New Term

We started our new term at the Education Center last week! We split the students up into 3 classes this time. All of them are learning how to read, but in different ways and difference paces.

Ayuba has been learning fast and is teaching 7 students the "Learning to Read" ACE curriculum. The students are really enjoying it and are picking up on it quickly! This curriculum goes through every letter sound and has a new animal each day to go along with the new letter sound. The first lesson was about an "Aging Ape" and they learning the long vowel sound "A". The curriculum is fun and keeps the students interested.

Ayuba is also teaching the older three students (Godwin, Felicia and Jeremiah). These students have graduated from the Learning to Read program and are going into more depth with reading. He is teaching them a new skill each day and they are spending a lot of time each lesson reading on their own. They are growing tremendously in their reading skills!

Esther is in the middle of "Teaching Practice" which is the equivalent of our student teaching. She goes to a local high school in the morning and teaches several classes. She comes straight to the Education Center afterwards to teach. Because of her busy schedule this term, she is only teaching one class. She is teaching 4 of the students the basics of reading. All of the students have really enjoyed the smaller class sizes. We are really impressed with how well they are all doing this term!

Last term we realized that we needed to try a new behavior system. We were using a sticker chart before. It worked, but if the students lost their sticker at the beginning of the class, they were not as motivated to continue to pay attention and behave well for the rest of the class. So, We have a new system this term. This behavior system allows the students to move up and down throughout the class. This way, if they are behaving poorly, they still have a chance to do better, but if they continue to behave that way, they can also go down on the chart. At first, the students were excited to move their clothespins down because they thought it was fun to play with, but now they realize that is a punishment and not a good thing :). We still do a sticker chart with it- they get a sticker if they are on the smily face by the end of class.

The term is off to a good start! Please pray that the transition will continue to go well and that all of the students will grow in their reading skills.