BAGNALL BLURB
August 31st, 2012
Parents & Guardians,
Just a quick, “HOLA” to start off the year from the perspective of your friendly GRCMS Spanish teacher! For many of you this is not a new introduction and I have had the pleasure of teaching your GRCMS student(s) for the past few years! But to those of you who are new to our school or just new to having me as a Spanish teacher, I look forward to getting to know you and your student as the year progresses!
This will be my 4th year at GRCMS and it feels SO comfortable and exciting to be in the position I am now. Last year we graduated our first class of 8th graders who went through the MS Spanish program. Of that class, about a third of them tested into high school semester 3 of Spanish! It has been a blessing to witness and be a part of the continual Spanish growth within the GRCS schools. Even so, we are continuing to make changes, adjustments, and improvements as we head into another new year!
This year holds some big changes for me personally. For starters I am part time for the first time. I am teaching my classes on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays and staying home on Mondays and Wednesdays. In order for this to “work”, I have the privilege of team teaching with Kim Knoester! She is a Calvin College graduate and just so happens to be the daughter of two excellent teachers already in our GRCS family (Arie and Pat Knoester)! We each have our own middle school Spanish classes, but we are also “sharing” three sections. Those being: 6thgraders that have Spanish on Wednesdays and Fridays, 7th graders who have Spanish Mondays and Thursdays and 7th graders who have Spanish on Wednesdays and Fridays. With those classes, Kim Knoester will be teaching the first lesson of the week and I will be teaching the second. We are working closely together with great communication to make this a successful schedule for all involved!
Another big personal change will be the arrival of my first child in the middle of October. My husband and I are very much looking forward to the start of our family and also anxious to know if we will have a son or daughter! I will be taking time off to make my motherhood adjustment starting around October 18th. At that point Kim Knoester will take over all of my classes until I return after Christmas break in early January. God has truly blessed me with a healthy pregnancy and I still feel very energetic as I head into these weeks of school!
Just some final thoughts before I “sign off”. I wanted to share with you what our principal, Ashanti Bryant, challenged all of us teachers to do at our recent staff retreat. And that was to write our own personal mission statement for teaching. Although I am not an eloquent writer, this is what God poured onto my heart:
“It is my calling to engage ALL students in a Christ loving community as we learn about God’s global and LOCAL Spanish speaking kingdom; To find ways for my students and I to partake in His work by serving and learning from “the stranger”; To give students the tools and practice to be loved and love those who are different from them”.
I ask you to join me in faithfully praying throughout the year for all of my students and myself as I do my best to live out that mission statement in this new school season. Thank you in advance for your support, communication, and prayers! Please use my blog (www.senorabagnallsclassroom.blogspot.com)as a way to stay in touch with what is going on in room 29 with Señora Bagnall as well as email (bbagnall@grcs.org) and/or calls/texts (616-322-4188)!
Gracias y Dios le bendiga(Thanks & God bless!),
Señora Becky Bagnall!
