It has been awhile since we have given you a Snapshot of recent Mattson goings on. I guess the best and worst reason is we are just going, going, going! However, we do want share our highs and lows with you...thankfully more highs then lows...and we need to move the bat down the page!!

Suffice to say Brynne's favorite class is...2nd grade... She is student teaching in an ESL class at a local elementary school. Because this is not top of the list for most high school students the teacher has welcomed Brynne to her class with great responsibility. While many high school students find themselves in the workroom making die cuts or grading endless stacks of papers in a corner Brynne is truly hands on. Undoubtedly this semester will do wonders for her Spanish and I believe she can help her students make strides in their English.

Hi everyone!

This is a picture of the class I have been working with this year—it is through a program at my school called Service Learning, where you get to go off-campus for a period either in the morning/afternoon and do volunteer work in the location of your choice (other schools, churches, nursing homes, animal shelters, etc.) The teacher I am working with, Mrs. Malin, is very nice; I met her last year when I was ‘mentoring’ my little friend Gaby. She teaches 2^nd grade bilingual, which is what I am hoping to do also sometime down the road. (Maybe not 2^nd grade, but we’ll see!) Basically, these are all students that have recently moved to the US from Mexico/Central America and are not proficient enough in English to learn their math, science, etc. in anything but their native language. So in order to make sure they don’t fall behind on curriculum-type stuff, the teacher gives them their lessons entirely in Spanish, and then gradually adds in more English. The goal is to have them simultaneously learning English, while not falling behind in their regular studies either. They are very sweet, polite kids, and the thing I was most surprised at is how eager they are to learn English. Many of them even prefer that you talk to them in English rather than Spanish, because they like to “show-off” their words! I am there for 1 – 2.5 hours every other day, assisting Mrs. Malin. But the biggest surprise so far has been my level of responsibility in the classroom. She has ME teaching them their morning lesson, while she works with students who need extra help. Can you say PRESSURE?! Ha! It is so fun to “try out” what I might be doing in the future, and also work on my Spanish skills. I’m so thankful for all the experience she’s providing me with, and also that I’m not in some of my friends’ shoes, whose teachers have them making copies and cutting die-cuts for an hour!

Please keep each one of these students in your prayers – some of them come from homes with one or no parents, and many of them come to school sick or extremely tired, and have a difficult time doing their work. Also, it is very easy to judge these children and the homes they come from. Even though I realize that most, maybe all of these students are living here illegally, they are children who cannot help the situations they’re in. There is a saying in Spanish that I LOVE and has really been my motto for all the Spanish-volunteer work I do, and that is “Haz bien y no mires a quien”, which means “Do good and don’t look at who” in English. God calls us to help all people in need, and even if we don’t agree/like the backgrounds they come from, we need to try and not let that get in the way of what Christ calls us to do anyway. There is a lot of discrimination against the children I work with, and the jokes and the comments that I get from other people about them can become frustrating and hurtful, because I think people don’t keep in mind that they are not responsible for the actions of their parents. These are God’s children who need are help and our love… why are so many people hesitant to do just that?