Learning and Teaching

They tell me that part of being a teacher means that you never stop learning. Learning about your students, learning about how to teach them, learning about yourself, and learning about the world around you.

They also say that if you think about it, you learn something new everyday. I was thinking about it in the shower this morning and decided to take note of the things that I learned. To me, everything that I learned seemed to be comical. I don't know what that says about my day... So anyway, here they are:

At 8am I went to Missionary Anthropology and took a ridiculous test. And I learned that my favorite letter is A. Go figure. Everytime I didn't know an answer, I just filled in A. And at the end of the test, I counted up all of each letter, and hoped that there were more As than any other letter. Especially B. Here's the kicker- I've been doing this since at least the 3rd grade. I remember doing the same thing on the TAAS test. Yet, on this early morning, it actually occured to me that A is indeed my favorite letter.

Well, then I went to chapel and learned that God doesn't want Harding kids to live in the south after graduation. He wants us to go live in the Northeast or to Oregon. I won't elaborate on this as to not reveal my cynicism. ;)

I went to the library to check out some books to read for my children's lit portfolio, and learned that you should at least read the full title of the books you pick up before you check them out. It would really be a good idea to scan the inside too. I needed to check out some picture books and I ended up with one called "Midnight Dance of the Snowshoe Hare: Poems of Alaska" I missed that whole poems part. I got another one called "How the Animals got their Colors" and it's a book of like 12 legends about animals. So that's like 12 different problems and 12 solutions. Not exactly what I needed. At least I got to see some cool illustrations though. And the book of poems was also useful, as I have to have a couple of poems too.

Oh, which leads me to the craziest thing I've learned today. I learned it from the Snowshoe Hare book. I thought it was going to be a about a little bunny who went out dancing one night. Maybe he has a couple of friends. But no, it was refering to a whole huge group of Snowshoe Hare. Not Hares. Hare. Apparently the word "hare" is like "moose" and "deer" and "bison" (which is debateable ;) and to make it plural, you don't actually "put an s at the end of it".

I had to go through a whole paradigm shift. My worldview cracked. My identity was shaken.

So waht are we? Not the Hares. Now we're just a bunch of Hare? For a minute there, I was NOT gonna be ok... but I am now, so we're good.

Anyway, my quest today has got me thinking about learning, which has got me thinking about teaching. Even if I don't want to be a classroom teacher I still want to teach. So doing all this thinking just got me confused so I just went to biblegateway.com. Cuz that's how I roll.

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,

and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the LORD
for the display of his splendor.

They will rebuild the ancient ruins
and restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities
that have been devastated for generations.
Isaiah 61:1-4



Listen, dear friends, to God's truth, bend your ears to what I tell you.
I'm chewing on the morsel of a proverb;
I'll let you in on the sweet old truths,
Stories we heard from our fathers,
counsel we learned at our mother's knee.
We're not keeping this to ourselves,
we're passing it along to the next generation—
God's fame and fortune,
the marvelous things he has done.


He planted a witness in Jacob,
set his Word firmly in Israel,
Then commanded our parents
to teach it to their children
So the next generation would know,
and all the generations to come—
Know the truth and tell the stories
so their children can trust in God,
Never forget the works of God
but keep his commands to the letter.
Psalm 78:1-8



"I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday."
-Abraham Lincoln

Happy St. Patty's Day- Thank a missionary!!!

Happy st. Patrick's Day! In America, today tends to be a celebration of Ireland (sigh...), and for many, an excuse to break Lent and party it up. Well, I'm wearing green... What does today mean to me? What does it mean to you?

I saw part of this episode of 19 Kids and Counting over Spring break where Michelle Duggar was reading to her kids about St. Patrick. She said "I figured there must be a reason he was called 'saint'." I didn't watch the all the rest of the show, but I liked what she'd said.

I knew that St. Patrick wasn't Irish and that he'd brought the Gospel into the paganism of Ireland, but I decided to do a little more research and what I found was pretty cool, so I thought I'd share.

Patrick was a British kid, son of a Christian minister, who was kidnapped when the Irish celts raided his village after the fall of the Roman Empire, and brought to Ireland as a slave. Apparently he was put to work as a shepherd, but he was lonely and sad, which was to be expected if you ask me. Anyway, Patrick turned to faith to help him survive the lonliness and humiliation of slavery and became rather devout. He began dreaming of bringing the Irish people out of their sun-worship and into the Light. After 10 years of slavery in Ireland, Patrick had a vision from God telling him that it was time to go home. So he ran away and headed for the coast. He made it back to Britain and became a priest, and not too long after that recieved another vision. Now it was time to go back to Ireland, the land of his slavery.

So Patrick obeyed. He went headed to Ireland, where the Christians were few, and the few were quiet. And he taught them about the Lord.

Nobody can really peg anything down that he actually did after that. There's a lot of legend about banishing snakes and other miracles. There's a legend that the way he taught the idea of the Trinity to them was with the shamrock. 3 in 1. I thought that one was prety awesome.

Patrick was apparently never actually canonized in the Catholic church either, so while you can't know alot about him, I think St. Patrick's Day would be a good day for us to appreciate and thank God for the legacy of love that His children have carried all over the world over thousands of years. God's People just keep on going, and by no strength of our own. I'm sure Patrick had to do a lot of wrestling with going back to the place where he had been a slave after he had been reunited with his family in his homeland. But he obeyed God. And because of that, Ireland became a Christian stronghold in the Dark Ages, when the rest of Europe was falling apart.

God's Kingdom. How many have died for it since Christ? How many have died to their own desires to further it? How many are giving themselves up at this very moment, just so that someone else can know Jesus? What can I do for them? What can I do?

So if you've read this far, go thank the person who taught you about the Lord. And then do likewise. :)