School is in Session!
/Hello Friends,
Here at Handfuls of Hope School we are so happy to have successfully finished our first week of school. It took a lot of hard work to get to this point. This work started in the beginning of August, when we started training with our teachers and getting the school ready to receive students.
In August our school director and a few teachers were blessed with the opportunity to attend the ACSI conference in Santo Domingo where they were taught how to better impact our students for Christ. We were also blessed with a group of visiting US teachers who helped train our staff. They taught our teachers about evaluating student’s reading level, Bloom's Taxonomy, using recycled materials in the classroom, etc. This group also ministered to our teachers by praying with them, helping prepare posters to decorate their classroom and purchasing much needed furniture and materials. After this group left, we worked nonstop for a week and a half with our staff and volunteers from our local church to paint the classrooms and clean up the school so that everything was ready to receive our students.
As the students arrived on Monday you could see the joy on their faces, as many of our returning and new students were so excited to be at the school. We opened the day with introductions, devotions, singing and prayer to start the new school year right. During this first week we all reviewed the classroom and school rules, and each teacher had a different and fun way to teach them to their students. Our fifth and sixth grade teachers put on a drama for their students to explain the classroom rules. It was so entertaining to see the students laughing and almost falling out of their seats watching their teachers dressed up as students and acting out the different procedures. All in all, it was a fun and blessed week.
Below are a few photos from our first day of school. More photos are available in our photo gallery. We are excited to share with you all the joy on the faces of our students and staff and, more importantly, to show our appreciation for what YOU have done to make this new school year possible. Thank you so much!
~Alesha Kollert
