School's Out!

When I was in school, these were words I loved to hear - school. is. out.  Freedom!  Lately, however, I find myself liking these words less and less.  Let me explain.

The Liberian school year is broken up into 6 marking periods.  Typically, a period consists of 5 weeks of instruction and then one week of testing (kind of like high school exam week we would have at the end of the semester).  This is how the first two periods went.  Third period, however, is quite different.  Because of when the school year started and when Christmas break falls, Period 3 ends of getting the short end of the stick; to be precise, we only have 3 weeks of teaching before our week of testing in the third period.  That means 15 days.  Fifteen days to give 4 homework assignments, 3 quizzes, and prepare for a cumulative exam.  And most of my classes only meet 3 days each week anyway... so yes, that means 9 days to do all this.

You can imagine my frustration when, preparing to sprint-teach my way through nine days in each class, I found out school was canceled.  Last Tuesday Montserrado County had run-offs for the senatorial election, so school was canceled county wide.  Down to 8 days in some classes.  Then last week we found out that today, Monday the 30th would be a day off as well - President Tubman's birthday.  That's right - I'm down to 7 days in some of my classes... for the whole period!  It's nuts!!

Let's be honest - I still love a day off.  Sleeping in, doing some leisurely reading, updating my blog... all good things.  But I'm also discovering that a day off of school can be a little frustrating from the teacher perspective, especially when it is unplanned!  But for now we're just going with the flow and trying to do as much as we can in the days we have left. 

I would ask that your thoughts and prayers be with the students - it is a busy semester for them indeed!  Pray that my math students would have increasingly more confidence and motivation as the year goes on.  Math is a clear least favorite subject for many students, and I can tell that many of them have given up on the idea that they could ever succeed in math... pray that they won't give up.  Pray for my students in Bible class as we move into talking more directly about sex and the choices they have.  Pray that they will know that they DO have choices when it comes to sex, and pray that they will trust themselves enough to make good choices with their futures in mind.  Pray for Ricks in general, that the school would continue to grow and improve each day as they work to bring hope to Liberia by giving each student unique and wonderful opportunities.  I love the school motto; it reads, "Not for self, but for others."  Pray that I will be able to live this out in my life each day.