The Present Moment

Kiddos were off the wall today - finally got them to calm down, but holy cow...

I am very glad I had taken the time to read this short article from God in All Things this morning before going to school. It helped keep my day in perspective.

Another Weekend Has Come and Gone...

Head colds sure hit hard...and somehow they always hit on the weekend.

It figures.

But at least it made me take time to relax - heck, I couldn't even think straight. So, I spent my Saturday watching college football and a movie (not that ND was anything special in their game).

Not bad.

And today, therefore, was one spent lesson planning (after a run and coffee with my sister, of course). I love the challenge of it, but I often struggle with coming up with that one big take-away (when there are SO many standards) and then coming up with a set of activities that are both diverse in learning styles and short enough for my students' attention spans.

We'll see how this week goes. (I'm taking the 8th grade to Adoration on Friday, so please say some extra prayers that they are open to meeting Jesus in the Eucharist in a new way.)

Only one volleyball game this week - woo hoo! I'm sure my time with them will be the highlight of my Monday.

Have a great week everyone! Full speed ahead.

Trinity is Squeaky Clean

Over the past couple of days, I posed the Aquafresh Challenge (I give full credit to my roommate for originally introducing me to the idea!) to my 7th and 8th grade students to introduce the concept of the Trinity. Yes, at these grade levels, they know what the Trinity is and who the three persons of the Trinity are, but we went a little deeper.

However, using the Aquafresh allowed me to have a little fun with them first...

Considering both classes had just completed lessons on group work through our Second Step program, I posed the challenge as a test of teamwork. The students focused on their little squeeze of toothpaste, analyzed a plan of action, and desperately tried to separate the colors.

"It's impossible!" came one 7th grader's cry.

"Yes," I said. "I did give you an impossible task. Why would I do that?"

Students sat stumped for a few moments.

"What if I told you it had to do with God...all three parts of it?" (By this time, I guess you could say I was practically feeding them the answer.)

"Oh! Oh! The Trinity!"

"Yes," I nodded. "Elaborate, please..."

"Well, just like God is three in one, there are three colors that can't be separated in the toothpaste."

Activity worked like an intro activity charm once again. Amen to that!

Both classes did various activities with the Trinity throughout the class period, including a couple of videos as well as a "Pass the Trinity Symbol" activity, where each group of students received one Trinity symbol at a time. (Symbols included the Trinity Shield, Old Testament Trinity Painting, Shamrock, Trinity Knot, water in three forms, and a Venn Diagram with symbols of sorts.) Students sketched a picture of the image in front of them, and they then worked together to determine the strengths and weaknesses of each symbol and listed these in a table. Then, a few minutes later, it was time to "pass the symbol." In doing this, the activity kept moving and the students kept mostly engaged. (It helped to move around the room to monitor and pose questions if I felt students were getting off-task or needed to challenge themselves a little more.)

In 7th grade, their "ticket" out the door was meeting the challenge of designing and explaining an original symbol for the Trinity. Some of the ones they came up with were pretty good, especially in light of the fact that they showed they understood the idea of three separate ___ in one ___. 7th grade never ceases to impress me.

I must say, I learn more and more about my faith every day, especially since I've been showing my students quite a few Fr. Robert Barron snippets from Catholicism and other short interviews. I also must say that I am challenged each and every day to think outside of the box for lesson plans and activities - sitting still (at least for the 8th grade) is just not an option.

And I think I can confidently say that the students now have a little deeper grasp of the Trinity as the central mystery of our Catholic faith.

Confidence!

These Value emails are just what I need to start off the morning.



 

Happy Thursday!

If Chairs Could Talk...

Anybody sitting there...?

Have you ever thought how many people sit in any given seat on any given day or week or (even) year? on the bus? on a plane? in the doctor's office? in the classroom?

I have found myself thinking about this more often than I probably should - but it's just so fascinating. Life passes by so fast, and many people walk in and out of our lives...

Today, while at Eucharistic Minister training at school, our pastor mentioned a story that made me think on these things yet again. He explained how he was asked to bless an Italian restaurant and its workers before it opened for business. During the blessing, he reflected on how many things and life events would happen at the tables under that roof - someone would get engaged, someone would say "I'm sorry," someone would be celebrating a birthday...Wow. What wonderful thoughts!

Each seat holds so many stories. 

What stories are the seats we occupy telling? What about the chairs of our students?

Are we listening? 

Are we remembering?

Moments of "Friendship"

Saturday was a day spent completely school work-free! I had the opportunity to head to the MSU/ND game in South Bend - what a gorgeous day and cheers for an ND victory (even though it wasn't pretty)!

Marisa and I made it to 3 tailgates and saw quite a few friends. The weather was mostly cloudy with only hints of sunlight during the day, but the temperature was perfect. Hello Fall!

While at the ACE tailgate, we got to talking with Doc Doyle (one of our favorite ACE professors/directors), and he really helped me find a renewed sense of purpose at the school where I am currently teaching: I was explaining how I teach a very privileged population and that sometimes I feel that I should be working for children and families who have more of a monetary need. However, Doc pointed out that the students whom I am teaching are very much in need of that spiritual direction away from the stuff & things they usually find happiness in. In other words, my calling right now is to help move these kids away from stuff of this world to faith in the next. It's not an easy task, but when put in this light, Doc really helped me find peace with where I am. (I really needed that!)

After the ACE tailgate, Marisa and I took a quick stop for prayer at the Grotto, and we then took a walk around one of the lakes. Just lovely...

A view of the dome across the lake - check out those clouds!

Our seats were amazing - great for seeing the game at both ends of the field and great for the band's halftime show too!

Our seats were right about on the 40 yard line in the bottom section - sweet!

The ND Band

Yes, all of these elements added up to make the day just "perfect." However, my favorite part of the day actually occurred in the bathroom...

A small girl (probably about 7 years old) was having a very hard time washing her hands at the sink. So, I leaned over and pushed down on the faucet so she could clean her hands, saying, "Let me help you." Afterwards, she thanked me, got some paper towels, and went back outside. Upon leaving the bathroom, she smiled and waved at me, so, of course, I smiled and waved back. I turned to Marisa and said, "I think I made a new friend."

In reflecting on that moment, I realized what a small action and what little effort it took to make a "friend" yesterday. And it got me to thinking, how many times during each day do we have opportunities to do such simple actions for others? How many "friends" are we taking the small moments to make? How many "friends" are we passing by?

What will you do today to make a "friend?"

My Wednesday (in words and pictures)

The days get all jumbled together, but here are some things that happened today at each grade level:

8th Grade
We started class with an interesting twist on the Our Father. And then we broke it down (in small groups).

Here is what they came up with... (Please ignore the stabbing...)

Put them together, and there you have the Our Father. Hmm..."I never really thought about it before," they said. Well...now they have.

7th Grade
After spending last night reading the students' exit slips on how to be saints, I decided that the slips were much too great to pass on an opportunity to hang them up. So, for bellwork, I had the students decorate, cut, & color their individual pieces. They ranged from simple paragraphs to recipes to even a poem!

Check them out here - hooray for a decorated door!:

6th Grade

While I don't have pictures to show you from this group, we had a pretty neat class today. The students played a variation on the Fruit of the Spirit game - we upped the difficulty, though, by having the students read off definitions or scenarios for the Fruit and students moving if they had the Fruit that was described.

Best quote in the middle of the game - after standing up, the student realized "I don't have faith!!"(and sat back down), but, quite frankly, that just sounded funny, so we all had a good laugh about it.

And yes, they have pretty much memorized the Fruit of the Spirit song - see yesterday's post. They were singing it up and down the hallway - it kind of made the 8th graders agitated. (It was kind of awesome.)

4th Grade Volleyball

And we can't forget the volleyball game! After practicing with only 4 students (and after getting lost and calling my mom because I got turned around on the way to the game), we played with a total of 5 girls (against their 6 + subs)...and we won! I would have been proud of them if they hadn't because, honestly, they played their little hearts out, made their serves, and had a few decent volleys. And, above all, they were pretty much smiling the whole time. Go forth (4th), dolphins! I'm loving it. 

It's hard to believe today was a Wednesday...I usually don't have quite so much fun on this day of the week...