My Weirdness - Part 4 - Happily Single

In my late twenties and early thirties, this scenario played out countless times.

Friend or parent of student:  "Beth, how old are you?"
Me:  "Thirty.  Why, who do you do want to set me up with?"
Friend or parent of student:  "How did you know?  He's a great guy; you'll love him.  If only he didn't have (insert deal-breaking flaw here)."

People mean well.  I know they do.

I'm sure they do.

I think they do.

Maybe they don't.

Maybe they are just living under the illusion that a person must be married to be happy.  Forget about whether two people are in the same place in life or share the same values or want to date someone or would even be compatible.   "We know single people of different genders," they say, "and we cannot stand for that."  This ranged from public school students wanting to set me up with their currently imprisoned older brother to a teacher friend who wanted me to date her alcoholic neighbor.  "He's great," she said.  "I just wish he were a Christian."  Really?  You thought the person's lack of faith was an afterthought, hardly worth mentioning until the end of this conversation?  Shut up, please.

Okay, this rant is over.  Here's the deal. Back then, I actually was looking.  I really did think God's plan for my life was to be a wife and mother.  As often happens, however, God led in another direction (at one time in my life I thought God's plan was for me to be an astronaut, but I was wrong about that as well).  I was about 31 when I finally felt that God was impressing upon me that I was to remain single.  This was more freeing than you might think, and the peace that came from it let me believe that it really was God and not me just giving up.  I have been happily single ever since.

I'm not going to say I am never lonely, although I will tell you that it is seldom when I am alone.  I'm not going to tell you I don't have normal human desires.  I certainly do, and just like any other person attempting to live a Godly life, I must lay those desires before the Lord.  I'm not going to say that there is never a time when I think it might be nice to come home to someone at the end of the day.  Certainly, when I am particularly tired or sad or angry or even happy, it would be lovely to have someone to share that with.  (And, yeah, Valentine's Day is just a day when you want to go to bed on the 13th and wake up on the 15th because you can't even go to the grocery store without an assault of cultural stupidity.) None of that, however, is the hard part of being single.

The hard part of being single is that no one* thinks you can be happy being single.  No one believes that the only thing I regularly have a hard time doing for myself is fastening a bracelet.  No one believes that virginity isn't really that difficult.  No one believes a person can live alone without being crippled by fear.

People, God equips you for the plan he has for your life.  I have been in training to be single since the day I was born.  When I was growing up, my dad's job took him out of town frequently.  That meant that we were home without an adult male most of the time.  My mom never acted like she thought that was dangerous.  I was never taught to equate being alone with being in danger.  My dad also always involved the entire family in repair projects, so I never learned that I needed someone else to solve problems.  I was a dork in middle and high school (and some would say ever since then as well), so I never dated.  I never learned to depend on a relationship for emotional fulfillment.    I watched girls date guys they hated because they thought it was better than not dating.  I never learned to believe that I was incomplete without a man.

This post is supposed to be about teaching, so here's how it applies.  One of the great things about being an adult dork is that students like it.  They tend to think I am cool for precisely the reason that I am authentically a dork.  Because of that, I have the opportunity to influence students on a daily basis.   Some of that influence is intentional and overt, but some of it comes from just living my life in front of them.  When they see that I am not sitting in a corner pining away for a man to "complete me" (stupidest line in romantic movie history, by the way), I have influence.  I hope that I teach girls that they don't need to date trash just to be dating.  I hope that I teach boys that they are not the saviors of their girlfriends.  I hope that I teach kids that marriage means too much to treat it lightly.  I hope, most of all, that I teach students that following God's plan (rather than following cultural expectations) is the only way to live.

*When I say no one, I really mean very few people, but it doesn't sound as good in the sentence.

The Heisenberg Principle of Education

One of my biggest pet peeves is when scientific principles are co-opted for other purposes.  "Social Darwinism," for example, bears little resemblance to Darwin's observations.  Einstein's theory of relativity is not meant for you to have whatever opinion you want and then say, "It's all relative."  However, I am about to use Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle as a means of explaining a teaching phenomenon.

First, the science.  Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle states that the more precisely the position of some particle is determined, the less precisely its momentum can be known, and vice versa.  In other words, if I know the location of an electron with certainty, I cannot know it's velocity.  If I know its precise velocity, I cannot know its location.  The reason this is true is that in order to measure a precise location, one must use some kind of measuring device that will affect the velocity of the particle.  The same is true for measuring the velocity.  In the time it takes to measure velocity, the location of the particle will have changed.  Electrons even have the weird habit of behaving differently when we measure them than they do when we aren't.  The act of measuring (or even observing) a thing changes it.  

What, you may ask, does this have to do with education?  I'm glad you asked.  Teachers spend most of our year just doing our thing in our classes with our students.  Every once in a while, however, we are observed.  It could be a prospective student; it could be our administrator.  This week, GRACE is being visited by a team for the purposes of accreditation.  We will have people in and out of our classrooms for a couple of days.  

I have told my kids that I have no intent of showing off or faking anything for anyone, and I don't.  The lesson plan I have set for tomorrow is the same as it would have been whether the team was coming to visit or not.  I printed it out in a bit more detail because I tend to leave out the parts that only I need.  No matter how much I intend to be myself, however, I know that there will be some differences.  I have been observed enough times to know that I will probably talk a little faster than usual and second guess everything I say.  Students, if your other teachers are doing that too, please don't hold it against us.  It isn't our intent to lie; it's just that the act of observing something changes it.  If you believe I have actually put on a false show, tell me.  Be respectful and private about it, but please tell me.  I want to know if I am giving you that impression.

The Olympics, YouTube, and Teaching Physics

I have been teaching science for eighteen years now, and I have taught physics for fourteen of those years.  During that time, there have been four Summer Olympics as well four Winter Olympics.

In my first five years of teaching, I kept a blank tape in my VCR (yep, that's how long ago we are talking).  When something happened that could be used to demonstrate any concept I taught, I hit record.  This tape contained the launch of the space shuttle, several olympic events, a few commercials, even a recording of the time Tulsa's weather man had laser eye surgery live on the air.  I used this tape for a long time because visual demonstrations of physics being used provide meaning and relevance to learning.

Then, in 2005, the greatest thing that could ever happen to education happened - the invention of YouTube.  It wasn't intended for that.  In fact, it was created as a way of archiving news footage for public watching (or as an online dating service, depending on which of the founders you listen to).  The internet being the modern equivalent of the Wild, Wild west, people decided they would use it
however they wished and began uploading everything from cat videos to Star Wars parodies.  Somewhat slowly, colleges began to see the power of posting lectures online, and YouTube provided a convenient place to do that.  Smart phones and apps gave people the ability to upload anything from anywhere, so we now see almost every aspect of life posted on YouTube.  I even repaired my shower by using a video from the Home Depot You Tube Channel.

In the past few years, YouTube has become my "go to" source for science demonstrations that are too dangerous or expensive to be done live.  It has also become a source of illustrating science topics.  When I am doing my lesson plans, I go to the site and type in the topic of the day.  Whether it is the Doppler effect or chemical bonding, I can always find an animation that will help a topic make more sense to my students.  Sometimes, I can't remember how I taught without it.

This post is being written one week into the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.  I just went and searched the term "Rio Olympics 2016" and received a return of 3,180,000 results.  As a physics teacher, this is amazing.  I can show angular momentum using a perfectly synchronized dive from the China team, Newton's third law of motion by showing Katie Ledecky crush her 800m freestyle, or the impulse
momentum theorem by comparing a Simone Biles "stuck" landing with other gymnast who took that extra hop or step.  I can even teach chemistry by explaining why the pool water in Rio turned green.  By the way, there is a lot to be gained using the winter olympics as well.

What I used to do in a clunky way with a VHS tape that I had to fast rewind to the right point in between each class, I can now do at the speed of thought.  It can happen on the rabbit trail if a student makes a connection I didn't expect.

I haven't even mentioned the YouTube channels that provide education on purpose.  There are some amazing resources, among my favorites are Crash Course and Khan Academy and Discovery Education.  There are also some of the great shows, like Modern Marvels and How Its Made.  These are also great resources for review and engagement.

Technology gets criticized frequently for its potential negative effects on education.  Reports often focus on attention span, distractibility, and students not being taught basic information because they can just Google it.  Those are certainly issues that need to be addressed, as teachers have always needed to adapt to the impact of any cultural change.  Like any tool, the effectiveness comes from how it is used.  I would encourage all teachers, no matter the subject, to use YouTube daily.  Before long, you will have the encouraging experience of your students sending links to you.  That's when you know you have inspired learners.

The Teacher Next Door

"Great teachers aren't born.  They are made by the teacher next door." - Harry Wong

This week, I was writing an e-mail to my pastor in which I asked for prayer for my friend, Cheryl.  In the e-mail, I referred to her as the teacher next door.  After typing that sentence, I realized that the only information he would get from that phrase was her location at work.  If I had been speaking to another teacher, they would have understood the depth of relationship that phrase implies.

Then, it occurred to me that this relationship may be unique to the world of education.  Lawyers and accountants may not feel particularly close to the person in the next office.  Architects may not ask the neighboring architect for help with a difficult design.  An engineer probably can't communicate a request to another engineer with just a facial expression.  In teaching, however, the "next door" relationship is incredibly meaningful.

The "teacher next door" is the first person you see when you when you exit your classroom.  Depending on the set up of your school, this may be the person across the hall or the person with an adjacent wall.  The architecture of my school gives me three (an incredible blessing that should be considered in school design).  The teacher next door is the person you vent to when a class has driven you crazy.  He is the person you laugh with in the hall.  She is the person you seek advice from when "that" parent calls.  She is the person you can make eye contact with from the hall, and she will know you need her to watch your class while you run the restroom because you feel nauseated without you have to use any of those words.  It is a powerful bond.  The depth of this relationship means, of course, that when one of you is in pain, you will hurt more for them.  It is worth that risk, however, to have that person in the place you will spend most of your time and most of your heart.

If you are in the unfortunate position of not liking the people nearest to your classroom, you should be very intentional about forming a close relationship with someone in your school.  You need this person.   If you are fortunate enough to have a good relationship with the teacher next door, you should thank God for that blessing.

CBL - My First Attempt - Epic Fail (Post 1 of 2)

Last year, I had the interesting experience of experimenting for the first time with a Challenge Based Learning project, also known as a CBL.  My experience was, to put it mildly, an epic failure.  We accomplished little, and my students learned little.  I hope that I learned a lot because I am about to try it again.

For those who don't know, a CBL is a project in which students solve a real-world problem.  They are required to communicate, collaborate, think critically, and think creatively.  My experience last year was a failure on every level.  Let me start at the beginning.

Step 1: Present the Challenge - I already had a physics project related to our chapter on electricity, so I thought I would replace it with a CBL about electricity.  I brought in a guest speaker, our IT director.  He had lived in Haiti for several years, and he shared his experiences with them about inconsistent power delivery.  He shared how it was really important for a family to keep their refrigerator running to avoid food spoilage and to keep fans running to blow off disease-carrying insects.  I only had nine students, so I kept them as one group.  I told them we would split into two groups if there were two viable ideas that came out during the brainstorming time.

Step 2:  Begin Brainstorming - Houston, we have a problem.  As my students began to make suggestions, I heard things like:
- "Steal electricity from the Dominican Republic"
- "Go to war with Cuba, and take electricity from them."
- "Let America solve it."
- "Electric eel tank" (I thought he was joking when he brought it up, but he was quite serious.)
- "Tap into a volcano for geothermal energy."

I had hoped that we were just getting the silliness out of the way, so I set a deadline for some serious guiding questions (part of CBL) and suggestions for real plans during the following week.  Then I began hearing from other teachers.  One of them said that a physics student had come to her, distressed that Miss Hawks was trying to get them to "solve the energy crisis."  Huh?

Step 3:  Reboot - Apparently, what I had thought was clear was not clear.  I sent the following e-mail.













Hoping we were at least now clear on the problem, I reset some dates.  We started over.

Step 4:  Communication and Collaboration
Our school schedule is different on Wednesdays because we have chapel services.  For that reason, I have physics the last period of the day.  Since it is harder for them to pay attention to me, I try to make project presentations, work days, and videos on Wednesdays.  For seven weeks, every Wednesday was a project work day.  They could use it for research, collaboration, figuring out timelines, or actually building something.  For the first three weeks, it was silent in my room.  I don't mean it was kind of quiet.  I mean it was exam-time-graveyard-is anyone here today quiet.  These were nine people who were supposed to be collaborating.  At the end of the third week, I asked them about it.  "You want us to talk in class?" was their response.  I told them that most people, when given a project work day, did talk about what they were doing and what they were going to do.  It got a little better.  I started hearing some murmurings about something with a lawn mower motor, so I considered that progress - until the following Wednesday.  One of my students showed up with a bag full of lemons and a pile of wires.  He sat at the table, stripping the insulation off of the wires.  When asked what he was doing, he said, "stripping wires."  Some of the others were baffled because they had a plan with a lawn mower motor that had nothing to do with lemons.  Some were baffled because they hadn't even known there was that plan.

As a teacher, it was naturally my first instinct to jump in and solve this for them.  I knew that wouldn't be best for them and that they needed to have this bizarre conversation, so I wrote a blog post about not helping just to keep myself from getting involved.

Step 5:  Execute Your Plan
As we got further along in the project, I asked the students what their plan was for building this generator device.  "Wait, what?  We have to build it?"  I reminded them that while we were having the electric eel tank / war with Cuba discussion, I had said several times that I didn't think we could do that as a class.  I had told them we would be building their idea, not just having an idea.  They collected some money as a group.  On the last day of the project, one of them had attached a two-inch solar panel to the world's smallest fan.  Another brought in a handheld steam generator, which lit a 10W light bulb.  Needless, to say, I felt like my experiment with CBL was a bit of a failure.

Step 6:  How to I Grade This?
Despite the obvious failure of this attempt, I didn't feel like I could just chuck the entire experience.  I needed to give them some kind of credit for what they did do and, more importantly, require them to reflect on the experience.  I created a list of questions based on those four C's I mentioned earlier - Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, and Creativity. (Apparently, I can't attach a document to this post, so comment if you would like my list of questions.)  They had to take a hard look at themselves.  If they gave it some honest, deep thought, I gave them credit.  If they gave the answer they thought I wanted, they lost points.  I don't know how this will impact them in the future, but I know that John Dewey said, "We do not learn from experience.  We learn from reflecting on experience."

My next post will be more hopeful.  It will tell you what I learned from this experience so that it can go better this year.  We start on Friday, so I will keep you updated.

The Week of Too Much

We've all had the week of too much.  We have too much to do and not enough time.  We have to much stress and not enough sleep.  We do a lot of complaining about the week of too much, but we get through it.  We don't die.  The world doesn't stop spinning on its axis, and we realize that we are not as weak as we thought.  That lesson then must be learned again by having another week of too much.

The week before Thanksgiving break is often the week of too much for our students at GRACE.  No teacher wants to ask them to hold information in their heads while their brains turn to mashed potatoes and they slip into a tryptophan coma, so we mostly plan their tests during the week before Thanksgiving.  They worry and complain.  They stress themselves, their teachers, and their parents out.  They feel like they are going to die.   But you know what?  They don't.

Just like we don't die when we have a week of too much, middle and high school students also don't die.  They come out on the other end, realizing that they are stronger than they thought they were.  This is a valuable and important lesson, and it would be wrong for us to rob them of it by giving them what they say they want.  It is important to go through stressful times because they train us for more stressful times down the road.

Last week, my students got to hear a veteran from Iwo Jima speak the day before Veteran's Day.  One of the things he said that stuck out to me was about a time near the end of his training.  He was dropped at an unknown location and given the address of a different location.  He had to get there.  They provided no help and no rescue.  This probably sounded mean to the students who were listening, but I thought about how prepared he was for the same scenario should he encounter it in Japan.  It seems mean that me give our students a lot of tests / projects in one week, but the reality is that they will be better prepared for those times inevitable to adulthood than they would be if we didn't.

No one likes to see their kids stressed, but a certain amount of stress is needed.  It is needed to prepare their brains, their stamina, and their energies for the future.  Chronic stress is bad, but brief periods of acute stress are actually necessary for building strength.  Support your students through the week of too much.  Listen to their complaints and empathize with them; but do not take away the valuable stress they are experiencing.  If you do, they will fail during their adult weeks of too much.

Mission Statement Impossible

I don't remember if public schools have mission statements.  If they did when I was teaching in one, it certainly wasn't stated often.  The private Christian school I teach in now states it all the time and in many places.  Aside from the website, it is also talked about in meetings, devotions, paperwork, and brochures.  For a while, it was printed in six inch letters on a framed poster in the hallway, illuminated with art lighting.  This is our mission statement:

GRACE Christian School is a loving community that spiritually and academically equips, challenges, and inspires students to impact their world for Christ.

As a reader, that may not seem like a heavy statement.  It is only one sentence, after all.  It could be printed on a coffee mug.  However, if it is your mission, it is actually impossible.  Think about what it means.  Our school's goal is not only to prepare students for their academic careers by teaching them the material they will need for college or careers, but we are also supposed to challenge them academically.  On top of that, we are to inspire them academically so that they will want to learn now and for the rest of their lives.  That's just the academic part of our mission.  We are also supposed to equip, challenge, and inspire them spiritually.  This is not a small thing.  We are supposed to live as examples, teach them about God and interpreting scripture, teach them to apply the Bible to their lives and the material they study, and inspire them to impact their world for Jesus Christ.  On top of that, we have to be in community and loving while we do it.  This is a heavy responsibility to carry on a daily basis (no wonder we are all so tired).

Here's the part I think I'm actually qualified to do alone - Academically challenge.  My training and experience to this point have given me the skills to challenge most students on most levels.  Given that I just used the word most twice, maybe I'm not qualified to do that part alone.  I know I can't academically equip them alone because I can't teach everything.  We probably are qualified as a group to academically equip them, but not as individuals.  I guess that means it is good we have each other.

As for inspiration - that happens through magic I think.  I don't really mean magic; I just mean that whatever causes inspiration isn't something I can plan.  God uses things I can't predict to light a spark.  Most recently, a parent told me that a project I assigned the kids three years ago (one that I didn't consider particularly important at the time) has led to their daughter pursuing a science career.  That doesn't mean I don't work hard at trying to inspire my students, just that I can't guarantee that anything I do will make it happen.  

As for our being a loving community - ask anyone who has ever gotten sick or injured at GRACE.  Our people rally with meals, fund raising, visiting, and whatever help may be needed.  We laugh with each other, cry with each other, enjoy each other, pray with each other, and just generally do life together.  That is our loving community.  

I haven't yet addressed the spiritual part of our mission.  That is because only God can accomplish the spiritual equipping, challenging, and inspiring.  Again, we may work hard at planning chapel services, mission trips, community service opportunities, and the Biblical integration of our lessons; but we cannot turn that into spiritual inspiration.  Only God can do that.  We can using challenging words, but only God turns that into a challenge in their hearts.  As teachers at GRACE, we MUST lean on God because our mission cannot be fulfilled in human power.  We hope our students see us pursuing God to fulfill this mission and, thereby, follow that example.  In the end, that is how we spiritually equip them, by showing them our dependance on Him.

Student Blogging - Experiment in Public

After I started blogging for real last year, I came to realize what a valuable tool this kind of reflection is.  Each week, I choose some piece of teaching life and really think about what it means to me.  I did this before, but it was hit or miss random thoughts and usually while I was driving.  Now, I try to figure out what I really want to explore through writing.

The fact that other people read my reflections pleases me almost as much as it confuses me.  For example, one day two weeks ago, my number of page views in Portugal jumped from 4 to 54 in one hour.  What happened?  (If you are one of the 50 Portuguese readers, please comment below.)  I love checking the stats, not just for the number but for which posts people are reading and where people are reading.  I like thinking about the fact that my experience as a teacher might lend any kind of insight to other teachers (or even students and parents).

Last year, I decided I wanted my students to have this experience as well.  I want them to reflect on the things they are learning in all of their classes.  I also think it fits well into some of the changes that are happening in education.  If you remember my post called The Poster By My Desk, you know that one of the ways we are rethinking teaching is Talk to Strangers and another is Real Work for Real Audiences.  Student blogging seems like the perfect way to do this.  I believe they will write better if they know it is being read by people out in the cyber universe.  I believe they will reflect well if they are trying to convey it to someone else.

Once per week, my 8th graders will be assigned a blog by one of their teachers.  It won't always be me, but they will be writing about something they are learning, and this makes me happy.  I may be a science teacher, but I know the value of writing and am so happy they will be doing this.

In order to keep all their blogs collated, I have compiled a list of links to their blogs.  If you would like to read the blogs of 8th grade students and encourage them with comments, you may find a list of all their blogs at this blog.  This has all gotten a little too meta for me because I am using this blog to link you to another blog, which is a list of 61 more blogs.  I've never used the word blog this many times in one day - even when I ran a work shop on blogs.

My Annual Life Changing Moment - Part 2

Warning:  Long Post
In my last post, I gave a rundown of what happens during the week at RFKC, but it would have been a really long post if I had also told you why these activities add up to life changing moments for both the campers and the adult volunteers.  In fact, it isn't really possible to convey all of its meaning; you just have to experience it.  I will describe some of the things that stand out most in my mind.

Meal Times
I'm starting with meal times because it recently hit me that it was particularly special at this camp.  First of all, kids can choose whatever they want.  If they want to eat a plate with nothing but bread, that's fine.  If they want to eat yogurt at every meal, we take along enough for that to happen (and also make Wal-Mart runs if needed).  I once had a camper who wanted a "salad."  When asked what she wanted, she said bacon bits and cheese.  Mind you, this wasn't a salad topped with bacon bits and cheese.  It was just a bowl of bacon bits and cheese.  This may sound insane to you; but for these kids, it may be the only choice they get to make about their food.

At this branch of RFKC, we have the best cooks ever - I mean ever.  At the last camp I was at, the food was fine.  It was camp food, made by state park staff.  At this particular camp, however, it is some of the best homemade food I have ever eaten.  It didn't strike me how spectacular that was until this summer.  These kids are getting a home cooked meal, made with great love, three meals a day, for a week.  Our kitchen staff doesn't get to interact with the kids as much as the rest of us, but they may be responsible for what the kids will remember the most.

One more thing that is important about meal times.  We talk while we eat.  We talk a lot.  It is the most important relationship building time we have at camp.  Counselors and staff ask the campers questions about their favorite food, favorite camp activity, favorite story of the day.  At breakfast, we ask what they are most looking forward to.  At dinner, we ask them what was the most fun.  We ask questions, and we listen to their answers.  Kids in general feel like they aren't listened to, and I would imagine that is even more true of kids in the foster care system.  These meal time conversations are truly important.

Overcoming Obstacles
I mentioned briefly in the last post that we have activities designed to help the kids overcome obstacles.  In my regular life, I recognize the value of competition and kids learning lessons from losing a game.  At camp, we turn this totally on its head.  These kids have already learned a lot of those lessons.  They already know that life isn't fair.  They don't need even more of that at camp.  We want them to realize that they are capable of overcoming challenges and doing great things.  For that reason, activities are planned that allow for this.  Almost every year, we have a rock climbing wall at carnival, and you wouldn't believe what a great opportunity this is for courage building.  We usually have one event with a large inflatable slide.  Some of the younger kids might be a little scared or need their counselor to do it with them; but by the end of the evening, most of them are doing it on their own.  We have archery and darts, which provide opportunities for improvement with each shot.  We have horses, which also provide the opportunity overcome fear.  Two of the horses are capable of carrying two riders; so if a kid needs their counselor to ride with them in order to overcome their fear, that is doable.  This year, one girl had a hard time mounting, even with their counselor on the first day.  She had to have a long talk with the horse to make sure he liked her before she would get one.  The next day, she rode it by herself.  The pool (to which they go every day) is another great time for this.  Two years ago, I had a six year old girl who couldn't swim when she got to camp.  Our coach patiently taught her what to do.  As she practiced, I held my arm under waist or legs.  She got a little less scared each day.  The next year, she showed up ready for the pool and was in the 9 foot deep end by the end of the week.

Woodworking is getting its own paragraph because it is my favorite.  The first year I went to camp, I had a much different image in my mind.  I pictured the little snap together kits you get at Lowe's with maybe some tiny nails and girl hammers.  Was I ever wrong.  Woodworking takes more supplies and electricity than any other camp activity.  You wouldn't want to walk near it with a headache because you hear dozens of hammers, drills, and power screwdrivers.  Kids build bird houses, bug boxes, treasure boxes, and chairs.  You read that right; they build their own chairs that they can actually sit in.  Why is woodworking so valuable?  Because it is so tangible.  When a kid goes home with a chair they built themselves, they have evidence that they can do something bigger than they thought.  When they take home a treasure box, they have a place for THEIR stuff.  That's big for kids who sometimes have to take their stuff from place to place (some of these guys might live in three or four places within a year).  The other reason this is important is that building things is therapeutic.  Do you know how good it feels to hammer a nail?  You can feed all your frustrations into that hammer.  A few years ago, I had a girl who was not feeling camp yet.  She was sitting at woodworking, but she didn't want to build anything.  Our wise woodworking instructor gave her a block of wood, a hammer, and a handful of nails.  She started pounding them randomly into the wood.  After four or five nails, she was smiling.  After a few more, she practiced getting them in straight.  After a few more, she was ready to build something.  The following year, she came with a list of things she wanted to build.  Talk about a moment that changed everything.  That woodworking instructor met her exactly where she was.

Scripture Teaching
While this is a compassionate ministry and not an evangelistic one (an important legal difference), we are able to teach as much scripture as we want.  If you grew up in church, think of our program times as VBS on steroids.  We have object lessons, drama productions, scripture verse break down, teaching time, and lots and lots of singing.  The importance of this is pretty obvious, but there is one story I want to share from this year.  It actually goes back to last year.  One of our teachers told the kids that the best way to learn a scripture was to read it every day.  Our theme that year was the Good Shepherd, so we had spent quite a lot of time in the 23rd Psalm.  This year, a seven year old boy approached the teacher and said, I can say the whole thing.  I've read it every day since last year.  He stood up in front of everyone and quoted the entire thing without stumbling or stopping to think at all.  There was no one at home to tell him to do it; he just did it.  God is doing work through His word.

Pictures
As you know, I spend most of year taking pictures.  Because our kids are wards of the state, I was never allowed to take any at camp.  There is a camp photographer, and that is the only person allowed to take pictures.  As a counselor, I had to be content with taking "mental pictures."  The kids go home with a book of photos, but adults do not.  This year, I began my transition into the role of camp photographer.  This not only gave me a broader view of all the parts of camp, but it cemented the importance of the kids having the pictures.  We have some campers who are siblings, but their circumstances prevent them from living together.  We take a picture of them together and give each of them a copy.  During the year, they have at least that picture of each other when they can't see each other.  They also get a picture of themselves.  We all took for granted that we had school pictures (you know, the ones your parents ordered and sent to grandparents or hung on the wall), but the instability of our campers lives means they may have few or none of those.  If they come from age 7 to 12, that means they get six years of pictures for themselves.  They also get photos taken with grandma and grandpa, their counselor, and their cabin mates.  These are important relationships, so it is valuable to take home reminders of those people.  They also get ten or twelve pictures of themselves doing the things I have talked about already - riding horses, climbing rock walls, swimming in the pool, etc.  Like woodworking projects, these pictures provide them with tangible reminders of all the experiences they have had.  For a camp whose goal is to create life changing moments and positive memories, these pictures provide permanence to those memories.  Former campers who are now adults have said that they still have all their camp photo albums.

I know this post has been crazy long (to be fair, I did warn you).  It doesn't scratch the surface of all things that keep people coming back to camp year after year.  Once it is in your blood, you can't imagine a summer without it.  If you want to know more or donate, visit the RFKC website.

My Annual Life Changing Moment - Part 1

I didn't post last week because I was at camp and out of contact with the outside world.  It's not just any camp; it is Royal Family Kids Camp, which exclusively serves children who are or have been in the foster care system.  Their mission is to "create life changing moments" for kids who have been victims of abuse or neglect.  Of course, the reality is that it also creates life changing moments for the adults who volunteer.  This post is going to be a nuts and bolts kind of post because it will be too long if I also comment on the meaning of everything.  I will post later about what it all means and what keeps unpaid adults doing this year after year.

When you first attend training, you come to realize that this is not like other camps.  There are, in fact, more adults than the number of kids we will take.  That is because of a rule called "the two deep rule," requiring the presence of two adults any time there are kids around but also because it takes an awful lot of people to pull of the scale of what we do at camp.

Sunday - We arrive on Sunday and begin setting up.  Counselors deck out their cabins and prepare their camper gifts so that the kids will know they have been prepared for.  They make signs with the camper names, the meaning of their names, and scripture they can associate with their own name.   Ladies from the sponsoring church have made quilts for the kids, and those are ready for them when they get there (A boy one year told us that he loved his quilt because it felt like security and love).  Other staff members get the dining hall ready (more on food in another post), get the program area ready with a full theater set and sound system, get the pool prepared, get the hundreds of activity boxes ready.  We take about sixty-five adults, and it takes everyone from lunch time until bed time to get camp prepared.  We meet and pray.

Monday - In spite of getting "everything" ready on Sunday, there is more to do on Monday morning.  The nurse, a couple of staff members, and Grandma and Grandpa are taken to the place where the kids are registered and checked in.  The counselors finish their welcome signs.  From the minute the kids arrive at camp, we want them to know how much love and thought has gone into preparing for them.

The kids arrive on a bus or several buses, and every adult is gathered, waiting for them, hooting and hollering like crazy people.  Counselors hold up their signs so that their campers can find them.  Returning kids find the people they remember from the year before and give them safe side hugs.  Connections from a year earlier are re-established instantaneously.  Counselors take their kids to their cabins while staff members carry their stuff.  We have a quick introduce everybody meeting and have lunch.  Then, camp really starts because the girls head for the pool, and the boys head for activity time.  With the exception of the kids who are hydrophobic, if you ask ANY kid at camp what their favorite thing is, they will say the pool.  They swim EVERY day and twice on Tuesday.  Our lifeguard is a newly retired PE teacher and swim coach, and I have watched her teach many frightened children how to swim.  It is very cool to watch her help them overcome their fear and have a life skill in just a few days.  Those same kids come back the next year ready to jump in the pool.  Activities are widely varied - everything from spin art to serious woodworking (like building a chair with power tools), from fuse beads to fishing, from archery to sand art, from horses to bracelet making.  There are a few dozen more activities, and any kid can choose to do any one of them.  One of the parts of our camp culture is giving the kids choices, and the activities are intentionally set up for that.

Tuesday - Tuesday starts early.  We take the kids to the pool BEFORE breakfast for the annual tradition called "The Polar Bear Swim."  It is the only time everyone is at the pool together at the same time.  It is called Polar Bear because we pour bags of ice into the water.  I can tell you as a physics teacher that the change in water temperature wouldn't be measurable, but the kids believe that the water is cold.  They earn a certificate for completing this, even if they only put in one foot (remember, some kids haven't learned to swim yet).  You wouldn't think this piece of paper would be motivating, but there were kids this year who were telling the new campers that they would get a certificate for doing it, and they were very excited.  The remainder of the day is a "normal" camp day, meaning meals, VBS style teaching and songs, more pool time and activity time, and an hour rest after lunch.  We often also have a serious tea party for the girls on Tuesday, which they come to in dress up clothes, sit at tables with table cloths and candles, have great tea party food - it is seriously grown up.  This year, we had five princesses (Snow White, Aurora, Anna, Elsa, and Tiana) attend.  Don't fear - the boys had their thing too.  Reps came out from the Bow Hunters Association and gave the boys real archery lessons.  There is some kind of evening activity.  This year it was water games, which was great because Tuesday was a scorching hot day this year.

Wednesday - Wednesday starts normal (i.e. breakfast rather than the pool),  and the day is reasonably normal until the evening activity.  This is when we have our "Big Event."  About 30 more adults come down from the sponsoring church to help with this event.  It is always carnival like, but this year's theme called for a medieval style Royal Faire, with face painting and cotton candy.  From "jousting" to bocce to an inflatable gauntlet - from a trebuchet to mini-golf to a 24ft rock climbing wall - the games are specifically chosen to give the kids challenges to overcome rather than an opponent to beat.  Watching a kid make multiple attempts to climb a wall and finally make it to the bell is awe inspiring.

Thursday - Thursday is EVERYONE's Birthday.  When I first started doing camp, the birthday party happened only in the evening; last year, it began with breakfast.  I think we hit the best distribution today by starting it with lunch.  The kids each got a big cookie of their own to decorate after their pizza lunch.  We sang to them and had them stand for each month of the year.  They got their presents after dinner, and the evening activity was playing with their presents.  Boys were out playing catch with the counselors, using their brand new footballs.  Girls were stringing bead jewelry with their counselors.  We have campers who have never had birthday parties or gifts (one even said that his mom told him at 5 that he had become too old for birthdays), so a birthday for everyone is a critical part of every RFKC.   Because of this (and because it is the final night), Thursday night can be a little emotional and is the most difficult night to get them into bed.

After the kids go to bed on Thursday, a lot of the stuff that went up on Sunday has to start coming down.  The staff packs up the activities and woodworking, counselors take down SOME of the cabin decorations (I used to stick them in their luggage to find when they got home).  Some of the set is taken down, and some of the dining hall.  We don't want them to wake up to a bare campground, but there isn't time in the morning to pack up everything.

Friday - Friday morning brings the wrap up of all the Bible stories and drama.  We send them to the pool one more time while we pack our stuff.  Then, we help them pack their stuff.  We meet one last time to watch a camp video and have a little "graduation ceremony" for our kids who are aging out.  Every camper goes  home with a photo album that has at least twenty photos from the week.  This is when there are a lot of tears, from both campers and adults.

We take them back to the church they left from and do a little presentation for their foster families.  We watch the video again and get them all checked out.  There are usually quite a few tears associated with this time as well.  Then, we go home and have a welcome home dinner, watch the video one last time (we won't ever get to see it again, so this is not too many times even though it may seem that way).   We share stories and pin people who have completed their first, fifth, tenth, fifteenth, or twentieth year (and yes, there are people who have done that).

I called this post My Annual Life Changing Moment for a reason.  There is a reason that I have done this 8 years, and some have done it for 20 years.  It matters.  This post would be extremely long if I shared all of that, so I will save that for my next post.

World Blood Donor Day

My blog is usually about eduction, but Sunday June 14th is World Blood Donor Day.  This merits a rabbit trail of its own. 

When I talk about donating blood, I get a lot of reactions, from awe to horror, depending on the audience.  There are still a few people who think it is a way to make money.  Don't get me started on that one because I look down on that practice.  It is liking taking your coat to the Salvation Army and offering to sell it to them.  Don't sell what you should give.

My students ask a million questions because they don't understand the process or why it is needed.  I talk to them about it A LOT in the hope that they will remember and want to donate when they are old enough.  I also have a wall in my room decorated with pretty much everything the Red Cross has ever given me.  For this blog post, I will treat you as a student answer the questions that they usually ask me.

Why? - Because there are people who need blood.  According to the American Red Cross, there is a need for blood in the US every two seconds with the average transfusion requiring about 3 pints.  A single car accident may require up to 100 pints.

How often do you give?  I give as often as the Red Cross allows, which is every 56 days (8 weeks).  That amounts to six pints per year.

Why so often?  I have type O negative blood.  This is the only blood type that can donate to anyone.  If a person is in immediate need with no time to type their blood, they will be given O negative.  This means my blood type runs out faster than other types.  Since there is no such thing as artificial blood, it must come from people. 
  
What do they do?  You go in and read some stuff.  They take you in a room and take your blood pressure, pulse, and temperature.  You answer a bunch of questions to make sure you aren't at risk for AIDS or hepatitis or West Nile Virus.  They prick your finger to test your red blood cell count.  Assuming you are clear on all those things, you lie down on a bed.  They put a needle in your arm.  The needle is attached to a tube that leads to a bag.  You just lie there for a couple of minutes while gravity does its thing.  They put a bandage on your arm.  Then they let you eat cookies.  From start to finish, it takes less than an hour.  The actual blood giving part takes less than 10 minutes.

Does it hurt?  Only for a fraction of a second.  When the needle goes in, I wince a little.  That's it.  The finger prick is actually more painful than the needle, and it's just a quick jump.

Do you get sick or dizzy?  Rarely.  If I am well hydrated before giving, I often feel no different at all.  A few times, I have been extra tired for a day or a little dizzy if I stand up to fast.  I've never had any real problems from it.

How old do you have to be?  The Red Cross allows people to start donating at the age of 17 (or 16 if a parent is present).  I started giving at school when I was 17 because I wandered by the gym when they were having a drive.  The early you start giving, the more likely you are to stick with it.  However, it is never too late to start.

Do you give at blood drives?  I have, but I prefer donating at the permanent Red Cross location.  They know me and my mom.  They even commented that we were there earlier than usual when we went last week.  I have found also that they are more likely to work with me at the permanent location if my vein rolls or is hard to find than they have been at blood drives.

Since beginning at age 17, I have given 96 pints of blood with only a few interruptions due to international travel and college student eating habits.  I am on track to reach 101 pints by my 40th birthday.  The need is highest during summer and holiday times because of increased traffic accidents during these times, but these are also times when donations are lowest.  If you are eligible, let me encourage you to give one pint this summer.  If you try it once, you will find that it is easier than you thought and might be encouraged to do it regularly.  Only 10% of the eligible population donates.  I once read that if that were raised to 11%, there would never be a shortage.  You can make that happen if you donate, take a friend with, and encourage others to donate.  I'm going to make it even easier for you.  Click here to schedule your appointment.

If you have questions I haven't addressed, you can read Blood Facts and Statistics from the Red Cross, which provides a lot more detail than I have here.  

One other thing - There are other collection organizations besides the Red Cross (the Red Cross is responsible for 40% of donations in the United States).  I have never donated at any of the other places, so I can't speak to the donor experience in them.  I do know people who have given directly to Rex Hospital and have had positive experiences with that.  It's not important where you give.  Just give.


 

Human at the Other End

There are a few posts that I have saved for summer so that no student or parent will read and think I am referring to them because of something that happened earlier in the week.  These are topics that may have been inspired by specific events but that have them valuable to sharing generally, not just as a vent for a specific event.  This is one of those posts.

Your keyboard does not have feelings.  It is made of plastic and wires that exist at room temperature.  If you hit the keys a little harder, it doesn't respond with a cry of pain or recoil in fear.  It can't read your message and tell you that you are being a little harsh.  Your keyboard dutifully reflects whatever you have typed into it.

Your keyboard doesn't feel the words you type, but the person at the other end of your e-mail, tweet, or post does.  Our culture has become desensitized to the impact of the written word.  You can blame this on a myriad of things.  E-mail was probably the first thing to separate us from our words; handwritten letters were often thought through more carefully as you felt the words more profoundly when you were writing them.  The over-sharing that came with social media has probably played a role as we now consider tact to be a sign of falseness; if we don't share absolutely everything, we aren't being real somehow.  I personally hold the smart phone most responsible because it has removed even the slightest amount of lag time between the thought in our brain and the send button.  There are probably more factors as cultural change rarely results from one thing. 

Whatever the cause, the result is a sort of verbal ADHD based on whatever feeling we have at the instant we have it.  If you child comes home upset about something that happened at school, you fire off your first thought to the person you immediately hold responsible.  You don't take the time to think through the idea that your response to a hurting child is to hurt someone else's child.  You don't see the expression on the face of your target like you would if you were actually talking to them.  If you did, you might not say the second or third sentence because you would realize your first sentence had already had its impact. 

I began my teaching career when e-mail was first being used as a method of communication with the teacher.  At that point, most people still treated it with the formality of letter writing.  You got a lot of context and explanation.  This is no longer the case.  We have shortened our e-mails to the length of a couple of tweets; and because of that, we have removed any of the softening words that we previously included.  What has not changed is that there is a still a human receiving your message.

You may have to address difficult issues with your child's teacher.  You may have to do it by e-mail because circumstances don't allow for a drop by.  You may to do it relatively quickly, depending on the situation.  Just remember that you never have to do it so quickly that you don't think one thought: "There's a human at the other end of this keyboard." 

EdCamp

Before last year, I had never heard of an EdCamp.  Now, I can't seem to stop hearing about them.

We are preparing for the second annual EdCamp at GRACE because last year's was awesome.  Yesterday, I was listening to the Talks With Teachers podcast, and one of the guests answers was that all teachers should try EdCamps.  Today, I saw a tweet about EdCamps.  Here's the gist.

An EdCamp is a way of having professional development at your school for your teachers by your teachers for free.  Each teacher signs up to teach for 30 minutes on a topic they are interested in.  Someone makes a schedule, and then teachers choose which sessions they will attend.  At the end of the day, we have a big group meeting to reflect a little on what we learned.  Because the presentations are being done by your colleagues, you know you will have good speakers (not always the case with purchased professional development speakers).   Because the speaker has chosen their own topic, you know it is something that is happening in your school (or at least that this teacher wants to happen or hopes to do).  It also means you won't be afraid to speak up or ask them questions, like you might be with a presenter who is a stranger.  These are a few shots from our EdCamp last year.  I apologize for the photo quality.  They were taken by someone else with their phone so that we could tweet them immediately.  She was also trying not to be intrusive, so she took them standing at the door.

Last year, I did a presentation on Animoto, but I attended three awesome presentations on: Virtual Field Trips with Google Maps, Blogging, and a Forum on 20% time passion projects.  This year, I will be presenting on Blogging myself, and I will team present with my friend on our two epic failures with Challenge Based Learning.  One of the things I love most about this is that we were encouraged to share our failures.  The two I believe I will attend this year are about Flipping the Classroom Effectively and Using Quizlet as a Teaching Tool.  I am very excited about both of these.  I got to choose them from a list that had about six choices in each slot.  My only regret about this year is that since I am presenting at two, I only get to attend two. 

This is worth doing at your school.  Even if you start small with only a few of your braver teachers, you should do it.   Give people at least a few to choose from in each session because they will buy in more to a topic they have chosen.  Some teachers think they have nothing to share, but this is never true.  We have to share the good things that are happening in our classrooms.  It is the way we grow and the way we encourage each other.  One of my favorite ones from last year was a forum.  The presenter didn't have to prepare that much.  She just had to say, "Let's talk about this thing I am passionately interested in trying."  We all benefited from it.

Seriously, do this at your school.