Before School Starts

Elder & Sister Swanger from Vancouver, WA (our neighbors)

We spent this week in meetings helping train the teachers before school starts tomorrow.  Janice presented an hour training on the Church's teaching standards and I gave a motivational presentation on "Every Student Needs a Champion."  I also demonstrated some ideas to increase student engagement in the classroom to the middle school.

We taught our last SIOP lesson for our current BYU Hawaii class.  All that is left is observing the teachers' SIOP lessons in the next two weeks. We start a new class (EDU 312 Pedagogy) on February 14th.  We may have quite a few taking that class because they are reminding teachers that they should only take 3 or 4 years to get their ITEP (International Teacher Education Program) certificate completed.  Some of them are past that deadline and have not even started.

Pigs at the garden toilet

Garden Toilet

We have really enjoyed our time with the other senior couples here.  They are kind and we have great fun together on the weekends.  Yesterday, we drove to the south side of the island to swim at a beach but it was raining so long and hard, we turned around before any roads were closed from flooding.  We did take time to stop at a "garden toilet" along the way.  I was elected to evict the mama pig and her little ones off the front step.  They (the bathrooms) really are quite unique.  I am thinking that I need to build one for our pool back home.  They have an open foyer with nice plants before the restroom at the end.

We are still happy and healthy.  A bad case of flu has been going around but so far we have been fine.  In fact, the warm and humid climate is agreeing with us quite well and we have not had aching bones for the first time in several years.

Today, Janice and I were asked to speak at church on the importance of education.  Janice spoke to the adults and gave them some great thoughts on how to structure an environment for learning in their homes.  I spoke to the young people and wrote them this poem:

If I were Young Again

If I were young again
Here's what I would do. . .
I would study hard
While I'm in school.
I would watch and listen
Speak and write
And read many books into the night

I would ask my teachers so I could learn
To understand, to study, and to turn
My heart to God.  His help I'd seek
For without His Spirit, my brain is weak.

I would not say stupid, dumb, or slow
About myself - for now I know
God helps me if I desire
If I just get to work and never tire.

I'd ask my parents just what they thought
Of who I am and what I'm not.
My education only starts you see
When I give it my best.
That is the key.                         
                                          by Joe Lloyd, January 2019