Business of the Classroom

Life has been whirling around me as I teach full time at school. My cooperating teacher jetted over the Thailand two days ago and left me to fend for myself. I love having my own classroom. I can not wait until I can start a new year with my own students. There has been so many lessons that I cant even keep them straight. For example, on Tuesday I was supposed to teach lesson 91 which was rounding to the nearest thousandths place. But because I was so excited about teaching lesson 92 (line graphing) I completely overlooked lesson 91. I drew a huge graph on the board to chart the number of jumps a couple of students could do in a minute counting 5 minute intervals. The kids loved jumping and trying to have stamina. It was funny. I used different colors for each child and even had a table to organize my data. I told the students to open their books and we all realized that I skipped lesson 91. So today we did lesson 91. Oops :). In science we are learning about forces. I showed a picture of Darth Vader and OB One Kano-bi and they all laughed, they were like "Miss Rachel, that is not the kind of force we are studying." To teach about force and load, we played tug-o-war. And today we also had an experiment about load and effort on a lever with a fulcrum. The students had to decide where the fulcrum should be (closer to the effort or the load) so to use the least force. It went really well. We also played 'Mother May I' for grammar. We were learning about confusing verbs and the verbs may and can were a focal point so to reiterate that may deals with permission, we played the children game.
We also played Jeopardy today to review for their grammar test that is coming up on Sunday. The game went really well but I am having a problem with my students when they play competitive games. The boys gloat and the girls are sassy about winning. However, when the girls loose they say "It is just a game" and they are really good sports about it. However it is difficult when I keep having to tell them to listen and hear the person who is answering. They get out of hand. I understand that it is a game and it is supposed to be fun and interactive but when people are gloating and the noise is too high, the game no longer is fun. I want them to encourage each other no matter what the out come is of the game. But since they are not believers, to what extent can I expect godliness. Or can I not at all and just have to learn to encourage them to simply be moral people. But they cant be moral people when they do not have any good in them. I have God in me and I therefore have good because He is good. But these children don't know the God that I know. It is hard when I say things like God wants us to be honorable and respectful and encourage each other but they don't know the God I know. How can I expect my children to have moral lives when they don't know any different than their sinful nature. At what point do I say, I have done what I can and let it go. But I never want to let it go because I want them to be the best person that they can be and that is a servant of the King of Kings. I want my students to love not only in word or talk but in deed and in truth (1 John 3:18). Children are not the only ones that struggle with this problem, adults do to, even believers. But we know to ask God to show us and bring peace and love to the forefront of our minds. But they don't know the personal God that you and I do. How do I foster moral characters into people who don't know Christ. I know that I am rambling but this is a question that I am struggling with. I ask that you would pray for my students, that they would see the truth and the grace that God has given us and they with the help of the father be the best that they can be. I also ask that you pray for me, I ask that I would have wisdom when I speak to the kids about God and difficult moral characters that they lack. I ask that you would pray that I would be a light to these children. They are precious and beautiful children. They need our prayers. Thank you!