First almost hurricane experience

This week was our first official week of school.  I was a little nervous about being a real math teacher all on my own and how the students would respond to me. One thing was for sure I didn't need to worry about what I would be wearing since everyone (including teachers) wears uniforms.
I was nervous about the students and things like being an advisor and teaching an elective on personal finance.  I had been told that the students could be really difficult and disrespectful, so although I tried to enter the school year with an open mind I was nervous nonetheless.  My fears with regards to the students were completely unfounded.  Having student taught at DHS with up to thirty five students in the classroom I think has made me prepared for anything especially a private school with no more than twenty students in a classroom.  I really like the students.  I'm sure there will be difficult moments but right now I'm feeling very blessed.
Having never been an advisor, I was terrified about having to teach/advise students about figuring out their futures.  Not to mention I had been informed that the class I have is the worst behaved in the school. They have given us a curriculum to follow and it is really good, but I wasn't sure if the students were going to buy into it.  Again I was wrong.  We did a time management session this week (I'll admit I felt a little hypocritical since I'm not the best at managing time) and I thought it was a little basic and not all that interesting but the students really got into it and scheduled their day out to incorporate more study time (they may have been just trying to suck up to the teacher, but it's better than nothing). Again I'm feeling very blessed. 
Now to get to this personal finance.  To be honest we had to sign up ti teach some elective class and out of everything on the list, personal finance seemed like the thing that I would be the least horrible at teaching (it's got to have something to do with math right?). I also had in the back of my mind that personal finance sounds like a very boring class (at least to me) so maybe no one would even sign up for it and I would get out of it.  I was wrong.  A student came up to me on Thursday and says "I'm going to be in your elective class on personal finance.  I'm very excited." To say the least I was surprised.  After five minutes of speaking with the student, I'm pretty sure he knows more about personal finance than me, but thankfully the federal reserve has developed a curriculum for teaching personal finance and they've got to know something about personal finance. They are the federal reserve after all. Again I'm feeling very blessed.
On Wednesday, we were informed that there was a hurricane heading for Santo Domingo.  On Thursday they sent the kids home at noon and cancelled school for Friday in expectation of a hurricane hitting the city.  I was excited/scared about my first soon to be hurricane experience.  I was also happy about being able to sleep in on Friday morning.  Friday morning I awoke with some excitedment about the big storm...unfortunately for my excitement, but fortunately for the safety of the Dominican Republic, the hurricane passed by to the south of us.  All we got was some pretty strong wind that rattled my door all night. Every time a strong wind would blow I would wake up to the sound of the door rattling.  Every time I awoke it sounded like someone was trying to break into my room.  Needless to say I was wide awake very fast and ready to pounce on whoever was coming into my room.  Thankfully sanity would eventually kick in and I would realize it was just the wind.
It rained pretty much all day today.  A lot of the streets were flooded and we found all the leaks in the apartment (there were quite a few). We are all safe and sound albeit a little wet, but grateful all the windows and doors are intact. Again I'm feeling very blessed.

Santo Domingo

December 2011 I finally graduated college. I was so excited to be done with being a student and ready to transition into a life as a teacher. My plans for the future were not all that detailed, in fact beyond the summer I had no plans at all. I had no clue just what God had in store for me. During the months of March and April, I was applying for jobs all over the state of Illinois as well as countries such as Panama and Bolivia. After turning down jobs in both Panama and Bolivia, I began to wonder where God was going to take me. About a week after turning down my latest job offer, I applied to a school in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and got the job.
I spent the months of June and July working in Monte Plata, Dominican Republic (see the Monte Plata page if you want to know more about that). I had an awesome summer as a summer missionary directing the summer school program in the Kids Alive International school in Monte Plata. I flew home for four very filled days of meeting with people and a very exciting and fun wedding. I then took off again for the Domincan Republic to begin my teaching career.
I have been here just over a week, and for the most part my expectations have been much exceeded. I somehow am living in a huge penthouse apartment with a bakery just down the block that has cheesecake and donuts, two things I never saw in Monte Plata. The school is quite large with two sport courts and a pool. Each classroom is air conditioned and they like to keep it cold. I have had quite a lot of work creating curriculum maps, syllabi, and lesson plans for my three preps (Algebra II, Geometry, and Pre-Calculus). I have been forced out of my anti-social comfort zone and am making new friends and colleagues.
It's a much different experience going from being surrounded by poverty to being in a very wealthy area although its not hard to find people in need. My ministry has completely changed, but God has provided a wealth of opportunities to share his Gospel in a Christian school where many of the students and some of the staff are not Christians. I'm getting more and more accustomed to where I am and what my job is going to be. The students begin arriving on Monday for school. We have spent the past week and will spend this week preparing for the school year to come and all the fun stuff that entails. I'm ready for it all to begin.