While many of us are ringing in the new year with aspirations, goals and resolutions, many are also looking back to find 2018 to be either a year we do not want to forget or one to which we are glad to say goodbye. This seems to be a very common human progression in the … Continue reading A Year of Teaching
With the addition of our own personal camera that travels with us each minute of the day via our phone, I would expect that picture taking is now at an all-time high: the spontaneous selfie, the "capture this moment" parent photo, the daily Snapchat streak, or the the "can you believe what I just saw" … Continue reading A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
The Christmas season often brings much activity to the classroom. Between the excitement and energy that enters the classroom with the students and the additional activities happening during the month of December, teachers often find themselves "managing" until the holiday break. One fun way to enjoy the season while still completing some meaningful teaching is … Continue reading Teaching With Gingerbread
Teaching in a Christian school often comes with many assumptions: every student understands his faith in the same way, all families have the same goals for their children as I have for their children, God means the same to all of us. The reality is much different than that. Students make their way into my … Continue reading Advent- Anticipated Coming
As a college student, my friends and I would often play a group game called "Two Truths and a Lie". We would each write two unique facts about ourselves that would be true and one item that would be believable but not true. The purpose of the game was to get to know each other … Continue reading Two Truths and A Lie
In this season of thanksgiving, many ideas cross our minds that we find ourselves thankful for. We might be thankful for the few days off to spend with family and friends. We might be thankful for a day of food and football. We might be thankful for a day dedicated to the sport of Black … Continue reading “Extol” Him with Music and Song
A recent student brought me back this adorable little llama from Peru. His family had an opportunity to travel during the school year and spend some relaxing time away as a family. While internally, I wanted to be traveling the world myself, I did appreciate this token that he returned with to let me know … Continue reading Oh, My Llama
Meet Gabby. This sweet girl entered my classroom many years ago as a timid 4th grader. We journeyed through different portions of elementary and then middle school together. Gabby, her classmates, and I all made the move to middle school together which resulted in living school life together for a total of five … Continue reading Once a Student; Always a Student
Recently, I was given the privilege of teaching a Spiritual Emphasis week Bible lesson to our middle school students. This lesson focused on "loving God with our soul" (Mark 12:30). The amazing part of this verse is the truth that our "soul", as mentioned in this verse, refers to such a deep part of our … Continue reading What if I were this tree?
Being a middle school teacher naturally brings a great many oddities and strange comments to my classroom. Middle schoolers are unique (yet amazingly lovely) creatures. What makes them laugh often makes little sense to me. What they find as a "normal comment" often makes me raise my eyebrows or give one of my well known … Continue reading Why Is There a Dinosaur in The Hallway?
Teaching Beyond the Norm 