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Thursday, May 22, 2014

Well what can I say?

Well what can I say? Other than.... I know it has been two whole months since we blogged!

Last time we typed was Spring Break when all the groups were down.

After the last blog, we did have one more group come down. Madison Academy from Huntsville, AL visited us with 25 people total. The group worked on finishing a playground at the Hacienda and also did all of the schools P.E. Classes that week.

Flag Football...

Our Cheerleaders...

And because I know how much y'all love pictures...here is a link to one of the Madison Academy student's website. She, Wanda, took some AMAZING pictures while she was here. You should check it out!
http://www.madisonacademy.phanfare.com/6471903

Since March we have calmed down with hosting groups and have gotten busy at school....surprise surprise.

Jake did have surgery on Easter weekend. Since then, he has been recuperating. Oh who am I kidding? He took several days off work and then was right back at it in no time! It would take something life threatening to keep that man away from his job! He is however, doing really well. I can say this because I am his personal physical therapist. We stretch and excercise his leg twice a day. He says he is looking forward to climbing Mt. Mojanda (the site of his injury) next March. Get ready Harding group!


We have also started winding down our school year and are preparing for next year. We have some major changes happening that we are excited about:

Our first change is our start time. We are starting school at 7:30am instead of 7am. Only half an hour....but that is a precious half hour of sleep! We also will let out at 2:45pm instead of 3pm. Jake has been diligently working on making our schedule more effective so that we have the same hours of classes but spend less time at school. Amen to that!

Our second change is that we have updated our school logo. The previous logo was very involved and seemed a bit infantile. So when Glen Laid was down with the Madison Academy group in March, we created a new school logo. We also decided to change up our school colors a little. They are now blue and green.



What do you think?

Another change is our uniforms. We currently have very formal uniforms, that include ties. We wanted to simplify a bit and make things easier on kids and parents. We also wanted to give the students a bit more choice and go to a dress code as opposed to a set uniform everyday. We aren't quite set on the exact colors and thing just yet as we are getting feedback from parents.

The biggest change we are making is to our English curriculum. We have currently been using a program called ACE (Accelerated Christian Education). In this program the students sit in cubicles, called offices, and work individually on workbooks. It is a mainly self motivated, self paced program. It was worked wonders for some of our students. However, as some of you teachers out there know, it is difficult to learn solely through text, copying and memorizing...and doing it while not talking and sitting in a cubical! So we are wanting to gear our curriculum towards something more hands-on, interactive and where the kids are actually practicing their English.

High School Learning Center break time

We are super excited about this change, even though it is a little scary for us. I will be working all summer long looking for and creating this new ESL curriculum. So, if there are any teachers out there that are wanting a change of pace...smaller classroom size, less politics, and a bunch of GREAT students... Think about coming down and teaching for us! I also would love some help on curriculum development…

Mother's Day activity with middle school



Another part of changing our English curriculum is that we want to create a dual language program in our lower grades (K-2). Our plan, if we can get enough teachers, is to have math and science taught in English, by a native English speaker, and all other subjects in Spanish by their traditional Ecuadorian teacher. This way, the students are more exposed to English and learn it quicker. Hopefully in the future we can have this same set up in all grades.

English practice with Kindergarten… Dr. Seuss and Cat in the Hat.


Those are the major changes so far. Here are some of our exciting events, past and future:

Easter week we had themed chapel.



Two weeks ago we had a talent show. We were super impressed at the amount of student who wanted to participate... Including several students (3rd graders!) who sang solos.




June 1st: is Day of the Child (we have just about any Day of the.... You can think of...mother, teacher, worker, water, pudding cup... Just kidding about that one). We are having a half day May 30 to have a day of playing games, different activities, and just plain old fun to celebrate the children.

June 19-21: HOH Christian Academy along with Emma Graciela, in Tabacundo, are putting on a show...High School Musical. Auditions went underway Tuesday and parts have already been doled out! Practice begins Thursday.

 July 16th: Last but definitely not least, our first set of graduating seniors will get their diplomas.

So while we have all these exciting things going on, Jake and I have one more exciting thing for us personally. On the 23rd we will be fly out for a three week trip to the States. WOOHOO!
We will be staying in Huntsville, Alabama for the first week and talking business with our employers and some our bigger supporters at Twickenham. We will also make a short trip to Whitehouse, TN to visit our first supporting congregation. After that, we make the trek to Arlington, TX, where we will spend the majority of our time with friends, family and home congregation. There will be two side trips to OKC and to Canyon, TX for more church meetings and fellowship. Boy do we feel popular!
It will be great to see so many people, but by no means will this be vacation time! Vacation? What's that?!? There are always so many things to do and contacts to make, especially since we are still technically fundraising....hint hint hint. We are however, looking forward to it greatly and it will be nice to take a step back from school (of course Jake will still be calling them everyday....boundaries I say!)

I believe that is all...until the next blog update...which hopefully isn't two months from now.