Holiday Blessings

The holidays are always a great time of year! This is even more true when you spend the majority of your days with 7 and 8 year old's. Their joy and excitement for this time of year is contagious! It has helped kept me going even through the busyness and crazy time of this year, and has also kept me reminded of what this time is truly about. While discussing our memory verse of the past few weeks, (included at the end of my post) I asked my students what this verse meant. Their answers included "Knowing that Jesus is going to be the real king, forever and ever" and "Jesus has all the power and we should praise Him". I couldn't have answered better myself.

My students bless me in so many ways, whether is through a discussion on what faith in Christ means and how a person goes to heaven, or all of us laughing at a funny moment in class. One particularly funny moment happened in class just a few days ago. As it is becoming colder out, static electricity becomes a factor, and with this random shocks can occur when touching metal objects. Well, I was grabbing for a piece of chalk and as I did, the metal tray gave me a shock. I yelped out in a bit of pain, and my students quickly became concerned over what happened. I told them I had gotten shocked. Well apparently in my Wisconsin accent it sounded like "shacked". They all looked so confused, so I repeated my self and told them I had gotten shocked. One student started laughing and said "Oh Miss Ongna, you mean shocked? We couldn't hear it through your accent!"

As you see, the funny moments never cease! School has really just been getting more enjoyable as I have become so comfortable in my role as teacher and much more confident in my decisions, lessons, and talking with parents and teachers. It has been a joy to learn as much as I have, and to be surrounded with people who have been incredibly patient with me as I do so. I have learned SO much in the past 4 months. Julia and I just talked the other week about how strange it is to look back at the beginning days of school and how much we didn't know and how much we have improved since then! Not that we were that terrible, but there was definitely room for improvement!

Life outside of school has been grand as well! Two of my dearest friends got engaged to each other over Thanksgiving break, which I could not be more excited for! I am also looking forward to heading home for Christmas, which will be a welcome break! It will also be wonderful to get to spend a bit more time with people, since Thanksgiving was such a quick break. I cannot wait!

I also hope and pray that God blesses you with a great Christmas holiday and wonderful times with friends and family! We have so much to be thankful for, most of all, the wonderful gift of God's son, Jesus Christ, being sent into this world to die for our sins. What a most wonderful gift!

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this." Isaiah 9:6-7

Playing some phonegram twister! They ask to do this one often!

Learning about soil and dirt in science class, even creating our own! Messy = fun!