have contributed to our arsenal of teaching materials!

Overall, I am so thankful for the opportunity to work with these teachers and these kids. Like I've said before, the needs here are great, but our God is greater! After training last night, a group of teachers stayed behind and we ended up talking for a while about our students, their needs, and their behavior. One of the teachers quoted Ephesians 6:12, " porque no tenemos lucha contra sangre y carne" - "for the battle is not against flesh and blood." What a blessing it is to work with teachers and administrators here who understand that it is not us vs. our students. It is us vs. the enemy, he who is trying to destroy the lives, the joy, the health, and the families of our students. But we are part of a winning army which fights not with our own power or our own weapons, but with the armor of God.