Apostolic Availability at FyA 44

Remember our discussion of apostolic availability from last year? It's what I reflected on when I was first assigned to teach Religion in Primaria. Well apostolic availability is calling me back to my old students.

I haven't talked about this before, but it's time to bring it up. Rachel had to go home for awhile. She flew home to recover from an illness and then had to extend her stay for some family reasons. She's scheduled to fly back to Peru in August.

I'm telling you this now because it means some changes at work. I volunteered to pick up her classes while she's gone. I'm going to teach 6 sections a week in Primaria, which means every class gets religion once every other week. Hermana Vilma is teaching all the classes in Secundaria herself. I'm still very present in Secundaria working as a student counselor and the youth group coordinator.

I'm not all that excited about this – it means a lot more work for me, and elementary school really isn't my preferred workplace. But there is plenty of good. I'll be getting lots more hugs, because high schoolers aren't nearly as affectionate as 1^st graders. I'll also have my own classroom again. One of the difficulties of co-teaching with Hermana Vilma is that I don't have full ownership of the class, which means I don't get to implement certain norms/habits/etc. I get to do that in Primaria because I'm the only religion teacher. On a personal pride level, the big benefit is bragging rights; I am the only person on staff who works with students in 11 different grade levels. Other perks include having 2 offices (because Primaria and Secundaria are in separate locations), and regular access to Primaria's superior wifi (which is faster because less people use it). 

But none of that is why I offered to long term sub. I made the offer because I could see that it was a need that I could fill without overtaxing myself. 

That's what I came here to do.