Reflections on Legacy at 48

I turned 48 this week.  That means I have likely lived around half of my life, perhaps even a bit more.  Because I am also changing careers in a few weeks, I've been thinking a lot about the legacy I will leave behind.  The Bible talks about the brevity of life, comparing it to short-lived wildflowers and vapor.  Yet there are also references to what you do lasting for generations to come.  What does our short time on this earth mean?  How will things be different when you are no longer here?

Author Drew Dyck addresses something in his book Just Show Up that has stuck with me.  He talks about his early days with his wife and their discussions that they wouldn't lead ordinary lives.  They would "change the world."  He goes on to describe why that thought is not necessarily Biblical.  Most individuals to do not have the time or resources to "change the world" and are, therefore, not called to do so.  He suggests that living ordinary acts of faithfulness is what we are called to do and that if we all did that, it would, in fact, change the world.  We just wouldn't feel pressured to do it all by ourselves.  

I attend an Anglican church now, and one of my favorite parts of the liturgy is the post-communion prayer, which says, in part, "Send us out to do the work you have given us to do."  I love the plainness of that statement.  It's an everyday thing, not a big event thing.  If every day, I am doing whatever God has put in front of me to serve Him, those days and actions will add up to the legacy I leave behind.  This means I don't have to live a long life or accomplish something big to leave a legacy.  It means we can use whatever gifts we have to glorify Him and serve others at any age.

I'm the same age as Whitney Houston, Harvey Milk, Scott Joplin, and Curly (of The Three Stooges) were when they died.  I have lived the same number of years as James Clerk Maxwell (deep cut for the nerds). These people obviously have wildly different legacies, but what they have in common is that God gave them gifts (musical ability, intellect, comic ability, charisma) and expected them to use those gifts to serve Him and love their neighbors.  Not everyone has used their gifts for good - I'm also the same age Joseph McCarthy was when he died - but they all had that ability and responsibility.

Accomplishing something with your life does not have to come from living a long time.  I'm twice the age reached by James Dean and Biggie Smalls.  I'm 10 years older than JFK Jr, Flo Jo, and George Gershwin were when they died.  I've achieved eight years more than John Lennon, Edgar Allan Poe, and Lenny Bruce, and I've lived six years longer than Elvis Presley and Gilda Radner.  Think what we would have lost if they had waited until they reached middle age to start using their gifts.

The woman pictured here is Alice Ball.  She was a chemist and is most notable for having been the first woman and the first African-American to earn a Master's degree from the University of Hawaii.  She developed an oil extract that served as the most effective known treatment of leprosy until the 1940's.  She accomplished all of this early because she was 24 years old when she accidentally inhaled chlorine gas while teaching a class and died instantly.  It's a good thing she did not think she should wait until she was older to use her gifts.

On my birthday this week, I received a number of lovely notes from students.  Most of them were about the way I teach, which I appreciate a lot as I have worked hard to develop that.  The most touching one, though, was an email from a girl I haven't taught since three years ago.  I will protect her privacy by not telling you the details of what she said, but it began with "You have quite literally changed my life."  What she then proceeded to tell me were about conversations I don't remember but evidently led to her dealing with anxiety and medical issues I didn't even know she had.  I'm always awed and humbled by the influence teachers wield that we may not even recognize, and how simple everyday actions and conversations that aren't memorable to one person may be powerful for another.  Teachers aren't the only ones who have that, but we have more opportunities than others to exercise it.  

I know I have rambled a bit, so let me return to my main point.  Accomplishing something with your life isn't about waiting to do something big.  God's will is not out there somewhere, waiting for you to find it. It's about taking whatever gifts you have been given and properly viewing them as opportunities to serve God and love others as outlined in I Peter 4:10, which says "Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms."  

Do that each and every day for however many days God gives you, and the world will be better for having had you in it.  Your legacy will be the influence you have had on someone and the resulting influence they have one someone else, and so on.  

Community Service Day

"GRACE Christian School is a loving community . . . " is the beginning of our mission statement.  Because of that, we have our students reach out to the community in a variety of ways.

Within the school, we take care of each other.  If someone gets sick, we make meals for them (like proper Southerners do).  Teachers meet twice a week for prayer and once a week for a faculty meeting and multiple times if there are special needs.  Teachers have donated their sick days to staff members with long term illnesses.  We have held charity walks for members of our community to help them with finances, collected baby items for one of our teacher's nephews who was born just after hurricane Katrina and then arranged for the students to attend a funeral after that baby died a few months later.  When my cat died, I got sympathy cards from several members of our staff and one alumna.  GRACE is a loving community, and you experience it quickly and overpoweringly if you have a need.

We do not, however, want our students to believe that we only take care of our own.  We want the to recognize that, having been blessed by God, we have a responsibility to share our blessings and the  love of Christ with those around our community and around the world.  For that reason, we set aside two days each school year in which we empty out our upper school building for the entire day so that middle school students, high school students, and teachers can go out into our community for a day of service.

Let me first give a big shout out to the receptionists who have taken charge of this over the years.  Michele, Dana, and now Lisa have taken the enormous task of sending hundreds of kids to multiple places with multiple adults.  If you are a teacher reading this, you know what a hassle it is to plan a field trip for you class of 30 kids.  Imagine doing it with 330 kids (and not all to the same location).  This involves permission slip, money for the bus drivers, parent drivers and chaperones, grouping kids, figuring out which ones need to bring their lunches and which done, emergency information packets, medicine for the right kids to the correct adult.  It's crazy.  The work of this person is just as much a community service as the kids going out to do the work.  The students do a variety of things.

Middle School - Gleaning -  Our middle school students were taken to a sweet potato field, where they spent all day gleaning.  For those who may not know, gleaning is a practice established in Old Testament law.  Farmers were instructed by God to leave some of their harvest in the fields for the poor to harvest and eat.  The modern version of this the farmer harvested only one round of sweet potatoes and then has allowed ministries to come out and dig up more.  They are then bagged and taken to the food bank.  We had 122 7th and 8th grade students digging in soil!



Freshmen - Thrift Shops - We always send our freshmen to thrift shops.  We want them to see that other people live on less than they do and that new is not always better.  We want them to understand
that they can help in a variety of ways.  We divide them between With Love From Jesus, the Mabopane Foundation, and two Thrift 2 Gift Stores.  They do a variety of things, from sorting clothes to cleaning to decorating Christmas trees to organizing food to checking out customers.  Basically, they do whatever the store owners ask them to do.  I like visiting these sites because kids have usually found some strange, interesting, vintage item that they would want to buy themselves.  This shows they are gaining a perspective on the materialistic world they are soaked in.  In past years, many students have returned from these stores and organized their own food drive because they saw a greater need than they knew.




Sophomores - Service Homes - We want at least one year of their experience to include interacting with the people they are serving.  There are several homes or day centers in the area that deal with the mentally disabled, the elderly, or those transitioning back into normal life.  Since sophomores are at an age where they can interact appropriately, we send them to those homes.  They are able to have meals with the people, play games, have Bible studies, and generally get to interact.  Because of the personal interaction with people so unlike themselves, I believe it gives them a perspective on the world they might not otherwise get.  These can be some of the more difficult sites because they are sometimes seeing very difficult circumstances.

Juniors - Habitat for Humanity - We love helping Habitat.  Students often report this as their favorite year because they get to build something.  They get to see the end result.  Sometimes, we have been lucky enough to have the construction professionals tell us about the family who will live in the house.  Kids don't generally get to build things in their childhood the way they used to because we have safety-ed kids to death.  Putting them in a hard hat on a construction site, swinging a hammer (or using power tools) let them see the possibilities of being makers.

Seniors - Wherever We Can - This year, our seniors were split into two groups.  One group spent the day at the Salvation Army and another at Meals on Wheels.  I was unable to get to the Meals on Wheels crew, but I did get to visit the Salvation Army.  They put our boys to work in the warehouse and girls in their store.  It was great for them to get to see the variety of ways one ministry can help so many.  I hope when they hear the bucket bell ringers this year, they will want to stop and give.  One of my homeroom students was at Meals on Wheels, and while she reported some sadness at some of the circumstances she encountered, she also said, "I'm definitely more grateful for the life I have."  That awareness is the beginning.  We want them to take that awareness and gratitude for their blessings and pass them on to others.

As a teacher, I love our community service days.  I like seeing my students step out of their normal routine, move out in courage and faith, and serve others.  Thank you to all the ministries who allow us to invade your routine in order to open the eyes of our kids.

One other thought - Our elementary kids participate in a lot of service as well.  They just don't leave school for the day to do it.  They collect coats every year for the WRAL Coats for Kids campaign.  They make pillowcases for military members.  Their teachers organize activities for their classes to do.  I didn't want to ignore them just because this post was about the day we just had.

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.

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.

Yearbook Dedication Day - Post 2

As I have mentioned in previous posts, this year marks my 10th year doing the yearbook at GRACE.  We have grown from an 88 page book that was passed out in classrooms with dedication read in a faculty meeting to a 144 page book with a fine arts pep rally style event in which the dedication is revealed in front of our entire student body, faculty, and staff.

Order forms kept arriving right up to the last minute, and some were sold AS we were distributing books.  I survived this one, but it takes a team of people so I can end up.  A sub is assigned to my classroom for all of the day's class time.  There is no way everything could get done if I also had to be in class (although I used to do it that way).  The kids are in final exam review time, so I feel okay leaving them with their study guides and quizlets and notes for the day.

I start about 6:30 moving tables into "the cage" in our cafeteria.  The yearbooks have been sorted during the week into boxes for each grade, so it makes the set up a little faster.  This year, we had an NHS induction in the cafeteria at 7:15, so I stayed for that.  Then I had door duty (which is my favorite, so I didn't want to miss it).  At 8ish, I finished setting up all the middle and high school books and then ran down to our other campus to pick up any last orders from there.  Our two wonderful receptionists then take over by only e-mailing me the name and grade of anyone else who brings in an order (no need for the check at that moment - just get the book in the box).

Loading the boxes of books for the other campus was much easier this year because I traded cars with my mom the night before.  I don't know why it took me 7 years to realize that this would be easier with her SUV than my Buick, but it did.  Lifting the books off of the science department cart into the back of an SUV makes so much more sense the trying to slide them across the back seat of my car.  Getting them out of the SUV is INFINITELY easier than getting them out of the back seat of my car.

While I am doing all of this, my wonderful friend and technology genius, Diane Scro (who I may have mentioned a few other times) is setting up the gym with everything we need for the pep rally.  At one time, this consisted of one microphone and a speaker.  Now, it is a whole production with a theater backdrop, risers for the chorus, seats for the band, and a piano.

About 12:30, we start shipping the kids from the upper school campus to the gym.  We no longer fit in the gym, so it has been suggested that we split this into two events.  I can't do it because I feel that yearbook is a unifying force for our school.  It is one of the things that makes us "one school on two campuses" rather than two separate entities.  However, we do end up with about 800 people in our gym.

The pep rally involves performances and the announcement of awards, but it culminates with the presentation of the dedication.  This year, we finally dedicated it to someone I have been wanting to honor for a long time.  In a nearly unanimous decision, we decided to honor Zane Smitley, an incredible teacher and one of my best friends.  I can't believe we managed to keep it a secret.  Between kids on the staff knowing all year, his wife and children knowing since June, and him being right across the hall from me, it is kind of a miracle.  He even came into the lounge while I was sorting them and asked if he could look at one.  I thought I might have tipped him off when I told him he couldn't.

This was an emotional day because we have several people leaving our school that the arts department wanted to honor.  We bought some special engraved gifts and wrote letters to them.  We honored this awesome man.  We saw the last day of some of our seniors.  It is just a lot of emotion for one day.

After the yearbooks are distributed, the signing begins.  Several students asked me to sign theirs and I told them I would be happy to sign it tomorrow as I had no mental or emotional energy left.  I had to summon some emotional energy after clean up though because the first e-mail I received at the end of this day was from a parent who was "horribly disappointed" in the way her child's senior photo printed.  After addressing that, I came home and collapsed.  I was asleep when my mom called.  We traded our cars back.  Everything is back to normal for now.  Tomorrow will involve exam review, more signing, more errors being pointed out to me, and field day.  That is back to normal, which is what makes teaching kind of an adventure.

Reflections on Four Years of Teaching With Technology - Plateau and Progress

This is part three of a series on my school's one to one MacBook program.  It can be read on its own, but if you want to know the history, read the other two.

As always happens, the first year of a program is when people are the most excited and, therefore, the most invested in doing new things.  The increase you see from year zero to year one cannot be the level of increase you expect every year.  In order to keep increasing at all, there must be continued cheerleading, support, and training to keep the ideas new.  Most of us were really happy with how the first year went, but we didn't bring that same level of enthusiasm to the second year (maybe because we were just tired).  We also implemented a much needed Learning Management System that year, which was frustrating at first because there were some glitches in it.  Because of these issues, the second year was a plateau for us as far as using the technology as more than a replacement for what we had done previously.

Our wonderful tech team had read articles about schools that gave up on one to one programs after one or two years due to lack of real growth and were determined not to let that happen here.  Around the same time, we also hired a new media specialist, Laura (the wonderful) Warmke.  She is not only highly versed in what seems like every book ever written; she is also super with technology tools and driven to help you find out how to use them in your class.

Laura and Diane developed a great program for teacher to use as professional development.  It is called Level Up, and it is awesome.  Diane and Laura write "missions" for us to accomplish.  Some of them are as simple as watch a TED talk about education and comment on it in our discussion board.  Others are as complex as classroom flipping, instituting a badge system in your class, or having a skype session.  All the missions are counted as done when you have responded on a discussion board. 

Let me tell you some of the reasons this program is awesome:
1.  You can choose your own professional development.   We aren't all sitting in the same room learning the same tool.  We look at the available missions and choose the ones that will work best for our style and our classroom.  It enables people to be developed at their point of comfort with where they currently are.
2.  You are being cheered on rather than put upon.  The tech team gives you a badge in the teacher's lounge for every mission you complete.  They love talking to you about your missions.  You get great ideas from reading other people's uses on the discussion board, which allows you to incorporate the same tools in your class in more than one way.
3.  It is modeling.  They aren't just telling us to use something.  They are using it to deliver the message.  It makes me want to have missions in my own classes (next year perhaps).
4.  There are prizes.  Prizes are always motivating, no matter how old you get.  At the end of the quarter, we have drawing for gift cards.  The more missions you have done, the more times you name is in the hat.
5.  It introduces you to tools you had never heard of before.  One mission we had this year was to use a tool called Canva - a very cool graphic design tool.  I've had kids use it for projects, and I will never make another bulletin board without it.  I would never have heard of it without this program.
6.  It encourages teacher input.  Many times during the year, a teacher will stumble upon a new tool and say, "Hey, you should have a mission for that.

This program has gotten us off our year two flatline graph and put us back on the upward slope.  Another thing Laura does is meet with every teacher every quarter to discuss how she can help you take your tech integration to the next level.  Because of these discussions, my 8th graders have begun creating a website (which future 8th graders will finish), and next year, my 8th graders will be blogging for the world to see.

I've said it before.  I couldn't go back to teaching the old way.  Now that I see what kids are capable of doing with the world of knowledge at their fingertips, I would never again feel like I was doing my job as a teacher if I didn't give them that opportunity.  Every new tool we teach them i just another way they can be academically and spiritually equipped, challenged, and inspired to impact their world for Christ (which is our school's mission statement).

There will be one more post in this series - what I wish I had known when this all started.

Surprised by Kids

After 16 years of teaching, one would think a teacher wouldn't be surprised by much that kids do.  After all, by now, I should have seen everything a kid might think of to do.  One would be wrong.  I am constantly surprised by what kids think of. 

This is sometimes, as you might expect, a bad thing.  New and creative ways to cheat and plagiarize happen pretty frequently.  That is not, however, what this post is about.  Sometimes, the surprise is something silly.  For example, a few days ago, one of my students was turned around during a demonstration that required students to do the wave.  I said, "turn around" without saying her name, and everyone turned around.  That was a surprise that made me laugh for a full minute.  That is also not what this post is about.

This post about the surprising generosity of students displayed by a few high school girls.  Every February, our school has a Hoops for Hope event to raise money for the Kay Yow Cancer Research Fund.  It is an amazing event with silent auctions, guest speakers, a ceremony to honor cancer survivors, and (oh yeah) basketball games.  We pink out the gym, and several thousand dollars a year are raised for cancer research.  Occasionally, we have a girl who donates her hair for kids who need wigs, but it has always been an elementary an elementary school student and is usually not more than two kids. 

I will never be a person who can write a thousand dollar check for something.  I give what money I can where I can; but as a teacher, that is never going to be a life changing amount.  For this reason, I look to I Peter 4:10 - "As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace."  Before the context police (of which I am a proud member) come after me, I am well aware that this passage is about spiritual gifts.  I do not think, however, that it is out of line with scripture to use it as inspiration for using any gift you have to help others.  One of the gifts I have is O negative blood.  Having the universal donor blood type, I believe that is a gift that can be used to serve others, so I donate as often as the Red Cross allows. 

One of the other things I have his healthy, thick hair.  For that reason, I grow it out and cut off ten to twelve inches every three years or so.  This summer, I was approaching the right length.  A couple of months before it gets to the right length, it starts driving me crazy.  It is heavy and in the way.  A pony tail all day every day starts to hurt.  I had decided it would be the right length in October, and I couldn't wait for October to arrive.  Then our special needs coordinator said, "You should do it at Hoops for Hope."  Hoops for Hope takes place in February.  I gave her my You-Don't-Know-What-You-Are-Saying look and said, "I don't know about that.  Do you know how long that is?  I'd cut it today if I could." 

Over that weekend, I decided that I would issue a challenge.  The ice bucket thing was finally over, so we needed a new challenge, right?  I e-mailed every middle and high school girl in our school that has really long hair.  I told them that I would wait until February if some of them would do it with me.  Otherwise, I was going to go ahead and do it in October as planned.  I honestly thought I would get no response.  We have a lot of nice kids, but there is a special relationship between high school girls and their hair.  Also, super long and super straight hair is style right now.  I thought I would send this e-mail and then get to cut my hair in October. 

Here's the surprise part.  Less than an hour after hitting send, I got an enthusiastic reply from Grace -   "I'd love to do it. I'm in."  A few hours after that, I got an e-mail from Molly - "I'm super nervous, but sure."  Mary Mac was next.  Then came Kim and Mia, both nervous, but totally on board.  I also had two maybes.  By the time it was done, I had six high school girls.  Adding that to my own donation, we would have about 5 feet of hair to send to an organization called Children With Hair Loss. 

In the months that followed, their excitement grew.  We had to extend Kim because she was playing Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz.  Mia had to drop out, but our receptionist jumped in for her on the spot.  We did it together, and it was actually a lot of fun.  We prayed over the cut pony tails together and prayed for the little girls who would get them.  (By the way, it was the girls who suggested the prayer time.)  Kim brought me eleven inches of her hair just two days after the play was over.  On Friday, I packaged it up and sent off almost a pound of hair, amounting to 5ft and 4in to be made into wigs for little kids who have lost their hair for medical reasons.  This doesn't seem like much for those of us who can easily grow our hair back, but for a little kid who must attend school with no hair, this is a blessing.

Thank you lovely ladies for surprising me with your sacrifice.  You've blessed a little girl, used your gifts in service to others, and shown your love for Jesus and for others.


Kim's hair during the play.  It now comes just below her shoulders as she cut off eleven inches!

Thanksgiving for Educators

In honor of Thanksgiving week, I thought I would take some time on this blog to thank many of the people who have shaped my educational journey.  Whatever I am as teacher, I owe to these people.  I feel certain I will forget some, so please charge that to my head and not my heart as it is 7AM on a Monday morning.

Mrs. Doane 1st grade) - Even though I was almost as tall as you were, I looked up to you because you showed me that you not only loved us, but loved teaching us.

Mr. Tom Dorrin (6th grade) - You taught me that I didn't have to take myself so seriously.  I know other people thought your teasing me was terrible, but I loved every minute it of it.

Mr. Jim Freeman (8th grade science and PE) - You taught me that you can be serious about important  things and silly about others.  My favorite memory of you was this conversation:
"Beth, you throw like a girl."
"But Mr. Freeman, I am a girl."
"Well, that's just something you're going to have to overcome, now isn't it."
I still can't throw, but my memory of this conversation teaches me that I don't have to use something as an excuse just because it is true.

Mr. Danny Watkins (7th and 8th grade history - homeroom for many years) - You taught me that if you teach what you love and show how much you love it, others will love it too.  As an adult, I stood in a museum with tears running down my face as I looked at the crown of Empress Alexandra because of what I learned from you.  You are the reason I look forward to convention every year.

Mr. Don Sandberg (9th grade science) - You taught me the power of curiosity (mostly by putting up with all of my questions).  You weren't afraid to treat a freshman like they were capable of deep thought.  As a result, I wanted to think more deeply just to impress you.  I now teach the same subject you taught me, and I think of you often.  Sometimes, I ask myself, "How would Mr. Sandberg teach this?"

Mr. Jim Barbara (physics)  - I teach with a photo of you hanging over my desk.  When I hear people say they don't like physics, I know it is because they didn't have someone like you for it.  You taught me that this very difficult subject was also really interesting and fun.  You made me look forward to last period every day.

Mrs. Catherine Klehm (college chemistry professor and science education adviser) - You taught me the structure of teaching, without which I would just be flying by the seat of my pants.  Thanks for teaching me how to evaluate textbooks, how to plan a lesson, and how to convey bigger issues than just the factual information.

Dr. Stephen M. King (college government professor and briefly my pastor) - You let me enroll in your class even though you weren't sure why a science education major was taking a higher level government class.  I think of you often (particularly when the Supreme Court issues any kind of opinion).

Mr. Stephen Matthews (my first principal) - I wouldn't have survived my first two years without your grace, humor, and humility.  No matter how badly I had blown it, you always had a story about a time when you had done the same thing.  You made me feel like I could always be a better teacher than I was.  I'm glad I didn't throw up on your shows at our interview because I couldn't have asked for a better first principal.

Mrs. Teresa Alsbrook (my first principal at GRACE) - Thanks for taking a chance on hiring me when you had no reason to (other than thinking I would be a good fit).

Mrs. Kathie Thompson (the elementary principal at GRACE) - Thank you for assigning the yearbook to me when I had no idea what I was doing.  My life changed that day in ways I would have never dreamed.  Thanks also for bringing me to camp every year and showing what love of children really looks like.

All my school friends (teachers, librarian, IT people, administrators, etc.)  - You inspire me every day with your energy, imagination, love, passion, and willingness to try new things.  Harry Wong said, "Great teachers aren't born.  They are made by the teacher next door."  To all of you, thanks for everything you have taught me about teaching.

Community Service Day

Today is Community Service Day at GRACE.  That means every student in our high school was somewhere sharing the love of Jesus by serving our community, and our middle school students packed meals for Stop Hunger Now.  Since I am the yearbook adviser, I spent the day driving from place to place, photographing our kids and teachers as they served.   This is one of my favorite parts of being a yearbook teacher. 

One of the reasons I love this part of my job is the timing.  Ask any teacher, and they might tell you (if they are brave) that there reaches a point in the year when they begin to wonder what else they might have been good at or that they sometimes ask the question, "Why do we have students at this school?"  That part of the year comes at a different time for everyone, but for me, it is usually early October.  First quarter is drawing to a close, and I start feeling like Charlie Brown's teacher.  Getting this day at this time reminds me that we really do have great kids at this school.


The other reason I love this is because this generation that is often entitled serves well.  They don't choose this, but they do it cheerfully.  They have fun with each other and with the people they serve.  We usually get very positive feedback from the organizations we serve about how nice our kids are and how they would love to have them again.

I also love that kids get to know about some of these charities they would otherwise not have known about.  It shows them that there are people out there serving all the time.  It shows them that there are people who make service their lives.  The last time I got to serve with them, I discovered something about one of our organizations that I did not know - that they go through several thousand plastic bags a week.   When we returned home, we started collecting them to deliver to this ministry.  We have all learned about charities we never knew before.


Perhaps my most favorite part of the day is watching the kids interact with their teachers.  They have fun serving together and really enjoy each other.  This is always one of the hallmarks of GRACE, but it is even more fun to see in situations outside the classroom.  It happens at other times too, but there is something exceptionally special about seeing it in the context of service. 

Being a yearbook teacher means I get to see our teachers and kids on their best days.  I get to be there for the things they are proud of.  On days like today, they give me hope.


Please support any of the great charities we served today.
- Stop Hunger Now
- Thrift N Gift
- With Love From Jesus
- Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC
- Threshold Club House
- Reality Ministries
- Guardian Angel Thrift
- Mabopane Foundation
- Christian Life Home
- Lanier Home for Ladies
- Mercer Home for Men
- Habitat for Humanity
- Interfaith Food Shuttle

Teaching - It's Not Just for the Classroom Anymore

One of the hats I wear at GRACE is yearbook advisor.  This means I show up in a lot of places.  In addition to taking photos in classes, I have been to games, matches, meets, club meetings, pep rallies, dances, NHS and Beta Inductions, art events, theater dress rehearsals, chapels, dance recitals, fundraisers, choral and band concerts.  You name it, I've photographed it.

I was at one of these events this weekend.  The City of Raleigh puts on an awesome artistic event each fall called ArtSpark.  Artists from all over town and students from various schools buy a square of space on a street in the heart of downtown Raleigh.  From Friday night to Sunday afternoon, people use pastels to make amazing designs and pictures in these squares.  There are fashion shows and concerts and a variety of other artistic activities.  Our students look forward to this event every year, and they have a ball crawling around on the street, bringing their creations to life.

It occurs to me that students learn more about art at this event than they possibly could in the art room.  Our art teacher, Elizabeth Walters, is amazing and brings out artistic abilities in our students they didn't know they had, but the most impressive thing she does is arrange actual experiences for them.  ArtSpark isn't easy for her to arrange.  Neither is entering them in competitions, arranging for field trips to art museums or ArtSpace, another great downtown Raleigh location.  Her life would be much easier if she only taught in the classroom, but she knows the value of an experience like ArtSpark.  The kids get to see actual artists produce things they haven't even imagined.  They get to see that there are other people interested in the same things they are.  The four hours they spend on the street is worth weeks of classroom experience, which is why they are terrified any year rain threatens to cancel this event.

Of course, Mrs. Walters is not the only teacher providing students with learning outside of classroom hours.  Our school is filled with opportunities for students to find, develop, and use their gifts.  Trust me.  I've photographed most of them.  We have a student council, a real one, not just one that looks good on your transcript.  Our student council leaders, Mr. Whelply and Mrs. Gill, care deeply about teaching these students to find and use their leadership skills.  Our students plan their own dances (with guidance, of course - We're not crazy.) and our chapel services.  The public speaking class speaks publicly, not just in their safe little classroom.  Our AP Biology teacher, Mr. Smitley, actually takes students to the beach to test the water, the organisms, and the environment because he wants them to get their hands dirty.  Our physics students build crazy things, like hover crafts.  Our English students tweet about what they are reading and participate in online forums.  Today, they have traveled out of town to see a play because they are reading it in class, and it will be more meaningful if they see it acted out.

All of these wonderful and enriching things mean lots of time from teachers.  One of our math teachers was at school helping students until 5:30 last night.  I haven't even mentioned our elementary school teachers.  Imagine what it must be like to wrangle a million second graders (okay, it probably just feels like a million) at the zoo!  Above and beyond is not even a phrase we use here because it is the norm.

What teachers do inside the classroom is important, but what they do outside the classroom is meaningful.