Sunday, November 21, 2010

Thankful for a reminder...

Sometimes I seem to get lucky... or fortunate... the Calvinist in me suggests that the powerful hand of providence hits me in the face! But every once in a while I will stumble on something... generally an idea or a reading... that will reignite a powerful message of something I have previously learned and considered. Kiernan provides the welcome gift this time through her delightful and insightful blog post on John Henry Newman's Fifth Discourse from The Idea of a University. Like Kiernan, I too was obsessing over the real purpose of liberal education during the spring semester of our junior year. Also like Kiernan, the rug was pull from beneath my feet with Newman's answer and exposition as to what "knowledge for it's own sake" truly means. I have come to despise the way our modern minds think of education. This is a disease that can hardly be blamed on my soulless, utilitarian seventh graders. Proponents of vocational, useful, and efficient education seem to have won the cultural battle over the definition and purpose of education. For now I guess this makes me more determined to present a different perspective regardless of whether twelve year olds can grasp a different concept. Yet as for me, a good reminder of the purpose of liberal education and the development of a philosophic habit of mind was a welcome encouragement against the discouraging tide of utilitarianism in education. And yes, I still love my job for no matter how hard it has been, teaching the subject I love to great kids make each day an exciting and a rewarding challenge.

Additionally Kiernan and Julie's recent posts about their Hillsdale experiences were great reminders of my own experience at school. Settling into life post-Hillsdale, while not easy, has been smoother than expected. I miss the people even more than I thought I would and hope to see many of them sooner rather than later. But it is not like there is too big of a void post-Hillsdale. I am thankful for the new changes in my life including my job, Nichole, and a new church family. This will be the first time away from my family for the holiday season. For some of my Hillsdale friends, returning home for Thanksgiving and perhaps even Christmas, did not happen every year during college. I remember feeling bad for them considering that if I were in their position it would be a bit difficult not being with family. This year it is my turn to be away... I am certainly thankful for close friends in the area here to spend Thanksgiving with. But it will not be the same. Maybe that is ok... but still... it is a weird adjustment.

We have school Monday, Tuesday, and a half day on Wednesday this week. Break will be so wonderful indeed. A Blessed Thanksgiving to you all!

Monday, October 11, 2010

Done with church shopping... finally...?

I think I have finally decided on a church. It is located in Cambridge which is awesome although my reasons for deciding on this particular church are more meaningful I hope. Gone are the days in which I had either a five minute drive or a five minute walk from church. It is important that I get plugged into a church, however, and that I find something other than work to throw my time and energy into.

Going to church in Cambridge will help ensure that I make it to downtown Boston at least once a week, which is a good thing. It is a beautiful city and every time I go downtown I am more convinced of it. After church I met Bethany for lunch here:




The breakfast burrito was delicious!

The long weekend has been good to catch up on rest and relaxation although the UM/MSU game on Saturday did not do anything for my blood pressure. I did go to the high school game on Friday night. Although we got killed by our opponents, it was fun to hang out with some of my students at the game. They also talked me into going to the 7th and 8th grade football game the follow morning which was fun because we won! Starting tomorrow we will push ourselves to Thanksgiving. I am starting to realize what 200 school days actually means. At this point I can barely stand to think about what it will be like come next June. But we take it one week at a time...

Saturday, October 2, 2010

My new look...



This is me as a teddy bear. Apparently, several students have named this infamous teddy bear after me. Now hopefully they do not blow it up...

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Boston is finally starting to feel like home...

It has been nearly two months since I moved to Boston. Time continues to fly. The school week is so compacted... it hardly ever seems like you leave because you are there for 10 hours a day and then you come home to work more on the things you failed to get done at school. But... as of now, I love it. Being a teacher has been great, especially because every day I feel a little more adjusted and comfortable in the classroom. Controlling a classroom has been the biggest learning experience. I wish we had smaller classes but the reality is that we do not. I am proud to say that I can now quiet my students down and get (mostly) their full attention for the majority of the class. Each day is different though and some days certain sections are better than others. Either way, I've learned to appreciate my students as fundamentally good kids who sometimes make poor choices. In that sense, they are no different than the rest of us...

On Saturday Ian and Bethany and I visited the Harpoon Brewery before wandering around the Boston Common and Public Garden on a beautiful unseasonably warm day. We continued our wandering to an awesome used book store. The city, for the first time, began to feel like home even though I do not know it as well as I want to someday. It will take time and more wandering I think before I really begin to feel comfortable. I like living in big cities but they do take their adjustments. All in all... a fantastic way to end the week and get ready for the next one.

Monday, September 6, 2010

Two Week Update!

Two weeks have flown by. They tell me, just like they did at college that time only goes faster. That worries me as I look back to how quickly my time at Hillsdale went by. There is much to say and write but for the sake of time I will try and cover the big things.

I have 120 students in the seventh grade this year. As the only history teacher, I will see all 120 students every single day. For history and science they are divided into two sections of boys and two sections of girls. We give the four sections nicknames from the major Boston sports teams. The Bruins and the Celtics are the girls and the Red Sox and the Patriots are the boys. I am also a home room teacher which means from 8-8:25am, 30 of the students begin their day in my classroom. I take attendance, enter lunch counts, listen to announcements over the PA system, and have a 15 minute "Character Education" lesson. Character Education is required every single year at the school and varies by the grade. This year we work on virtues and organization. Students are given a planner that they need to fill out every week. They must also list their weekly goals and their parents must sign at the end of the week verifying their participation in their child's education. The top line of the planner is reserved for teacher use... more on that to come...

The rest of my day follows like this:

8:25-9:12am- Patriots History
9:14-9:59am- Celtics History
10:00-10:45am- Red Sox History

10:45-11:15am- Students return to their home rooms for recess... I would then monitor recess with the other 7th grade home room teachers if recess is outside. If recess is inside, I would monitor my home room.
11:15-11:45- Lunch in home rooms
11:45-1:00pm- Planning period

1:00-1:45pm Bruins History

Mondays and Wednesdays I monitor the late room from 3:30-4pmish for kids whose parents are late in picking them up
Tuesdays and Thursdays I monitor detention from 3:30-4:30pm

All in all my day is not bad. I enjoy my classes and my students. The Red Sox have proven to be the most difficult class to control. I am thankful to work in a school where structure and discipline are enforced. Students are first given a warning if they refuse to follow instructions. After the warning the teacher is allowed to request the student planner in which they would write down and sign the violation committed by the student. We call this an A-Plan. Because parents must sign their child's planner every week, this gives parents an opportunity to see how well their child is behaving. Three A-Plans in a week or five in a month is a visit to the principal's office. Some violations are automatic visits to the principal including disrespect or other behavioral problems. Some violations are automatic A-Plans including forgetting a book to class, chewing gum, or failing to turn in homework. The uniform policy is also enforced daily and students can be given an A-Plan and a letter to their parents if they fail to comply. For the boys it is a constant reminder to tuck their shirts in and wear belts. For girls... it is far more difficult. Skirts must be no more than two inches above the knee. If a teacher questions the length of the skirt, the girl is sent to the nurse's office for measurement. If her skirt is too short, the nurse gives her a pair of pants from the uniform bank. Uniform checks are randomly administered in home rooms but can be done whenever the student is at school. The uniform policy extends beyond clothing too. Shoes must be plain brown or black tennis or dress shoes. No hair dye, jewelry (girls can wear a pair of simple stud earrings with no design), or nail polish. Boys can wear shorts until October 1. Pants or skirts must be a plain khaki color. Tops are a burgundy polo. Undershirts must be white. Sweaters or pullovers must also be burgundy.

I was not sure how I felt about school uniforms before this year but in two weeks of teaching I am already sold. Because we are a charter school, we have both low and high income students. Labels are distracting and can often reveal which students are well off and which ones are not. Because labels are always forbidden this takes away a serious distraction from the classroom. The purpose of the uniforms is to avoid drawing negative attention to yourself. Students attention should be on academics, not on the clothes they are wearing. Although this seems like a little thing, you'd be surprised how many students attempt to push the limits. Teachers are constantly reminded to enforce the uniforms because if we give just a little bit of ground on the uniform policy, students might be tempted to push the limits in other areas as well.

For the most part, my students are great. Even the Red Sox have settled down some since the first week. It was somewhat of an adjustment for me to learn how to control a class. I was quickly thankful for both a school that uses discipline and rules and an administration that backed me up as a teacher 100%. When one of my students clearly disrespected me in front of other students, he was given an immediate one day in school suspension with no questions asked by the principal. The student also apologized for his disrespect. Although the system has its downfalls, Mystic Valley provides more structure than many public schools do. I cannot imagine teaching in a school district that would not employ a system of discipline. Any sort of control in the classroom would seem impossible, especially for 7th graders.

On the flip side, we encourage on a 4:1 positive to negative ratio at Mystic Valley. That means for every correction, we give four positive comments. This can be very difficult on some days, but it really works. Kids respond much better to positive comments. You can even use a correction as a positive for others. For example, if you praise a kid for sitting up straight and paying attention class, and then you notice the other kid next to him who was slouching suddenly straighten up because you praised the other kid, you should also praise the kid who straightened up. That way you never have to use a negative comment and you can give yourself another positive comment. This might sound crazy at first... but we have found that especially among younger kids, they respond to praise better than they do criticism. I have also found this attitude helpful in my interactions with others, even the guys around the house. It is better to praise and lift up than to tear down and criticize.

My seventh grade class is going very well. I am attempting to teach the history class differently than a bunch of names and dates and facts. Rather I am trying to get them to see History as a "story" of which they are major part. The majority of the readings are coming from primary sources... which is different than simply relying on textbooks and group projects. Some people wondered if this was too early for seventh graders. Thus far things are going well as I am consistently impressed by the intellect of my students. They turn in homework every night and have already been given two quizzes and a test. I feel that seventh graders need to be challenged and that if you set the bar high, you will at least see students trying to hit it. If you set the standard low, you probably won't get too much out of them. Our students are used to working hard and achieving wellI see no reason why I should not expect much out of my students and thus far they are not disappointing.

We are thankful to enjoy the Labor Day weekend which included no school on Labor Day. This weekend allowed me the chance to catch up on some lesson plans, grade some tests, and relax with Bethany, Ian, and Nathanael. Oh... and I also caught up on sleep too. The work weeks have been around 60-65 hours a week thus far... I am hoping that they reduce with time as I continue to learn more each day. I feel like I have learned more in two weeks than I have in a long time. Teaching is different than being a full time student, but in many ways it is the same. Thus I continue to be excited to see what the rest of the year will bring.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

The night before...

Finally the big day is almost here. Last week was pretty stressful.... because they finally let us out of orientation and training lectures and into the classroom. Then we realized how little we actually knew about the fine details of being a teacher. Paperwork, reports, standards, special education students, lunch counts, discipline... in other words the practical side of being a teacher. Although it was honestly overwhelming, things are better now, and we are as ready to go as we are going to get. This coming week will be a busy... and learning to be a teacher will be a sharp learning curve. I would be lying, however, to say that I am not excited to start. This is the next stage of my life and I am ready for it.


We are still trying to find things for the apartment. We need much in the way of living and dining room furniture. Right now though, we lack the time and the money to acquire too much. Perhaps this is the "hope that furniture falls from the sky" approach. I realize how unrealistic this is... Regardless we are all happy with where we are now. We have settled in nicely and are anxious to begin work. Now to just make it through the first day...

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Boston Update!

Two weeks ago I loaded up my 1997 Honda Accord and moved to Boston. A lot has happened in two weeks but I will try to provide something of an update of sorts.

Ian, Nathanael and I are moved in to our apartment in a suburb of Boston called Winchester. We are approximately ten miles from downtown Boston. In this area everything is very close in proximity. We are only about seven miles from the lower school, where Nathanael and I will teach, and about five miles from the upper school where Ian will teach. Unlike West Michigan though, this means absolutely nothing as far as times goes. Very quickly I learned you would need to double, triple, quadruple, etc the projected time to and from places. Traffic is very heavy especially at peak times during the day. Driving here has actually not been too terrible. I refuse to drive downtown Boston since the roads are absolutely not meant for modern day vehicles and the parking can be anywhere from $10-$40 an hour. Boston does have a nice transportation system which is much more affordable and convenient if you want to get downtown.

As far as the actual driving itself goes, the drivers here are somewhat strange. They can be either friendly or really unfriendly. Sometimes when you are trying to make a left turn and the oncoming traffic has the right of way, traffic will just suddenly and for no apparent reason, yield to you.... even if they have a green light! Merging into lanes is also never a problem. Cutting people off is common and people are relatively patient... it is as if they expect people to end up in the wrong lane. Which is another interesting thing about Boston roads... they sort of add, change, and drop lanes without any warning whatsoever. Perhaps this explains the patience of the drivers being cut off. The other side of Massachusetts drivers is that they are FAST. The speed limit is 65mph on the highway, but once you get on, you quickly realize that the outer three lanes are all going 75-85mph... and there are essentially no cops on the highway. Traffic signals do not mean much to Massachusetts drivers either as I already pointed out. Just because you have a green light, does not mean a driver will turn left in front of you or that oncoming traffic will stop. It is kind of a different world out here but I am getting used to it. And of course, we will try to avoid the really busy times.

Winchester, Massachusetts is a beautiful, high income "village." Village not in the Borculo, Michigan sense, but in the population of 22,000 people sense. The average home in Winchester costs $830,000. The average household income is $120,000. The average income per person is around $65,000. Needless to say, when we tell people that we live in Winchester, they naturally assume we have money. The town itself is very beautiful. They have a small, quaint downtown with lots of neat stores and a river that runs in the middle of it. Winchester is also known for its excellent schools and low crime rate. Even though we lock our doors, the landlord basically told us that we shouldn't feel the need to do that. For a city ten miles from Boston, it is remarkable how safe it is out here. We are very thankful to have found a place to live here for a very affordable rent. Even with utilities, we estimate that it will cost us all about $700 a month for each person to live here. We would probably be hard pressed to find that good of a deal in this area.

The three of us plan on commuting together to work every day. Since the high school is on the way to work, we will drop Ian off to work first and then Nathanael and I will take the car to the lower school. I think Ian and I are planning to alternate driving sine we both have cars... the commute is anywhere from 15-30 minutes.... and we have to be to work at 7:30am. So there will be early mornings.

Now a little about the school.... Mystic Valley Regional Charter School began in 1998 as a K-6 school. It has now grown to about 1,500 students... roughly 1,050 in the lower school (K-8) and 350 in the high school. This year's graduating class is the first K-12 class so they are very excited about that. We are ranked in the top 1% of charter schools in the country... #278 to be exact. For the record... I turned down the #3 charter school in the nation to come to Mystic Valley which shows why I think highly of the school. Mystic Valley is named for the river valley it is located in... the Mystic River shockingly flows right through this area. Technically we serve five different towns outside Boston. Kids are selected by an impartial lottery and there are over 2,000 kids on the waiting list to get into the school. We are a high performing, academically based school. Of our 31 graduates last year, every one of them is in colleges including Harvard and other prestigious universities. Our mission statement is to provide the best education possible to our students while teaching them how to be a good human and give back to the community. This sort of well-roundedness is similar to what we do so well at Hillsdale for we look at each student as a whole person. Thus, the school does not just emphasize academics, but also extra curriculars, sports, and good character. We have what we call Character Education classes in which students are taught virtues by which they should strive after in order to become a better person. You have to remember that while many of our kids are from white and blue collar families, some of them are from very poor, low income families... some of which lack a parent or any sort of structure in their family. These students would likely be lost in the inner-city public school system which continues to fail thousands of our nation's children each year. Although charter schools are not perfect, it seems that schools like Mystic Valley gives these types of students, and all their other students, a far better chance at success and opportunity than your typical public school.

Mystic Valley believes in order and structure to their system of schooling. Students are praised for good actions, even if it is as simple as following the strict uniform code. Or for looking at the teacher during the lecture. Or for opening the door for another student. They are reminded gently to emulate these types of actions if they are not doing so... but if they do not abide after their first warning, there will be detention and other consequences. The school, however, strongly emphasizes a positive attitude as the best way to motivate students to do the right thing. The K-6 schools use a brilliant system of note cards in which each kid gets a card and depending on whether or not he does anything wrong, he gets a different color card. It sounds crazy but after hearing the training on it this week, I am convinced it is the most brilliant thing I have ever heard.

At Mystic Valley, the teachers and administrators strive to be firm, fair, and consistent. Most of all we are trained how to love the kids... not as their friend, but as their teacher. Although all of us new teachers are a bit overwhelmed right now, we are excited to meet our students. Orientation stared this past Wednesday and goes for one more week. School begins August 23.

I hope to tell more about the school but this update is plenty long enough. I will end by saying that for this upcoming school year, Mystic Valley now has five Hillsdale graduates on their faculty. Three of the six or seven English teachers are Hillsdale graduates. Two of the six or seven History teachers are Hillsdale graduates. I think this reflects very well on the strengths of our college. As for me, I will be teaching one character education class every morning and one class to help students prepare for their standardized tests every Monday. My main duties will be the 120 seventh grade students divided among four classes. I will be teaching American History from the Colonial Period through Reconstruction. As many of you might know, this is the area of history I know and love the best so I am really excited to begin.

For now I apologize for the really long update and I hope I did not put any of you to sleep. Please let me know if you have questions... and I will hopefully try to post again sometime soon.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

"Changing" the World?

What are the "buzz words" of mainstream evangelical Christianity? I'm sure there are many which probably change quicker than you can say "evangelical." But I cannot help but note a few in particular that have lately been on my mind.

Perhaps I run in the wrong circles (very possible) or my mind zones in on a few particular words or phrases within most of modern day Christianity, but it seems like the more "radical" or "extreme" you can "transform" culture, or your life, or your neighbor, or your nation, or your church the better. Such conversations and ideas filtered strongly into a class my senior year at Hillsdale... I then realized that yes such people actually exist hoping to "make the world a better place." This is what a certain professor of history at Hillsdale calls the "transformational impulse" found within American Christianity.

Naive youthful optimism perhaps? Maybe... it does not take much to get carried away with this language. You can find it all over the world and it's desires. Transform your career, dating life, personal fitness, heck even your pet into something amazing and incredible and most importantly, irresistible. The world has much to offer in terms of temporary comfort and happiness which when based on empty promises for one to "just do this or that" brings "hope" or "change" into the lives of people looking for meaning and fulfillment.

I fear this might be an instance of the worldly culture and vocabulary influencing the church and not vice versa. Certainly Christians experience some sort of "transformation" upon receiving grace. The promise of Romans 12:2, however, does not seem to be one of dramatic weight loss or a Republican controlled Congress. Rather it is one of surrender and conformity to the will of God and our place and calling in His image.

Perhaps the most radical, extreme, or transformational action would be to accept our calling and responsibility within the realm or place God has immediately called us to. We are all sons and daughters, brothers or sisters, and for many of us future husbands and wives, fathers and mothers. Each day we interact with many people from co-workers to friends to the lady who rings up your beer. Most importantly we have the church, the Body of Christ which has been given specific instructions of how to carry out the work of Christ on earth while keeping in mind our ultimate purpose. Perhaps the truly radical idea would be to live the truth of God's word without placing our own conditions on what that means.

I refer to two quotations to finish my post. First Kevin DeYoung is a newer name in the reformed evangelical movement. The epilogue in his most recent book offers some noteworthy thoughts on living a "radical" Christian life:

Our jobs are often mundane. Our devotional times often seem like a waste. Church services are often forgettable. That’s life. We drive to the same places, go through the same routines with our coworkers, buy the same groceries at the store, and mow the same yard every spring and summer. Church is often the same too—same doctrines, same basic order of worship, same preacher, same people. But in all the smallness and sameness, God works—like the smallest seed in the garden growing to unbelievable heights…. Life is pretty ordinary, just like following Jesus most days. Daily discipleship is not a new revolution each morning or an agent of global transformation every evening; it’s a long obedience in the same direction.

Second, C.S. Lewis is always a great way to conclude right? This is the final sentences from his essay titled "The Weight of Glory."

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you say it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealing with another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization- these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit- immortal horrors and everlasting splendours. This does not mean we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously, no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner- no mere tolerance, or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbor, he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ vere latita the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden.

Monday, May 31, 2010

Two Months

In just two months I'll be in Boston. Unbelievable. These two months will go quickly whether I want them to or not... and although I want them to go quickly they certainly don't need my help.

I need to make a list of the things I have to do before I leave...

Monday, May 24, 2010

grace

this past semester i learned the meaning and practice of grace.

grace is one of those funny things we all grow up hearing about, and believing. in one sense, it's the most tangible expression of our relationship to God. How could we live with hope if it were not for grace?

grace is a paradox. it is something ordinary and something miraculous. something universal and particular. perhaps it was learning to see grace in the ordinary that made me finally realize that I did in fact know what it was all along.

if every human is an immortal (thank you clive staples) then maybe all of our interactions are filled with grace... maybe our relationships are signs of this grace. maybe friendship, established on the idea of an attitude that models the love set by our Lord is one of the finest manifestations of grace in the fallen world.

so this past semester i am very glad I took the time to notice this...

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Irregular posting is the way of the future...

Seems to be the fate of every blog... including this one.

First thought in my mind this morning-- "Did I really just graduate two weeks ago???"

Factory work for now; Boston in August.

I would never want to relive this past week over again...

Friday, January 8, 2010

Why am I posting?

I hate blogging. No one really cares about your day or what is on your mind. Blogging is for those people who have nothing better to do. So they rant and rave and try to be funny. Unfortunately for me I've been that guy before... and from the looks of it... not too long ago!!! Although in my defense, I started up the blog again so my family could try and keep track of my summer in D.C.!

Forrest has inspired me to post again. Blasted Norwegian. I can not and will not promise any future posts but if one shows up who knows what the reason may be?

Hillsdale tomorrow! This semester is going to rock... I hope!