High School

Well, I've taught the high schoolers for about 3 weeks now and so far I really enjoy it!! :)  It was a shock to me how fun it actually is, because I always said that I like to teach the little ones because of how much love they give, all the hugs and being excited to see me.  The high schoolers don't usually come up to give me hugs, but they look for me when they're not in class to talk to and appear to enjoy having me in their class once a week.  I also discovered how much fun I have joking around with them.  It's made going to youth group a little more interesting/different, because much of the youth group is composed of Emanuel teens, so that puts me in sort of the same level as my students.  Youth group here includes anyone from 14 or so until you get married, but the church here has started to divide the group into 2 when we have the teaching time.  The singing and games are still all together, but during the teaching, the teens are in one group and the young adults in another.  That's been really nice, especially now that they're my actual students and not just older kids in the school I teach at!

I'm really enjoying getting to know some of the high schoolers better, several girls have been bugging me to teach them cookies, so I need to figure out a way to fairly do it, so the others don't get jealous of me spending time outside of school with some of the girls, maybe rotate or let anyone who wants to come.  I'm not sure yet, once I figure it out, I may be making more cookies than ever!  Either that or having willing "slaves" to help me mix the cookies for selling at the teachers' booth during the soccer games. :)

One thing I was worried about before I started, and it hasn't been that big of a deal yet, is the respect issue.  Never having taught older kids before, aside from camp counseling, I wasn't sure how it would be gaining their respect.  I get the younger kids' respect because I'm older than them (it's truly entertaining to ask little kids to guess my age, apparently I look anywhere from 10-65!), but the teens aren't THAT much younger than me, although I do forget sometimes that it really has been 10 years since I graduated from high school!  So far, though, I haven't had any trouble with it, aside from the kids in octavo (equivalent to young US 7th graders) and that grade is notorious for having issues, we think it has something to do with hormones or something. ;)  That class has about as many discipline issues as my younger kids, but without the excuse of still learning the school rules!  They've gotten better the past couple of weeks, though, so I do have hope! :)  All in all, I'm actually enjoying it, when I can take a moment to breath!!! :)