Christian American School

"Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." Mark 11:24

Boards

Just in case you have not been in he loop, I got a job! It all has been through a lot of prayer and once again God has answered in about a month's time of prayer and fasting with my boyfriend. I knew that would answer my prayer, I just didn't know that it was going to be so soon.

My class. I like owls

Circle Time

I have been working at CAS for the past 2 weeks, of which one week has been with the children. I was super excited decorating my classroom and preparing lesson plans with my coworker. The first day of school the children looked a little scared and one of the kids started to cry and refused to enter the classroom. I got flashbacks from when I used to work at Apple Tree and it was super natural to calm him down. I got to his level, asked if he wanted a hug and he said no. However, he started to get close to me and put his head on my chest. I hugged him and told him that I knew it was tough and he felt sad. I rubbed his back and I said that I was going to count to 5 and after I finished counting, we would go inside because all of his friends were waiting for him. When I finished counting I stood behind him and helped him inside the classroom. Within 5 minutes he was really happy especially when it was his turn for the children to sing to him, welcoming him to class.

The first two days I felt a little stressed because I have never been a teacher with kids all to myself. I have only done therapy (early intervention) with their parent present. By Friday I felt like I have been doing this for a while. Little by little I m getting the hang of it and I'm starting to know the children and whom they should not sit next to. I have one kid who works best when I am next to him encouraging him, I have a little girl who loves taking her time with coloring the small details and another boy who pretends he is sick when it's time to work. I am loving them very much! They brighten my day as well give me green hair at times. One thing I have learned working at Apple Tree is to document. I have an agenda where I am documenting all that is happening like when a child hits another or didn't want to work. I fill it up with details to make sure I have something to look back to if there's a problem. The best part about working at CAS it's being able to pray with the children and talk about Jesus.

P.E. with the kids

I will say that I really miss the children at the Hogar. I can't wait to be able to get in the rhythm of work and make time to visit them. I really miss their hugs and their sweet words like Anthony saying he loves me and having at least one teen wanting to talk about their emotions. Soon I will be back!

Hole-e shoes

I will admit that guilt is a big part of who I am...I'm working on it. Ok ok so I'm not a big shoe person. I have like 4 pairs of shoes and to be honest, I usually wear just 2 pairs. I'm all about comfort not style. Well, that and I don't really know how to walk in heels. Almost 2 years ago I had a really bad accident that involved stairs, my toys from work and twisted ankles. It was really bad! When I got up from the floor I walked to my car, I noticed I was not able to hyper extend my ankles(I was walking like a penguin). When I finally got in my car I felt such a relief and as I started to drive I felt like I was going to pass out because I had to extend my ankles to push the pedals. I had to make a stop at a local gas station and I called my family to come and pick me up because I was not able to drive anymore. My older brother is an athletic trainer at Fullerton community college and he was able to assess my injury and encouraged me to go to the emergency to get checked. It turned out I had really bad sprained ankles. It was difficult to put on tennis shoes and my work shoes did not fit so I had to buy new shoes that would fit and support my super swollen feet. The shoes I got were the best fit and I truly love the shoes. However, they were pretty pricey. For the past several months I have been on a very strict budget because I'm trying to move to Guatemala. It turns out that my wonderful shoes now have holes on each side and I decided to invest a little bit of money and buy some shoes for work. I got these cute sketchers and I wore them for 2 days and I returned them. I felt so guilty spending money on shoes knowing that there are so many people without shoes. That was sometime in September. It's December and the holes in my shoes were become more noticeable. I recently invested a little bit of money to get antennas for our television and my dad decided he wanted to get cable instead. I went back to get my money back from the electronic store and decided to get new shoes. I will be honest, they are still in the box.