I went from my best class in 18 years in 4th grade to the "Kindergarten from Hell," (spoken by one with 9 previous years of Kinder experience in a very hard area) in a month.
And yet, I felt like God had ordained it for something really good for me. Well, it was good for my seeing some personal progress. Even though I didn't do it perfectly, as I did put in some time for groaning and complaining, I was able to be gentle and kind in lowering the boom on the little, wild, um, how-do-you-say, monkeys. I swear, God makes them so darn cute for a reason. It's so that they survive.
After many parent communications, new, creative forms of time outs and multiple compliments and rewards when they were caught LISTENING, walking, and staying where they were supposed to be- my little class began to emerge as teachable.
I have to say that I was blessed with an amazing assistant for almost 1/2 of the day, and the teacher whose class I was given was there as a "floater," and was also constantly involved in the clay forming process as she was able.
So, after 2 and 1/2 weeks, the higher powers said,"Okay, we can re-open first grade.
And they did. And I took it. I took it, leaving the former teacher with a smaller and better class.
( The extra kids from the Kinder they closed were sent back to their jungle- oops, I mean other class with a teacher with different standards....)
And I ended up with that which God had promised, A REALLY GOOD first grade class.
I am in awe. I don't know how I could get 2 such classes in 1 year.
The transition was exhausting and wore me out, but the light is shining already.
And I carry a deeper sense of His working in all things, forming something of His character in us- forging something in the dark to be used for the Light.
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