School has begun!

September 4th, 2024

Written by: Nathan

We have officially started the 2024-25 School Year! It's been a busy but exciting couple of days of school.

The first day at School was spent establishing and reviewing expectations and routines for the school year. Discussion and development of classroom expectations/belief statements and "My job, Your job" were some of the main activities that classes tackled on the first day. There was also quite a bit of time spent building classroom community through various games and activities. Students learned about the 5 Basic Needs: Survival, Love, Power, Freedom, & Fun and how these relate to our attitude and behavior as well as Restitution. Students and staff were very interested to see what their survey results were, when it came to their personal Basic Needs Inventory/Survey. Students also spent some time drawing and coloring their 'dream school/classroom'.

New to the school this year is lunch for the students. The lunches make for a bit more work for the staff but it allows the students the opportunity to stay at school for at least part of the afternoon. In the past, students would only be at school for the morning.

Studies got under way on day two; all the classes began their coursework. Students were eager to learn and for the most part were on task. In addition to the school director/principal role, I also have the opportunity to serve as the Physical Education Teacher. I have to say, it's definitely more challenging to teach when Spanish is not your first language. At this point, translation is definitely required, due to not knowing enough Spanish but I am learning more and more every day. Students were excited to learn, move and try the different activities planned.

Almost forgot to mention, I also get to share the responsibility of being the bus driver! This week I got to learn the route. Next week I get to start driving. The plan right now is to drive every other week.

Below are some pictures highlighting the past couple of days at school. Probably too many pictures but it was just too hard to pick which ones not to share.

Below are some of the students who attend Oaks of Righteousness.

Still plenty of room for more on this bus!

Classroom community building activities & learning

Lunch time!

Jr. High Schedule

My Job, Your Job

Physical Education class

'Dream School'

The most recent "project" at the school: "walls". Just put these up after school today.

Thank you for taking time to read and look over the pictures.

Please continue to pray for Oaks of Righteousness. Pray for the staff & students. Pray that enough support can be raised to continue meeting the needs of the mission, especially for the support of the three teachers and for the purchase of a property for the school.

God bless!