The Joy of Waiting

I left work early today to head to the airport to pick up my daughter. I had not seen her in 15 months. My heart has been full of joy for many days as I have anxiously waited for this day to arrive. I have been preparing for her arrival. There was organizing and cleaning to do in addition to all the my work related things that needed to be done. Needless to say, I have been busy.

Then last week I got sick. I had to slow down. No energy. I had thought about taking a day off to get everything done that I wanted to do, but I did not imagine that my day off would be spent resting and not accomplishing anything else besides learning to slow down.

This afternoon as I walked around the airport while keeping my eye on the international arrivals' doors, I watched the people around me. So many people anxiously waiting for a loved one to arrive. There was the father with a young sun in his arms. It looked like they were waiting for the little boy's mother to arrive. It didn't take long before they spotted the mother walking through the doors. The little boy's smile and joy was contagious! He grabbed his mother's cheeks squealed! There were smiles on every one's faces.

I wondered if I could do that to my daughter when I could finally hug her? I pretty much did! I really had a hard time letting her go. I might squeezed her a little too hard. She was finally here! I could finally hold her and see her face-to-face! 

This Advent season has had a special meaning for me as I have been waiting for my daughter to come home. The third candle--the candle of joy--has given me hope, and now, so much joy. If my daughter's arrival can do that, how much more can the arrival of our Savior bring us hope and joy this season? I will celebrate with joy! 

Advent--Is Silence Part of It?

Thank you Holly for the constant encouragement

you bring to our journeys!

"Walking with Jesus is feeding the hope, not despair."

"Hope is the antidote of despair."

"Expectant hush, not a last minute rush."

These are some of the phrases that I heard last Sunday at church. 

When we are talking about the hope that the whole advent season represents, I want to to have the "expectant hush" instead of being in such a rush that I cannot even sit still. I want to have moments when I can be silent, waiting for God and waiting on God. I want to go to these moments with the expectation that God will be there as well!

Candle of Hope

You bring light to my eyes

and to my soul

Your light will shine

and free me from the darkness

You bring light to my heart

and fill it with joy

Your light will penetrate

and wash away the mistakes

You bring light to the world

and silence despair

Your light will come

and show me the way home

May His light shine on you during this season of advent. 

May the hope that He represents take you to the place of expectant hush while you sit a moment away from the last minute rush.

Wishing you a blessed advent season!

Thankful for Progress

In the last couple of weeks I have heard some great comments from my ESL students. Here are a few of them:

Y. your writing is really becoming much better.
"Ms. Y. has great ideas; she just needs help with spelling."

If I have 36 eggs, will I have 3 or 4 dozen eggs?
"I don't know."
Do you know what dozen means?
"No."
Have you ever bought eggs with....
"Ms. I know! 12!"
How did you figure it out?
"When we go shopping, my mom always makes me count the eggs."

Parent involvement without them even realizing that they are helping their children with math!

(From an apology letter:)
Ms. I apolize. I will stop fouling around in class.

Here are a few items from my students' blog comments of gratitude:

freedom
chicken pizza
people that care
being a human
I have great classmates
chocolate cake
people who trust me
the new experience of America
my nail polish
samosas

L. do you need help today?
"No. I know what to do."

This is exactly what I want to hear!

Gratitude and Spiritual Journey Thursdays

Thank you Holly for the constant encouragement

you bring to our journeys!

The weeks and months this fall have been busy. Sometimes too busy to focus on writing. But every week the tweets that start arriving on Thursdays--sometimes even earlier in the week--are both a reminder and encouragement. 

Despite this fall turning to be busier than I expected, here some wonderful things to be grateful for:

1. Only 25 more days until my daughter comes home!

2. The teachers that I had had a difficult time working with, have turned out to be the ones that are easy to work with this year! What more proof do I need that miracles do happen?

3. So many changes have been happening this fall in many areas of my life. Our church has gone through a major change. After much uncertainty, the final decision has now been made. I am so grateful for our church board who have faithfully searched God through all these difficulties without any blame game. There is still much healing that needs to happen, but I believe that we are on the road to something great that God has in store for us.

The Year of the Lord’s Favor: Psalm 61 

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,

    because the Lord has anointed me

    to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

    to proclaim freedom for the captives

    and release from darkness for the prisoners,[a]

2 

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor

    and the day of vengeance of our God,

to comfort all who mourn,

3 

    and provide for those who grieve in Zion—

to bestow on them a crown of beauty

    instead of ashes,

the oil of joy

    instead of mourning,

and a garment of praise

    instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness,

    a planting of the Lord

    for the display of his splendor.

4.  This fall there have been many times when my strength just has not been enough. I have had no other way except to cry out to God. He has always answered!! And through these times, I have grown closer to God. Can I say that I am grateful that He has made me go through these difficult times in order to focus more on God? I am not sure I can say exactly that, but I am grateful to walk closer to God!

5. I am grateful for new friends! Through the changes in our church, one worry has been losing friends that I have known for many years. Amazingly, God has brought me closer to new people! Are we close friends yet? No, but having new people in our lives is always refreshing!

6. I am so grateful for our parent English class at school. We meet once a week after school. I have had a chance to meet new parents and get to know other parents better. One parent tried to tell me that she is too old to learn English and go to college, (she is in her early 30s) but after talking about different possibilities, the seeds for a further education are now planted in her heart!

7. I am so grateful for you who are reading my long post today! You are my companion on this spiritual journey. Thank you for taking the time to walk with me!

From PD to Action

Last Tuesday we had a professional development day at school. I was given the task of talking about SIOP and WIDA.

I had seen a picture on twitter that showed English language proficiency levels on a poster. I decided to modify that idea and use the WIDA proficiency levels that my teachers are familiar with on my poster.

But first, I posted the WIDA levels around the room, and asked teachers to stand in front of the level they feel the most comfortable teaching. Seeing the teachers around the room was very telling. When the majority of secondary ELA teachers are standing in front of the proficient sign (=reaching), I can understand their frustration with lower level students. Or when only two teachers were standing in front of the Entering sign (the lowest level), it showed that even teachers who have years of experience teaching ELLs in their classrooms, finding ways to help the newcomers is not easy.

Then we moved into looking at tasks in the classroom; based on science, math, social studies and ELA common core standards. We looked at where those tasks would fall in the continuum. What tasks English Language Learners would be able to do at what levels of proficiency.

The table discussion where very interesting. Here are a few snippets of conversation:

• if this task had a word bank,  lower level students could also do it
• does this mean it needs multiple paragraphs-like 5-or would just three also work?
• could the students use a dictionary while doing this assignment?
• do they just have to do the math or do they have to explain how or why they did it in certain way?
• what grade level are we talking about? Writing a paragraph in third grade is very different than writing it on ninth grade. What level should we give this task?
• If I added visual could lower level students be able to do this task?
• "describe the characters"--how do we know what vocabulary they need to use? Are the names of the characters enough or do they need to use more academic language like protagonist and antagonist?

Teachers were talking. Conversations were happening. Everyone was thinking. Isn't this what good teachers do? They are trying to find ways for everyone to participate in the lesson.

I also had a chance to give a lesson in Finnish! I did it to demonstrate to the teachers what a student might feel like who has no idea what the teacher is saying. It was interesting. And also a bit challenging for me as I don't usually talk in Finnish much less teach in Finnish. (Good thing nobody understood my mistakes .)

Learning was still happening the following day. I went to pick up a group of elementary students, and their teacher showed how he had materials ready for me--including the visuals. I had had at least one teacher who had heard my message on how to teach ELLs. Job well done?

(In case you are not familiar with either, SIOP stands for Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol, and WIDA stands for World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment.) 

Strength Comes from the Lord and His Community

It has been a busy couple of weeks! Professional development to plan and prepare for, work issues popping up here and there, students not realizing (or not caring) that high school credit is not given if you fail a class, church issues are looming, student journals reveal deeper concerns that have to be dealt with, two day workshop to attend, and many other minor things that have kept me busy.

One day I really was having a hard time. I felt depressed. I was considering a day off from work, but them remembered that a volunteer was coming on that day; not choice, of to work I went.  That morning I decided to send a text to Gina who had promised to pray for me or my students . She had told me a few weeks ago to just send her a text if prayer was needed. So the request was sent. This is what I got in return:

God's favor may he be exalted over your trial.

God's love, peace and presence is with you.

God's angels are dispatched to you and working in the

hearts and minds of all who deal with you.

Let all who see you see through the eye's of God!

The enemy is bound, the favor and peace of God is loosed.

Praises to the one who covers you and seats you

in heavenly places above the power of the enemy! Amen.

That morning on my way to school, I blasted my car radio again. My favorite warfare song came on: "Break Every Chain" by Tasha Cobbs. I was breaking every chain in the name of Jesus as I was driving to school. I felt the power of Jesus. And then came the prayer from Gina. I felt that I can do what I need to do--what I believe God has called to me to do. I felt that God's community had responded. I could not have had the strength to face that day with a smile on my face without God's people, without knowing that the Lord is my strength! He will sustain me!

As I was writing this blog entry, I wanted to leave a clip of the song "Break Every Chain." Something happened while I was listening to a different version of the song. In the clip below, around 11:06 the preacher starts talking about the "chain breaker." If you are having a hard time today, take a moment and listen to his words. They just might be the words that you need to hear today. I heard my chains falling that day! There is SUCH power in the name of Jesus!

My hope and prayer is that you will experience His power in your life today!

Thank you Holly for creating this community that gives strength to each other, and pushes us to walk closer with Jesus. Read some more blogs by going to Holly's website here.

100 Things I am Grateful For

A few days ago I received an interesting tweet from Terje (@terjeakke): a little challenge for you! I quickly read Terje's list. I was in! I even tweeted Terje that her challenge was accepted. Then I started doubting myself....

Then a few days later, my list is born:

1. daughter
2. home
3. job that I love
4. growing up in a secure and stable home
5. viber app to text internationally
6. skype to see my daughter's face when talking to her
7. church family
8. my mother-in-law and father-in-law
9. raspberries
10. sisters-in-law
11. blueberries
12. library booksales
13. Kathy who makes my Thursday Corner Bookshop hours so much fun
14. Saturday morning coffee time with friends
15. brothers-in-law
16. Pumpkin Spice coffee from Trader Joe's
17. cousins who cross the ocean to come for a visit
18. Facebook to keep in touch with friends across the oceans
19. blogging community
20. Thursday's spiritual journey group
21. fellow ESL teachers
22. nieces and nephews
23. Youtube music
24. Pentatonix Little Drummer Boy
25. central heat
26. Kindle
27. great nieces and nephews
28. precooked dumplings
29. health
30. my exercise pal Val
31. colleagues who are willing to share
32. trust
33. on demand (that I just discovered!)
34. sunrise
35. short commute to work
36. letter from Susan this week
37. "Break Every Chain" by Tasha Cobbs
38. poetry jams
39. Finnish chocolate
40. Mustikkapiirakka
41. blue and white
42. twitter PD
43. Christmas candlelight service at the Vineyeard
44. wake-up call/text from my daughter: "Love you Mom!"
45. comments on my blog
46. Little Women--book or movie
47. one word
48. health insurance
49. warm socks
50. fitbit
51. kalakukko
52. great cup of coffee 
53. relaxing mornings at home
54. snuggling with a good book
55. students' progress
56. slice of cake from a coworker in the middle of the afternoon
57. journaling
58. morning pages
59. korvapuusti (Finnish cinnamon rolls)
60. spine poetry
61. blogging students
62. "Ms. I missed you!" from my students
63. technology
64. iPad--finally
65. answered prayers
66. languages
67. perfect earrings
68. comfy shoes
69. visiting manual dishwasher 
70. green 
71. vanilla lotion
72. comedy that works
73. remote control
74. smiling babies
75. air conditioning
76. fish soup
77. Thanksgiving Day
78. swimming in a lake
79. sauna by the lake
80. birch trees
81. fall maple trees
82. double sided tape
83. curtains
84. Keurig 
85. single moms dinners
86. memories
87. photographs
88. student teachers
89. translate app
90. God's faithfulness
91. movies that touch me
92. knitting
93. long weekends
94. road trips
95. cellphone
96. mechanical pencils (0.3 of course)
97. color printer
98. soft blanket
99. helping hands
100. meeting blogging friends in real life

If you are reading my list, consider the challenge passed on to you! Don't forget to let me know if you write a list as I would love to read yours!

And, Dorothy, this is the official challenge for you as well! Love, äiti