Fast and Furious weekend!

The ACSI Conference was a great time to meet other Christian teachers and hear a Christian perspective on teaching. John Walsh was a very descriptive speaker that made his points come alive. The workshops were fun, especially since we got to see our fellow teachers in their element -- Brian's workshop was a nice refresher! Friday night a few of us went to see a movie (Sahara)...not such a great idea when you finally realize you have to get up at 6:00am the next morning!! But, we survived (sort of) and it was a nice getaway.

Heidi, Kyle, Matt and Jeff played basketball Saturday afternoon. The main highlight was how many times Heidi was knocked down in games like bump and 21 (seriously, there's something wrong there)! Saturday night we had a work party ...it lasted into the crazy hours of the night and I still felt like I had accomplished nothing! Sunday it was hard to accomplish anything either...especially since a flag football game was planned for the afternoon! I enjoyed it, though I ended up getting a bruise on my arm that (at the right angle) looks like a muscle! Seriously, the rest of the teachers here are intense!! I didn't know we had so much talent -- of course, 'American' football should be played well be Americans (supposedly).

Today being Monday, we went to school. I was pretty exhausted and the kids were wired. I gave a lunch detention in 5th period. My 6th period class was also off the wall, so I told them that for every minute they took from me, they'd have to give it back during lunch (I know, how harsh). They realized the error of their ways and I even got an apology for their behavior, but they still had to stay for a few minutes. When I finally let them go, my lunch detention came to me and said that he was leaving. I was a bit annoyed and said 'what did you say?'. He replied with 'we're all leaving, there's a riot!'. I didn't believe that for a second, no one had come to me about it, and it seemed like an unoriginal excuse since we had taxi strikes just a couple weeks back. But he was headstrong, so we went to the office and there Orfa (the secretary) looked at me, put her hands to her mouth and said 'Ay NO!'. She had skipped my classroom for the announcement and hadn't let me know that there WAS a riot and that the students were being sent home! The public teachers were on strike this time. So we had only a half day today!

To celebrate (and procrastinate) we played basketball - and I got the brutal treatment this time! As did Trina! and Matt! Ok, so we were all hurting units. But it was a great game! The final event of the day was a large potluck for Erika Matute! She's leaving next week for an opportunity to teach in Japan. We are sad to see her go, but grateful that she's going to bless others with her loving attitude and sweet Christian spirit! It was also a great time of fellowship with the teachers. I had a fun conversation with Mr. and Mrs. Smith (the superintendent). Tomorrow it will be back to work as usual, the strike wasn't as bad as thought.

Photo of the day: Katie and I (she had a cool music workshop at the conference...Go Katie Go!)

In Him,
-Amy-