One week down. . .nine to go!

I made it!!!!! My first week of teaching is over! I just want to say, as far as teaching goes, it was not hard AT all. Like I said in my first post, these kids are well behaved and the school is one of the best in the world. The biggest discipline problem is the type of shoes the students wear. Every school in Singapore has to have a uniform and every uniform has to be different according to the school. Here at SAS, it is a white collared SAS shirt with blue bottoms. The students can wear any kind of bottoms -- skirts, pants, or shorts. I don’t know the rule about shoes, but I know that there is one. I came to find this information out when I went into one of the Head Master's office and saw a whole book shelf full of Crocs. I asked him what they were for and he said, "Well, when the students don’t have the right shoes on, they have to wear these." I was thinking to myself I would never wear the same shoes again, that way I could wear them all the time!

The school has about 1,100 students in the high school with about 100 students in the special education program. Here, the special education program is called “guided learning,” therefore I teach guided learning. I teach five classes -- three are study skills and two are English 9 classes. My students are sweet and from all over the world. Everyone has a different accent and you sure can tell when a student is from Texas because of the Deep Southern accent (plus they are loud and proud like Texans). When I went out with a couple of new teachers this weekend they said that the students have been asking where I was; the teachers said that I made an impact on their lives already!

Let me tell you a little about the SAS high school. First, the whole school is outside. There are birds, plants, bugs, and snails all over the place. I walk outside my classroom door and I am outside in the beautiful sunshine. I guess this is how most schools are in the world besides in the US, but its new to me and I LOVE it. Another good thing about this school is that it has every course you would ever want to take. Honestly, you name it we have it. Just comment and name a course and I am sure we have it. We have six different dance classes, eleven different theater classes, every band class you can think of, and over fifteen different language classes. I call this place every teacher’s heaven. I think this is as close as a teacher gets to heaven in this school, but on the other hand I think that my teaching abilities need to be elsewhere. I feel called to somewhere that they need great teachers and don't necessary have them. At SAS, they have teachers with Doctorates begging for a job. We have many teachers at SAS that have their Doctorates, which is crazy because they could be teaching at a University or something. Oh yes! I almost forgot, there are four different cafés for the high school alone, including a Subway! The school is very friendly and everyone always stops and talks to everyone. It has great community that I think Cornerstone would love, and maybe even learn from.

That is all for now, my family! I must go work on some homework on this beautiful Sunday! God Bless you all. Know that I love you all very much and pray for you often.

“Who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.”- 2 Timothy 1:9

Learning that Christ is Victor,

Cynthia