It's that time again!

Well, it's that time again! 

If you have been to any grocery store lately you know that school is about to start back! Notebooks, pens, pencils and folders in every color line the aisles beckoning me to pick them up! Is this every teacher's feelings or just mine?

As I mentioned earlier I am moving school districts and will be starting this year at a new school in a new city! After I returned from the Philippines I moved into a house with a great friend and jumped right into classroom mode. It was a major ordeal moving all of my school stuff into a new school but it is slowly coming together. I have spent the last two weeks getting a new room ready and organized and this week I am going through New Teacher Orientation Week since I am in a new district.

But anyway, I always love getting my classroom ready and this year I have a new theme! I LOVED my Hollywood theme but like I said I changed schools and found that someone already had the same theme. So I didn't have to change but my motors started turning and with the help of a few friends I decided to create a circus theme, so this year my class will be:

Miss A's Acrobats!

Here is a small preview of the circus act going on in my room right now!

 I moved everything in at the end of  May (with the help of the parentals, and literally  dropped everything in one spot. So I walked into a room looking like this, only the empty space was filled with desks, chairs and tables. 

These are going to be my new Birthday display. I saw the idea on Pinterest and thought that I would try it out. I found these cute bags at Michaels on sale!! I made the month signs and glued them on and will add tissue paper later.

I bought Thistlegirl designs adorable circus clipart and used them to model my posters that will hang around the room. There will soon be a lion, elephant, and seal to join the kiddos. 

I am going to keep my popcorn word wall but added a focus board! I'm going to call it "The Main Attraction"! I used painters tape to divide the board and will post standards and anchor charts here! (Ignore the desks note, that is for maintenance)

That was just a small tour of what's going on. I'm waiting on the color printer to work so I can print some great things I found this summer that I want to post! Check back soon for more!

Well I'm off to more Teacher Orientation sessions! 

Happy Wednesday!

Rachel

Let Me See You Smile!-Philippines

May the Lord SMILE on you and be gracious unto you.

Numbers 6:25

New Living Translation

That is exactly what the Lord did for me on this trip to the Philippines. I was very blessed to be able to go back to Manila, Philippines for three weeks from June 5-28 to work with Kids International Ministries and the Lord smiled on me through every single one of these kids and the people we formed relationships with throughout our time there. Last year was our first trip and we knew we had to go back for longer after being so touched by these friends.

 (You can read about it here, here and here.)

My brother was there 2 weeks before my mom and I arrived and we all agreed that this trip was very relational. God revealed his plan for us through each story we heard and each smile we received. 

We were able to be a supportive audience to an amazing woman who shared her beautiful testimony for the first time and learn how God has brought her life full circle from loss  and shame to bringing life into this world by being a midwife.

We were able to love on the precious children in the children's home who have been abandoned by their birth families but who have been placed by their Heavenly Father into a larger (34 children) family who cares and supports them. 

We were able to hear another testimony of the woman who runs the home for unwed mothers. God brought her through this same event 20 years earlier and now has given her the blessing of being a sound voice in these women's lives. 

We were able to feed the hungry through the feeding ministries, encourage the teachers before beginning a new school year, and even help in the pregnancy clinic where woman got to hear their baby's heart beat for the first time. 

God blessed me tremendously this trip through the small everyday aspects of life. 

I smile when I think of the people who work at the Ministry Center and how many laughs we had and how full our bellies were after Malou's desserts.

I smile when I remember the sweet children who would climb up in your lap 

during nightly devotion.

I smile when I remember helping Jenny learn her multiplication facts and the joy and smile on her face when it finally clicked and she could do it by herself.

I smile remembering the songs the kids sang to us, the peoples' faces at every feeding and the laughter of 300 school kids as they began their first day back for a new school year. 

I have a lot to smile about, I've been blessed to grow up in the states with a loving family, a good job, and supportive people in my life, and the LORD continued to SMILE on ME through this trip. I was blessed by the smiles of people who I consider part of my Filipino family, the kids in the home, the workers, the community and the JAZ girls and my smile will be forever changed because of it. 

~Rachel