Full

The school is now full to capacity, and we are turning children away. We are all working hard with these full classrooms, but it is a work of joy. Pray with us that the children will receive much spiritual and intellectual benefit from their studies this year.

We had the first of our daily 15 minute Bible studies this week.

The children are all excited to see each other again. During the summer, many have no one with whom they may sign, so they are greatly isolated. As they get older, and have more freedom to leave their house/area alone, they become active in the Deaf community, and this isolation goes away.

Yesterday I did a simple exercise with my class, for distinguishing left and right. One hundred percent of them didn't know which was which. Considering that most are teens, this isn't good. There are so many absolute basics to teach them that it is very difficult to sandwich them all into the school year. The good news is that there is constant perceivable progress in our students.

Thinking skills, and creativity is high on my list, rather than just stuffing the children full of facts for them to parrot back. When you begin your first year of school at more than 12 years old, language and life skills take top positions.

"Lifelong learners" is cliché among teachers, or perhaps even passé these days, but it is critical to these children that they become such. A good part of their education will need to be continued on their own after they leave school to go to work. We teach them how to teach themselves.

Yesterday I told the story of the three pigs to my class. They spontaneously broke into applause at the end!