Back to School

Happy back to school time! Last week, Charlotte started 3^rd grade and O started pre-K. Josh and I also went back to school! He started middle school and high school and I started 1^st and 2^nd grade! Wait… what? Yes, Josh and I are teaching! Josh is teaching pre-calc at Rainforest International School until the regular teacher returns from the States. He has also teaching a class for which he got to write the curriculum. It is on “how to be an adult.” But he is most excited about teaching dance! As for me, I am teaching little kiddos at the Greenhouse school.

When we first came to Africa, we had a vague idea of what we would be doing, but honestly, we were clueless and up for anything. (We thought we would be doing agriculture!!- hahaha! Everything I have ever planted has died!) We have done nursing, internet, engineering, radio work, and the list goes on. Since we are still waiting on the immigration process for O and find ourselves in Yaoundé, we could not help but fill in where needed. Both schools are in desperate need of teachers! (if you or someone you know is interested in teaching cross culturally, let me know!)

The Greenhouse is for missionary children in preschool through 6^th grade and the Rainforest International School has missionary children as well as Cameroonian students in 7^th through 12^th grades. Our own family has been greatly blessed by the schools and so have many other missionary families. These schools provide quality education for missionary kids so that their parents can do the job God has called them without the added burden of homeschooling. In my class, the children’s parents are linguists, a missionary pilot, a literary specialist, IT support, and church planters. RFIS is also a great outreach to local families as all classes and activities are Christ centered.  

          Teaching is one of my favorite things about nursing. I love how knowledge can empower people! So I thought, “sure, I can handle teaching 6 and 7-year-olds!” Plus everyone in my immediate family has taught school at some point in their lives (my mom for her whole career!) so surely it runs in the family! After one week of school, I can confidently say, “Teaching is hard!” Oh man. I have been at school from morning until 5:30 almost everyday for the last month. The biggest struggle I am facing is curriculum. The school is in the process of establishing a school wide curriculum, but for now it is up to me to come up with everything. This has been exhausting and stressful. I keep worrying that I will forget something important like math! I am so thankful for numerous online resources. (shameless plea- if you would like to help me acquire lesson plans that would drastically decrease my workload and increase my students’ learning experience, gift cards to “Teachers Pay Teachers” would be an amazing blessing!)

The first three weeks of school are the first “Joint Learning Session” of the year. Homeschool missionary children from around Cameroon come to the Greenhouse for a school experience with other children. The whole school is studying ancient Egypt. I have learned so much! Did you know that the first Pharaoh was killed by a hippo?!

Here are some pictures from our superhero classroom!