Ms. Katie's Class: 2B

This is my class. There are two second grade classes: 2A and 2B. I teach 2B and Brittany Thayer teaches 2A.
I love Brittany. Her and I are a lot alike in the way we lesson plan and grade and teach, so it's nice to have her as my other second grade teacher. Out of all the SMs, I wouldn't want to have anyone other than Brittany as my partner. And I love my class too. Out of all the classes here, I wouldn't want any other than the one I have. I see other classes and thank God I don't have them. It's amazing how God works... He knows exactly what we can handle. Most of the classes seem to suit the teachers really well. Each class requires a different type of teacher, and the personalities of all the SMs go really well with the classes they were assigned. It's pretty amazing :)
Here are three of my boys. Yes, I am turning my kids into Canadian lovers :)

Random Weekend Activities.

This past weekend was a lot of fun. Saturday night I was sitting in the livingroom of the girls' appartment with Tania, A.J., and Matt. It was about 10:00 and we were all just sitting around trying to figure out what we should do. We wanted to do something random and fun. We tried to plan something, but A.J. said it had to be random. So I jumped up and said we should go outside and walk up the hill in our bare feet. So the four of us walked out of the appartment and started up the hill. A.J. was the last one out the door and I could hear him saying "Wait! What are we doing?" I just told him to be quiet and follow, because he was the one saying it had to be random and not planned. So he stopped complaining and we ventured up the hill with the moon and stars for our light. We got halfway between Scott & Staci's house and the Martin's house and we decided we should probably go somewhere else so we wouldn't wake anyone up. We all went down by the school and sat in the summerhouse, a little shelter kind of thing with benches under it. It started to rain so we went and danced in it for a little bit, then sat back down. We were all just chatting, but things didn't seem to be very exciting, so I took the pink cup that I had brought out with me, filled it with rain water from a drain, and dashed it on Matt. Now I don't remember exactly what happened after that, but somehow it turned into a water fight between the four of us: A.J. and I vs Tania and Matt. We were running all around campus, hiding behind trees and buildings and sneaking up on each other. A.J. and I found a balcony that we hid on and we filled up our cup and water bottle and soaked Tania and Matt when they walked under us. The water fight went on for a couple hours, and by the end we were all completely soaked. A.J. and I won :)
Sunday morning Scott, A.J. and I got up at around 9 and went on a hike through the jungle. We got all muddy walking through the mangroves. Once we cleared the forest we walked up a hill and found a coconut tree. Since I am addicted to coconuts, I had to get one. I tried climbing up, but slid down a few times. Then Scott hacked some foot holds in the side of the trunk so I could climb up. I got down two green coconuts and scott cut them open for us to drink. They were AMAZING! After we got refreshed we continued on our venture. It was so beautiful. It started to rain, which was nice since it was getting hot. On our way back we came across this old bus that was randomly stuck in the middle of nowhere. It was pretty cool. Everything here is so amazing. So many beautiful things to see. I love it!

Palau

Palau is amazing. I really love it here. I have been here for almost three months and it has gone by so fast! I left Toronto very early Monday morning on August 1st. It was a long flight to Hawaii, but I slept most of the way so it wasn't too bad. I spent two days in Hawaii going to orientation with all the other student missionaries. On Wednesday we all went to the airport and had another LONG flight to Palau. When we arrived in Palau there were lots of people waiting for us at the airport. The Adventist church here assigned a Palauan family to each SM, so my Palauan mother found me and gave me a beautiful lei. Pastor Martin brought us to a bus and we all packed our stuff in it. Pastor Martin is the pastor here and Jeri is his wife. They are American missionaries. Before this year they were missionaries in China for I think five years. So, we packed our stuff in the van and then they took us to Palau Mission Academy, where we live. It was night time so we couldn't see too much, but we all got settled in where we were going to be living for the next 10 months, and soon went to bed. Seven of the girls went into one appartment. Meagan, Brittany, and Jessica all went in one room, Nicole and Mechelle went in another room, and Rochelle and Tania went in another room. AJ, the only guy at the time, went to one of the dorm rooms upstairs. Beckah and I went to another small appartment. Since then we got two more guys, Tony and Matt, and one more girl, Rebecca. Now I live upstairs in a dorm room with Beckah and Rebecca. Tony and AJ live in the small appartment that Beckah and I first had, and Matt lives in a room in the boys dorm. The setup here is pretty nice. I think the dorm rooms are nicer than the ones at Kingsway. They all have AC, so that's a plus since it's pretty hot here.
We spent most of our first week here setting up our classrooms and getting everything ready for teaching. It was pretty scary walking into my classroom. It was full of dusty desks and shairs. It didn't seem real that it was MY classroom, and in only a few days it would be full of students that I would be teaching for the next 10 months. I've come a long way since that week. The first few weeks of teaching were really challenging. My class has 11 boys and 6 girls, who all love to talk. I couldn't get them to keep quiet or do what I told them to do. It was so frustrating. I considered changing my major from Elementary Education to ANYTHING. I couldn't control the kids and I had no idea how to teach them. But with LOTS of prayer and a bit of trial and error, I have learned to love teaching. God has given me the gift of teaching. Now I know this is my calling and I want to do this for the rest of my life. Now I have people walk in my classroom and they comment on how well behaved my kids are. It's pretty exciting. They're not always little angels, but I love them all so much.