The "August" Edition: Back to School

Picnicking by the river

Welcome back, faithful readers! We're here today to share the highlights from our first month of school with you.

Our fridge is mold-free, school is in full swing, and the weather is bee-yoo-tee-full!

As you might recall, Joy is teaching high school this year. Her badge about sums it up: "Joy Parkhurst - High School Math/Spanish/Journalism." The most common response to seeing Joy's job description is, "Wow. That's a lot. What don't you teach?" The answer to that question, of course, is Physics. That's Bennett's job.

Ben Horne speaking at Lock-in

So, how is Joy liking the change to high school? She loves it! Although she misses the fun of working with 4th graders, she's really enjoying what she is teaching, and she loves working with the high schoolers. She hasn't told them that she uses some of the same strategies she used with her fourth graders with them.

For example...
Monday, 7:50 a.m. - E Block: Math Lab

Situation: Students walk into class looking like a pack of zombies after the weekend, stare blankly into space, do not respond to stimuli.

Response: Mrs. Parkhurst greets class loudly, walks through rows, and tells students to stand up behind their chairs. "Ok, everyone! I'm going to give you some directions. When I say go, do ten jumping jacks, hop on one foot five times, turn in a circle three times, then give two people a high five. Go!"

Bennett está asustado. 

Mrs. Parkhurst loves seeing her tenth-grade boys hopping on one foot and snickering to start the morning.

In Spanish, Joy enjoys playing "La Maestra Dice..." (The Teacher Says...) with her students to wake them up and review various words and commands. Other fun highlights of teaching Spanish: teaching the class a lesson on the verb "decir" using an adaptation of What does the fox say? (¿Qué dice el zorro?) and writing funny stories to help students to practice reading comprehension (i.e. Bennett, the responsible teacher, meets a lion in school and runs away.).

We don't really know what this is.
We think it might be a loom of sorts.

Journalism takes the most up-front planning, but Joy is learning a lot! In Algebra I, Spanish, and Math Lab, most of Joy's students are freshmen or sophomores, but in Journalism, the class is evenly split between juniors and seniors. The start of the year has been filled with lessons on journalism in history, the ethics of journalism, and what makes something newsworthy.

Meanwhile, Bennett has two brand-new physics classes to teach.  This brings his schedule to one section of precalculus (he's had three previously), two sections of regular physics, and one each of AP Physics 1 and AP Physics C.  This has led to multiple déjà vu experiences:
"Haven't you guys already learned this?"  "No."  "Oh...well...it must have been another class..."

Traditional Korean sleeping mat
A.K.A. "yo"

Korean darts?

In any case, physics is a lot of fun, and teaching more classes of physics means smaller class sizes, older students, and more opportunities for great quiz questions:  "Mr. Parkhurst gets really mad when Fred talks back and throws him out the window with an initial velocity of..." or "A velociraptor is chasing Grace with a speed of..."  Bennett also gets to do labs more often, which is exciting :)  You know...for nerds...like him.

This year does require a bit more work for Bennett because of the new classes, but it's more a matter of rearranging and re-pacing things he has already done than creating things from scratch, so there's still plenty of time for him to tease his wife.

We're both enjoying working with the same population of students this year, and a few students have the great privilege of learning from both Parkhursts in one day. A few weekends ago, we had the opportunity to work together for two "extra" events.

On that Friday night, Joy shared her testimony at the high school lock-in. The theme for this year is "Be Sure," and the lock-in introduced this idea to the students that attended. The focus of this year's chapel times will be helping students to develop confidence in what they believe.

Kimchi pots. We see these everywhere.
Want to know more about them? 

Korean warrior Bennett

After a late Friday night, Bennett headed out on Saturday afternoon for the annual Senior Retreat. His weekend was filled with swimming in the stream, hiking the mountain, capture the flag, and some good conversations with this year's seniors. Lots of fun and exhaustion all around. Joy joined the group for the Sunday hike, but didn't stick around for the Monday morning events. She even missed her husband's rise to victory as the YISS Staff Chubby Bunny Champion. But alas, she had class to teach.

Bennett and Joy in traditional
cardboard cut-outs.

Whew! We're almost done with this month's novel...
This week has been one of our favorite weeks of the school year so far. Korea is celebrating Chuseok (Pronounced something like 'chew-sock'). Chuseok is traditionally a harvest festival, and Korean families celebrate by gathering together to eat and (potentially) to honor their ancestors. Want to learn more? Click here! We've spent the 5 day weekend cleaning around the house, hanging out with friends, picnicking by the river, and visiting a Korean folk village. We'll be back to school tomorrow for a long two-day week of work. ;)

Some things that are on their way...

• Staff Retreat - We will be heading down to the beach (maybe) in a week and a half for our annual Staff Retreat. Ah...Relaxation...We always like getting out of the city. 
• Life Study Groups - We'll be leading a small group during chapel in the month of October on the topic of "dating relationships and marriage."
• High School Retreat - We might be joining the high school retreat toward the end of October. 
• Decisions, decisions... - We're praying about whether to go on a Spring Break missions trip with the high schoolers again this year. We're also praying about what to do for the 2015-2016 school year. We'll be giving the school our decision sometime around the end of November. You can be praying with/for us in making those decisions. 

And that's that! Stay tuned for the next edition of "Days of our...", I mean, wait...never mind. 

Fun "Ingrish" pictures: 

Hm...is it supposed to say that?

Why yes, I would like the "body sliming care."