School

Here are a few pics of where i work. I work alot of the time in the 1st and 2nd grade wing of school, doing "pull out interventions" or what the kids call it "Book Club." basically, the Titles pull kids out of class for twenty to thirty minutes each group and work on their reading, fluency, spelling, and grammar. These are the kids who are not reading up to their speed for their grade, for example, third graders need to be reading about 140 WPM (words per minute). we take the kids who are about 20-60 WPM and spend time working on reading skills, and teach them how to read better. Some of my second graders can't read words like, "and" or "my," so we go over all the sounds of alphabet and all the letter combination sounds. I currently have 5 Intervention groups (book club), and 3 reading groups (where we work with the kids in the classroom, rather than pulling them out.)

here are the lockers for the 1st to 2nd grade...each kid in elementary school gets their own locker in their wing!!!

this is the 1st and 2nd grade wing. with lockers for the first graders on the right, and second graders are on the left. down each hallway are the classrooms.

a few of my Intervention groups happen at this table. I love my intervention groups. We call them book club for the kids, and they love being pulled out of class and doing the reading. It gives them more one on one attention in a small group setting. Alot of behavioral kids end up in these groups, and we notice that their behavior gets better in the small group setting:).

we have 5 Title IAs that share this classroom...we have so much fun in there:)

well, thatz just a lil bit of my every day life. I love love LOVE my job:)

the Hawks!

These lil guys and girls are the Hawks:) they're the team Ryan's coaching and I'm helping him with. Alot of these kids go to the school i work at, so it is pretty neat getting the chance out of school to get to know them. They play so hard, and have impressed us so much by yheir perseverance! I love having the afternoons playing soccer with them. I'm so proud of my husband's coaching too! He's a great coach!

Peyton Manning Gamboa

I miss him.

Favorite quotes from the first week of school...

3rd Graders:

"Are you London Tipton from that Disney Show?!"

"No, I'm Ms. Kristine Brandenberger."

"No, you're LONDON TIPTON!!!!!! and you're just pretending not to be, so you can live a normal life!!!"

"No....I'm not her...but...*thinks about it.* YAY ME!!!"

"you ARE LONDON Tipton!!!!! Its London Tipton!!!!! AAAAAHHH!!!!"

***

"Are you a cheerleader?"

"No...I'm one of your teachers."

"you ARE?! Are you in High school?"

"No...I'm done with highschool."

"Are you in college?"

"No, I'm done with college."

"You ARE?! how old ARE you!?!"

"guess."

"hmm...15?"

*sigh*

***

Cristal: I'm tired of training...just give me the gives and let me teach 'em stuff! I'll teach 'em what they needa know!"

hahahah....ok, now for the Kindergarteners:

"Ok, boys and girls, what is round?"

"A Circle."

"Good! What do we see in the classroom that's round?"

"My Teacher!!!!!!!!!!" (who was sitting at the next table)

"Your teacher?"

"yeah, her head is SO round!"

a child's faith...

my sweet little man, clark, asked Jesus into his heart this month. Praise God for this new life in Christ!:)

After a great first day of work...

i thought today would be interesting after i was driving happily to school my first day of work and a cop pulled me over. turns out there needed to be a license plate in front of my car. anyways, after that i happily went back to driving to work and got there, and started a wonderful day of training! can't wait to start on my own!

the kids were wonderful and the teachers and staff were so welcoming. I am really impressed with the Storm Lake public school...they are very concerned with each individual child's needs-and there are 749 children in the school. I wouldn't have a problem sending my kids to this school.

I went out today and bought some new flats, which i'm in love with:) I went to the one place to shop in town, The Buckle, and bought them. Kinda pricey, but i needed them so we got them:) I'm really quite excited to have some new shoes.

I filled out the paperwork for health insurance, which is one of the best benefits of the job. It's fully paid for me, with a 25 dollar co-pay...its excellent for our budget! We're pretty happy with that blessing.

I got home from this wonderfully filled day, and found the surprise of flowers and a funny certificate that melted my heart when i saw it:) Ryan made it out for me, which made me laugh, and I covered him in hugs and kisses:). on the side is a note that says, "Don't worry about dinner. I'm taking care of it. Love, Ryan." Isn't he just great?:)

To top it off, I received letters from the sweet sweet kids from the Vinnitsa Orphanage in Ukraine. Letters that told me they missed me, loved me, and wanted to see me and my husband soon. Needless to say, i burst into happy tears, and my heart was about to jump right out with happiness. My husband can testify that I have missed the smiling faces alot this past summer.

Well, thatz a little bit about my day. started off kinda weird, but ended in a great way. Tonite is date night with Ryan-i always look forward to our date night each week! Off to spend the rest of the evening with him!

closeup view...hahah, he makes me smile:)

It fell into my lap.

I wasn't expecting it.

I didn't apply for it.

I was just enjoying substituting whenever it was needed.

But God provides...

Today i got offered a full time job.

Was interviewed and offered a job on the spot.

To be an English Language Learning Instructor for all the grades at school.

Teaching phonics, visual phonics, and instructional reading.

They told me they have been watching me and that I was a perfect fit.

That my resume was the most interesting they've ever read!

That they were prepared to offer me a job for whenever I was available.

I start full time on Monday!!!!!

God is Amazing. Ryan and I prayed for provision.

This job has benefits that we needed.

We prayed for guidance for a way to get to know families.

God opened a door through the public school system.

We're stepping right through it.