The Bee in Beth's Bonnet

When You Aren't...

2012-02-03T16:32:00.000-08:00

See this teacher.

That's Miss B.

She is the cool 4th/5th grade teacher who has all kinds of pets.

She's been known to keep a wide variety of pets such as rabbits, hedgehogs, birds, turtles and chameleons.

So what happens when you aren't the cool teacher who keeps classroom pets?

(That would be me!)

Then your students are forced to find their own pets which leads to the adoption of...

"The Classroom Spider".

Yes, that would be the little black dot on the floor

and

yes, they literally get that excited over the sighting of "Jumpy", the spider.

Jumpy is a little jumping spider who lives in our classroom and occasionally, he appears with his cousin Pumpy. They are not to be mixed up with one another because Jumpy is black and Pumpy is brown.

Everything stops so that Jumpy can be greeted appropriately and his activities carefully examined.

This week the excitement over his appearance was so great that Jumpy had to take a field trip next door so that he could be shared with the Third Grade.

SO that's what happens when you aren't the the cool teacher that has classroom pets!

Operation Contraction

2012-02-03T13:55:00.000-08:00

Time to operate on words.

Mask, please.

Gloves on and we're ready.

Move to the operating table.

Cut away the unecessary.

Apply the bandaid.

Work together for better success.

And you have completed contration surgery!

Funny Comments Heard Mid-Surgery:

"I don't know how doctors do this!"

(in reference to the gloves and masks which they all thought were stinky)

"Miss Botheras, why are you letting us waste bandaids?"

(Ahh, such good MKs!)

This great idea for teaching contractions was inspired by The First Grade Parade.

Did you ever think you would see the day?

2012-02-03T11:36:00.000-08:00

Did you ever think you would see the day that I would be wearing an outfit like this?

Hmm, me neither. It kind of makes me think of an African version of the Chiquita Banana woman! :) I'm what you might call "conservative" in my choice of pattern in clothing so the African cloth for the most part is a little wild and crazy for me. I mean I have friends who might choose to wear chickens on their clothing (you know who you are!) or sparkplugs or any manner of other random object but I'm kind of partial to patterns that fade into the background. But this Christmas I finally found this cloth which I really liked. I can do stripes! "But they are bright green," you say, "how is that not wild?". That color green happens to be one of my favorite colors as evidenced by the curtain in the background of this picture. So I went for it! This, then, is my tailor made outfit.

Last Friday night, I was bored so I tried my hand at tying the head scarf. It was highly entertaining for me and I finally came up with something halfway decent that actually stayed on my head.

Will I be wearing my head tie out and about...hmm, that remains to be seen? But at least I now have an outfit to wear for occasions that necessitate it.

Ladies' Prayer Breakfast

2012-01-29T13:35:00.000-08:00

Each year in January our entire missionary family meets for about four days for our annual conference. This year I helped my friend Joy out with the Ladies' Prayer Breakfast. It was a lot of fun designing the decorations and dreaming up the color scheme.

Anita and I made all the wreaths and cones out of newspaper. That was all we had done until the week of conference. Thankfully I had a wonderfully crafty guest staying in my house who helped Joy and I roll all the flowers and put them on the wreaths. We would have been lost without her especially because I was sick with a fever for three days in a row.

Joy's sister blessed us with some sweet treats for all the ladies including apple cider, hot chocolate, life savers, peppermints and granola bars. So we hung out and stuffed goodie bags one night.

Friday night lots of people pitched in to set up the dining hall and make it look like this.

Saturday day morning the ladies arrived with all their delicious breakfast goodies. Around 90 ladies enjoyed some great fellowship and time to praise God for the things that He has done in this past year in our lives, our ministries and the country of Niger.

The ladies squeezed a little unexpected fun into conference this year in the form of a flash mob. You can read about that here.

The Baobab Made Us Do It

2012-01-29T07:32:00.000-08:00

One evening as the sun went down, they decided to go for a walk and came to rest beneath a Baobab tree.

Unsatisfied with simply sitting beneath the tree, she felt compelled to climb it.

Inspired by one friend and prodded on by the next, she, too, climbed the Baobab.

She was sitting back, content to watch until the challenge was given. "If you do it, I'll do it!" Without a moment's hesitation, she began her ascent.

Having thrown down the challenge and watched her friend scale the old tree, it was time to fulfill her end of the bargain. She flexed her muscles and showed her young friends that she was more than ready for the task.

Ahh, the glorious spotlight had turned to her. So she clung desperately to the tree within inches of tumbling to the ground (or merely stepping down, if you must know the truth)!

Not to be outdone, He climbed higher than any one of them.

And so having been spurred on by one another and by the gnarly old tree, they scaled the heights and returned safely to the ground only to walk off into the sunset declaring,

"That old Baobab made us do it!"

A Very Gourma Christmas

2012-01-28T15:00:00.000-08:00

I had the privilege of spending Christmas morning in a Gourma church in a village about an hour away from Niamey on the way to Burkina Faso. My neighbors work in this village amongst the Gourma people. They always come back into town with exciting stories about how God is at work in their area so it was really a joy to be able to see this church that is full of young people who are believing and trusting in God. Christmas is celebrated in so many different ways but perhaps one thing that Believers around the world do in celebration is sing. The Gourma love to sing and dance! I got a little bit on video but I've given up on trying to load it. So pictures it is! The whole congregation was singing in a kind of call and response style. In this picture, you can see one woman twisting and throwing a calabash with cowrie shells attached into the air to make music.

Later the women's choir all sang. They were all wearing their Christmas cloth and matching shirts. Apparently in this village, polos are all the rage! :) You can see that in this picture of the Youth Choir who

really get into the dancing. They danced so hard that most of them were sweating profusely by the end.

It was a very Gourma Christmas! I'll admit that most of the time church is pretty difficult because it's hard work to listen and to understand what is going on. In my western mentality, I'm very tied to certain things. Time, order and variety being foremost among those things. Things that aren't so important in this context. As I sat there surrounded by young moms, peeing babies, restless children and dancing men I was challenged by the thought that nothing kept these Believers from worshiping God TOGETHER!

A Jolly Little Bit of Fun

2011-12-19T03:05:00.000-08:00

If you have kids or you are a teacher in need a little bit of Christmas entertainment for your students then today's post is for you.

Last year at our class Christmas party, my kids had a blast dressing up as characters from the Christmas story. We had Mary, Joseph, an angel, some sheep - you get the picture. These children were then sent to hide around our campus while their classmates tried hard not to peek from inside the classroom. When everyone was safely hidden away, the students in the classroom went searching for the Christmas characters. It was highly entertaining watching them try to locate their classmates some of whom hid themselves quite nicely in garbage cans and toy trunks and behind bushes. So there you go a little game of Christmas Hide and Go Seek will keep the troops entertained.

Now being in a hot environment like Niger makes Christmas Hide and Go Seek easier than traipsing about in the snow, freezing to death and wishing that someone would just find you already so that you could go in and warm up. So this year's game is for you if you live in a cold place but it will still get your kids moving and they'll have a great deal of fun. I printed off the cards located here and then I let my kids draw one and everyone did the actions. I wondered whether my second graders would enjoy it and I had thought about having a spinner to make it more fun with categories like choose one to do the action or you and two friends do the action or everyone do the action. But we ran out of time so I just let them draw a card and do the action and they loved it.

There you go a jolly little bit of fun for the kiddos this Christmas!

Field Day Celebration

2011-12-04T21:32:00.000-08:00

Cheering Nation

Unification

exhileration

eyes on the destination

determination

frustration

no disqualification

relaxation

adoration

time for celebration

Tis the Season to....

2011-11-08T09:38:00.000-08:00

keep your chair warm!

Pop!

2011-10-29T09:05:00.000-07:00

Time for a pop of color and a crafty post since it's been a while!

The colors in this card make me happy. My friend Kathy has an amazing relative who sends her this magazine. I'm not huge into decorating but I love perusing the magazine for color schemes and patterns. This advertisement was the inspiration for my card.

Hope your day is just a little bit brighter!

Redeemed

2011-10-26T13:02:00.000-07:00

Back in my good books (as if she had ever left them)...

The giver of the water scorpian redeemed herself by bringing me an apple! :)

What happened to the good old apple for the teacher?

2011-10-24T03:07:00.000-07:00

What ever happened to the beautiful time honored tradition of placing an apple on your teacher's desk? In my classroom, it's been replaced by an ugly water scorpian placed lovingly on your teacher's desk.

NICE! Way to give your teacher a heart attack!

Is this because I rejected the fruit and sent it packing way back during Teacher's Appreciation Week of 2008? Oh if only I could have that banana back!

Don't Say You Weren't Warned

2011-10-11T15:29:00.000-07:00

I love the little writing gems I find when it's report card time.

Super Readers

2011-10-04T08:07:00.000-07:00

It's Spirit Week here at Sahel Academy! Monday was Heros and Villains day. We started an author study on Eric Carle so my first & second grade writers were reading and exploring Eric Carle books in their costumes. What better time to amuse myself taking pictures!

Some Days Learning is Just Hard

2011-09-22T08:23:00.000-07:00

Evaporation
Condensation
Precipitation
Collection

Four parts of the water cycle...easy enough, right? We've spent two days watching a video and doing an experiment to illustrate the cycle. Today I had my students partner up and draw the four parts of the water cycle which they had to put into order. After explaining at least one part to each group individually I thought it would be pretty easy.

Think again!

We thought

and thought

and thought some more. But it was hard work for our brains! At one point, I mentioned that I thought it might be a good idea if we all banged our heads against the wall for a bit. When the last group had gone, one little girl sat down and announced, "That was easy!" I gave her my "What you talkin' 'bout girl?" face

and said, "If that was easy, I would hate to see hard!"

We all busted up laughing!

And really, that's the way the hard days should end.

When it Rains

2011-09-22T07:42:00.000-07:00

When it rains

you might as well sit down

and soak it all in.

It will be more fun that way!

Open House Night

2011-09-16T12:42:00.000-07:00

Every year I have teacher friends who post their fresh new classroom pics on facebook and I enjoy looking at the creativity reflected within. Tonight is Open House Night at Sahel Academy so I thought, "What better time to give you a tour of my classroom." The door is open so come on in and have a look around!

Here's our lovely big blackboard with some weather posters displayed below. We've been learning a lot about the weather. Here in Niger you have to take advantage of studying the weather now because once October hits there will be very little change in the weather.

We enjoyed reading some weird weather facts in Pink Snow and Other Weird Weather and using our imaginations to create other strange kinds of weather like gumball rain, jewelry falling from the sky or a whole schoolhouse coming down complete with rulers and pencils and every item needed to have fun at school.

Here's our meeting mat. Our First Grade friends join us for Writer's Workshop. This is one of our favorite times of day!

We use our word wall frequently. Displayed below are some of our favorite books so far this year.

Of course, we had to display some of the great stories we've been writing.

Last but certainly not least on this illustrious tour, stop by our book center and cubbies.

Well, I sure hope that you enjoyed the tour around my classroom as much as my students and their parents did!

Can you solve this mystery?

2011-09-13T02:13:00.000-07:00

Everyone loves a good mystery, right. Here's one to be solved taken right from my house this morning.

Why is my trash not falling into my trash can?

Cutting outside the lines

2011-09-01T06:58:00.000-07:00

I was crafting on Tuesday night with my friend Joy and ran across this beautiful add with a picture of a bride. It's hard to see it but the paper is all beautiful and shimmery, I couldn't resist cutting her out. The only problem is that across her shoulders and around her face there were no actual lines to cut out so I had to make a guess. Thinking that she was surely going to end up with the world's weirdest nose, I decided that it was nothing ventured nothing gained. Wonder of wonders, she actually looks like a normal human being. I added the ribbon around her waist because I couldn't resist!

In Which Tom Learns that I Have Eyes in the Back of My Head

2011-08-27T08:12:00.000-07:00

Friday, I was writing something on the board and happened to turn around while Tom was sitting at his desk with his hand up in the air and his head turned away from me. I could tell that he was finished with his work and wanted to get it checked. Turning back to the board, I called back to him, "Tom, you can put your hand down. I'll be with you in a minute!" It would have been interesting to see his face at that time because he had no clue that I had been looking at him.

"Miss Botheras, do you have eyes in the back of your head?" he asked.

I can neither confirm nor deny that fact. Ahh, what am I saying? Of course, I confirmed it! :)

Rover Takes on Calculus

2011-08-27T00:48:00.000-07:00

Apparently even Rover, the school tortoise, wants to get in on the learning. Tuesday night he made his way through the under-construction admin building and into the secondary math room where he spent the night, trusting that his perseverance would win him the best seat for Mr. Rupnow's math class.

It's All New When You're In First Grade

2011-08-17T07:38:00.000-07:00

August 17th...the official first day of school. Though I'm not teaching first grade this year, I did enjoy a funny first grade moment. For Sahel Academy First Graders it's their first year of staying all day and eating lunch. There's a novelty to getting to use the microwave for the first time on your own. One of the first graders saw everyone warming up their lunches and decided he'd like to try that too. So he brought me his carefully selected item - a package of cheese & peanut butter crackers.

"Will you help me warm these up Miss Botheras?"

I tried not to laugh as I said, "No, I'm sorry, buddy, they don't need to be warmed up."

"But I like them warm," he said earnestly.

Oh my!

A Little Italian, A Whole Lot of Canadian

2011-06-18T00:22:00.000-07:00

I have some friends who are staying cool by watching the 2010 Winter Olympics and that means a whole lot of Virtue & Moir. I love their 2011 exhibition program. Simply AMAZING!

Tall Tales & Other Occurances in the 1st & 2nd Grade

2011-05-21T04:38:00.000-07:00

Wagons, Ho! We've been studying the pioneers for the last month or so. I thought that it would be fun to read some tall tales at the same time so we put our desks into a circle of wagons which technically looked a little like a square but it was the only way to make it work. Anyway, during our reading time we met in the middle of our circle for a campfire and a Paul Bunyan story. Yes, we did have a campfire! I put sticks in a box with construction paper flames coming out of it. What I love about first & second graders is that they dug it and they were falling all over themselves to light the fire (i.e. bring the box of sticks to the middle of the circle and make the flames stick up like a proper fire). Now, J who cleans my classroom had a good laugh over my "fire". I told him that he could go home and tell his family about the crazy white woman's version of a fire.

Anyway, I think the whole tall tale thing may have rubbed off a little too well on one of my friends who told some whoppers this week. They were working on their handwriting book and they were supposed to write a story about a snowy day. When I dropped by to check on K's finished story my first question was, "Were you intending to write a tall tale?" What else could it be when one has written a story about the time it snowed 7 feet of snow in Senegal? "No, no! This really happened," insisted K. So we checked with our resident expert, the other student who has spent some time in Senegal. "L, did you ever see it snow in Senegal? No, never. Well that is truly shocking! K, do you think this might have taken place somewhere else like America, perhaps?" After a few minutes of listening to the logical arguments of her second grade friends, reason prevailed and K changed the location to America. But that wasn't the end of the whoppers!

The bridge that runs across the river right in front of our school was closed one particular morning this week so we all had to use the new bridge which was lately constucted by the Ch*nese. It was quite a novelty and definitely occupied the first few minutes of our morning conversation. But this led to a conversation in which the very same child informed us quite smartly that an American President named Benjamin Franklin had built the old bridge and that he was later killed in a car on the bridge. Bad teacher that I am, I didn't even try to stop myself from laughing. What a melange of stories that was! After I finished laughing, I told her that it was JFK who built the bridge but that he was not killed in Niger but rather in the U.S.

Oh, my goodness! Those were some good laughs this week!

Little Bit of Sunshine

2011-05-14T08:57:00.000-07:00

I saw this little yellow car from the Echo Park Little Boy collection and inspiration hit. A little bit of yellow ribbon and that cute little button that Jane of plain jane created and voila, a happy little card!

Randomness

2011-04-14T13:31:00.000-07:00

It's a sad, sad day! My bottle of footloose & fancy fizz is empty! Vide! Finnito! Gone! This stuff comes from Bath & Body Works and let me tell you, if you are coming to Niger it is worth every cent you spend on it because your feet feel SO GOOD when you soak them in this at the end of a hot & dirty day!

Speaking of things that are gone, yesterday one of my first graders started to cry when she got distracted and forgot the word that she wanted to write on the board. I told her it was okay not to worry and then I tried to make her laugh by telling her that if I cried every time I forgot something, I'd be crying all day. It didn't make her laugh. I guess you have to be old to understand that one!

And while I'm on the subject of children, let me tell you about some very entertaining ways that first graders like to pass the time while taking a standardized test. I caught one of my boys admiring his muscles while he waited for his classmates to finish. Sleeve up...flexing...hmm, that looks pretty good! Then a little later in the test they were using a ruler to measure an eraser. So when he gets done with his test, he was back to muscle admiring and he decided to pull out his ruler and measure up the height of that bulge. When I caught his eye, we both had a good chuckle over his "muscle love." He really should get some bonus points for knowing how to use his ruler in a pratical way, don't you think?

A Victory that Brings Hope

2011-04-06T15:30:00.000-07:00

I watched this video this morning about an eight year old who was pepper sprayed during a violent outburst. This was the third time that the police were called to deal with him. Eight years old and that is your reality. How crushingly sad! This is a child who at the age of eight is losing hope that life will be different. In his own words he said, "I kind of deserved it, but -- when I also behave like that I'm thinking my future is going to turn around into the homeless, bad thing way."

The sad reality that this child is living makes the words that I read from Reclaiming the Future of Christian Education by Albert E. Greene all the more pertinent. "The need for hope is perhaps more apparent today than ever before. The promise of the Enlightenment has proved false. Physical convenience in lifestyle has grown immeasurably, but human relations have rarely been as demonic as those we have experienced in the twentieth century. As a result, many modern people have fallen into hopelessness. But hope is a prominent element in the gospel. Christ died in weakness, and His disciples thought their hopes had been completely dashed. Then He rose from the dead, and in the hope of that victory the gospel spread throughout the Western world...The basis of Christian hope has not changed, and hope must be a prominent characteristic of the Christian teacher."

Tonight I'm thankful for Christ's victory over death and sin that gives me hope that I, too, can find victory over the sin that enslaves me. I'm thankful that this hope filled message is intended for every heart that is losing hope. I pray that as a teacher I communicate that hope to my students and that somehow this little boy will also come to know this very same hope.

Isaiah 9:2
The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned.

Everything but the Kitchen Sink...Wait They've Got that Too!

2011-03-11T09:11:00.000-08:00

Friday afternoon usually finds us dropping by Four Corners to visit the local vegetable stands. One of the corners features a barely formal outdoor shop where the vendor lays out all manner of treasures from the western world on the ground. Magazines, books, three ring binders, decades old apple computers - these items are all displayed and perused by passing customers. Imagine our delight last week when we discovered that he even had a kitchen sink for sale!

But that's not all. This week I was shocked to see a man examining a pair of these:

Hmm, what are those doing in Niger? Of course, I had to get out and ask the vendor how much they were. He wanted $20 dollars for them. I'm not even sure that he knew what they were for. I declined, of course, and opted for the free picture instead!

Cause for Celebration

2011-03-10T11:58:00.000-08:00

It's clicking! And that is cause for celebration!

When you start the year with 6 and 7 year olds you sometimes wonder how long it will be before they

...can sit still
...follow directions
...read
...write a complete sentence
...recognize that they've written a complete sentence
...use capitals and punctuation in that sentence
...add
...subtract
...count by 2s, 5s, 10s, and 25s
...count money

and the list could go on and on.

This week as I've been doing some end of quarter evaluation, it's been good to look back and reflect on the growth that has taken place (a good reminder for me especially when my patience has been tested the last couple of weeks!).

It was just about two weeks ago when we pulled out the coins to work on counting money. I asked one of the second graders a question and with a deer-in-the-headlights look, she asked if she could talk to me privately. "I don't know how to count money," she whispered. "Don't worry, honey, that's what we're working on." After working diligently in small groups with the kids, they took their math test today. What a joy to celebrate with that student who went from being afraid to being a confident counter of coins!

And that's not all.
They are...
following directions,
reading,
writing paragraphs,
recognizing complete sentences,
mostly using capitals and punctuation,
adding,
subtracting,
counting by 2s, 5s, 10s, and 25s,
and a whole host of other things.

Now I'm just waiting for them to sit still! :)

Far East Festival

2011-02-12T14:33:00.000-08:00

There wasn't enough excitement packed into this week so we had to pack in just a little bit more - the Far East Festival! Everyone put on their best duds for this banquet. Here are all the first and second graders all dressed up and posing with the dragon.

Moments before the dragon's mouth was under thorough investigation.

The lovely ladies of Table 12.

Everybody practiced with their chopsticks. Some were more successful than others.

There was dinner entertainment including a Korean song sung, a fairy tale acted out and we even had a dancing dragon and fireworks, if you can believe that. There were shreaks and gasps for every firework at my table. I'm pretty sure they had a good time and won't be forgetting it anytime soon!

Delightfully Diligent Dinosaurs Celebrate 100

2011-02-09T13:51:00.000-08:00

Excitement has been building these last few days leading up to the 100th day of school! One morning meeting found the second graders in particular plying me for information about how we were going to celebrate. "Do you have anything in your head?," they asked.

"Why yes, in fact I do. A brain, eyes, ears...etc. etc." Make them work for the answers is my philosophy.

"No, no, any ideas in your head."

"Oh, I'm supposed to have ideas in my head?" and I strung them along a little further until finally, I asked them if they had any ideas in their heads. A few came up but the one that caught everyone's attention was a Dinosaur Day. We've been learning about dinosaurs in Science and they wanted to dress up which seemed pretty appropriate since we were celebrating 100 and all things very "old" and so that's how we came to be dressed like dinosaurs and playing with the number 100.

Everybody knows that if you don't want to become extinct you must DINOSIZE!

We had a DINO DOLLAR DIG and tried to pick out exactly 100 pennies.

We had a DINO DASH and tried to be the first to make it to 100.

We made DINO ZEROS - a googol, a number with 100 zeros.

We measured the DINO DISTANCE of 100 cubes and compared it to some dinos we know.

We played DINO Heads or Tails.

We made our own DINO DICTIONARY using the letters of some famous dinosaurs.

We discussed the DIFFICULTIES that having a DINO as a pet might create.

We played DINO DOT to DOT and

some of us even did a DINO DANCE.

When it was all said and done we had even DEVOURED our own DINO cake.

They are a vicious bunch! Sure hope I survive the next 70 to 80 days.

99

2011-02-09T10:37:00.000-08:00

Back by popular demand - Dress like you are 99 years old!

Nothing like an "old lady" falling over to send the "retirement crowd" into fits of giggles!

For Your Teacher's Entertainment

2011-02-04T12:42:00.000-08:00

Remember when you had new spelling words assigned to you each week and you had to do things with them at home such as writing them three times each, putting them in abc order or using them in sentences or a story. Remember how sometimes that really began to feel quite pointless and you wondered why you had to use all those unrelated words in a story. Well, I'm here to tell you that it was really ~~all~~ for your teacher's entertainment. Scratch that! Your teacher didn't get much entertainment out of seeing that you had written those words three times each but the sentences and stories, now those were quality entertainment. Case in point, one of the stories my second graders produced as homework this week.

A student wrote an informational piece on driving from a second grade perspective. This week's spelling words have been underlined.

infor mashoin on driving

1. put your clothes on.
2. close the door.
3. get in the car.
4. Be a glad driver.
5. their is know prize for driving.
6. their will be traffic
I have seen traffic you might have to go through a tanall (tunnel)
now you can become a driver

Some very sage advice. Wonder if number one is included in the driver's ed manual?

Show Me and I Can Do It (Maybe???)

2011-02-01T10:10:00.000-08:00

I guess I must be partly a visual learner because I love to see things in pictures before I do them. I had no idea that one could find tutorials on how to do just about anything until my friend Elizabeth started posting all the fancy things that she had been making by following tutorials. So I was inspired to tackle some sewing projects using tutorials. So here are the two pillows I've produced. The one on the right has an envelope opening. The strips of raspberry fabric are leftover from my curtains. The proportions seem a little off but I wasn't measuring too carefully. Surprise! Surprise!

I love the pleated pillow on the left. The tutorial came from here. I got tired of measuring so it's not the straightest thing in the world. Plus I couldn't get the tension quite right on the thread. Thankfully, I could turn all the pleats over so the puckered thread is hidden. It took a while to make all the pleats but I ironed and sewed while someone was chatting with me so it was the perfect project.

I put a zipper in this project. A first for me so I used this tutorial along with my sewing machine instruction book to help with the changing of the feet. I would definitely recommend the zipper closure as opposed to the envelope closure. It just seems to look neater. So there you have it - I'm moving beyond paper into other areas of craftiness!

Gathering Inspiration from Other Sources

2011-01-30T23:46:00.000-08:00

My neighbor, Sam, asked me to make a wedding card so I visited Lucy's blog because I just discovered it recently and I love her style. Using her sketch I came up with this card:

I made another one which I like even better and the great news is that I heard that a friend of mine from eighth grade just got engaged so maybe I'll get to use it very soon.

Then I went back to playing along with the sketches because it was fun. Using this sketch I came up with this card:

Then I used this sketch to make a birthday card. This is the first time I have ever paper pieced. I won't do it very often because it's time consuming.

Let's see then I tried out this sketch and created another birthday card.

I took a bit of a break after my Christmas crafting spree so it was fun to get back into it and use some more of my new papers.

What TCKs Talk About Over Lunch

2011-01-29T00:58:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I enjoyed a picnic lunch at the Niamey Zoo. I found myself seated next to a third grade girl from Pakistan and a fourth grade girl from Switzerland. Both girls have spent the majority of their lives living outside their passport country so they definitely qualify as genuine third culture kids (TCKS). They began by commenting on how cool it was that they had both brought their lunch in the backpack they had received when they flew Air Emirates. Then we talked about the food on Air Emirates which somehow led into a conversation about how many countries they had been to. They are 9 and 10 years old and this definitely qualifies as important stuff in their world. The ten year is old is almost a third my age and she's already got me beat. I tallied up 11 countries visited or lived in for myself and she had about 13 or 14 and to top it off she rode a yak in one of them. There was no way I could compete with that! :)

Third Culture Kids are amazing!

Did I do that?

2011-01-22T14:29:00.000-08:00

I had this friend at Toccoa Falls College for whom college was her very first introduction to the western world. She did some hilarious things out of complete innocence and just wondering what might happen. For example, she pulled the fire alarm simply because the little handle said "Pull" so she wanted to know what would happen. On another occasion, she took the cleaning product she used to clean the small chapel on campus and decided to spray her name into the wall - again, simply out of curiosity. Unfortunately, after it dried the light would hit it just right and one could see her name displayed in large letters. Her expression after these "clueless" moments was always a very innocent, "Did I do that?"

Well there is some clueless person around these parts shrugging their shoulders and innocently proclaiming, "Did I do that?" And what exactly is it that they've done? You can read all about it here.

Hey Mom, I've been craving some of your roast beef. Do you mind sending me some in the mail?

Music to Soothe the Soul

2011-01-10T13:38:00.000-08:00

Love getting exposed to new songs at SIM conference. These were two very meaningful songs that were sung this week by the Green Valley Team. Must pay a visit to the itunes store very soon because I've only played them about 50 times each tonight!

Befriended

by Matt Redman

Love Came Down

By Brian Johnson

The Big Rolex Giveaway

2010-12-29T15:13:00.000-08:00

Oh, did you think I was giving away a Rolex? Just kidding! I already gave it away for Christmas.

Alright, so I didn't give away a ~~Rolex~~...it was a RollRex and hence the entertainment value.

Hmm... these RollRex look strikingly like Ferrero Rocher.

What do you think? Should we give this company bonus points for their ability to be creative?

I tried to exercise a little more creativity in my Christmas giving. For my Mom, I made this set of cards. I really loved the way the way each one turned out different but had the same papers and colors. What a blessing that I was actually able to send this gift along with one for my Dad with someone traveling back to Toronto! So they had a present to open from me on Christmas day.

Here's another little card set I made by playing with a bunch of my fun new scrapbooking papers. Yum!

I also made some fun hair things which I forgot to take a picture of but I think I'll be making more in the future so maybe they'll get their day in the blog spotlight. Mmm, crafty Christmases are so fun!

Santa's Vacation

2010-12-17T11:54:00.000-08:00

Santa was passing through today on his vacation.

He gathered his friends and admirers for a little sack revelation.

Then it was off to climb the slide.

But as his tummy was extra wide,

he needed help from every side.

No method was left untried.

Until finally, he ascended

and did a dance that's been just a little upended!

Love Notes and Boxes of Love

2010-12-16T11:53:00.000-08:00

Love notes...I got one today from a student.

Now, how can that not put a smile on your face? It came along with a gift of homemade hot chocolate mix and I have to tell you that to me that hot chocolate mix is like a little love note from God. The mornings are cool and I have been drinking hot chocolate like it is going out of style. Just this week, I looked into the container and thought to myself, "Hmm, that's almost finished. I'm going to be sad when it's gone." And voila, God took care of a small insignificant desire by using a student to bless me with the very thing I desired!

Nothing says love to me like mail and wouldn't you know it when I arrived home, I had two very unexpected packages - one from a former student with a joke a day calendar - love it! The other one from the LAC Bible Quizing Team. They made a poster/puzzle and when they prayed over who to send it to, God brought me to mind so they sent it along with a box full of goodies...

not just any kind of goodies - these are some of my favorite goodies.

M & Ms

Candy Cane Hot Chocolate

Out of all the things they could have sent? Amazing!

So needless to say, I was crying over my hot chocolate.

These two jars of hot chocolate may not look like love notes but today they communicated to me the love of children in my life, faithful people praying for me and most of all a Father in Heaven who delights to demonstrate his love in tangible ways.

Psalm 33:22

"May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you."

Let It Never Be Said

2010-12-10T13:50:00.000-08:00

Let it never be said...

...that I haven't taught angels.

...that angels can't have strange itches in their armpits.

...that angels can't make you laugh.

Simply Beautiful

2010-12-05T13:47:00.000-08:00

This is fast becoming one of my favorite traditions here. It's so beautiful to be out under the stars remembering and wondering over that first Christmas.

Craftiness

2010-12-05T13:35:00.000-08:00

Every year there is a Christmas Bazaar here in our fair city. Two of my friends, Cathy & Shannon were going to have a booth with lots of Christmas ornaments and other handmade items. I had been kind of toying with the idea of trying to sell some of my cards so they invited me to join forces with them. In the end, I didn't count how many cards I made but there were big and little ones, cards in bunches and even little bittie ones.

Here are some of my favorites.

This weekend was the Christmas Bazaar and thanks to Cathy and Shannon, I got to hang out in a nice shady spot soaking in their craftiness, greeting lots of people and make some money to buy some new fun crafty stuff! Now my only problem is that I am a long way from my local scrapbooking store! :)

The Progression of Imagination

2010-12-04T05:53:00.000-08:00

Transportation is the theme as of late in our classroom. One afternoon we were talking about transportation before wheels and I brought a box to school so the kids could pull each other around in the box and get a feel for how difficult it was.

Then I brought out two little four wheeled carts so they could see the difference in moving someone when you have wheels.

Our lesson ended but I let them continue playing with the box and carts and it wasn't long before one little boy convinced everyone that the box should be placed on the two carts for a whole new toy.

How fun to watch the progression of imagination!

The SIM AIR Guys - Not Just Pilots or Pretty Faces

2010-12-04T05:01:00.000-08:00

The SIM AIR Guys - they aren't just pilots or pretty faces (as one of them who shall remain nameless but might just be pictured directly below likes to say). Yes, they will fly you wherever you want to go in Niger, within reason and they are even willing to fly you across borders but they also know how to give a mean field trip. Of course, when four of the children in your class belong to them they are bound to rise to the occasion.

They will explain how the plane works and let you try out the headphones.

They will even let you climb in the pilot's seat and handle the yoke.

You'll get a chance to try out the passengers' seats.

You will even get to eat lunch in the pilots' lounge and leave your crumbs everywhere.

They know how to make a grand entrance

and an amazing paper airplane which they'll even let you fly in their hangar.

They can do all this and what's more they are even willing to use their amazing airport connections to get you out to see the airport fire station, climb in the firetrucks and watch them spray the world's "biggest" water gun.

Like I said, they aren't just pilots or pretty faces...they know how to put on an unforgettable field trip!

The Intergalatic Space Fair

2010-11-19T15:23:00.000-08:00

The Sahel Student Council planned an Intergalatic Space Fair last Saturday evening which took me back to my K.A. days and the anticipation of waiting for Fun Fair, a veritable carnival of fun. That's pretty much what we enjoyed this past Saturday as well. There were carnival games like

Meteor Blast

Fish Upon a Star

Destroying Blazlack Germs

and Astroid Defense System.

But the highlight had to be the SI-MUL-8R KR8. The kids got inside a crate which had been outfitted with seat, control panels, headphones from our friendly SIM Air guys.

Then the door was closed and the crate which was on top of a wagon was tipped back.

At this point lift off began complete with countdown and all the sounds of a real takeoff. And then our director spent the next few minutes rocking the crate back and forth giving the kids their own personal ride through "space". All the while a video camera which had been hooked up inside the crate, displayed for the outside world the riding astronaut's reactions.

Can I just tell you that I work with some pretty creative people! Kudos to Brian and Cathy for dreaming this amazing ride up. Brian especially deserves a gold star for standing there and shaking and rocking the kiddos all night!

Amazing Fun! And on a side note the crate has been outside the library all week and it's been fun to watch the kids climb in and close the door while a friend on the outside rocks them back and forth...reliving the fun. :)

As Seen On the Bridge

2010-11-13T14:25:00.000-08:00

Oh my, I love the bridge. That's where all the funny stuff happens. Picture it with me, if you will. Samantha and I pull up to the stop light where we notice a man and a boy on a moto and stuffed between the two of them is a full grown sheep. So I say to Sam, "Too bad you don't have your camera out and you could take a picture." She hurriedly proceeds to get it out and we chase them down for a picture on the straightaway towards the bridge. We get to the corner and suddenly I see the sheep's tail lift up. Uhoh, that's not good...that's a sure sign and yes indeed, here it comes - poop - basically right into the kid's hand. Then the sheep decides that he is not happy to be sandwiched between two people on a moto...so now the kid has a pooping, bucking sheep and why don't we just throw a traffic jam in there for good measure. Ahh yes, another unforgettable moment on the bridge!

What TCKs Do For Fun

2010-11-13T02:06:00.000-08:00

Growing up in Nigeria, there was nothing that made me happier than the local garbage pile. It was a treasure trove of tin cans, boxes and other pieces of junk just waiting to be imagined into something new. Thirty something years later and that still seems to be a third culture kid's favorite toy chest.

It was three weekends ago that a town sprung to life on our campus made from cement blocks, junky pieces of wood, broken tile, cans, toilet paper rolls and all manner of other items. For the past three weeks, when the recess bell rings this "town" becomes a busy center of activity - buying and selling with bottle caps as money, sweeping and cleaning, building and fixing. This town has a bank, a mayor, a military camp, stores and even houses with generators (after all we do live in Niger)!

Here is the thriving metropolis!

A closer look inside a house. Great care is spent each day in sweeping away the dirt from each yard.

A "No Trespassing" sign!

And why not? As the sellers of the sweepers (a section of a tree branch),
their product is in high demand and must be protected.

These propietors are a tad bit more welcoming.

Next door is the bank. Notice the flag out front.

The local farm.

Every town needs a military encampment ...

with soldiers keeping guard.

Here's the mayor's house.

I'm thinking he needs to upgrade because he doesn't even have a generator like these folks here! (Pringle can on the left is the ever essential generator.)

There are several Tonka trucks and a bulldozer that industriously make the rounds through town each day picking up garbage and transporting stuff. Somehow I missed taking their picture. So there you have it - 50 or so TCKs using their imaginations and this is what you get. Fun for everyone!

Construction Zone

2010-11-09T10:14:00.000-08:00

We are in the middle of building an administrative wing on the end of our high school building. This will be our first two story building on campus and today was the day chosen to pour cement for the second floor. Here in Niger you don't call the cement truck to deliver you load after load of cement for your floor. The entire amount of cement was hand mixed and poured by about 50 men today.

You can see that it took a lot of people to get the job done. In the foreground and to the right, the men are mixing the sand and rocks which was then added to the pile of cement on the left and mixed with water.

Once the cement was mixed on the ground, the men under the platform threw it up on to the platform.

From the platform the cement was thrown up to the second floor where it was placed in a wheelbarrow and poured out to make the floor.

The entire floor had to be hand mixed and hand poured in one day.

All in a day and night's work! Apparently, they won't be done until 3 or 4 in the morning!

Inspired By...

2010-10-09T00:59:00.000-07:00

Inspired by one of our new math books - that's what my students have been! I checked this one out and read it on the day that I introduced the concept of even and add numbers. They loved it! It has a great story line, illustrations that get children laughing and an ending that makes the reader want to put their hands on My Even Day as soon as possible. What I especially loved is that without any encouragement at all, my children were inspired to write stories about an odd day. Plenty a mother was growing multiple heads or arms, playgrounds were turning into chocolate and school buses were driving around on one wheel. One thing that is for sure, when I get back to the land of bookstores this is one that I will be purchasing for my own personal teaching library.

Now I Know What All That Giggling Was About

2010-10-01T12:23:00.000-07:00

This morning during writer's workshop there was a fair amount of giggling coming from the second graders and I could hear that they were playing around with words and poetry. Working on report cards tonight, I have been reading their writing and coming across their silly creations like this one...

Once there was a woody
Who sat on a toody
And went to the Loody.

Very nonsensical! Just the kind of stuff to make any second grader laugh.

Can't Keep from Praising

2010-09-26T07:48:00.000-07:00

"Praise the Lord, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits -
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's."
Psalm 103:1-5

I had a conversation with someone this week who couldn't keep the praise from coming out of his mouth if he had tried. J cleans my classroom so we get to have frequent conversations in the afternoon as he cleans and I work. He was marveling over all that God has done in his life this summer. He lives in an area that has been flooded by the Niger River. At times he has left his house in the morning to come to work and waded into water up to his thighs to get on his way. The mud wall around his compound collapsed due to all the water and yet amazingly, the water has not flooded his home. All of his neighbors have left the area but he and his wife have been one in heart and mind that they are to stay put. They are trusting that God will protect their house, something that they have been very vocal about with their neighbors. This has opened the door for them to openly testify to God's protection and provision in their lives. Their neighbors are amazed that they are still there. They were also amazed when a group of our students went out to help J with his wall...they stood around marveling at this group of white people helping.

J went on to share with me how he has four school age children and he wasn't quite sure where the money for school and school supplies was going to come from but they were also trusting the Lord for this need. This past week the director of the school called them together and said that they wanted to help each one of the families with a set amount of money to be used expressly for schooling for their children. It was just what he needed to pay for the tuition and the school supplies! Now they are trusting God for the bicycle that his son needs to ride to school. Near the end of our conversation, J summed it up by saying that this has been the first miracle that he has witnessed in his life - the miracle of God's provision for him in the midst of a very difficult circumstance. It was such an encouragement to hear God's praise flowing off J's lips and to know that in the midst of darkness, the testimony of J and his family is illuminating his neighborhood.

It Takes a Village to Get a School Ready

2010-08-17T14:51:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the first day of school.

If you have ever taught before you know that it takes a lot of work to get a school ready and that's not even factoring in the Niger dust which probably doubles the amount of work at our school. However, if you had been hanging around our school these last couple of weeks you would have noticed something interesting. An amazing amount of people have been pitching in to help us get ready! There are the regulars...the janitors, the teachers, the youth pastor, the dorm parents, the principal, the director, among others. But its our job to get the school ready, after all. The surprising and really awesome thing to see has been the students pitching in. I have seen high school students right on down to second graders helping out. There were even two dorm students who arrived today and instead of hanging out with their friends and settling into their rooms they were out mowing the lawn. How cool is that?

We have even had alumni and parents of alumni and students helping us out. Wow! What a blessing to be starting another school year in a community like this.

Psalm 23

2010-08-12T13:36:00.000-07:00

Good Shepherd,

You provide wholly.

You lead peacefully.

You renew daily.

You guide righteously.

You follow closely.

You protect carefully.

You prepare abundantly.

You honor undeservedly.

You pursue lovingly.

You are...

My Good Shepherd.

Currently Making Me Happy

2010-08-08T15:17:00.000-07:00

Books - millions and zillions of beautiful books.

I love these books! I don't quite have millions and zillions of them but someone donated roughly 200 or more of these leveled books. They happen to be from my favorite company too which makes the gift even sweeter. I'm excited that my kids are going to have so much quality stuff to read.

As I sat leveling these books, I thought about what a difference the ability to read can make in a life. The last year I taught in Georgia I had a little boy who was quite the troublemaker at the beginning of the school year. In fact, I caught him stealing the first week of school. It was only after he qualified for the Reading Recovery program and spent several months of intensive one on one time with a teacher learning how to read, that I realized that his bad behaviour was evidence of the frustration he felt over his inability to decipher the words on a page. His behaviour improved exponentially once he learned to read. He was no longer a problem in the classroom and other teachers noticed the difference, too. Learning to read literally changed his path.

That same year, the janitor that cleaned my classroom retired. It was only near the end of his time at the school that I learned that he was illiterate. At his retirement party, he had to hand the cards he received over to his wife because he couldn't read. I wonder how his life would have been different if he had only learned how to read.

Teaching children to read is such a privilege and maybe, just maybe, it will change their lives.

Road Trip

2010-07-29T15:58:00.000-07:00

Just last week I took a road trip with two of my fellow teachers at Sahel. We drove about six hours to the southwest to Ouagadougou, the capital city of Niger's neighbor, Burkina Faso. Now you may think that crossing a border wouldn't bring any significant change but here's a difference I noticed right away. In Burkina Faso women ride bicycles.

I can't recall ever seeing a woman riding a bike in Niger. Motos, yes. Bicycles, no!

Then there were the taxis. Niger's taxis are a combination of white and red and they are almost always Toyotas. In Burkina, however, when you take a taxi you are likely to have the privilige of riding in a green Mercedes Benz. Don't jump to any conclusions about riding in the lap of luxury. Even a Mercedes Benz can be old and dilapitated!

Now let's talk about the motos.

Motos here.

Motos there.

Motos everywhere.

Just look at this intersection that we are trying to make a turn in.

Then we would drive by places like this...

which you might think was a moto dealership. In reality, these are all motos belonging to the people that work within this compound. I'm not even sure how you would find the moto that belongs to you in all that mass.

All in all, I enjoyed the cooler temperatures, the frequent rain and the green everywhere but I was happy to hit the road home...

...to my quiet little city of Niamey.

Never dreamed I'd refer to Niamey as quiet!

In the News

2010-07-02T03:15:00.000-07:00

Did you know that my class made the news in the great state of Texas? We had a class with whom we were penpals just outside of the Ft. Worth area. In the last week of school, we arranged a skype conversation with them which had to take place very early in the morning for them and right before school let out for us. Unfortunately, partway through the experience our internet started acting funny which put an end to the conversation. We continued to try to reconnect and in those moments I would catch little sound bytes of what sounded like an interview leading me to believe there were reporters there. Sure enough, my suspicions were confirmed by the teacher who had been notified early that morningy by all three of the local tv stations that they would come to record these childrens experience connecting with their international penpals. Later on, a friend of mine living in that area confirmed that they had actually seen the newsclip on tv. Really wish I could find that clip to share with you but I think that would be a waste of my time so instead I'll share this link to a news article featuring one of the families that joined our school community in January. They are in the midst of starting a hospital for CURE. It's a great article and there's even some talk about Sahel. So here it is.

The Beasts

2010-07-01T08:04:00.000-07:00

I have a house sitting job this summer. It comes with 24 hour air conditioning, satellite TV, a pool and these two beasts and I do mean beasts. Don't let the pictures fool you, they are big! The cat has some issues but the dog is just a big one. He could easily push me down if he wanted to. Thankfully, he loves people and is very gentle unless he is harassing the cat or greeting you.

The Cutting Edge of Shoe Fashion

2010-06-12T06:11:00.000-07:00

I received a random e-mail from amazon today showing me the latest styles of shoes available for my purchase. It had a cute pair of flipflops so I clicked on it to see if I could find out more details and it took me to a website with pictures of the latest shoes.

I have to tell you I feel pretty good about the fact that I'm missing out on this trend.

So then I went in search of my flipflops and I came across these....

"Jesus sandals" as my friend Michelle likes to call them. I had to smile because I remembered walking with Michelle in downtown Toronto (one of her favorite places to be) and slipping into the Eaton Centre just as it was closing. We saw some of these sandals in the window and I remember Michelle telling me that she had been wanting to find a pair of "Jesus sandals". That was a couple of years ago. Michelle claims that her fashion choices are just ahead of the trend...it appears that she might be right!

Sadly, I'm not as fashion forward as you, Michelle. I'll be skipping this trend too although these ones could be cute!

Endings and Beginnings

2010-05-28T14:23:00.000-07:00

An ending -

that was today.

An ending for this little class and the first step into a beginning for one of its members who won't be here to enjoy the last couple of days of school with us.

This morning I began the morning looking to complete the Bible lessons that had been left for my students and in the process, God had a message of encouragement for us as we stand on the brink of this ending and some new beginnings. It was a message delivered by Moses to Joshua who also stood at the end of a long wilderness wandering and the beginning of a new adventure in the Promised Land. "Be strong and courageous...The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you, he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." Deuteronomy 31:7-8>

The Lord himself goes before you." Perhaps it's the result of the numerous times I've moved, but those words seem to offer comfort on this day of endings and beginnings. So we talked about how we don't have to be afraid because God has already gone ahead and prepared a place for us and I asked each one of the kids who are making a "big" move how they could see that God had already gone ahead of their family and begun working and preparing a place for them. One mentioned that God had prepared a great school for them and they already had a friend at the school. Another mentioned that God had already provided them with a place to stay and the last one talked about how God had given her family the opportunity to spend three days in their new city so now it wouldn't feel so foreign. And I, I brushed my tears away, overwhelmed by the evidence of a God who cares deeply for these children and their families who have been called to this life of transition.

A Life in Transition

2010-05-20T07:53:00.001-07:00

The end of the school year is quickly approaching and with it comes the departure of many students and families. When you live a life in transition, these goodbyes are never easy and even the youngest students feel the pain of saying goodbye to things that are familiar and the fear of entering into the unknown. After discovering the author, Allen Say, I decided to use his books to talk with my students about the experience of living a life in transition.

Allen Say is a Japanese-American. He was born in Japan and moved to America later in his childhood. Most of his stories are fictionalized accounts of his family's life between two cultures and they have provided my students and I with a lot of fodder for conversations about transition. We have talked about appreciating the good things that we enjoy about each of the countries that we may call "home." We have talked about the feelings we may have as we transition - anything from excitement to fear and confusion and about what we can do to make transition easier.
Today we read How My Parents Learned to Eat which was written by Ina Friedman and illustrated by Allen Say. It is a story about an American sailor who falls in love with a Japanese girl but they never have dinner together because each one is afraid of eating in front of the other. Neither knows how to use the other's eating utensils but they never talk about it. When the sailor receives the news that his ship will be leaving, he decides that it is time to learn to eat with chopsticks so that he can have dinner with his girlfriend. At the same time, his girlfriend seeks the help of her uncle, who spent time in England, for lessons on how to eat with a fork. This leads to a very humourous ending where the girlfriend discovers that the British and the Americans don't use forks in the same way. My kids thoroughly enjoyed this book. One of them responded with a cross-cultural experience of her own which follows.

The first day I was in Niger I was really excited to learn everything they did in their culture. The thing I was most excited about was to learn to eat with my hands. Then I asked my mom if someone could teach me how to eat with my hands. But my mom said no because she said that we weren't going to have their culture even when we lived in Niger because we were leaving back to ________ in 2 years so then I didn't think about it anymore but I'm still wondering how they eat with their hands.

Someone's On a Paper Ration

2010-05-12T13:40:00.000-07:00

Recently, my class read The Teddy Bear Tree in which a little girl buys a teddy bear at a rummage sale. The bear is subsequently stolen by a dog who runs off into the forest leaving only it's glass eye behind. The girl decides to plant the eye which sets into motion the growth of the teddy bear tree and many ensuing problems. When we were all finished, I had the kids think about something they could plant and what might grow from it. I got jewelry trees, money trees, phone trees and candy trees and then there was the first grader who wrote:
Hmm, just putting on my pschologist hat here...I think someone's been put on a paper ration.

The World According To...

2010-04-09T14:56:00.000-07:00

My students have been penpaling with a group of students in the U.S. Before the break they wrote their second penpal letters and I got some good laughs from them. It’s important to edit these works just in case you run in to blatant misinformation like the student who wrote in response to the question “Does it snow in Niger?” :

“It does snow in Niger.”

When asked about the source of her information, she claimed to have consulted the only Nigerien in the class. Bonus points for choosing the one most familiar with Niger…only problem is said source has never seen snow and yet claims it as her favorite type of weather. “Hmmm, why don’t we change that to: It never snows in Africa.”

Then there was the student who got excited about listing the animals that live in Niger:

“I can see many animals in Africa like camels, donkeys, sheep goats, chickens, ducks, hippos, birds, fish, sharks, stingrays, lions, elephants and giraffes.”

Uhhh, landlocked mean anything to you? “Let’s just remove the sharks and stingrays from the list okay, honey.”

So now that we have saved our penpals from misinformation, what in the world do we tell them?

You definitely want to mention how many loose teeth you have, you might also want to talk about what kind of meats are available here in Niger and of course, you could always try listing the names of your cousins. But if you have seventeen of them, well, your teacher might steer you in another direction.

Then there are the comments that are just so true of Niger. Such as:

“Do you bring a water bottle to school?” or “I went on a trip to Defa. It took 36 hours. We got to see dinosaur’s bones. But I did not see any animals except the cows.”

Or the comments that show what children think happened:
“Our librarian is gone to work in a restaurant so another Librarian took her place.”

Wonder how LaRae is doing in that restaurant of hers?

Or the just plain funny and yet insightful comments:
“Have you ever gone to Turkey? I did. If you are wondering if there is turkey in Turkey the answer is not so much.”

And there you have it - the world according to the little people.

Look What I Made Mom!

2010-04-03T13:58:00.000-07:00

Just before leaving the U.S. I bought some material that I thought would be cute for kitchen curtains. I've been waiting on furniture to be made and so I haven't really done anything until this break with my apartment. But since my furniture is now made, I made some choices on material for my couches and chairs and for my bedroom curtains. Having all this material around got me inspired so I started thinking about what kind of curtain to make for my kitchen. My first thoughts were a roman shade like this one. So I started folding the material and holding it up wondering if I would even have enough. For some reason, as I held in up I turned the pleats sideways and BOOM! An idea was born. How about three pleats on one side of a curtain? So I folded it and played around with it to see if I liked it. Laurence, my neighbor, suggested that a ribbon might accentuate the pleats. I just happened to have some in my scrapbook stash that was just the right color. So I went for it! And this is the final result...which I love! It kind of reminds me of a school girl's uniform. Anyway...just thought I would share a little of my craftiness with you.

Culinary Masterpiece

2010-03-26T14:38:00.001-07:00

Uhhh, yeah. So I designed it to look that way!

Come on Down! You're the next contestant on....

2010-03-22T13:14:00.000-07:00

Divine What Was in my Dust! Yes, that's right...it's this country's newest game show designed for anyone who's been breathing it in, washing it off or wiping it away. I'll just get the game going here with a few dastardly dust spots found dilly dallying around my domicile. Your job is to discern the type of object that used to inhabit the dwelling place.

#1
#2
#3And what dividend will you receive for daring to participate in such a duel of drollery...
you're very own dust dispenser (otherwise known as a bottle of dust). It will be dispatched to your domicile tout de suite so that you too, can participate in Divine What Was in my Dust!

(me + break time + thesaurus = dabbling in dorky diversions)

Tights and White Out Conditions

2010-03-19T09:55:00.000-07:00

If you are looking for a riveting topic of conversation here, you definitely shouldn't choose the weather. There really isn't a great difference from day to day. That's why when you begin to see weird phenomenon you take note.

Last Sunday driving through the petite marche I noticed a man wearing snowpants. "Does he know something I don't know?" I wondered. Well I chalked that one up to the fact that he might not have been all there....I mean, after all, the snowpants were about 10 sizes too small. They were more like snow capris.

Then yesterday one of my little friends came in dressed in a nifty pair of striped tights under her skirt. Cute but really, what am I missing? It's 7:30 am, 86 degrees inside and the sun hasn't even risen fully! Perhaps inspired by yesterday's cute tights or maybe it was Easter as she claimed, another student arrived in tights today. Clearly, I need to be turning on the weather station!

It hit me this afternoon. They must have been preparing for Niamey's "white out" conditions (aka. harmattan)!

Hypnotizing, Baptizing and Accrediting

2010-03-05T13:24:00.000-08:00

It's been a big week here at Sahel Academy. If you were in the first and second grade it included a little bit of hypnotizing and baptizing but for the rest of the school it was really more about the accrediting.

The two person Accreditation Team arrived and hit the ground running. They were busy all week visiting classrooms, conversing with students and parents and reading documents. I was observed for a few minutes and later, had the opportunity to answer questions about some general procedures on our campus and about our curriculum. On Thursday we had a brief report from the team in which they gave us several commendations and several recommendations. It was a very positive meeting and ending with the fact that they are recommending us for full accreditation. Praise the Lord!

As for the hypnotizing and baptizing...that was the "funny" for the week. We were standing in line for the bathroom and one of my little girls, K said to the person in front of her, "I'm going to hypnotize you!" She proceeded to stare deeply into her friend's eyes (picture the snake in the movie the Jungle Book here). E, the girl standing behind K wanted to get in on the fun but she didn't really hear correctly. So she proceeded to dip K back and exclaimed, "I'm going to baptize you!" ....well rounded education, I tell you. I cover it all from hypnotizing to baptizing!

Things that make me laugh

2010-02-11T10:56:00.000-08:00

I love a good chuckle...(a sixth grader came into my room and used that word today and that in itself made me want to chuckle...chuckle's a really weird word if you think about it. But I digress!) So here are a couple of things that have made me laugh recently.

this smile

this outfit - My kids got to dress up as 100 year olds for the 100th Day of School.

this quote - We have been studying the moon for the last month or so and of course, we've learned about how cold it is there. This morning it was a little on the chilly side before school and one of my students asked me if she could stay inside until the bell rang. I have no mercy - it's not like it's snowing out there - probably only 75 degrees, if that, and so I said no. She proceeded to pull up the collar of her jacket and tuck her hands into the sleeves of her jacket. As she stepped out the classroom door, she said something like "Alright, let me go out on the moon!"

Oh my!

Rigged!

2010-01-23T04:38:00.000-08:00

This is my friend Cindy who rigged the contest that brought a most beloved and coveted hat back into my possession. It was awesome and caused me to laugh all the way through the song "Holy, Holy, Holy." I hope God didn't mind! But now, of course, the scheming must begin.

The Last Decade

2009-12-31T15:53:00.000-08:00

Lucky for me I have my clock on my computer still set to Eastern Standard Time so I'll sneak this in as the last post of 2009 even though as I sit here typing in Niamey I can hear the new year's fireworks all around me! Just got to thinking that God has walked me through some pretty amazing things in this last decade...

graduating college
learning to teach
being baptized
trusting him with my biggest hopes and dreams
recognizing that He is with me in failure and success
coming short term to Sahel Academy
dealing with challenging students
learning to love them
studying French
returning to Sahel long term
driving in Niger (never do that on New Year's Eve)

and realizing through all of this and more that He is trustworthy, faithful and worthy of all my praise!

Crafty Christmas

2009-12-28T07:11:00.001-08:00

I had a lot of fun crafting for Christmas. The addition of the sewing machine my Mom made me buy and bring to Niger made it even more fun. Here are my favorite creations.

Favorite card - I love this thing. It was hard to part with it!

Favorite bittie cards - created these on Christmas eve - a last minute idea.

Saw this ornament idea and wanted to try it but I had to borrow the main supply, felt, from Beka. I ended up giving it back to her kids - just in a different form! :)

I Miss Them

2009-12-22T09:12:00.001-08:00

Buying in Bulk

2009-12-22T08:53:00.000-08:00

In North America one is generally rewarded when one buys in bulk. The more you buy of something the cheaper the item is. It is easy to expect the same in other cultures but that would be a false assumption. Often times here in Niger, one is rewarded for buying the smaller amount. For example, these little cream cheese cubes come packaged in a box of 6 for which I would be required to pay 1475 cfa. That works out to about 245 cfa (approximately 60 cents) a cube whereas I could choose from the box of unpackaged cubes and pay only 150 cfa per cube (approximately 40 cents). Interesting cultural difference!

St. Lucia Day Celebration

2009-12-22T08:25:00.000-08:00

Christmas around the world - that's what we spent the last two weeks of school focusing on. My children had the opportunity to hear first hand about the traditions of France from Eliane who brought in a delicious yule log for the children to enjoy.They also heard about Christmas in Norway from Mrs. Lindberg who is the mother of one of my sudents. She did a beautiful job explaining some of the traditions including St. Lucia Day celebrations. St. Lucia was an Italian saint marytred in 300 A.D. She has become a symbol for light in the midst of darkness. This is a particularly important celebration to those living in Sweden and Norway who spend much of their winter days in darkness. Mrs. Lindberg told the kids that it is often dark until 9 or 10 am. For the St. Lucia day celebrations kindergarteners come to school dressed in white. One child will be chosen to lead a procession with a lighted wreath on her head and the students will go from classroom to classroom caroling. I can only imagine how special this would be if school starts when it is still dark outside! It wasn't dark when we started school but we enjoyed listening and learning, caroling at the doors of the other elementary classes and eating Lussekatt, a traditional St. Lucia bun.

Twins

2009-12-19T04:00:00.000-08:00

These two were thrilled to death when they realized that the new haircut belonging to one of them made them look almost like twins!

The Day the Donkey Got Away

2009-12-02T11:44:00.000-08:00

I am itching to pick up my little markers and draw this little story in stick figures but I think it might just be better if we all use our imaginations...

In the course of the work day there comes a time when we all must stop by the bathroom and take care of business. What does that look like when you are the owner of a donkey and cart on your way to wherever? Well, you pull up beside the nearest wall and even if that is the wall on the main road that leads to the only bridge in town, it's still quite possible that you can discreetly take care of business. That is, of course, as long as your donkey understands the need for discretion.

But should your donkey miss the memo about the need for discretion, he might decide to make like a banana and split. At which time, you will be nonchalantly standing at the wall, unaware that your donkey is on the lam, running directly into the path of the two white women driving down the dirt road to the intersection. The donkey hesitates while the white women look around at all the people sitting around chewing the fat wondering where the owner is and why in the world no one cares enough to stop the donkey running directly onto the main road. But you, the donkey owner, remain blissfully unaware of the unfolding drama. Meanwhile, your runaway donkey decides to take the plunge into oncoming traffic. Cars slow, swerving to avoid him. Motorcycles screech to a halt, brakes squealing and finally, your attention is caught just as you finish up. Just in time too, for now your donkey and cart are well down the road. No mere jog will do for catching up with them. Run, donkey cart man, run!

What do you do?

2009-12-02T11:25:00.000-08:00

What do you do when the item you need is at the bottom of that pile?

Well you definitely don't unload the whole thing. That would make far too much sense!

I learned to stack dishes like this while a fifth or sixth grader in Galmi. Alihu, our house worker, was quite good at it and so I studied up in the fine art of dish stacking. Speaking of Alihu, he had been around visiting in Galmi as some very good friends of mine from Galmi days are back in Galmi for a few weeks. He had been asking after me and my family so one of "my good friends" decided to call me via cell phone to let him talk to me. He speaks Hausa which I understand but can only do the bare minimum of greeting in. I speak French which he can not speak. Wow! Talk about awkward and "my good/bad friend" walked away and left us to hash it out. So that was about the longest 20 second conversation I've ever had and the best part about it was someone else was in the car with me and got to enjoy all the awkwardness!

Oh Me, Oh My

2009-11-20T16:00:00.000-08:00

File this under things that make me laugh! Kurt Browning never fails to crack me up.

I think the Charlie Chaplin moves are hysterical and kudos to this girl for being willing to get out there and have a ham like him follow her around.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

2009-11-20T11:54:00.000-08:00

What do you do when the temperature hits a low of 66?

If you're the teacher, you throw on your hoodie, happy as a lark for cool weather and a day without sweat.

If you're the student, it's time to break out your......

leggings!

I got a great kick out of watching the little people huddle in a group beside the door this morning proclaiming their longing for the bell to ring - wishing, hoping and praying that their teacher would have mercy on them and let them stay inside the warm 80 degree classroom. Not a chance friends! Go run, play and get your blood moving!

Expectations

2009-11-18T14:01:00.000-08:00

In your mind you plan out a lesson and you have certain expectations of what your students might do or ask and what might happen during your lesson. If you see any potential bad ideas you normally try to point them out and mention that they are not allowed. Some days kids meet your expectations and other days they just bust right out of the box of expected thinking.

We're studying matter and today we were learning about how matter can change states from a solid to a liquid and back to a solid again. So I paired the children up and explained that I would give each pair an ice cube and they could do whatever they wanted to try and get it to melt quickly. My expectations: they will sit it in the sun, rub their hands around it or break it into smaller pieces to get it to melt quickly. Yes, they tried all of those things along with sitting on it and even putting it in their mouth to help the process along...both fairly decent ideas. But then there was the kid who busted out of the box and decided to melt the ice cube by sticking it into their underwear. Oh my! Forgot to cover the rule that says you may not stick the ice cube into your undies....Dear me! What will I do with you little first and second graders?

As Seen on the Bridge

2009-11-06T13:30:00.000-08:00

My neighbor, Laurence, was saying how great it would be if we could just have a camera in the tip of our finger. This would be handy here in Niger for taking pictures unobtrusively and for those moments that just crack you up and you wish you had your camera with you. Tonight was one of those moments. I just had to laugh.

This is what I saw. Can't you just picture the scene of the accident?

"What do you mean, Officer?

There's no way I had an obstructed view!"

One of their Favorite Things

2009-11-05T13:12:00.000-08:00

Acting is one of their favorite things to do. This is the second play that some of this group has gotten to do this week alone! Bright, as the only boy, got to be Abraham as they reenacted the story of Abraham and his three visitors and the eventual birth of Isaac. I wish the picture was a little bigger so you could see their expressions....funny!

Baby Hedgie

2009-11-05T12:48:00.001-08:00

A while back I was reading a magazine in the U.S. that listed the price for a hedgehog as around $100. $100 dollars seem slightly steep for somehting I used to pick up in my backyard on the compound at Galmi and keep in my room as pets...that was, of course, until I realized that they were awfully stinky especially when you don't clean out their cage very often. Well, in all my "days" (and they were short) of keeping hedgehogs, I never had the chance to see an itty bitty baby. The other night the kindergarten teacher, Lori, happened upon a hedgehog and decided to catch it and bring it into school. Overnight, said hedgehog gave birth to this cute little thing.

...wow, nice timing! Lori said that when it was just born it was pink but by the end of the first day it had white needles. Here "Hedgie" is two days old and the needles are starting to turn gray. It's eyes aren't open yet. Ahhh! Doesn't that face just make you want to go out and pay $100 for a little hedgehog! So cute!

How Soon They Learn

2009-11-04T13:17:00.000-08:00

Yesterday my class delved into safety signs and their meanings...first sign up - the traffic light. The discussion on the traffic light began with a heated argument between E and K over the meaning of the yellow light. E maintained the position that the yellow light meant slow down and stop. K argued vehemently that the yellow light means speed up and get through the light. Hmm, seems to me that someone is wise to the ways of drivers facing yellow lights. Isn't second grade a little to early to be picking up on that?

The Bouffant Bob

2009-10-21T12:42:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been realizing that I really need to get my hair cut and get it back off my neck. But with that desire comes a certain amount of reticence and unwillingness to actually take the plunge as it means that I would have to try and explain my hairstyle preference in French to a hair dresser. How to solve the problem? Well, I really was quite fond of the way my hair was cut the very last time I got it cut in July so I thought to myself why not take in a picture of myself to give the hairdresser some guidance. Yesterday was my lucky day! Someone else provided me with a picture of myself which I can use to give the hairdresser some guidance. "Yes, that's right, Mr./Ms. Hairdresser, I'm hear to get the Bouffant Bob. I hear it's all the rage these days."

The Hole World is Sad

2009-10-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been lying in bed resting for 3 out of the last 4 days and really probably feeling like that's what I wanted to be doing for the last 7 days. I semi-lost my voice to begin with and now it has turned into a nasty cough. I tried to go to school today but it was clear that if I kept trying to teach I probably wouldn't have a voice at all by the end of the day. I'm grateful to Shannon for offering to step in and take my class for me so I could go home and try to rest my voice some more. Just a few minutes ago a pack of get well cards from the crew was delivered to my door! Letters from kids are always good for a laugh. This one was my favorite. It's so dramatic that it just cracks me up! Even funnier was the fact that it was written by a boy. Well just in case you been wondering why you've been feeling so sad these last couple of days...now you know...it's cause I'm laid up. :) Thanks for the good laugh, Shannon!

Ha! I just read this again and noticed that according to this note, I'm a man. Funny!

Best or Worst Dressed?

2009-09-26T05:44:00.000-07:00

Apparently this actress chose to wear her politics to Emmy night. I have no idea who she is but it seems that she may have landed herself on the Worst Dressed list for people who care about such things. She needs to move to Africa...she would SO be on the Best Dressed List! It's a la mode to put people's faces on your cloth here. Not only that Obama is a hit here. Earlier this year I went out with a friend to do a bit of shopping. While we bought meat, the guy behind the meat counter correctly identified my friend as an American. He proceeded to point high above his counter to a spot where he had placed a picture of Obama. Then he very proudly mentioned that he and Obama had been friends for two years. Sure buddy, and I'm friends with the King of Spain. Well, whether he's watching over the meat counter, keeping Africa clean or solving all it's problems, one thing is for sure, Obama's dress would be a hit!

From Head to Toe with Eric Carle

2009-09-18T15:47:00.000-07:00

We are in the midst of an author study on Eric Carle and this being Friday, I decided to have some fun with the kids. We read "The Grouchy Ladybug" and did some ladybug things but it all began with the spots on my back that caused quite a stir when they were "spotted." Confusion and then the dawn of understanding even as there remained an element of mystery...were they or were they not taped on? Ah, the joys of the young and innocent...

We made clocks,

used doubles facts to plan out and then decorate a ladybug cookie, thought about things that would take seconds, minutes and hours and enjoyed reading books by Eric Carle and others about insects

and that was only about 1 hour of the day!

The rest was filled with writing and taking pictures for our own book in Eric's style, filling our ant farm with dirt and ants, spelling tests and memory verses and a whole lot of after school fun.

All in all, a very busy day!

Now why in the world am I still up?

Birthdays

2009-09-16T11:37:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow we'll encounter our first birthday celebration of the year in our class. The girls have been keeping track of it for at least a week now and I'm telling you, with the excitement they showed this morning you would think that one of them was having a birthday. However, it just happens to be one of the most laidback boys who is having the birthday so we asked him this morning if he was excited about his upcoming birthday because, of course, all the little girls want to know. So with head resting in palms of hands, elbows on knees and absolutely no change of expression, his response was "Yeah." How's that for enthusiasm! There are times when I just feel like busting up laughing.

The "Chillen"

2009-09-16T11:12:00.000-07:00

So thanks to my friend Shannon you are seeing a picture of my "chillen". :) Love that word for some reason....and thanks to her I realize how much faster things load when you shrink your pictures which I'm too lazy to do. 2 seconds as opposed to minutes, hours, days...well okay, it's not quite that bad!

A Style All Their Own

2009-09-12T10:16:00.000-07:00

Here it is...your first peek at some of my 2nd grade students...unless of course you know them personally! After completely a chain link of addition facts that equal 11, these ladies decided to use their chain as a fashion accessory. Look for this fad to catch on big time!

What's in your sink?

2009-09-12T10:04:00.000-07:00

Be careful when you stick your hands in your sink...you never know what might be lurking there. It could be just dirty dishes or you might find one of these... Thankfully, no hands went into my sink at school before Jacques, one of our janitors, noticed him. He was very much alive and definitely the kind that really hurts, according to Jacques. I took him out and killed him by dropping a part of a cement block on him repeatedly, but not before I asked Anisa, the 3rd & 4th grade teacher, if she wanted another pet. Can't believe she turned my offer down?

Inundated

2009-09-01T12:37:00.000-07:00

So here's the thing about teaching a class full of girls....you'll be inundated with notes. This is what I received on Sunday night alone. Apparently, these two students were inspired to donate all their Sunday sermon "notes" to me. Not sure if there's room on the refrigerator for all of this. :) My favorite part about these notes is that during the first couple of days when I asked these two to write a story, they told me they didn't know how to write and they copied from a book or from something on the wall. But two weeks later they are fired up about writing and telling their stories.

Just sitting here thinking

2009-08-29T14:39:00.000-07:00

Just sitting here thinking about how cool it is that I have or will have the privilege of teaching the children of people that I grew up and went to school with in the next couple of years. I can't imagine that too many teachers get that privilege. I'm thankful for it and trusting God to help me do a good job!

Did I tell you?

2009-08-25T13:21:00.000-07:00

Did I tell you that I squeezed lotion up my nose last week? Yep, if you didn't know it before you do now...I'm a dork! I was trying to pick out some good lotion to put on my dry skin and that's how I found myself going down the row, opening up bottles, holding them up to my nose and giving them a gentle squeeze so that I could catch a whiff of their scent. It was all going well until I squeezed the one that had lotion right at the nozzle and it shot right up into my nose! Wow! What a shock that was! Then there's the fun of trying to inconspicuously clean up that little mess and pretend like it didn't happen as I nonchalantely continue to browse in the store all the while laughing hysterically at the fact that I actually squeezed lotion up my nose!

Conversations with a Kindergartner

2009-08-23T12:39:00.000-07:00

I had an after school visit from a Kindergartener this week that was quite funny. She was standing at the door with her brother talking through the screen to me. I invited her in but she must not have heard me until a little bit later.

When she did come in, the fun started. She began looking around the room noting things with amazement in her voice, "Oh, you have letters just like we do!" "Oh, you have a tape recorder just like we do!" "Oh, you have computers just like we do!" Apparently, she went home and asked her mom if all the classes looked the same.

The other funny thing she said when I asked her what her class had done that day was that they had had "adventures". Hmm, couldn't quite figure that one out - thought maybe it was a special name their teacher had for something they did in the classroom. Anyway, when she got around to noting the computers she started mentioning "adventures" again and I realized that she calls "centers" in the classroom "adventures". What a trip!

My advice to you is...talk with someone small today! It's bound to be fun and maybe even insightful!

This is how we do it!

2009-08-20T11:50:00.000-07:00

This is how we do it!
This is how we do it!

When the electricity is off
And it's raining
We're supposed to be learning
But the lights are off

This is how we do it!
This is how we do it!

Go out on the porch
With our books in our laps
Listening to the rain
As it tap, tap, taps

This is how we do it!
This is how we do it!

Don't even ask what inspired me! My poetry/song writing ain't good but it sure is fun. :) Got pictures but they won't load tonight.

It's okay to be nosey!

2009-08-19T12:39:00.000-07:00

You need some headphones. You head off to your local Walmart/Target, make your choice and put them in your basket. No strangers come along, lean into your cart and peer in at the choices you've made. That's North America for you. We all keep to ourselves!

In Niger, on the other hand, it's okay to be nosey. It just so happened today that I was interested in purchasing some headphones so I stopped at the local electronics cart and inquired about headphones. All he was selling were the Air France special with two prongs (and just in case you've been spending your whole life searching for them, you could also buy Air France's matching eye covers - crack me up!) Well, he didn't have any single prong ones but he was more than willing to go search them out in the market. Another great thing about living here...you don't necessarily have to do the work of searching. Let me insert here that he pretty much left his cart unattended...maybe the people sitting near by would have prevented any thefts, I don't know. Any how, he returned and the bargaining began. This is when the nosey tomato seller stepped up to the plate. We named our price and the vendor exclaimed "Albarqua!" (Not sure of the spelling of that basically meaning are you crazy.) So then Tomato Man tells him that he needs to lower his price which he does. Then we higher ours a bit and Tomato Man encourages him to meet us in the middle somewhere, pretty much taking over the bargaining. Finally, we agree but wait to see two pairs of what we are purchasing. So while the vendor runs off to get the second pair, Tomato Man decides he's entitled to a bit of negotiation too because of course, we want tomatoes to go along with our headphones! Two pairs of headphones and one kilo of tomatoes later, we're on our way home with a lesson in how being nosey sometimes pays off.