Bribery

My bribery is working so well! Last week I went shopping and spent an insane amount of money on toys for my students in order to "motivate" them to behave. Really its just bribery but I don't care! It's working!

At this point, my two high-flyers are competing for a semi-truck full of Hot Wheels. There are about 20 Hot Wheel cars in it, and I seriously saw these boys go speechless when I showed it to them. Their mouths actually fell open. Its like the equivalent of showing me a box set of ER and Beverly Hills 90210.

These two boys are working to earn points, and the one who has the most will get the truck at the end of the week. Thinking ahead to next week, I went to the store today and bought two Bakugans. These are the strangest boy toys that I have been exposed to but they are the coolest things for 8 year old boys right now. Believe me I know.

I'm such a softy though, I already feel sorry for the one that isn't going to win. But, he is aware of the rules and chooses not to follow them, so I guess I need to toughen up.

Great things

You know when someone does something great, loving, sweet, and unexpected for you? You can't help grinning from ear to ear, laughing, and telling everyone about it! That's how I'm feeling right now!

When the Lord brought back the captive ones from Zion,
We were like those who dream.

Then our mouths were filled with laughter,
Our tongues with joyful shouting...

The Lord has done great things for us;
We are glad.

Psalm 126:1 - 3

Won't take much to beat me

I've seen this game on two blogs now so I went ahead and gave it a shot. I'm a little ashamed of my score! There were some states that I had no clue where to put! So I challenge you to beat my score and come back and tell me what you got!

Its never been so obvious...

...that I am supposed to be a mother of girls. Maybe even teach only girls. I am a girly-girl to the extreme.

Today I had to go shopping to find some toys to (bribe) motivate my boys to behave. I have three boys in particular that make me want to pull my hair out and run screaming through the hallways.

So as I wander through the toy aisles I'm just shaking my head. I mean, who can find these things fun?

Luckily, Wal-Mart had a sale on all kinds of boy's toys, so I racked up. I have a Hot Wheels semi-truck, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures, and some other stuff that I have no idea how to pronounce.

I have a feeling the boys are going to be drooling tomorrow!

PS - Don't feel bad for the girls. I got some cute art kits for a dollar each for the girls.

Deep thought for today

- Beth Moore

So many of my issues stem from pride. I'm too prideful to admit when I'm wrong. I'm too prideful to show weakness. I'm too prideful to share my pain...

So, Beth Moore is right. When you can let go of that pride, it is a blessed relief!

Toby's 2nd star appearance

Welcome to Toby's 2nd Video Debut. Well I guess its not a debut if its the second but oh well. A few notes before you watch the video:

1. I apologize for the high-pitched baby talk. My poor future children.
2. This is my first attempt at trying to edit two videos together so forgive the amateur-ness.
3. Romeo is my mom's dog that Toby pretends not to like but secretly they are best friends.

Now prepare to see the cutest little doggy ever.


Toby 2009 from Katie B on Vimeo.

Here's Toby's first video.

Details about my Thailand Trip

Photo by Paknam Web

As my summer in Thailand is getting closer and closer, I've been interested in getting as much information as I can about the place I'll live.

This website shows pictures of Krabi. If you have a second just scroll down and look at the pictures. I can hardly believe I'll be living there!

And here are some pages that describe what teaching in Thailand is like. It is exactly as I remember it from my last trip.

Average Day in a Thai School

Thai School Part Two

Finally, here is my "official" job description. I cannot tell you how excited I am. I was eating my oatmeal yesterday morning when I opened it up and I actually started jumping up and down. Toby was really confused.

We need an adventurous person willing to teach English on a high school campus located in Blaypraya district of Krabi Province. You will work in a school of about 2000 students located about 40 kilometers outside of the city of Krabi. You would be expected to teach English, do class planning, and cooperate with the department head for English. The school will provide the curriculum but your imagination will be the ticket to fun with the Southern Thai. Use music, songs, games, or drama in teaching English. As the Thais are curious about customs in foreign countries, you can present a Christian viewpoint on the holidays celebrated in America. Inside the classroom, evangelistic opportunity maybe limited. But outside the classroom, share your testimony and Christian beliefs during leisure hours with students and fellow teachers. Extend your influence with students by being involved with after school activities such as sports, drama or special interest clubs. As friendships develop, you will be invited to visit the students in their homes during school breaks thus offering you a chance to get to know them on a more personal level. As you get to know the personality of your students & teachers, develop a way to clearly explain your faith and the basic tenants of Christianity in simple terms. As God leads, interest the Thais in wanting to know more about God & possibly start a cell group. The missionaries will follow-up. You will provide a detailed list of names & addresses.

The only part I'm worried about is the "adventurous" part. I'm not exactly adventurous but I guess if I wasn't at least a little bit crazy I wouldn't be going on this trip anyway!

Here's a couple more details about the trip (I'm posting this for myself, too, because I want to be able to look back on this!)

From the missionaries I'll be working with:

...you'll be doing, very similar to your days in Trang. The difference being that you'll be in a much smaller town and with very, very few Christians. But what an opportunity to share and begin leading a few students and teachers on the journey to salvation!

You will live in the town of Blai Praya, a town that we work in 2 days a week. No, the city is not like Trang. It is a small town. We asked the school to provide you with a place to stay and lunch meal. If they give you more it will be a bonus. I think that housing will be teacher's housing. It has internet at the school. The teachers are excited about your coming. There are about 5-7 teachers who teach English. The high school has about 2,000 students. Teachers and students may want to invite to their homes or on tours. This may be to your advantage and promote good relationships for the Gospel. We will go to the school and make sure what all was agreed upon in their committee meeting and let you know more later.

You will want to bring some money for food. Food costs from about 50B to 200B a meal depending on whether you eat Thai or Western food. So that will be about $30-40 a week depending on what you eat and how much you eat. For example a Whooper Meal is about 200B. (The baht is running about 34 baht to a dollar right now.)

On the weekends you will want to come visit us. Our province is a tourist destination. It has a river, with caves where prehistoric artifacts were found, Muslim island, and fish farming in the river. About 18 kilometers from where we live is Ao PraNang which is a beach town. There you can swim, get boats to go snorkeling, and eat western food (Burger King, McDonalds, Subway, Pizza Co., & Swenson's Ice Cream). It will be more quiet while you are here because it is low season, but there will still be European tourists here.

Like I said, jumping up and down!!!

Valentine's Day

I can say that you've never truly experienced Valentine's Day until you celebrate it with 24 seven year olds. It was the most glorious, romantic, and thrilling day.

Ahem.

But, on the other hand, I was told I love you in so many ways. I got TWO bouquets of tulips (which happen to be my favorite flower) and one was actually purple (which is my favorite color). I got tons of candy which I promptly passed on to my grandpa who doesn't have to worry about his hips. I got a pickle jar filled with candy and crystal light?! I got 24 carnations to represent my 24 students. My grandparents bought me this cool bamboo plant thing. (I love plants!)

And this morning I got an actual Valentine's delivery!

This was from my dear mum. I feel like pretending I'm British because I'm watching Notting Hill.

So cute and yummy too.

And if you think I'm feeling sorry for myself on this Singles Awareness Day you'd be wrong. I've got too many loves in my life.

Here are some awesome posts that challenge me today about Valentines.
A Huge Perk of Singleness
The Bewitching Day

Lunch Conversations

"Ms. B, my nose is bleeding a little bit!" little girl says.

"Okay, just get a tissue and hold it on your nose. You'll be fine."

"I think its because I've been picking it a lot right here," she says, putting her finger up her nose.

***********

Said in a sing-songy voice with a huge grin: "I'm drinking milk and eating cheese!!!! And I'm lactose intolerant!"

"Doesn't that mean your stomach is going to hurt?" I ask innocently.

"No! It means I'm going to be farting A LOT!!!"

***********

"Ms. B, I had really bad diarrhea last night."

I'm Back!!!

OK, I finally got my computer back! Best Buy had it for about 3 weeks. Then I got it back and was so excited. 1 day later the motherboard died. So I had to give it back to them for another 2 weeks. So now I'm back and will hopefully get back into the blogging habit! I have missed it.


As you can see, I'm a little out of touch with the bloggy world. I have almost 500 blogs to read to get caught up!

Thanks to my mom for keeping me updated with little Harper. I'm so happy and grateful that she is home and healthy. My mom copied and pasted Kelly's blog and emailed it to my work email so I could know what was going on!

I will be back soon!

They are MINE

This is my second year as a classroom teacher. (My first 4 years I was a computer teacher.) And last year I absolutely fell in love with my first real class. So when I got back to school this year, I really missed them. It was hard not to constantly compare my current class to last year, and this class was seriously lacking!

But something has slowly occurred. I have fallen in love with this class. It happened so gradually, that I didn't even realize it. I started noticing a common theme in my thoughts about my class: "They are SO smart!" "Look how cute they are!" "These kids are cracking me up!" And stuff like that. And it took a while before I realized that I was proud of them! They are MINE and I love them!

It is such a good feeling to love the children you spend the entire day with. It feels more like a family instead of a job. It makes it easier to smile and laugh instead of get fed up and yell. It makes you want to work harder to design lessons that they will like. It makes you want to teach the same skill over. and. over. until they finally GET IT.

I'm usually a glass-half-full kind of person, so it pains me to think this... I'm going to lose them and start over again next year! At least I know what to expect for next year and I can prepare for my emotions. As for now, I'm going to focus on this connection with my kids and use it to help motivate me to do my best for them.

Inauguration + Snow

Today was a cool day at school. My kids were so pumped when they got to school. "Miss, do you know that we are going to get a new president today?" "Did you know its going to snow today?" "Obama is going to be our president!" "Can we build a snowman at recess?" This was my morning as I tried to maintain some sense of normalcy.

But around 11:30 we turned on the TV and they watched closely. The best part was when they announced, "President-elect Barack Obama!" The crowd in Washington went wild and so did my class! It was too cute! They clapped and cheered and one little boy pumped his arm in the air and shouted Oooobaaamma! Well, we had to go to lunch shortly after that. And in elementary school, you better not be late for lunch. But when we got to the cafeteria they had a TV in there and we were able to watch the actual swearing in. (Which was the part that I really wanted them to see.)

No matter who you voted for, today was an inspiring day.

As far as the snow day went, we didn't see one little flake during the school day. But the kids just couldn't understand why we couldn't build snowmen or throw snowballs. As kids who have never really seen snow in their life, all they can imagine are scenes from books and movies. I tried to explain that the ground was too warm for it to stick, but they didn't quite get it. Sure enough, about an hour after school was out, the snow started to fall. And it was beautiful! Not even one flake is on the ground, but still very pretty. This southern girl can appreciate it but I'm very thankful that we aren't dealing with it for months.

Kelly and Harper have been on my heart lately, and it seems like everyone else's in the blog world too.

I just wanted to post my support and prayers, and I want to say how much Kelly's attitude has impacted me. A lot of people would be angry at God, or question why, or even turn away from Him. I know its ok to ask questions of God and I know He would understand. But she hasn't. Her faith has been unmoved. Again it causes me to think on these verses...

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. "And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. "Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. "The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell--and great was its fall." Matthew 7:24-27

Kelly is definitely experiencing a storm but she has a firm foundation that cannot be shaken.

Where have I been?

My computer has been broken!

And it has been crazy...You don't really realize how much you use your computer until you don't have it. And you don't really realize how much time you spend on the computer. Then you are presented with at least an extra hour a day, which really isn't a bad thing!

Best Buy has been a huge disappointment by taking 7 days just to decide what was wrong with my computer. (If they would have listened to me they would have had a head start!) When I called on the 6th day they said they hadn't even looked at it yet.

Then they called and sweetly said, "We have to send your computer away to be repaired and it will be 3-4 weeks before we get it back. Is that OK with you?"

"Sure, that sounds GREAT! I look forward to not seeing my computer for the rest of the month!!"

Sorry, I'll behave now.

Anyway, my kind madre has lent me her computer for the week because I have to turn in report cards on Thursday and I don't want to spend hours after school every day. Instead I'll be comfy on my couch and watch TV while I work. Thanks Mom!

OK well, this isn't much but I just wanted to check in! My blogging will be sporadic for a while but hopefully I'll be back to normal soon.