A Busy October

Wow, it's been a long time since I've written in this! It's almost like it's been a whole month.... ;) I need to write in this more. Here's all that has happened in the last month, in no particular order:

1. I climbed Sleeping Giant twice. The first time was with Sr. Carol Ann and Sr. Hannah, and the second time was with the St. Theresa Parish Youth. Both were wonderful experiences! I love hiking in the wilderness!
2. We attended mini retreat for religious educators. Actually, tonight, Sr. Carol Ann, Sr. Janet and I attended a spiritual talk for music ministers. It was very nice!
3. Speaking of music ministry, I started cantoring at St. Theresa. I have now cantored 4 times. I am enjoying it.
4. Also, the Christian churches in West Kauai recently gathered for a Festival of Praise. The different choirs, music groups, and a keiki (children) dance group all contributed to a wonderful night of worship. Our choir sang "In This Place." One of our band members played a tenor saxophone for one of the verses and it was amazing! It was a Spirit-filled night, and I was edified by all the talent on this small part of the island.
5. This month, we had Fall Break, STAR Testing (reading and math tests that give us instant data of our students' progress), standardized testing, report cards, and parent-teacher conferences. As a first-year teacher, I am happy to have made it through my first round of all that. Everything went well.
6. One of my students had to move back to the Mainland. It's been really hard on the children. We gave her a nice going away party though, and we are keeping in touch with her.
7. St. Marianne was canonized! It is so wonderful how much attention this has been getting on the news. We've been educating the children about her (and learning about her ourselves!) Now Hawaii has two saints: Sts. Damien and Marianne of Molokai.

Now we are getting ready for Halloween. Each year, there is a door decorating contest, and yesterday my students worked on our door. I read Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak to them, and then used the following watercolor lesson plan that I found on the internet: http://www.artprojectsforkids.org/2008/01/wild-thing-watercolor-monster.html.

Their watercolor paintings turned out so cute! I am very proud of them! The students who finished early traced some letter-stencils that Sr. Charles Ann had given me and cut them out. A couple of them made trees. This afternoon, one of the moms helped me put everything on the door. The cool thing is that the kids did most of the work. They even voted on the title. They chose "Calling All the Monsters," named after a favorite Disney Channel song of theirs.

I watched the music video. It's kind of like a kids' version of "Thriller": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpoVbmx1qYU

Tomorrow is the "Trunk or Treat," and Wednesday is "Halloween Fun Day." I will write again about these activities!

Kauai Outing and School Feastday Celebration

I have much to write about and pictures to share! We decided that for our Community Outing, we would go to the National Tropical Botanical Garden. On the way, we stopped at Spouting Horn and Poipu Beach. 

On the right is a picture I took of Spouting Horn. It is a hole that the lava made, and water from the surf shoots up through it, making a cool site to see.

While we were there, we had a picnic that Sr. Hannah prepared for us. It was so good that we even had chickens come and beg.

Our next stop was Poipu Beach.  We are looking forward to our return!

Lastly, we went to the Botanical Gardens, where we had a fun tour. Everything was stunning, and I loved learning about the history of the  plant life in Hawaii. 

Our tour guide, Martin, was both entertaining and knowledgeable. Here he is sharing with us one of the many fruits he picked for us during the tour.

Also, today was a very special day at St. Theresa School! We celebrated the Feastdays of both St. Theresa and St. Francis of Assisi. We had a special mass, and Fr. Arnel shared with us at his homily how similar St. Francis and St. Theresa were, along with their messages for us who are living today. 

All students who wished could dress up as St. Theresa or St. Francis. Our principal, Mrs. Buza-sims, praised these students for expressing their faith for this special day....I had to use what I have learned from being a Sister to help the veils stay on!

On her Pilgrimage to Assisi this past June, Sr. Carol Ann generously picked up  Tau Cross necklaces for all the students. The seventh graders put them on the children.

We had a procession to the Statue of St. Theresa after Mass.

One of the things I like about this school is the mentoring program. The older grades  partner up with the younger grades for activities.

This is most of my class. They're fun!

St. Theresa with her beautiful flowers and leis. Notice the handmade  lei the kindergarten made!

The children were happy to eat their Lady Jacoba-inspired cookies!

Sr. Carol Ann distributed coloring pages to the teachers. It gave me an opportunity to teach my students more about St. Francis. It gave my students a chance to recover from their sugar-high and all the excitement of the morning!

The Weird Time Thing

 

My goodness, the time goes by so fast! Every Monday morning, I seem to enter into this weird time thing, because before I know it, it's already Friday. Each day is a breath and each week is 10 minutes.

 

"But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day."

- 2 Peter 3:8, NAB

I'm starting to know what he means by the second part of that verse.

 

I am enjoying my time here very much. I love my students, and the people here are so warm and generous. They have shared with us fruit from their yards, such as papayas, avocados, bananas and mangos. I am usually more of a vegetable person, but I love the fruit in Hawaii. I have had opportunities to use them in recipes, as we each take turns cooking. One of our parishioners shared with us a mango salsa recipe that I enjoy putting together.

 

Mango Salsa

1 Mango

1 Can of Diced Tomatoes (14.5 oz), drained

Just over 1/4 cup Diced Onions

1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice

1 Tablespoon Lime Juice
Salt and Pepper to taste

Mix and enjoy! It tastes even better if you keep it in the refrigerator over night before serving.

I learned the hard way that I can't cut up the mangos myself. It turns out that I am allergic to mango tree sap. It's a relative to poison ivy, but not everyone is allergic to it. It just causes a similar reaction. I am glad that I'm not allergic to the fruit itself!

I plan on writing again soon! I hope things are going well for all of you!

My First Week as a Teacher

We have now completed the first week of of our ministries. I promised pictures of my classroom, so here they are:

I have a morning procedure for my 3rd and 4th graders as they arrive. The first thing they do is keyboarding on their NEOs. (If you look on their desks, it's those things that look like small black typewriters.) The Renaissance Program we use has a Keyboarding program that I am very impressed with. They were putting their fingers on the right keys from day one. The program teaches them typing at their own pace, and I just walk around to make sure that they are using the right fingers.

To the right is our prayer corner. Every classroom has one. We are supposed to include the color for the Liturgical season as well as the Principles of Catholic Social Teaching. A different principle is highlighted each month. I also have a rosary for each person in my class. We pray a decade each day so that by the end of the week we will have prayed the rosary. Last week, we did the Joyful Mysteries and this week we'll be praying the Luminous Mysteries. The children have done really well with this! They have even started to bring in their own rosaries. 

Below is a picture of my Accelerated Reading and Math motivation board. For Accelerated Reading, the students and their teachers work together to create individualized goals. For my board, as they get closer to their goal for the quarter (percentage-wise), they move from an egg to a caterpillar to a chrysalis to a butterfly. When everyone becomes butterflies we are going to make a butterfly craft.

In addition to teaching the general classroom subjects, each teacher teaches art and p.e. (Sr. Carol Ann is the music teacher.) I decided that we would start out with a basketball unit, so I pumped air into enough basketballs for everyone, and on Friday I taught them how to dribble. They are learning the fundamentals of the sport before they get to play the game. Those who already know how to play are my assistant coaches. Otherwise, they would be bored with going over the basics.

For a "Friday Evening Vacation," Sr. Hannah and I went to Salt Pond Beach. At first I was nervous, but there was a reef separating us from the sharks. We had a great time swimming in the water! I was surprised how deep the water was. In Lake Michigan you have to walk out a great distance just to get up to your waist. In the ocean, we were treading water before we knew it! The waves were pretty calm but we did try out the Boogie boards on them. It was probably good practice for me for staying on the Boogie board.

All in all, I like it here. :)

Greetings from Kekaha!

Aloha! I have been in Kauai for a few days now, along with Sr. Janet and Sr. Carol Ann. We are excited for Sr. Hannah's arrival this Saturday! Although we have been working hard, I have been enjoying the beauty that surrounds us. Even the shrubs are pretty!

The ocean is just stunning....it is a beautiful shade of blue, and I love watching the waves. The song "Ocean" by Ten Skekel Shirt comes to mind every time I look out at it. Here is a video that someone posted on YouTube with the song and pictures that they took of Hawaii:

What is even more beautiful than the natural surroundings is the "aloha spirit" that I have experienced in the people here. They are so warm and welcoming! I am glad I love hugs because they are plentiful here.

I have already met a couple of my students and their parents at church and at school, which was great. I have been setting up my classroom, so I was able to tell them that they already have a desk with their name on it.

I will take pictures of my classroom as soon as I am finished. In-service starts tomorrow (Monday) and the first day of school is a week from Monday.

Until next time, here are a couple pictures I have taken:

St. Theresa's Convent

View from our driveway

Serving Others to Imitate Christ

Summers at the Motherhouse allow for different kinds of activity than during the year. Sr. Pamela Catherine and I, as part of the Temporary Professed Summer Program, have been helping out with the Service Crew. We have been washing windows, cleaning the guesthouses and making the beds, helping in the laundry room, wiping down the cafeteria line, doing dishes and our personal favorite: washing cars. Sr. Elena, who is in the Perpetual Vow Summer Program, helps us with the cars, although the majority of her time is spent in prayer- she is really enjoying this extra time with the Lord! She is going to profess final vows in August, and we are all so excited for her! I am glad she's here!

For our instructions we have been reading Pope John Paul II's encyclical On Human Work (Latin: Laborem exercens). While he does address worker's rights in the encyclical, most of it is about the dignity of human work. My favorite insight from what we have read so far is the comment on the humility of God, who though He was in the form of God, He became Man. He did manual labor as a carpenter, working by the sweat of His brow (see Genesis 3:19).  Then on the night before He died, He washed his disciples' feet, which at the time was an extraordinary lowly job. His disciples thought that it was beneath their rabbi to do such a thing. But He did, and then said that they are to do the same for each other (see John 13:1-17). Jesus made work holy and when we work we are in conformity with Him.

Reading this encyclical has also brought to light a significant value of the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity: no job is too lowly for anyone; no person is too important for any job. Our Community Director (what other Communities call their Mother General or Mother Superior) joins the others in shoveling the snow/ice during the winter, picking strawberries in the summer, as well as anything thing else she can find time to do. Our former Community Director is often found cutting vegetables, washing dishes, and doing similar tasks around the house. Administrators, health care workers, teachers, and others all chip in where  and when they can. 

We'll be finishing the encyclical (and the Temporary Professed Summer Program) this week. It seems that it has gone by so fast.... Sr. Pamela Catherine will renew her vows this Sunday at Mass, which we are looking forward to. Then she is going on her homevisit, and I will be here to attend an Environmental Education workshop.

I pray that you are enjoying your summer, and staying cool in all the heat!

Sip Slowly at Stone Creek Coffee

What's better than great tasting coffee? Great tasting fair trade coffee! On Saturday, six of us piled into a van and drove down to Milwaukee to learn more about fair trade and how we can support such an amazing movement. In Stone Creek Coffee Roaster's annual report, they wrote: "We look for two things when deciding to purchase a coffee: the quality of the coffee and the quality of life of the people producing it."

At the factory/soon-to-be-hangout, we met Steve and Kendra Hawthorne, who graciously came in on the weekend to give us a tour and some coffee. While we were there, Steve told us of his trips to South America and Africa, where he meets farmers and conducts his evaluations before agreeing to purchase coffee from them. We were touched by the stories he shared. One of my favorites was when he told us about a farmer in a third world country who works so hard to provide a good livelihood for his workers that he provides schooling for the children during the day and adult education programs for the workers at night, among other wonderful gifts.

We returned home feeling inspired by these incredible people who are truly passionate about making a difference in the lives of others. We can't wait to go back!

Stone Creek Coffee is located right across the street from Downtown Milwaukee's Amkrak/Greyhound Station! The coffee house and bakery will be open for business in September 2012.

Coffee-sack race, anyone?

Steve showed us what coffee beans (cherry pits!) look like prior to roasting.

The Four Steps of Stone Creek Coffee:

1. Grow responsibly
2. Roast to perfection
3. Brew expertly
4. Sip Slowly (we did this one)

Left to Right: Sr. Carolee, Sr. Monica (me), Sr. Leslie, Sr. Regina Rose, Sr. Natalie, and Sr. Kathleen

Kendra made delicious and beautiful lattes for us.