Last week I led a trip of 16 students and 4 adults (myself included) on a mission trip to Jonestown, Mississippi where we worked with Sr. Kay Burton, SNJM. It was my fifth year on the trip and probably my best.
When I first interviewed at AHN and the principal at the time explained Mini Course Week and the mission trip program to me, I immediately fell in love. Let me be clear that I don't exactly enjoy sharing one bathroom with 20 people or sleeping in a twin bed in the same room as another teacher or eating the last of whatever has been prepared for each meal, but I do love going on this trip because it is such an incredible experience for our students.
Our students worked so hard throughout the entire week, and I was constantly amazed at what they were able to do. On Monday we took up an entire floor (two floors of linoleum in some places); we're talking six hours of chipping away at a floor - and they rocked it. On Tuesday and Wednesday, it was all painting all the time. Thursday and Friday were spent laying the new floor. When I left for Lowe's on Thursday, our IT guy was laying the floor. By the time I returned four hours later, the girls were doing it all! Piecing the floor boards together, using the circular saw to cut boards, and nailing the quarter round into place using the t-nailer. They even wanted to come back after dinner to finish, but we convinced them to wait until Friday. That morning it took nearly two hours to place the final four boards around two toilets. They were incredibly proud of themselves for being able to use their math skills to figure out how to cut down the boards. It was so cool and an amazing example of persistence.
Not a single complaint in the entire week. We've been home for 2+ days, and I'm really excited to go back to school tomorrow. After being together 24/7, I miss them!
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Today, in a nutshell...
6am - alarm goes off
6:08 - snooze alarm goes off
6:16 - turn off snooze
6:25 - actually get out of bed, get dressed, do make up, brush teeth, etc
6:40 - make coffee and english muffin
6:48 - get in the car
6:54 - arrive at Christ the King for 7am mass (realize I can get there in 6 minutes...)
7am - mass begins
7:26 - scoot out after the final blessing since I'm supposed to be at work by 7:30
7:32 - park my car at school
7:38 - my entire department is in the office. we've been gone a week, and i missed them!
7:58 - run over to the media center for our meeting at 8
8am - play a sequencing game that involves communication. we aren't good at it.
8:20 - instructional tech specialist shares new info with us
8:50 - duck out with another teacher
8:55 - run to the bathroom with other teacher and realize our presentations complement each other
8:57 - where is our presentation? no one is in the room.
9am - guests arrive
9:02 - other teacher presents. i enjoy listening to her. it was fun when we shared a classroom last year
9:22 - it's my turn. pretty sure i forgot half of what i planned to say, but it was fine
9:44 - run back upstairs
9:58 - i need to be back in the media center, but i just got here!
10:04 - stop in campus ministry to share with sister about the trip
10:35 - finally leave.
10:37 - i'm really late now, but that's ok. other teachers are sharing about tech they use.
11:32 - it's time for lunch! free healthy lunch from the wellness committee
11:45 - i have to go meet one of our guests
11:49 - that was fast; back to my lunch
12:15 - i need a coke. not bringing my water cup today was a big mistake.
12:20 - the machine in the faculty lounge is not working.
12:23 - the machine in the senior lounge is 25 cents more! (no cans)
12:29 - finally get to some planning for tomorrow.
1:03 - we're late to our textbook meeting. i don't want anything different for next year. work on Desmos fellowship application while everyone chats.
1:35 - back to campus ministry to talk about the trip
2:30 - it's time for the religion textbook meeting
2:32 - my bad, that meeting was at 2pm and i missed it.
2:34 - stop by religion to apologize for being absent
2:37 - back to my office to pack up.
3:02 - time to leave!
3:05 - run home. change clothes. pick up bags.
3:21 - drive to the mall.
3:29 - return amazon purchase to locker.
3:37 - drive to walmart. return mission trip stuff and get $ back.
3:43 - drive to the gym.
4:30 Pump on Mondays - back in the routine! It feels good.
Somehow this only checks off like three things on my to do list for today. So it's back to work tonight in order to be ready for the kids to come back tomorrow! Bring it on fourth quarter!
