First week of class...

What an adventure these past few days have been! With my first week of classes complete - I am walking away with many lessons. I wonder if the other teachers realized that I am not a teacher by profession, nor have I EVER taught a class before. :) When I walk into the classroom, and all the students stand up and say "Good Morning, Miss Stephanie..." and then the class is mine to control.. what a task! But classroom management is nothing compared to the task of making sure students who barely speak English can comprehend what I am talking about and are actually LEARNING. I have really stepped out of my comfort zone - as I sing (loudly, while the teacher is listening :/) with the kids to make sure they stay with me and pronunciate words well. They are all so sweet - and I look forward to getting to know them as well as I can. This week I talked about how God created the world and everything in the world - and how He loves us very much and wants to talk to us and for us to love Him and talk to Him back.
This whole experience has really brought me to my knees as I am constantly learning how to best deal with each unique class in each of the grades, to communicate with the students, and involve them in learning. The Lord has been so faithful to meet me in my weaknesses and insecurities. My natural tendency would be to back out - as I would much rather work with kids one-on-one - but what an incredible opportunity to teach over 70 kids in EACH grade - from all different backgrounds - about God and what it says about Him in the Bible!
I pray that with this class - God's word would touch the hearts of the children and that they would understand how God wants to be involved in their lives.