It does seem that teaching is a secret clubhouse of experiences that you can only understand if you have lived them. I am shocked by the number of people who say things like, “I think I’ll go into teaching because those students could certainly use my experiences in business.” Teaching isn’t something you can pick …
There’s something extremely fulfilling about being exhausted after giving yourself to service for a week. Whether that service is in giving yourself to hard work digging ditches or painting or moving for someone else, the fatigue of straining your physical body and mental capacity results in an tiredness that you just can’t get any other …
There came a point as we were digging the ditch for the power line to go in that there really was no better way to get dirt out unless you got on your stomach and dug with your hands. The red clay earth covered you as you dug deeper. It wasn’t until after the day’s …
I spent most of today in a 21 inch ditch running the length of a camp where we are working on a mission trip. The purpose of the ditch is to run a power line to a chapel that hasn’t had power in 40 years. As I looked at my clay-covered hands and the crew …
Having been released from the demands of 5 classes of reading, I’ve enjoyed the freedom to read from the long to read list that I’ve been building since January! Here are a couple that I’ve read that I’d highly recommend: Ender’s Game: I have to admit that I’ve never been into Sci-Fi, but I think …
Actually as teachers, you do have a choice. I know that there are so many curricular and classroom management decisions that are out of your hands, but you do have a voice and you do have a choice. When you concede and say there is nothing you can do, you are conceding your power as …
Having been in the field of teaching for the whole of my professional life, I am realizing that other fields are dealing with the same kind of issues as teachers and schools are. It’s the never-ending question of how to sustain engagement and what truly produces growth. Too often, youth ministries overlook this reality when …
It’s fascinating to me to find the number of people who are shocked by the movement of churches to meet in different locations like movie theaters, schools and bars. Maybe it’s the juxtaposition of two unlike places intersecting or negative personal experiences in the new location. I can’t say that I’m totally convinced that this …
If you think that you are the only one battling day in and day out (yes, I know it is summer, but I also know teachers and I know they haven’t stopped battling) for your classroom back, you’re in a bigger fight than you think you are. Within hours, social media sites buzzed with the …
You’re right technology is ruining students: The students threw away their notebooks and started blogs. These blogs became, in essence, open notebooks in which students were willing to learn in public. Students in one class put together a blog that was read by more than 8,000 people around the world. (How many people read your …
