Marvelous Pigs in Satin

After two weeks of substitute teaching at the Elementary school, two things happened. First, I was shocked at the low literacy rates, the high amount of worksheets, and the low amount of actual books the teachers were reading to the students (nearly zero.) In my mind, these things are very much related. How can we expect children to learn to read if it isn’t exciting and fun? Books are exciting and fun. Worksheets are not. When I asked about books, I was told, “The teachers don’t have time to read for fun.”

I wanted to cry, “But what about reading for knowledge? Reading for context? Reading to learn how to read?”

Since I have no public school teaching experience yet, I held my tongue. But my heart is weeping over the dismal daily grind of copying answers on worksheets the kids are subjected to.

The second thing I learned was, I prefer to know what I am doing every day, instead of it being a surprise.

So, I applied for and accepted at job as para, or teacher’s aid, for the JR High reading teacher. He is so gracious and happy to have my help, and I am happy to be busy working for something meaningful. In the JR high and high school, many of the students are still at a zero-first grade reading level. Here too, the daily school work is pretty much copying answers from the board onto worksheets, because they cannot even read their worksheets. Direct phonics instruction is a pretty new occurrence in this school, so the high schoolers never had it. That’s where I am focusing my efforts, that and reading from actual books.

I have found that my patience for struggling readers in the classroom is much higher than my patience was when my own children were the struggling readers.

When we moved to Monument Valley,

I expected that my well-developed music skills would be instantly needed here. Instead, I have been using my mediocre hair-cutting skills to give the missionaries hair cuts, saving them hours of time, and lots of money. (The closest barbershop charges $35 for a basic men’s haircut.)

I have also been using my fledgling invite-people-to-gather skills to create more connection and community. I’ve organized play-dates with the stay-home-moms and invited families to our house for dinner and games and singing more times since we moved here than I did in a year in Missouri. There are plenty of new teachers who are alone because they know this isn’t their forever home, and some are reluctant to invest time in building relationships, not to mention overwhelmed with their teaching work–but at the same time, they are lonely and need the support of community. I know the best thing to do is gather.

I was surprised that what I have been useful for so far has been these things that are not my strengths. As I thought more on it, I realized, of course, God is always putting us places where we can grow, not places where we can rest easy on skills that we already have.

❤

GlowWorm