How’s everyone doing? Are you getting ready for leaf raking and winterizing your yard? It’s coming soon!
The school children will soon be wearing coats for recess, also. And they will also be enjoying their new playground equipment, no matter how cold it is! We located a playground set in Michigan earlier this year at an old school that is being demolished. A group of guys went up the other day and took it apart, loaded it on a flatbed trailer, and brought it to the school. The had to take all their digging and loading equipment along. It is now in a tempting pile at the school, not sure when it will be set up.
Something very pleasant has developed at the school. It started, I suspect, as a way to rid the building of construction smells, but it has become a part of the experience of visiting the school. I am referring to the various smells of the rooms. Several of the teachers have very nice candles that they have going part of the day. I have always noticed in the smell of my environment, so I enjoy trying to identify what these candles are supposed to be. I think my favorite is the room that smells like a bakery. The candle is pecan pie, I think, but reminds me of walking into a bakery.
We got a look at color samples for the new roof the other day. There is brown, grey, and what I think looks like a brown/grey mix. That’s my favorite, but it’s not up to me, so we will see which one they choose. No matter which one we pick, in a couple weeks, no one will notice anyway. We are close to getting the roof installed, at least the part we are doing now. It will be this month sometime, if it isn’t already done by the time this is posted. If anyone really misses the old chimney on the building, I have pictures I can send you. You can see it on the home page for now, but I do need to get a new picture some sunny day soon.
Don’t think I have ever mentioned our new first aid kit that was donated to us. Many thanks to the donor! It is a very nice one. Very big metal cabinet, totally loaded with everything you would ever need for helping someone with an accident. There are also a lot of items in there to help with more serious injuries until help arrives. Hopefully most of it will never be used, but it is good to have it. We are still debating where to hang the cabinet, right now it stays in the office.
Another feature of the office is the “store”. We had enough extra school supplies donated that we now have a little store where the children can buy tablets, glue, crayons, pencils, and more. We even have one shelf full of Kleenex boxes.
The resource room teacher reports that the blackboard is getting easier to erase, but it is still not a very good substitute for a really nice one. The surface is really rough, but we knew that before we painted it.
We have been able to sell some extra curriculum on Ebay lately. We had purchased some sets on Ebay that contained more than we needed, but the price was still very good for the parts we did need. So we decided to sell the extras. Another item was sent to us by mistake, and the company didn’t want it back, so, free money! And today, we got another box delivered to the house. Not sure what was in it, as I didn’t open it.
We are still working on expanding and improving the scope of our ability to help kids who have learning issues in certain areas. We had planned to be very proactive before school started, but it is kind of hard to really know what you need until the children show up. It is interesting to see the different ways we learn. These children are NOT “slow”, “handicapped”, or “delayed”. The real “issue” is that many children learn in different ways, and our job is to first discover how they need to be taught, and then show them ways to make learning as easy as possible. Sometimes children adapt on their own, while others have a more complex path to easy learning, so they need help. That is where the resource teacher comes in. She is not only experienced in these procedures, but has a much smaller student load, so she can spend more time with individual students. She can teach them these steps, check their work more often, as well as testing them to discover their needs.
Right now we are working on obtaining some very helpful things that will really give us a head start on understanding the different learning needs of our students. I hate to be vague right now, but will give more details when the time is right. If you want something to pray for, pray that we will be able to get everything we need, and have a clear understanding how to use it.
Well, it’s time for me to sign off. With any luck at all, I can talk one of the teachers into giving us a short bio about themselves soon. I don’t want to make more work for them, but I know many of you want to know more about them.
Our biggest current financial need right now is money to finish the roof. We are doing the part right now that is over our newly renovated rooms, but we suspect we may have to move into the other hall next year. The resource room has already been set up there, and it won’t take too many more students until we need to split classes. If you want to help with a financial donation, you can go on our website, www.uccs.school, there is a Donate button there, or you can contact us for more information. If you would like to make a totally anonymous donation, there is a button on our website to go through the Anabaptist Financial group. You can direct them to send your donation to us, and your identity remains private.
