First Day of School!

     Being that I came to MCS partway through the year last year, today was technically my first first day of school! The week and  half since I arrived back in Lima has been a school-preparation marathon and today we reached the finish line...depending on how you look at it, I suppose, since it is also only the beginning.  Up until very late last night, the school was still a maze of paint cans, sawdust, desks, cables, boxes and dropcloths due to the very late notice we received from Defensa Civil that our school building was not up to code in some ways.  So in addition to regular start-of-school preparations, we were also rushing to finish the list of requirements made by the government in order to start school. Check out some of the improvements:

New cubbies for 2nd-4th grades...I have a set inside my classroom too!

New, fireproof paint all the way around...

New paint and glass to enclose the balcony...

     We are also excited to have more computers and a new copy machine in the teachers' lounge and the creation of a classroom specifically outfitted for the use of a projector.  

     In my opinion, the most exciting outcome of my nonstop work in the last 10 days has been my classroom.  This year my classroom has an Olympic theme, which we are going to use to learn about various countries and to emphasize perseverance and hard work.  It started out as a bunch of related ideas without much of an actual plan and somehow it all came together in a way that I'm really proud of. Check it out:

  

Roomies on the first day of school!

Excited for a new year!

Already hard at work....

     As a staff, we are excited about a new year and are starting off with enthusiasm and energy, but we know it won't be long before we are exhausted...pray for endurance and energy for us as we do our best not to burn out.  Also pray that our books arrive soon! There was a problem with the order (which was placed months ago) and we were told today that our workbooks will probably not arrive for at least another 3 weeks, so we are currently getting our money's worth out of the copy machine and doing our best with what we have.