Ok, just when I thought kids couldn't get any more insane...
1) Their favorite songs are "Stacy's Mom" and "Jesse's Girl." These songs were made before I was alive let alone them.
2) They actually do their work when I play these songs in class. It's like Fluffy from Harry Potter. Music soothes the savage student.
3) They continually bring food to class. Today I think they brought the whole grocery store. Takis, Funyuns, chips, and they top it all with Tapatio sauce.
4) The things we talk about in class. (What happens in Spanish II stays in Spanish II)
ANDDDDD
5) Today I get into class (there are three students total) and ask if one of the students is there today since she's not in the room. The other two students say that she left early and, naturally, I believe them. I hand out worksheets, begin teaching the new verb we're studying, and all the while the students are eating. I don't mind if they eat as long as they pay attention.
About 15 minutes into class, they ask if I had napkins in my white closet/cabinet in the back of the room still. Slightly annoyed at this interruption, I tell them they can go check and to make wiser decisions about what they eat in class. One of them gets up to get the napkins and picks up an old black bag that was stuffed in the closet from when I got here as it has fallen on the floor. This prompts the other girl to get up and go see what else is in the closet. She says, "So they just left you a bunch of stuff when you got here?"
"Yes," I say, preparing to wrangle them back to their seats.
"Well I think someone left you a ******" (name of student removed for privacy.)
I turn around, incredulous. Yes, yes she WAS hiding on the bottom shelf of the closet cabinet for 15 minutes. I just stare....
5 minutes later we resume class. Once I've stopped crying from laughter.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
How to Grow the Kingdom
So, there are some days when I'm completely silly and worried about not growing in the Kingdom. Like it's possible to stagnate. I have no idea why I worry about such things. I don't think I will anymore.
Yahweh told me that life doesn't have to hurt all the time. He also said it was time to build. But boy... that verse is right when it says the Kingdom suffers violence and the violent take it by force. (Matthew 11:12).
Thus, I've decided on a basic recipe on how to grow the Kingdom based on my own experience thus far:
Incredients:
1 Word (with all grace released)
1 part conflict
2 parts courage
1 part steadfastness
1 part excitement
1 part standing on the edge of a cliff and looking down
1 part FAITH
Method:
1. Hear the Word.
2. Obey the Word.
3. Hold fast to the Word.
4. JUMP over the edge.
5. Never forget that the battle is already won.
Yahweh told me that life doesn't have to hurt all the time. He also said it was time to build. But boy... that verse is right when it says the Kingdom suffers violence and the violent take it by force. (Matthew 11:12).
Thus, I've decided on a basic recipe on how to grow the Kingdom based on my own experience thus far:
Incredients:
1 Word (with all grace released)
1 part conflict
2 parts courage
1 part steadfastness
1 part excitement
1 part standing on the edge of a cliff and looking down
1 part FAITH
Method:
1. Hear the Word.
2. Obey the Word.
3. Hold fast to the Word.
4. JUMP over the edge.
5. Never forget that the battle is already won.
Monday, April 28, 2014
Deuteronomy 7:9, Deuteronomio 7:9
I love this verse, and I just thought I'd share it with you. It means so much to me and I have some awesome revelation about it but I also know Yahweh can talk to YOU about it and what it means for you.
Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments;
To me, it means that 1,000 generations from now, Yahweh will still be faithful and keeping covenant with my family and my descendants. That generational blessings last forever, while generational curses only last 3 or 4 generations and can always be cut off sooner. That the Kingdom is forever.
It's a beautiful thing.
***
Me encanta este verso y quería compartirlo con ustedes. Tiene mucha importancia para mi y tengo unas revelaciones muy maravillosas del verso pero también sé que Yahweh puede hablar con USTEDES del verso y que significa para ustedes.
Conoce, pues, que Jehová, tu Dios, es Dios, Dios fiel, que guarda el pacto y la misericordia a los que le aman y guardan sus mandamientos, hasta por mil generaciones,
Para mi, significa que 1,000 generaciones de ahora, Yahweh todavía va a ser fiel y manteniendo el pacto con mi familia y descendientes. Que bendiciones generacionales duran para siempre mientras maldiciones generacionales sólo duran 3 o 4 generaciones y siempre se pueden cortar más temprano. Que el reino de Yahweh dura para siempre.
¡Es algo bellísima!
Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments;
To me, it means that 1,000 generations from now, Yahweh will still be faithful and keeping covenant with my family and my descendants. That generational blessings last forever, while generational curses only last 3 or 4 generations and can always be cut off sooner. That the Kingdom is forever.
It's a beautiful thing.
***
Me encanta este verso y quería compartirlo con ustedes. Tiene mucha importancia para mi y tengo unas revelaciones muy maravillosas del verso pero también sé que Yahweh puede hablar con USTEDES del verso y que significa para ustedes.
Conoce, pues, que Jehová, tu Dios, es Dios, Dios fiel, que guarda el pacto y la misericordia a los que le aman y guardan sus mandamientos, hasta por mil generaciones,
¡Es algo bellísima!
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Saturday School
For those of you who don't know, the law requires a certain number of minutes be spent in school each year in the public school system. This most ridiculous silly well-thought out law meant that I got to spend the day with my lovely little ducklings, aka my students.
They were surprisingly good. I'm very proud of them for even coming to school (which a surprising amount of them did) and then when they were in school, not killing anybody (always a plus) and actually accomplishing something! Go kids!
Of course, there had to be some things to make the day interesting. The first was a good one, I took lunch duty. I rather love lunch duty because it allows me to bond with the kids in a different setting than the classroom. Today it allowed me to play a game of "knockout" basketball with them.
Now, I admit, I am terrible at sports. Furthermore, all the kids know it. They rather like to watch my attempts, but they've actually taught me a few things that mean that I can now make a basket much of the time! Anyway, knockout is a game in which two people with two basketballs attempt to make a basket first. We stand in a line awaiting our turn and the person in front of the second person has to make the basket before the person behind them does or they're out. I'm proud to say I made it to the final five or six at least once and was never the first one out. (If anyone knows my sports history, they'll find this miraculous). It was so fun!
Then, we did more class, which I'll admit, was not as rigorous as it might be on other days. In fact, we mostly played games or read books. Still, the other interesting thing happened last hour when I again attempted to play the game Taboo with my class.
This is the game we were playing in this post, where one of my students launched himself at a wall because he'd scored his team a point. I really should stop playing this game because today, he managed to tip his desk over and then, as we were trying to right it, drop it on my foot. PS, I now have a giant, swollen bruise on top of my foot.
I really love that child. I'm not being sarcastic, either. He is the source of my most interesting teaching stories. Still, I wish he'd avoid injuring people--myself included!
Anyway, all in all, Saturday school wasn't so bad. The worst part was being tired. Not so much physically as all around. Being mentally and emotionally tired is so much harder than mere physical fatigue. I feel so much better now that I've been home a few hours and had a chance to relax a bit. (Reading Harry Potter while soaking in a warm bath is rather relaxing...)
On the plus side, the principal brought donuts for the majority of the teachers and because I don't eat things like that, she brought me bacon and eggs. :)
Still, next time we have the option of Saturday school, I shall again vote no.
They were surprisingly good. I'm very proud of them for even coming to school (which a surprising amount of them did) and then when they were in school, not killing anybody (always a plus) and actually accomplishing something! Go kids!
Of course, there had to be some things to make the day interesting. The first was a good one, I took lunch duty. I rather love lunch duty because it allows me to bond with the kids in a different setting than the classroom. Today it allowed me to play a game of "knockout" basketball with them.
Now, I admit, I am terrible at sports. Furthermore, all the kids know it. They rather like to watch my attempts, but they've actually taught me a few things that mean that I can now make a basket much of the time! Anyway, knockout is a game in which two people with two basketballs attempt to make a basket first. We stand in a line awaiting our turn and the person in front of the second person has to make the basket before the person behind them does or they're out. I'm proud to say I made it to the final five or six at least once and was never the first one out. (If anyone knows my sports history, they'll find this miraculous). It was so fun!
Then, we did more class, which I'll admit, was not as rigorous as it might be on other days. In fact, we mostly played games or read books. Still, the other interesting thing happened last hour when I again attempted to play the game Taboo with my class.
This is the game we were playing in this post, where one of my students launched himself at a wall because he'd scored his team a point. I really should stop playing this game because today, he managed to tip his desk over and then, as we were trying to right it, drop it on my foot. PS, I now have a giant, swollen bruise on top of my foot.
I really love that child. I'm not being sarcastic, either. He is the source of my most interesting teaching stories. Still, I wish he'd avoid injuring people--myself included!
Anyway, all in all, Saturday school wasn't so bad. The worst part was being tired. Not so much physically as all around. Being mentally and emotionally tired is so much harder than mere physical fatigue. I feel so much better now that I've been home a few hours and had a chance to relax a bit. (Reading Harry Potter while soaking in a warm bath is rather relaxing...)
On the plus side, the principal brought donuts for the majority of the teachers and because I don't eat things like that, she brought me bacon and eggs. :)
Still, next time we have the option of Saturday school, I shall again vote no.
Friday, April 25, 2014
Right Response
Have you ever noticed that when you're tired, it's much harder to control yourself? Your emotions, your thoughts, and your responses seem to grow to unmanageable proportions. Every little thing irritates you and you have a hard time focussing on the important stuff.
Such are certain seasons of our lives, and one I'm in right now. Well, not continually. My alarm didn't go off this morning and I got an extra hour of sleep...which made my day 10 times better! But tomorrow, Saturday, I have to go to work because of a make up snow day... lame.
Plus, it's crunch time. This is what I call the last month of any school year. You know the one. It's the time of year when everyone has to get in one last major project and field trip, when all the state tests are required, and when the children all decide that since the weather is warm, they should be outside playing instead of stuck in a boring classroom. Can't say I disagree with them. Still, I don't really appreciate their attempts to make the boring classroom look like outside. Then there are the endless after school and weekend meetings, the final exams that I have to write, all grades that have to be in before we leave for summer, and the inevitable need to put all of my scholastic possessions in boxes so the custodial staff can clean things up while we're gone. Plus I have to gather a billion forms to copy so the state believes I really did attend all those boring super useful professional development meetings.
Thus, I'm tired. And so I find myself yelling at my students on a daily basis. Not that I'm super angry at them or have begun disliking them in any way, but when their noise level exceeds all reason, I feel my voice must become louder than theirs to reestablish calm. This is instinctive and also wrong. I really am tired of yelling and must find a new response to this. Still, I have a good enough relationship with them all that it hasn't effected our classes or even their opinion of me. This is something for which I'm grateful.
Aside from all that, the enemy has decided that this is the perfect time to attack my identity. The joke is on him, though, because I am a first-fruiter and also a first fruit, so my harvest is guaranteed and there's nothing he can do to mess with it. Thus, even though people have done many things recently that have hurt my feelings and made me think they don't really see the value in me that they should, I have been able--for the most part--to overcome these things for the glory of Yahweh and by His grace. My value in myself is not shaken, and while I have been angered and hurt by the things these people have done, I have no doubt that their motives were not purposed to hurt me.
Still, it is crunch time, and I feel the need to remind myself that Yahweh has graced me for such a time as this. He can, in spite of everything, enable me to have a right response to the unfavorable situations in which I might find myself. He has, in fact, already done so because He finished it all when He released all grace for us. Now all I have to do is respond in faith... the right response. Fortunately, He has released the grace for that, too. I'm really really glad I'm Yahweh's.
Saturday, April 19, 2014
Why My Students Are Some of the Most Interesting People in the World
Obviously, I must protect my students' (and my own) privacy, but here are some of my favorite teaching stories from recently:
1) One boy, who is super hyper and almost always unable to sit through a whole class period, managed to survive state testing... (for those of you who don't know, this is where students sit still for 5 mornings a week for approximately 4 hour stretches with 5-15 minute breaks in between). During break, though, he could get a bit unruly. One day, while they were drinking their juice and eating their granola bars, he began running around the room because of something another student had said. I yelled at him to stop because he was going to spill his juice. So he stopped, and, standing perfectly still, spilled his juice right in front of me.
2) This same boy, later that day while we were playing a game, managed to launch himself off of the desk he was sitting on and fly halfway across the room because he'd just scored his team a point. I literally turned around to pull the next question and when I looked back, he was sprawled across the floor inches from the whiteboard.
3) One girl, who is very small, just sat inside a locker before class one day and waved at me to prove she could fit. I took a photo.
4) I travel from one classroom to another over the course of my school day and the kids are always there before me since they have that same classroom for another class. One day as I arrived in this classroom, I found the kids tying another kid up with duck tape. "He wanted it!" the cried. I just kind of nodded and told them they couldn't move until I got a picture.
5) My students are no longer allowed to eat in one of my classes because they argued over a Nutella jar (out of which they like to eat spoonfuls) and it somehow ended up flying across the room while I was trying to teach.
6) They make marshmallow mustaches.
7) They take nicknames seriously and make very odd ones for their friends and classmates (which would be insulting to anyone else.)
8) Some students cannot go one day without drawing random inventions on my whiteboard. Other teachers, in walking by, have claimed the drawings look inappropriate. In that case, the student in question was drawing a basketball court.
9) The stories they tell.... which I shall not repeat!
10) One day, two of my students got a hold of my phone and changed my lock screen to a picture of themselves making duck faces.
If any of my students are reading this, keep up the funny stuff! Also, study... finals are coming up! For those of you who are not my students, enjoy the humor. Teaching is never boring.
Cassondra
1) One boy, who is super hyper and almost always unable to sit through a whole class period, managed to survive state testing... (for those of you who don't know, this is where students sit still for 5 mornings a week for approximately 4 hour stretches with 5-15 minute breaks in between). During break, though, he could get a bit unruly. One day, while they were drinking their juice and eating their granola bars, he began running around the room because of something another student had said. I yelled at him to stop because he was going to spill his juice. So he stopped, and, standing perfectly still, spilled his juice right in front of me.
2) This same boy, later that day while we were playing a game, managed to launch himself off of the desk he was sitting on and fly halfway across the room because he'd just scored his team a point. I literally turned around to pull the next question and when I looked back, he was sprawled across the floor inches from the whiteboard.
3) One girl, who is very small, just sat inside a locker before class one day and waved at me to prove she could fit. I took a photo.
4) I travel from one classroom to another over the course of my school day and the kids are always there before me since they have that same classroom for another class. One day as I arrived in this classroom, I found the kids tying another kid up with duck tape. "He wanted it!" the cried. I just kind of nodded and told them they couldn't move until I got a picture.
5) My students are no longer allowed to eat in one of my classes because they argued over a Nutella jar (out of which they like to eat spoonfuls) and it somehow ended up flying across the room while I was trying to teach.
6) They make marshmallow mustaches.
7) They take nicknames seriously and make very odd ones for their friends and classmates (which would be insulting to anyone else.)
8) Some students cannot go one day without drawing random inventions on my whiteboard. Other teachers, in walking by, have claimed the drawings look inappropriate. In that case, the student in question was drawing a basketball court.
9) The stories they tell.... which I shall not repeat!
10) One day, two of my students got a hold of my phone and changed my lock screen to a picture of themselves making duck faces.
If any of my students are reading this, keep up the funny stuff! Also, study... finals are coming up! For those of you who are not my students, enjoy the humor. Teaching is never boring.
Cassondra
Teaching
This year, I became a teacher. No, it is not my first year teaching, it is my third. But this is the first year I've been able to embrace it because this is the first year I've ENJOYED it. It helps that I have not been so crippled by fear and lack of identity that I can actually see beyond my own nose. It also helps that I have really good kids this year.
But finally, FINALLY, I feel like I know what I'm doing, or at least enough to go to work everyday with my head held high and not flinch when someone calls me an expert. Because the training they gave me did nothing to make me an expert. Nothing can quite prepare you for the great responsibility and joy it is to have young minds and hearts to shape and change.
Teaching is different every day. Each day, a child walks into your classroom having had experiences over the brief amount of time since you last saw them that you know nothing about. Some have lost relatives, others had fights with friends. Others just disappeared and you later hear they moved in with a relative you didn't even know they had. (I think I had one student for all of a week before he moved in with his grandparents.) Still others just had the best night of their lives. And all of them are sitting in a desk patiently waiting for you to impart unto them knowledge... yeah right! They're all standing around talking and laughing or crying and complaining or a combination of all of these and somehow your voice has to become louder than these fights or joys or simple hunger to drive a small bit of information into their brains.
But actually, I find the information driving to be less important that the character developing. I think teaching children to be honest and good-hearted people is much more important that teaching them how to write a sentence or what an adverb is. Still, it is telling them what adverbs and such are that allows me to keep my job, which is what allows me to teach them character and also build them up toward brighter futures. (Which will require both honesty and the ability to write a sentence, no matter how much they tell you otherwise!) See, I didn't say sentence writing was UNimportant, just less so. ;)
But it's not all heavy responsibility and attempting to bypass teenage drama. Some of my students are the most hilarious people. Others are poets. Still others are super helpful. Some just want to be noticed, and others just want to be left alone. Each of them is unique, a treasure hidden deep inside a small person who doesn't know how to let it out or if it's even safe to do so.
I have good kids, and they are mine, but really they are Yahweh's and entrusted to me for but a short time. They come with backgrounds that I couldn't even begin to imagine and, for the most part, worldviews that I just want to shake them out of. But beyond all that, deep inside, is the treasure that Yahweh placed there waiting to be discovered. Though I can see glimpses, my prayer for them is that one day they will be able to see it for themselves in it's entirety. That they will recognize their own value.
But finally, FINALLY, I feel like I know what I'm doing, or at least enough to go to work everyday with my head held high and not flinch when someone calls me an expert. Because the training they gave me did nothing to make me an expert. Nothing can quite prepare you for the great responsibility and joy it is to have young minds and hearts to shape and change.
Teaching is different every day. Each day, a child walks into your classroom having had experiences over the brief amount of time since you last saw them that you know nothing about. Some have lost relatives, others had fights with friends. Others just disappeared and you later hear they moved in with a relative you didn't even know they had. (I think I had one student for all of a week before he moved in with his grandparents.) Still others just had the best night of their lives. And all of them are sitting in a desk patiently waiting for you to impart unto them knowledge... yeah right! They're all standing around talking and laughing or crying and complaining or a combination of all of these and somehow your voice has to become louder than these fights or joys or simple hunger to drive a small bit of information into their brains.
But actually, I find the information driving to be less important that the character developing. I think teaching children to be honest and good-hearted people is much more important that teaching them how to write a sentence or what an adverb is. Still, it is telling them what adverbs and such are that allows me to keep my job, which is what allows me to teach them character and also build them up toward brighter futures. (Which will require both honesty and the ability to write a sentence, no matter how much they tell you otherwise!) See, I didn't say sentence writing was UNimportant, just less so. ;)
But it's not all heavy responsibility and attempting to bypass teenage drama. Some of my students are the most hilarious people. Others are poets. Still others are super helpful. Some just want to be noticed, and others just want to be left alone. Each of them is unique, a treasure hidden deep inside a small person who doesn't know how to let it out or if it's even safe to do so.
I have good kids, and they are mine, but really they are Yahweh's and entrusted to me for but a short time. They come with backgrounds that I couldn't even begin to imagine and, for the most part, worldviews that I just want to shake them out of. But beyond all that, deep inside, is the treasure that Yahweh placed there waiting to be discovered. Though I can see glimpses, my prayer for them is that one day they will be able to see it for themselves in it's entirety. That they will recognize their own value.
Friday, April 11, 2014
A Sense of Wonder
Hello! I know, I know, I haven't blogged in ages. I don't even know if anyone will read this, but I may as well write it, if only for the sheer joy of writing again. For writing is a wonder.
(Here we do what we in the writing field call "a transition.") Speaking of wonder, I was thinking recently about the sense of wonder that small children have when they first discover something. If you've ever hung out with a toddler who is just learning to talk, they want to tell you everything. They enthusiastically point out a small round bouncing object and shout, "BALL!" And we smile and nod and act all proud that they can, not only say the word ball, but connect the it with the object it represents. But really, we aren't all that impressed in the ball. (Or even the child if she is pointing it out for the FORTIETH time that day...) We brush it aside and move on, busy with our important, adult lives.
But what did we just ignore? Surely it isn't important to stop and look at a ball. After all, we've seen thousands of them before in our lives. We will probably see thousands more. And it is this, I think, that has caused us to be desensitized to them.
Because to the small two-year-old, the ball is new. He hasn't seen it before. Or if he has, he hasn't been able to communicate with you about it. He is ECSTATIC to share with you his brand new discovery that the small round bouncy object is a "ball" and to build a bridge between him and you using his new ability to communicate: language. And why not be so excited? It is exciting!
We could be just so excited. Yes, it may be the hundredth time we've seen that particular ball. It may even be the hundredth time the child has pointed out that particular ball. But maybe the child is seeing something in the ball that we, in our assurance that we know what "ball" is, have missed. A sense of wonder. For the small children are still young enough to marvel at the very thing called existence. And all the things we now take for granted. He or she embraces fully the new situation because, to them, everything is new. But everything can also be renewed.
For are not His mercies new every morning?
So maybe next time a small child points out a ball (or flower, or dog, or crayon) to you, you might join in their excitement, share in their sense of wonder and accomplishment in recognizing that yes, that is, in fact, a ball. That it, in fact, is.
(Here we do what we in the writing field call "a transition.") Speaking of wonder, I was thinking recently about the sense of wonder that small children have when they first discover something. If you've ever hung out with a toddler who is just learning to talk, they want to tell you everything. They enthusiastically point out a small round bouncing object and shout, "BALL!" And we smile and nod and act all proud that they can, not only say the word ball, but connect the it with the object it represents. But really, we aren't all that impressed in the ball. (Or even the child if she is pointing it out for the FORTIETH time that day...) We brush it aside and move on, busy with our important, adult lives.
But what did we just ignore? Surely it isn't important to stop and look at a ball. After all, we've seen thousands of them before in our lives. We will probably see thousands more. And it is this, I think, that has caused us to be desensitized to them.
Because to the small two-year-old, the ball is new. He hasn't seen it before. Or if he has, he hasn't been able to communicate with you about it. He is ECSTATIC to share with you his brand new discovery that the small round bouncy object is a "ball" and to build a bridge between him and you using his new ability to communicate: language. And why not be so excited? It is exciting!
We could be just so excited. Yes, it may be the hundredth time we've seen that particular ball. It may even be the hundredth time the child has pointed out that particular ball. But maybe the child is seeing something in the ball that we, in our assurance that we know what "ball" is, have missed. A sense of wonder. For the small children are still young enough to marvel at the very thing called existence. And all the things we now take for granted. He or she embraces fully the new situation because, to them, everything is new. But everything can also be renewed.
For are not His mercies new every morning?
So maybe next time a small child points out a ball (or flower, or dog, or crayon) to you, you might join in their excitement, share in their sense of wonder and accomplishment in recognizing that yes, that is, in fact, a ball. That it, in fact, is.
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