Unselfish Love

We had an amazing thing happen at MID today, and I just have to tell you about it!

Yesterday, one of our students lost one of her hearing aids during soccer practice.  The coach, her mom, other parents, and other students helped her search the soccer field, but were unable to find it last night. This thing is tiny...it's not quite 1 inch long and 1/3 of an inch wide, and the case is clear plastic.  Pretty much like looking for a needle in a haystack.  The student's grandfather even brought over a magnetic roller and dragged it across the field.  Nothing.  This was devastating as these hearing aids cost around $2500.

So, this morning Mrs. Keane asked if the students and teachers in grades 3-9 would be willing to go out and look again. Of course we were!  We joined together as a school and prayed that God would help us find what had been lost. If anyone knew how important this was, He did, so we put it in His hands. After searching the soccer field for about 30 minutes, we were still unsuccessful.

Keep reading...we're almost to the good part!

After lunch, as the 4th and 5th graders headed out to recess, several asked if they could go down to the soccer field and continue to look for the hearing aid. We had 8, 9, and 10 year olds GIVE UP THEIR RECESS TIME to help another student!  We have THE. BEST. KIDS. EVER. at MID!!!

These kids voluntarily crawled around on their hands and knees combing through the grass to find that hearing aid. At one point a few of them stopped and prayed together that God would help them (my eyes are tearing up just typing this).  Moments later they came running up the hill with their arms raised in victory...they'd found it!

It was so moving to witness the unselfish love of our students. And even more moving to see how they turned to God for help in their search. It brought me to tears to see the joy in all of their faces as they returned the hearing aid to the student who lost it.

Our kids learned a lesson today that goes SO far beyond anything that comes out of a text book. THIS is why I love teaching at MID. And THIS is why I love my students so much.

As I go to sleep tonight, I'll be saying a prayer of thanks for your amazing children, and the beauty of the unselfish love they demonstrated today.  I hope you will too!

 

Here We Go!

It was a wonderful first day! The kids were great...they worked hard and played hard...I love that!

We spent lots of time talking about how we do things in 4th grade, from voice levels, to lining up, to classroom jobs. There's always a lot of 'housekeeping' to do on the first day.

We played a 'get to know your teacher' game with a 'red light, green light' twist. Later we did a team building activity called "Save Fred"...ask your child about it...we had so much fun!  We even did some writing about...you guessed it...something we did this summer :)  And we HAD to take first day pictures! 

During one of my favorite parts of the day, we started our class read aloud.  We're reading "A Snicker of Magic" by Natalie Lloyd. It's about a girl named Felicity Pickle who has moved around a lot with her family and wants to stay in one place for a while.  Felicity has an unusual hobby...she collects words. We might just try a little word collecting of our own!

During the rest of this week we'll continue learning and practicing classroom procedures and routines,  getting to know each other better,  and digging further into our read aloud. We'll also begin working on our reading stamina (how long we can continue to read without getting tired, bored, or distracted).  We'll start out with 5 minutes and work our way up to 30 minutes over the next couple of weeks.

We're off to a great start!

Are You Ready?

It's the night before the first day of school!

I've spent the last couple of weeks working to prepare our classroom, and now I'm preparing my heart.

I've been praying for you and your child as you get ready for their first day of fourth grade.  I've also been praying for our school, our administrators, and our teachers as we await your arrival.

Tomorrow will be exciting, busy, and tiring!  I have lots of fun activities planned that will help us get to know each other and our classroom better, but the most important thing to me is making sure that your child is safe, comfortable, and happy.

If you have any last minute things that you want me to know about your child that will make their transition to the new school year (and for some of you a new school!) easier, please send me an email at kpoole@midschool.org.  I'll be checking my email as soon as I get to school in the morning.

Welcome Back!!!

I was so excited to see all of you at Open House last night...it was great to meet our new students and parents, and wonderful to see our returning ones :)  We're going to have an amazing year in 4th grade!

Thank you for participating in our Classroom Scavenger Hunt!  I'm hoping that it made it easier to know what you needed to take care of (forms, signups, etc) and pointed out a few things in the classroom.  I'd love to get your feedback on what worked well, and what could be better.  Please comment below or send me an email (kpoole@midschool.org) to let me know your thoughts.

I'll be using this blog as our class newsletter, and will send out a link to new posts via email, so watch for those to come out every Monday.

The easiest way to contact me is by email:  kpoole@midschool.org.  You can also call the school at 704-391-5516, or text me at 262-853-2136.  I'll make every effort to respond to your email, text, or phone call within 24 hours :)

Thank you for entrusting Mountain Island Day School, Mrs. Hudson, and me with your child's education.  I'm looking forward working with you and your child to make this their best school year yet!