It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.
The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is even beyond our vision.
I have read this prayer countless times, but so easily find myself loosing sight of the themes that it highlights. Today I was sitting in Helena's version of a "coffee shop," a bed and breakfast that the owners graciously opened and allowed some TFA folks to spend their Sunday afternoon working. Because I for some reason woke up and worked from 1 AM to 5 AM Sunday morning, I had most of my work done, so I took some much need time to write, pray, and reflect. It never ceases to amaze me how we marginalize and set aside the most important aspects of our lives and replace them with stresses about menial tasks and unimportant frustrations. I haven't written on this blog in awhile for a multitude of reasons, but one of them is that I've found myself constantly working, and constantly pushing myself harder to achieve results. Today I find myself realizing that it is impossible to pour out without investing time to fill myself. For those to whom I haven't spoken recently who are yearning for answers to more detail oriented questions such as, "How is your new job? What has the change from the public school to the charter school been like?" I unfortunately do not have fully formulated answers to those questions. The short of it is that I enjoy what I am doing. Its hard work, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Today I rest in the fact that my sole efforts have never and will never bring about the change that I desire to see in my students and in the life of this county. I rest in the fact that I am doing substantially important work that will never be complete. I rest in the fact that I am a worker, not a master builder. I'll let the rest of the prayer take it from here....
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.
Nothing we do is complete,
which is a way of saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the Church’s mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted,
knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything,
and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something,
and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way,
an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results,
but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders;
ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future that is not our own. Amen.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Thursday, June 16, 2011
blogalicious.
maybe i haven’t updated in so long because the semester was crazy busy, and it just escaped my mind, or maybe i haven’t updated in awhile because i have stopped looking at what i do as this crazy sequence of events that are extremely temporary and started looking at it more as just my life. either way, that was a crazy long, run-on sentence. i found it doubtful that anybody wanted to hear about my day to day wake up, eat breakfast, go to school routine, but i suppose there are still those out there who are interested in what i’m up to. three parts: part 1 - the semester, part 2 - next year, part 3 - thoughts.
part 1 - so the switch from teaching the fluff class to teaching algebra was certainly the best thing that happened to me this year. i realized just how much i love teaching algebra 1, and how vital it is for kids' long term success in math. i taught all my favorite objectives from last year, and i tried like crazy to get those kiddos ready for the end-of-course test. test scores should be coming in within the next week or two, and i will update once we get those. i think they will be pretty solid, as most of the kids were double blocked (took two math classes) for algebra this year. the practice test scores were a lot higher than last year’s scores, so i hope to see some pretty substantial growth. despite the fact that this year was a bit crazy overall, (with our district laying off a fourth of the staff, our ninth grade academy principal being out for surgery over half the year, and half of the school getting reshuffled at christmas time) i managed to hold it down to the best of my abilities in room 7, and teach those kiddos a bit of math. other highlights of the year include but are not limited to: cooking breakfast for the kiddos the day of the state test, teaching and playing ultimate frisbee with several kids on several different occasions, ten or so study sessions at wendy’s before the end-of-course test, doing insanity with a couple of the kiddos, and a water ballon fight with several kids on the last day of school. good times.
part 2 - next year i will be staying in helena, ar teaching algebra 1 at KIPP delta college preparatory school. (http://www.kippdelta.org/) i hesitate to say too much about next year because i am extremely excited about it, and i have a tendency to get a little amped up about things (this may come as a shock to many). things i do know: i will be pushed extremely hard to get results, i will have an administration behind me that supports what i do and knows how to develop good teachers, and i will work. a lot. this summer i’ve been working through my curriculum (saxon algebra 1) for next year, and that stuff is on an entirely different level of rigor than what i’ve been teaching for the past two years. this is good. this will push me to push the kids. it will be quite difficult, but i am ready.
part 3 - what has this semester taught me? or more importantly, what has this past two years taught me? i am officially done with “teach for america,” and now i’m just a regular ole teacher in a charter school. i can barely even begin to answer the question of what i’ve learned this past two years, and i think i will be answering that question for the next ten years, or maybe for the rest of my life. i know i am a different person than the one that walked in the doors of central high school on day one, not knowing that i was about to have my rear end (i’ll leave it G rated for Mee-Maw) handed to me. “their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive what he is due.” - 1 corinthians 3:13 - 14. my kids have taught me through the fire. they have run me through the gauntlet over and over. they have taught me that all the idealistic, “hopey changey stuff” (cite sarah palin) is all great in theory, but you better come ready to bring it. i’ve learned that the hopey, changey stuff is meaningless without solid planning, solid expectations, solid execution, and on and on it goes. several people have asked me as of late, “so what happened to seminary? i thought you were going into the ministry?” first, this is most certainly ministry work, and i have started to see more and more that the achievement gap is one of, if not the, greatest injustices of our generation. i cannot walk away from that after two years in search of something more substantial. does that rule seminary out? of course not. we all know i change my mind every day, but for now, i am content where i am. i am excited about a new chapter. i am hopeful, and i am ready to plunge back into the depths of teaching algebra 1 to some crazy crazy kiddos in helena, ar. summer school starts in a couple of weeks...... peace.
part 1 - so the switch from teaching the fluff class to teaching algebra was certainly the best thing that happened to me this year. i realized just how much i love teaching algebra 1, and how vital it is for kids' long term success in math. i taught all my favorite objectives from last year, and i tried like crazy to get those kiddos ready for the end-of-course test. test scores should be coming in within the next week or two, and i will update once we get those. i think they will be pretty solid, as most of the kids were double blocked (took two math classes) for algebra this year. the practice test scores were a lot higher than last year’s scores, so i hope to see some pretty substantial growth. despite the fact that this year was a bit crazy overall, (with our district laying off a fourth of the staff, our ninth grade academy principal being out for surgery over half the year, and half of the school getting reshuffled at christmas time) i managed to hold it down to the best of my abilities in room 7, and teach those kiddos a bit of math. other highlights of the year include but are not limited to: cooking breakfast for the kiddos the day of the state test, teaching and playing ultimate frisbee with several kids on several different occasions, ten or so study sessions at wendy’s before the end-of-course test, doing insanity with a couple of the kiddos, and a water ballon fight with several kids on the last day of school. good times.
part 2 - next year i will be staying in helena, ar teaching algebra 1 at KIPP delta college preparatory school. (http://www.kippdelta.org/) i hesitate to say too much about next year because i am extremely excited about it, and i have a tendency to get a little amped up about things (this may come as a shock to many). things i do know: i will be pushed extremely hard to get results, i will have an administration behind me that supports what i do and knows how to develop good teachers, and i will work. a lot. this summer i’ve been working through my curriculum (saxon algebra 1) for next year, and that stuff is on an entirely different level of rigor than what i’ve been teaching for the past two years. this is good. this will push me to push the kids. it will be quite difficult, but i am ready.
part 3 - what has this semester taught me? or more importantly, what has this past two years taught me? i am officially done with “teach for america,” and now i’m just a regular ole teacher in a charter school. i can barely even begin to answer the question of what i’ve learned this past two years, and i think i will be answering that question for the next ten years, or maybe for the rest of my life. i know i am a different person than the one that walked in the doors of central high school on day one, not knowing that i was about to have my rear end (i’ll leave it G rated for Mee-Maw) handed to me. “their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive what he is due.” - 1 corinthians 3:13 - 14. my kids have taught me through the fire. they have run me through the gauntlet over and over. they have taught me that all the idealistic, “hopey changey stuff” (cite sarah palin) is all great in theory, but you better come ready to bring it. i’ve learned that the hopey, changey stuff is meaningless without solid planning, solid expectations, solid execution, and on and on it goes. several people have asked me as of late, “so what happened to seminary? i thought you were going into the ministry?” first, this is most certainly ministry work, and i have started to see more and more that the achievement gap is one of, if not the, greatest injustices of our generation. i cannot walk away from that after two years in search of something more substantial. does that rule seminary out? of course not. we all know i change my mind every day, but for now, i am content where i am. i am excited about a new chapter. i am hopeful, and i am ready to plunge back into the depths of teaching algebra 1 to some crazy crazy kiddos in helena, ar. summer school starts in a couple of weeks...... peace.
Monday, January 17, 2011
life is good.
per usual, i feel the need to begin this blog post with the obligatory, "sorry i haven't updated this bad boy in awhile." much has occurred in the life of this teacher since the last time i updated, so lets get to it. as always, i will break the update up into parts. part 1 - my new teaching slate, part 2 - war damn eagle, part 3 - other aspects of life
part 1 - so as many of you know, i am (very thankfully) back to teaching math this semester. i have five classes of "math lab," which is basically algebra remediation and one class of algebra 1. in my math lab classes, i have all the ninth graders who are not in pre-ap classes, and i am covering many of the objectives that they have already seen in their regular algebra 1 class. its great because i know that all of the kids i am working with need the extra dosage of math. at the same time, it is quite annoying when all the children say "we already know this stuff." my response: while i love you dear children, let me assure you that you do not "already know this stuff." i would be more than happy to show you your test scores if you do not believe me. that wasn't nice, but very true. my one algebra 1 class... hot mess. i have 25 students in that class, all of which are repeater students, each and every one of them. i had about 1/4 of them last year, and the rest of them are very infamous names around central high school. if you went through all of the office referrals at central in a given month, i would bet that my 3rd period class would make up around 25% of the stack. haha. thus far, they have remained relatively calm, and they have done most of the work that i have asked them to do. i think i started off on a good foot with most of them, and i hope that it stays that way. thursday, i received yet another addition to an already stellar lineup. frank ross had just returned from the alternative school, and he walked in ten minutes into my lesson. the rest of the class responds, "oh this is just too much mr. rah, this class be too bad for you to teach." don't worry children, i have had the same thought, but i haven't given up hope yet. i have a ton of work to do with that class if they are going to learn any algebra. pray for me. pray for them :)
part 2 - oh yeah, and auburn won the national championship. ooohhh sweet goodness when that field goal went through those uprights i ran around chris richey's house like a raving lunatic, and then i cried just a little bit. my pastor (the aforementioned chris richey) was gracious enough to set up a projector in his house and let me invite a whole host of people over to watch the game (which for most of the guests was secondary in the entertainment category to my screaming and pacing back and forth from the living room to the kitchen.) i haven't really come off the high of the win yet, and i hope that i don't for a little while. from the undefeated yet thwarted by probation team of 1993, to the crap fest team of 1998, to the underachieving team of 2003, to the undefeated yet screwed by the bcs team of 2004, to the 5-7 mess that took the field my last year at auburn, to national champions. what a sweet feeling it was. for true auburn tigers who have battled it out for four or five years: kodi burns, josh bynes, zach ethridge, aairon saivage, lee ziemba, and even fumble ridden fannin. those boys deserved it. war damn eagle.
part 3 - well in other news.... i have begun my training for a full maraton. i am 92% sure that i am going to die by the time i hit mile 18, but i've already shelled out that money for the full, so there is no stopping me now. i even got myself some official, fancy running shoes. we shall see how this goes. congrats to glenn and lt for a wonderful marriage ceremony and a reception complete with lots of cupid shuffling and teaching folks how to dougie. i enjoyed every second of it. love you guys. the children have been relatively calm this semester aside from them screaming at me to stamp their do-now cards, shouting out incorrect answers at the top of their lungs when they haven't been called on, and informing me that i need to go ahead and get married because i am getting old. one of my favorite kids from last year files papers for me after school, and she is constantly warning me that if i keep teaching at central, i will most certainly never want to have kids. haha. speaking of staying at central, it is certainly an option next year. i am still convinced i will be in helena next year, just uncertain if and where i will be teaching. we shall see. hope everyone is doing well. peace.
part 1 - so as many of you know, i am (very thankfully) back to teaching math this semester. i have five classes of "math lab," which is basically algebra remediation and one class of algebra 1. in my math lab classes, i have all the ninth graders who are not in pre-ap classes, and i am covering many of the objectives that they have already seen in their regular algebra 1 class. its great because i know that all of the kids i am working with need the extra dosage of math. at the same time, it is quite annoying when all the children say "we already know this stuff." my response: while i love you dear children, let me assure you that you do not "already know this stuff." i would be more than happy to show you your test scores if you do not believe me. that wasn't nice, but very true. my one algebra 1 class... hot mess. i have 25 students in that class, all of which are repeater students, each and every one of them. i had about 1/4 of them last year, and the rest of them are very infamous names around central high school. if you went through all of the office referrals at central in a given month, i would bet that my 3rd period class would make up around 25% of the stack. haha. thus far, they have remained relatively calm, and they have done most of the work that i have asked them to do. i think i started off on a good foot with most of them, and i hope that it stays that way. thursday, i received yet another addition to an already stellar lineup. frank ross had just returned from the alternative school, and he walked in ten minutes into my lesson. the rest of the class responds, "oh this is just too much mr. rah, this class be too bad for you to teach." don't worry children, i have had the same thought, but i haven't given up hope yet. i have a ton of work to do with that class if they are going to learn any algebra. pray for me. pray for them :)
part 2 - oh yeah, and auburn won the national championship. ooohhh sweet goodness when that field goal went through those uprights i ran around chris richey's house like a raving lunatic, and then i cried just a little bit. my pastor (the aforementioned chris richey) was gracious enough to set up a projector in his house and let me invite a whole host of people over to watch the game (which for most of the guests was secondary in the entertainment category to my screaming and pacing back and forth from the living room to the kitchen.) i haven't really come off the high of the win yet, and i hope that i don't for a little while. from the undefeated yet thwarted by probation team of 1993, to the crap fest team of 1998, to the underachieving team of 2003, to the undefeated yet screwed by the bcs team of 2004, to the 5-7 mess that took the field my last year at auburn, to national champions. what a sweet feeling it was. for true auburn tigers who have battled it out for four or five years: kodi burns, josh bynes, zach ethridge, aairon saivage, lee ziemba, and even fumble ridden fannin. those boys deserved it. war damn eagle.
part 3 - well in other news.... i have begun my training for a full maraton. i am 92% sure that i am going to die by the time i hit mile 18, but i've already shelled out that money for the full, so there is no stopping me now. i even got myself some official, fancy running shoes. we shall see how this goes. congrats to glenn and lt for a wonderful marriage ceremony and a reception complete with lots of cupid shuffling and teaching folks how to dougie. i enjoyed every second of it. love you guys. the children have been relatively calm this semester aside from them screaming at me to stamp their do-now cards, shouting out incorrect answers at the top of their lungs when they haven't been called on, and informing me that i need to go ahead and get married because i am getting old. one of my favorite kids from last year files papers for me after school, and she is constantly warning me that if i keep teaching at central, i will most certainly never want to have kids. haha. speaking of staying at central, it is certainly an option next year. i am still convinced i will be in helena next year, just uncertain if and where i will be teaching. we shall see. hope everyone is doing well. peace.
Monday, November 15, 2010
forgot i had a blog.
well I sure forgot about updating this bad boy. ohhhh it has been quite a past couple of months. i will break this up into a couple of pieces as i normally do… part 1 – teaching and the children, part 2 – other parts of life, part 3 – next year? part 4 - how things are going in general/ funny things the children do. I will try to keep each section short.
part 1 – ok, so what I really want to do most days is go back in time to my stupid idealistic self and kick myself in the face when I was thinking things like “oh yeah, it’ll be great to teach a class with no standards, learning goals, resources, scope, sequence, etc.” hahaha…. I have done my best to make this class work this semester, and I think my kids have gotten some good things out of it, but overall it has been too disjointed and at times a hot mess. the good news…. I spoke with my principal the other day, and I am back to teaching math again next semester. good news for me, hopefully good news for the children’s test scores…. for some reason the kids keep deciding to add the phrase "stanky tail" to anything they say lately. as in, "shoot, i aint doin this.... stanky tail" i don't understand what the stanky tail is supposed to accomplish but it makes me chuckle.
part 2 – i preached a good ole barn burner of a sermon a couple of sundays ago at delta fellowship church. since then my kids have been continually asking me, “mr. rah, you a preacher? i heard you be preaching. why you didn’t tell us you be preachin?” haha, I took it as a high complement. well, except for the kids that said things like "man, i gotta listen to you talk enough durin class, you think imma try to listen to you on a sunday?" ha! i don't know that i would want to listen to me either after a week of my classroom rants. i have been doing a lot with delta fellowship lately, and i love the people there. we have wednesday night meetings in which we drink adult beverages and talk theology. "theology on tap" we call it, just up my ally. i love it. i feel inclined to comment on cam newton, but i am going to refrain at this point. all i know is we are 11-0 and headed to the sec championship. war eagle and its great to be an auburn tiger. oh yeah, and there is nothing better than hearing my kids say, "dang, i am tired of hearing about auburn, when they gon loose?" hahahaha, glorious.
part 3 - so we are giving standardized tests to the children all this week. we, of course, just found out about this last week. i was, of course, not happy about this. however, today during part of the test, as i was walking around watching the kids fill in bubbles i took a moment to think about and write out my possibilities for next year. currently, (for those of you who know me, you will know that this is life plan number 431) i am considering either enrolling in seminary in memphis next year and living in helena or staying in helena to teach another year. in my writings the pros of seminary lasted about three pages, so that sort of helped push me a little further in that direction. i am definitely leaning that way at this point, but i am sure prone to change my mind.
part 4 - so as you can likely surmise from the post above, my plan is to stay in helena next year. i really love this messed up place, and i see so much potential for this community. the downtown area that was once thriving back when there was industry and the town had over 40,000 residents is currently pretty much deserted, but there are several groups working to build it back up. i have several kids who i really want to see graduate, and i am going to find it difficult to leave this place until that has happened. this job is difficult, and if i am doing it right, it always will be. regardless, i am glad to be where i am, and i hope to remain here for awhile. i will leave you all with a couple of children stories that are pretty much straight ripped from my roommates blog. first is the evolution of phrase "bro" the children started off calling me "bro". it has evolved as follows.....
Bro > Brah > Breh > Bruh > Bruh bruh. Example.... mr rah says....."how are you LJ?" response.... "sup bruh bruh" mr rah says.... LJ, my name is not "bruh bruh" response.... "my bad bruh bruh" ughhh.... this one i am straight going to rip from my roommates blog because he tells it well. this is called the "Kay" and our children pull it off well.....
"Here's what you do: A teacher is giving you a lecture. Wait for them to almost finish their sentence. Then say, loudly enough to jolt them off balance, "Kayyy!"
"Kaayy" as in "OK," as in, "Yeah, whatever you say," as in, "No."
Example:
Mr. J-L: "Crystal, you need to respect my classroom's rul–
Crystal: "Kayyyy!"
Mr. J-L: "I'm sorry, that's not acceptable; you can't be using that w–"
Crystal: "Kaaayyy!"
HA!! gotta love these danged kids. have a nice day. peace.
part 1 – ok, so what I really want to do most days is go back in time to my stupid idealistic self and kick myself in the face when I was thinking things like “oh yeah, it’ll be great to teach a class with no standards, learning goals, resources, scope, sequence, etc.” hahaha…. I have done my best to make this class work this semester, and I think my kids have gotten some good things out of it, but overall it has been too disjointed and at times a hot mess. the good news…. I spoke with my principal the other day, and I am back to teaching math again next semester. good news for me, hopefully good news for the children’s test scores…. for some reason the kids keep deciding to add the phrase "stanky tail" to anything they say lately. as in, "shoot, i aint doin this.... stanky tail" i don't understand what the stanky tail is supposed to accomplish but it makes me chuckle.
part 2 – i preached a good ole barn burner of a sermon a couple of sundays ago at delta fellowship church. since then my kids have been continually asking me, “mr. rah, you a preacher? i heard you be preaching. why you didn’t tell us you be preachin?” haha, I took it as a high complement. well, except for the kids that said things like "man, i gotta listen to you talk enough durin class, you think imma try to listen to you on a sunday?" ha! i don't know that i would want to listen to me either after a week of my classroom rants. i have been doing a lot with delta fellowship lately, and i love the people there. we have wednesday night meetings in which we drink adult beverages and talk theology. "theology on tap" we call it, just up my ally. i love it. i feel inclined to comment on cam newton, but i am going to refrain at this point. all i know is we are 11-0 and headed to the sec championship. war eagle and its great to be an auburn tiger. oh yeah, and there is nothing better than hearing my kids say, "dang, i am tired of hearing about auburn, when they gon loose?" hahahaha, glorious.
part 3 - so we are giving standardized tests to the children all this week. we, of course, just found out about this last week. i was, of course, not happy about this. however, today during part of the test, as i was walking around watching the kids fill in bubbles i took a moment to think about and write out my possibilities for next year. currently, (for those of you who know me, you will know that this is life plan number 431) i am considering either enrolling in seminary in memphis next year and living in helena or staying in helena to teach another year. in my writings the pros of seminary lasted about three pages, so that sort of helped push me a little further in that direction. i am definitely leaning that way at this point, but i am sure prone to change my mind.
part 4 - so as you can likely surmise from the post above, my plan is to stay in helena next year. i really love this messed up place, and i see so much potential for this community. the downtown area that was once thriving back when there was industry and the town had over 40,000 residents is currently pretty much deserted, but there are several groups working to build it back up. i have several kids who i really want to see graduate, and i am going to find it difficult to leave this place until that has happened. this job is difficult, and if i am doing it right, it always will be. regardless, i am glad to be where i am, and i hope to remain here for awhile. i will leave you all with a couple of children stories that are pretty much straight ripped from my roommates blog. first is the evolution of phrase "bro" the children started off calling me "bro". it has evolved as follows.....
Bro > Brah > Breh > Bruh > Bruh bruh. Example.... mr rah says....."how are you LJ?" response.... "sup bruh bruh" mr rah says.... LJ, my name is not "bruh bruh" response.... "my bad bruh bruh" ughhh.... this one i am straight going to rip from my roommates blog because he tells it well. this is called the "Kay" and our children pull it off well.....
"Here's what you do: A teacher is giving you a lecture. Wait for them to almost finish their sentence. Then say, loudly enough to jolt them off balance, "Kayyy!"
"Kaayy" as in "OK," as in, "Yeah, whatever you say," as in, "No."
Example:
Mr. J-L: "Crystal, you need to respect my classroom's rul–
Crystal: "Kayyyy!"
Mr. J-L: "I'm sorry, that's not acceptable; you can't be using that w–"
Crystal: "Kaaayyy!"
HA!! gotta love these danged kids. have a nice day. peace.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
ohhh year 2....
so i realized this morning that i have yet to update since year two began. understatement of the year..... year 2 > year 1. hahaha. i like to break these updates up into parts so here we go.... part one - the ninth grade academy and the ninth graders part two - what the mess am i teaching? part three - other parts of life.
part 1 - sooooo.... this ninth grade academy, or the "cougar academy for excellence" as it has been deemed has had a couple of kinks in the rollout phase. kink #1 - these kids be crazy. i was told last year by all of my students that "them kids be bad mr. rah, they gon get you" well they were certainly on point in the first half of that statement. ninth graders in general are insane, and at central that is just kicked up a notch. by putting all the ninth graders in the same hall we've successfully avoided the problem of the ninth graders being negatively affected by the repeater tenth graders. however we've discovered that it has created a problem very similar to what you would encounter if you took all the wild animals out of the jungle and stuck them into a small enclosed area after pumping red bull into their system. BUT the good news is.... mr. rah almost kind of knows what he is doing this year. that means they are NOT destroying my life in the same way they did last year. despite the craziness, i absolutely love these kids already. i can tell they really want to learn despite how nuts they are. i have already been called "boring" several times, which is a high praise because i found out last year that just means that the kids don't throw things and get in fights in my room (or at least that's how i make myself feel better about being boring) a few quotes already "dude, you always be talkin bout that ole stanky auburn place."' "why you so country? you from alabama or something?" "dude if you don't let me go to the bathroom im finna go upside somebody's head or pee on yo ole floor"'
Part 2 - what the mess am i teaching? GREAT question..... answer... yikes, i am not sure. the keystone course was a great idea in theory, and i am still really excited about the possibilities. however, there is wayyyy too much fluff in the objectives that i am supposed to teach. i am trying to get rid of the fluff and teach things that are skill based and substantially important for kids lives. i still plan on hitting some algebra standards really hard when it gets closer to test time, and i am excited about that. i have also talked to a couple of veteran teachers down the road at KIPP who are hopefully going to help me get this course on point. i have taught some pretty good things thus far this year, but in this course it's much harder than in math to know whether or not the kids are learning. regardless, i think some good things are on the way with this course. updates will come soon.
part 3 - well, since it is the beginning of the year... there is not a lot going on in life other than teaching. cam newton is a beast (no comments necessary podge). the kids listen to me more than they did last year. i have only written up a couple as opposed to the twenty i had written up at this point last year. i am leading this course at professional development for TFA, which i am pretty excited about. the new TFAs at my school seem to be adjusting well. a kid i had last year has already transferred out of one first year TFA's class. when i asked him why, he informed me "he be a actin just like you. i can't STAND that man." that is all. peace.
part 1 - sooooo.... this ninth grade academy, or the "cougar academy for excellence" as it has been deemed has had a couple of kinks in the rollout phase. kink #1 - these kids be crazy. i was told last year by all of my students that "them kids be bad mr. rah, they gon get you" well they were certainly on point in the first half of that statement. ninth graders in general are insane, and at central that is just kicked up a notch. by putting all the ninth graders in the same hall we've successfully avoided the problem of the ninth graders being negatively affected by the repeater tenth graders. however we've discovered that it has created a problem very similar to what you would encounter if you took all the wild animals out of the jungle and stuck them into a small enclosed area after pumping red bull into their system. BUT the good news is.... mr. rah almost kind of knows what he is doing this year. that means they are NOT destroying my life in the same way they did last year. despite the craziness, i absolutely love these kids already. i can tell they really want to learn despite how nuts they are. i have already been called "boring" several times, which is a high praise because i found out last year that just means that the kids don't throw things and get in fights in my room (or at least that's how i make myself feel better about being boring) a few quotes already "dude, you always be talkin bout that ole stanky auburn place."' "why you so country? you from alabama or something?" "dude if you don't let me go to the bathroom im finna go upside somebody's head or pee on yo ole floor"'
Part 2 - what the mess am i teaching? GREAT question..... answer... yikes, i am not sure. the keystone course was a great idea in theory, and i am still really excited about the possibilities. however, there is wayyyy too much fluff in the objectives that i am supposed to teach. i am trying to get rid of the fluff and teach things that are skill based and substantially important for kids lives. i still plan on hitting some algebra standards really hard when it gets closer to test time, and i am excited about that. i have also talked to a couple of veteran teachers down the road at KIPP who are hopefully going to help me get this course on point. i have taught some pretty good things thus far this year, but in this course it's much harder than in math to know whether or not the kids are learning. regardless, i think some good things are on the way with this course. updates will come soon.
part 3 - well, since it is the beginning of the year... there is not a lot going on in life other than teaching. cam newton is a beast (no comments necessary podge). the kids listen to me more than they did last year. i have only written up a couple as opposed to the twenty i had written up at this point last year. i am leading this course at professional development for TFA, which i am pretty excited about. the new TFAs at my school seem to be adjusting well. a kid i had last year has already transferred out of one first year TFA's class. when i asked him why, he informed me "he be a actin just like you. i can't STAND that man." that is all. peace.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
the end of summer draws nigh.
summer is approaching its end. this fact saddens me and fills me with anxious anticipation, but also excitement for the upcoming year. to be quite honest the summer could not have gone much better, and i believe that the things i have learned and experienced this summer will help in making my second year of teaching much better than the first. so what are these “things” i speak of you might ask? well allow me to share a few...
1. i will be teaching keystone (refer to previous blog posts for an explanation of what that means) next year, but i still am weirdly passionate about algebra. i think this passion mainly grows from the fact that it is a high stakes test, and i want to see my kids do well on it. as luck would have it, i am going to be able to teach lots of algebra standards in my keystone course (maybe even half the year). because keystone is all about goal setting, we will be setting goals pertaining to performance on the algebra end of course test. this excites me
2. i really enjoy thinking through, writing, and delivering an organization of thoughts known as a sermon. i was able to deliver one of these to the members of savannah FUMC last sunday, and i think it went pretty well. i had about a million and one things i wanted to say, but managed to fit it all into a twenty minute block using the strategy of staring at my watch the entire time. i had perfected this art in the classroom this past year, and it sure came in handy. it was a blessing to get to speak to my home church, and i am very thankful for the opportunity. since the sermon, i have been told by more than a couple of people that i need to make this art of sermonizing a part of my career path; we shall see :)
3. the act of reading, thinking, and writing may be the most underrated practice in the world. i have spent so much of my summer at uptown restaurant drinking coffee, journaling, reading, etc and man has it been great for my life. we are taught from an early age in our society that success is measured by your ability to keep going and keep producing. i believe this is a fatal flaw in our culture which leads to lots of empty lives of chasing after nothing. periodically putting a hold on the constant chase for more allows us to refuel. we weren’t created to live without rest. now, this is all easy for me to say when i have the summer off. we’ll see if i can put what i have learned into practice this upcoming year.
there’s a few things. i know there are many more, but i will leave you all with that for now. i sincerely miss the presence of the “funny stories about my students” portion of my blog updates. i suppose that means i sincerely miss my students, at least in a way. well, they are coming soon, and we’ll see just how much i miss them after a week of “mr. rah, don’t nobody know this stuff. why you always be tryin to make us do all this work mr. rah?” haha.... ohhhh the children. as a side note. if anyone is interested in reading my sermon, i’ve got the text in a document i can send to you. hope everyone is doing well. peace.
1. i will be teaching keystone (refer to previous blog posts for an explanation of what that means) next year, but i still am weirdly passionate about algebra. i think this passion mainly grows from the fact that it is a high stakes test, and i want to see my kids do well on it. as luck would have it, i am going to be able to teach lots of algebra standards in my keystone course (maybe even half the year). because keystone is all about goal setting, we will be setting goals pertaining to performance on the algebra end of course test. this excites me
2. i really enjoy thinking through, writing, and delivering an organization of thoughts known as a sermon. i was able to deliver one of these to the members of savannah FUMC last sunday, and i think it went pretty well. i had about a million and one things i wanted to say, but managed to fit it all into a twenty minute block using the strategy of staring at my watch the entire time. i had perfected this art in the classroom this past year, and it sure came in handy. it was a blessing to get to speak to my home church, and i am very thankful for the opportunity. since the sermon, i have been told by more than a couple of people that i need to make this art of sermonizing a part of my career path; we shall see :)
3. the act of reading, thinking, and writing may be the most underrated practice in the world. i have spent so much of my summer at uptown restaurant drinking coffee, journaling, reading, etc and man has it been great for my life. we are taught from an early age in our society that success is measured by your ability to keep going and keep producing. i believe this is a fatal flaw in our culture which leads to lots of empty lives of chasing after nothing. periodically putting a hold on the constant chase for more allows us to refuel. we weren’t created to live without rest. now, this is all easy for me to say when i have the summer off. we’ll see if i can put what i have learned into practice this upcoming year.
there’s a few things. i know there are many more, but i will leave you all with that for now. i sincerely miss the presence of the “funny stories about my students” portion of my blog updates. i suppose that means i sincerely miss my students, at least in a way. well, they are coming soon, and we’ll see just how much i miss them after a week of “mr. rah, don’t nobody know this stuff. why you always be tryin to make us do all this work mr. rah?” haha.... ohhhh the children. as a side note. if anyone is interested in reading my sermon, i’ve got the text in a document i can send to you. hope everyone is doing well. peace.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
summer?
"why is it, that if i have all this free time in the summer, i haven't updated my blog more often?" the blogger wondered to himself. okay, that is the last time i will refer to myself in a weird, third-person, existentialist (i don't even know if that word really makes sense there but i really wanted to use it) fashion. so yeah, i don't know why i haven't updated in awhile, but i haven't so here goes. i'll break it up into parts so that you can decide which part you'd enjoy to undertaking the difficult task of reading my babble. part 1 shall be - "test scores" part 2 shall be - "savannah fumc" part 3 shall be - "other"
part 1 - so as anyone who has glanced at my Facebook page will be completely aware, the test scores came back in, and they were good. good is the understatement of the year when it comes to just how excited i was about these test scores (ask anyone who went on mission trip, they will attest.) my overage average for my kids was 204 (which is above proficient). 32 out of the 59 of my kids who took the test scored proficient. thats about 54%. to give a few comparable measures.... last year at central 27% of the school was proficient (this year 38% of the school overall was proficient.) the 54% that my students scored is SOOO much higher than anything i expected, and i am blown away by my kids performance. i am attempting (apparently unsuccessfully according to a very critical fellow TFA teacher) to be humble in receiving this news and deflecting it all back to the God who gave me the strength to make it to this point, but that is proving to be a very difficult venture. yet i try. before departing from the subject of test scores i must tell the story of how i came to receive the good news of the scores. i was on a mission trip with my youth group (a subject which will be breached in part 2) and i had just come back from a day at the work site. i had three missed calls from MJL (my roommate) and this let me know that the test scores were in. i didn't know what my next move should be. i was in charge of driving the van of childrens back to the place we were staying (a forty-five minute endeavor). those of you who know anything about me and patience know that it is not one of my strong suites. i decided to call dad's office and get amy (who works for him) to look up the scores online. the only decoding of the scores she could really do was to give me individual kids' scores as a reeled them off to her one by one. here about how the conversation went.
Levi: "ok... Braylan Lewis."
Amy: Pass.... score of 223.
Levi: "WHAT!???!!? OH MY SICK... (SWERVES VAN AND RUNS OFF ROAD....) ATTA BOY... YES SIR!!!
part 2 - so for those of you who do not currently know, my summer job is leading the youth of savannah first united methodist church. thus far it has been a very different, yet fruitful and enjoyable experience. the youth group is pretty small (about 5 to 7 on average) but i've gotten to know the kids pretty well. we've been reading through rob bell's "velvet elvis" and i think the discussion has gone pretty well. this marks i think the 4th time i've read velvet elvis and 2nd time i've lead a small group in discussion based around his book. needless to say, i enjoy it, and each time i read it new realities and questions are opened up that i missed the first few times around. as previous stated we went on a mission trip last week which was a real blessing. we worked in the yard of an elderly couple named gary and anna, and they were both very enthused to have us there. i attempted to be richard rogers (but of course failed) and climbed off into the jungle that was gary and anna's back yard chopping down everything in my path. after three and half days of trying to be like my father, i decided that was a job best suited for him. the site coordinators nicknamed me "jungle joe" and "lumberjack levi" (probably when i wasn't around they referred to me more along the lines of "idiot with a chainsaw.") nonetheless, the trip was pretty awesome, and the kids did a great job. many thanks to page ledbetter, who dropped everything she was doing and decided to selflessly come along and chaperone the trip. she's a pretty awesome person if you don't know her. we've got one more trip coming up this summer, and then our usual meetings on tuesdays and sundays (as well as hopefully some other cool stuff.) working with the youth this summer has opened my eyes to a lot, and i think further maybe pushed me in the direction of pursuing full time ministry after i finish this teaching stint. we shall see. as an aside, if anyone plans to be in savannah, tn july 18th, levi rogers will be preaching a barn burner of a sermon on sunday morning at savannah first united methodist church entitled....... hmm i should probably figure that out soon.....
part 3 - i actually think that just about covers it. let's see if i have any other parting things to leave all of you interested readers with.... well, if you would like to go see the worst story line in the history of cinematic film, go see the movie "the killers" with ashton kutcher. also, if you are looking for an amazing read, go buy anything NT Wright has ever written. he's a beast. if you want to absolutely destroy yourself and not have the energy to pick yourself off the floor, go do the "insanity workout." in summary, summer is great. its not what i was expecting in a lot of ways, but its been an awesome, welcome break. after getting the test scores back, i want to teach algebra again next year. we are currently in the process of figuring out if that will actually happen. i suppose that will do for now. peace.
part 1 - so as anyone who has glanced at my Facebook page will be completely aware, the test scores came back in, and they were good. good is the understatement of the year when it comes to just how excited i was about these test scores (ask anyone who went on mission trip, they will attest.) my overage average for my kids was 204 (which is above proficient). 32 out of the 59 of my kids who took the test scored proficient. thats about 54%. to give a few comparable measures.... last year at central 27% of the school was proficient (this year 38% of the school overall was proficient.) the 54% that my students scored is SOOO much higher than anything i expected, and i am blown away by my kids performance. i am attempting (apparently unsuccessfully according to a very critical fellow TFA teacher) to be humble in receiving this news and deflecting it all back to the God who gave me the strength to make it to this point, but that is proving to be a very difficult venture. yet i try. before departing from the subject of test scores i must tell the story of how i came to receive the good news of the scores. i was on a mission trip with my youth group (a subject which will be breached in part 2) and i had just come back from a day at the work site. i had three missed calls from MJL (my roommate) and this let me know that the test scores were in. i didn't know what my next move should be. i was in charge of driving the van of childrens back to the place we were staying (a forty-five minute endeavor). those of you who know anything about me and patience know that it is not one of my strong suites. i decided to call dad's office and get amy (who works for him) to look up the scores online. the only decoding of the scores she could really do was to give me individual kids' scores as a reeled them off to her one by one. here about how the conversation went.
Levi: "ok... Braylan Lewis."
Amy: Pass.... score of 223.
Levi: "WHAT!???!!? OH MY SICK... (SWERVES VAN AND RUNS OFF ROAD....) ATTA BOY... YES SIR!!!
part 2 - so for those of you who do not currently know, my summer job is leading the youth of savannah first united methodist church. thus far it has been a very different, yet fruitful and enjoyable experience. the youth group is pretty small (about 5 to 7 on average) but i've gotten to know the kids pretty well. we've been reading through rob bell's "velvet elvis" and i think the discussion has gone pretty well. this marks i think the 4th time i've read velvet elvis and 2nd time i've lead a small group in discussion based around his book. needless to say, i enjoy it, and each time i read it new realities and questions are opened up that i missed the first few times around. as previous stated we went on a mission trip last week which was a real blessing. we worked in the yard of an elderly couple named gary and anna, and they were both very enthused to have us there. i attempted to be richard rogers (but of course failed) and climbed off into the jungle that was gary and anna's back yard chopping down everything in my path. after three and half days of trying to be like my father, i decided that was a job best suited for him. the site coordinators nicknamed me "jungle joe" and "lumberjack levi" (probably when i wasn't around they referred to me more along the lines of "idiot with a chainsaw.") nonetheless, the trip was pretty awesome, and the kids did a great job. many thanks to page ledbetter, who dropped everything she was doing and decided to selflessly come along and chaperone the trip. she's a pretty awesome person if you don't know her. we've got one more trip coming up this summer, and then our usual meetings on tuesdays and sundays (as well as hopefully some other cool stuff.) working with the youth this summer has opened my eyes to a lot, and i think further maybe pushed me in the direction of pursuing full time ministry after i finish this teaching stint. we shall see. as an aside, if anyone plans to be in savannah, tn july 18th, levi rogers will be preaching a barn burner of a sermon on sunday morning at savannah first united methodist church entitled....... hmm i should probably figure that out soon.....
part 3 - i actually think that just about covers it. let's see if i have any other parting things to leave all of you interested readers with.... well, if you would like to go see the worst story line in the history of cinematic film, go see the movie "the killers" with ashton kutcher. also, if you are looking for an amazing read, go buy anything NT Wright has ever written. he's a beast. if you want to absolutely destroy yourself and not have the energy to pick yourself off the floor, go do the "insanity workout." in summary, summer is great. its not what i was expecting in a lot of ways, but its been an awesome, welcome break. after getting the test scores back, i want to teach algebra again next year. we are currently in the process of figuring out if that will actually happen. i suppose that will do for now. peace.
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