Like riding a bike

It amazes me how the struggling student struggles because they just sit there and don't try.  In their heads they may even think they are trying but from my perspective it is such a predicter of failure.  When I see a student sit there and not copy down an example of how to do a problem, I know that student has done nothing to learn.  When I encourage the student to follow directions and do the problem or at least copy down how to do it, they sometimes tell me they don't understand and that is why they aren't doing anything.
You don't learn to ride a bike by sitting there and watching others ride a bike.  You have to get both of your feet off the ground and peddle.
Often, the struggling student makes sure to work slow enough to never do the problem.  They walk along side their bike and never throw a leg over it and jump on.
I challenged my struggling students with this analogy.  I desperately want each of them to believe they can learn and want to learn.  Then they each need to follow directions and try the problems.  At a minimum, this means copy down the correct work.  Similar problems are given and with meaningful and successful effort the learning will occur.  I am praying that God will help me reach all of my students.

Dog poop on my shoe

When a student makes a mistake, it is like stepping in dog poop.  When you step in dog poop you notice it right away.  It really stinks and you want to do whatever it takes to get it off the bottom of your shoe right  away.
When a student keeps making the same mistake, it is like they have dog poop on their shoes and they don't even smell the stink anymore.  Our bodies are able to eventually ignore a bad smell if we can't get away from it.  In the same way, students are able to avoid the pain of not understanding math simply by getting used to it.
I challenge my students to clean the dog poop off the bottom of their shoes and let the stench of not understanding and making mistakes really stink again in a fresh new way.  When they make a mistake or they don't understand, it should really stink and bother them.  It should motivate them to learn.  The failing student is so used to not understanding and/or making mistakes, they simply are not bothered by the stench.  The successful student is very sensitive to the stench of a mistake and/or not understanding.  This painful smell motivates these students to learn and develop habits that enable them to avoid mistakes.

Catch them

I have not been writing for quite a while, but school started last Wednesday and I am ready to start writing again.
I have a student two periods a day who failed most all of his classes last year.  He got in a lot of trouble last year.  I am praying that God will use me to help him learn to respect himself and others.  The first day I talked to my classes about forgiveness and confession.  These are essential to maintaining relationship.  I believe learning is best accomplished through good relationships.  If my students learn that I care about them and they start caring about me ... Well look out!  I will call him Julio, this student who has struggled in the past.  He is very distracted and impulsive.  He blurts out answers without much concern for whether they are correct or not.  I have already got to where he is listening to me correct him about being impulsive and he is improving.  Friday he got some problems correct.  He left with a big smile on his face and he even told me that he liked me.  I wrote the principal a positive referral.  He will call Julio down to his office tomorrow and read the positive things I wrote him about Julio and thank him for his great behavior and effort.  Then he will call his parents and do the same.  This is a great idea our new principal has brought to our school... Catch a student doing good and praise him for it.  I can't wait to find out how it went with Julio and his parents!
I can't change lives.  I tell my students that all the time.  I tell them that I want to change their lives, but that is between them and God.  I am not God.

Impossible

I worship the God of the impossible.  Nothing is impossible for God.  As Jesus standing outside the mouth of Lazarus's tomb said, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies."  Lazarus had been died for 4 days.  His sisters were more worried about the stench then anything else when Jesus asked the stone to be rolled away.  They believed that if Jesus had been there, their brother would not have died.  They believed Jesus could have done a miracle and they believed that Jesus would do miracles in the future... but they had a hard time believing Jesus was going to do a miracle right then.

I am the same way.  I think lots of us struggle with believing God is going to do a  miracle right now.  God was able to do miracles in the past.  God will do miracles in the future.  I believe God is doing miracles right now... whether or not He does is not up to me.  I just don't want to act like He can't do them or isn't going to do them.  I want to look for them.  I want to expect them.  I believe they are happening all around us all the time.

My life verses are Prov. 3:5-6, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your path."

I struggle with actually trusting God with all my desires.  It sounds so ridiculous when I say that.  How can I not easily trust God with all my heart?  I know God is trustworthy.  Sometimes my head gets in the way of my heart.  I lean on my own understanding instead of simply trusting in the God of the impossible like a little child.

I think I too often pray for what I think can happen.  I want to pray for the impossible.  I want to see God do the impossible and praise Him.  "In my weakness, His strength is made perfect."  It is when we come to the end of ourselves that we experience God at a deeper level.  'God resist the prideful, but gives grace to the humble.'  I want to live like I really trust Him.  I want to live like I believe what I say I believe.

There are so many people all around me that need Jesus.  There are so many people all around this world that need Jesus.  Lord I pray for the revival of my heart... set it on fire for the lost I ask.  Give me the grace, love and courage to be Your witness.  I pray for revival at my school.  I pray for revival in our country.  I pray for revival around the world.  Break my heart Lord and get rid of all the worthless desires and help me to trust You with all my heart.  'Create in me a clean heart o Lord.'  Help me Lord to see Your miracles happening all around me and help me to PRAISE You with joy and enthusiasm.

I am nothing without You... but You amazingly want to use us to do Your good works.  Help me to walk in them and praise and honor and glorify and worship You.  You are NOT died.  You are alive and on Your throne.  You are at work.  You are sovereign.  You are Holy and I am not.  I am crushed by my unworthiness, sinfulness and selfishness.  I need Your touch to cleanse my heart.  Give me a burden for my students... each one.  Give me a burden for all of the students and adults at my school.  It scares me to ask this Lord because I don't know what will happen to me if You really answer my prayer.  There is a part of me that thinks I will be destroyed and so I have a hard time letting go of all my desires.  Help me Lord to be so overwhelmed by a burden for the lost that I lose my concern for myself.  Change me so You can use me to change others.  Changed hearts change lives.

Day 129

Slime and Chemistry Story

I don't remember hardly any of my teachers... but I do remember my chemistry teacher.  He was a great teacher.  He made the class fun and I learned a lot.

It was right after Christmas and I had gotten a can of 'Slime' in my stocking.  We were making plastics in labs in chemistry and I told my teacher about the slime I had gotten.  He was interested and asked me to bring in a small chunk of it.  The next day I did.  After a few days the teacher was giving a lecture.  He had his podium out and was sitting on a stool blabbing away.  He hardly ever did this.  As he lectured, he kept having to sneeze.  He was acting like he had a really bad cold but his face looked normal.  Then all of the sudden I realized what was going on.  He was going to use my slime!

I sat in the back of the class.  Everyone else had no idea what was going on and especially what was going to happen.  The teacher just kept talking and sneezing.  I was now paying attention, not to what he was saying but to what he was doing.  After several more agonizing minutes of lecturing and sneezing, he finally started making his move.  His hands disappeared inside his podium.  I knew they were getting ahold of the slime.  Then came the build up to a big, I mean really big sneeze and he raised his hands to cover his mouth.  I knew he had the slime in one hand.

Then, ATCHEW! and he flung the slime at the same moment, making it look like he had coughed up a chunk of his lung.  The chunk of green slime hit a girl, that sat in the front row, on her neck and bounced off landing on her desk.

SHE SCREAMED... like only girls can... and so did all the other girls in the class.  Then she bolted up out of her desk and ran out of the class.  She was instantly followed by all of the other girls.

All of the guys in the class were initially and briefly stunned.  Then we all laughed really hard for a long time.  I knew what was going to happen and I was still stunned.

The teacher laughed so hard he fell sideways, stool and all.  Like a giant fir tree, he crashed to the ground.  He just laid there laughing hysterically.  He finally pulled himself together and got up off the floor.  His face now looked like he had a cold as it was all flush and his eyes were puffing from crying.

It was just him and us guys in the class for several minutes.  We just kept laughing.  Finally the girls all came back into class in one large silent group.  They were not happy at all.  The teacher and all of us guys realized that we should stop laughing... but that just made it even funnier to all of us males.  So the rest of the class was either really funny or really annoying... it depended on your gender.

I think that chemistry teacher had an influence on me.  I want to enjoy my students, subject and life.

Day 128

Dylan's Leaf Story

About 8 years ago, I had a 7th grade student I'll call Dylan.  He sat in the third desk in the row next to the window.  It was late October and it was pouring down rain.  He was in my 4th period class.

I was teaching away and I looked over and noticed that Dylan was not paying attention... he was staring out the window.  I walked over to him and looked out the window to see what he was looking at.  I was thinking maybe something really cool was going on outside and I wanted to see.

 One year, I had a student exclaim as she stared out the window, "Hey, there is a cow riding a whale!"  I quickly walked over to take a look and sure enough, there was a picture of a cow riding a whale on the side of a huge milk truck.  I had never seen the truck before and it was pretty cool looking to me.  I told the class, "There really is a cow riding a whale... come see."  Only a few kids got up to see.  So in frustrated amazement, I commanded them all to get up and see the stupid cow riding the whale.

About 13 years ago I taught 7th and 8th graders, at Nate Saint Memorial School in Shell Ecuador.  One day I looked out the window and saw a monkey in a tree.  I had never looked out a classroom window and seen a monkey before.  My 8 students all had their heads down and were working away.  I interrupted them and said, "Hey, there is a monkey in that tree!"  They all briefly looked up  and glanced at the monkey and without any expression returned to their work.  I couldn't believe it.  I told them to stop working and look at the monkey for at least one minute.  It was a really long minute for them.  It was weird to me... their total lack of enthusiasm in seeing a wild monkey out their classroom window.  That just doesn't happen in Tacoma Washington very often.

Anyways... back to Dylan... sorry.

There was nothing to look at but hard rain coming down.  The two trees in the court yard had lost all their leaves so you couldn't tell how hard the wind was blowing.  Then I noticed it.  One of the trees still had one leave left!  I quickly realized that Dylan wanted to see that last leaf fall of that tree.  He was totally distracted by this goal of his.  Without a word, I turned and walked out of the room and out of the school, around the building to the court yard and right up to the tree.  All of my students were looking out the window now.  I reached out and plucked the last leaf off the tree and dropped it to the ground.  I could see Dylan and all of my students laughing and smiling.  I returned to class and we got back to work.  I thought it was all over.  I was wrong.

The class had second lunch.  This meant that after 25 minutes of class time, they got lunch, and then they returned for another 25 minutes of class.

After lunch, I started back teaching away and quickly noticed that Dylan was not paying attention again.  In fact, he had turned his desk slightly towards the window so he was obviously looking out the window.  I couldn't believe he wasn't paying attention.  We had had our little laugh and now it was time to get busy.  He wanted me to know he was staring out the window.

I asked Dylan what he was looking at now.  He heard me, but he silently kept staring out the window.  I was ready to get mad.  I walked over and looked out the window.  To my surprise, the tree had one leaf on it again... and Dylan was staring at it... again.  I couldn't believe it.  During lunch he had gotten some tape and gone outside and taped a leaf back onto a branch of the tree.  I burst out in laughter.   The class erupted in laughter, they weren't so sure how I was going to react... that is why there was a pause.  I patted Dylan on the back and we smiled hard at each other.

I had Dylan in class and coached him in wrestling for 3 years.  We would, once in while, remind each other of that day and have a good laugh.

I love laughing with my students.  I love seeing them laugh.  When I see past students, they remember and comment on the funny stories, the serious talks and good discipline of the class.

Day 127

The Jaws Story

I was a sophomore in high school when Jaws came out.  It was awesome.  Everybody saw it.

My brother, our friends and I were totally into water skiing in high school.  My brother and I owned our own boat.  We would ski every weekend once the weather warmed up enough.  In fact, my junior year, we skied at least once in every month through the entire year.  We skied out in the Puget Sound, in Filucy Bay.

Jaws came out in the spring.  It was the first nice weekend in early May and we were at 'The Point,' as we called it.  It is the south tip of the mouth of Fulicy Bay.  It is a great place to water ski from because the beach has no barnacles and is steep... you can pull right up to the beach with your motor still down and running.

Everybody who was there that day was a good skier.  We were all slalom skiers and everyone could step start.  Step starting is when you stand in about knee deep water and hold your ski out of the water with a couple coils of ski rope in one hand, while you hold the handle of the ski rope in the other.  The boat trolls away from you and when the rope gets pretty taut, except for the few coils, you say, "Hit it!" and the driver guns it and you simply step onto your ski without getting wet at all.

We were all very aggressive skiers.  We would push the limits of our skiing abilities.  The goal was always to cut as sharp and hard as you could each time.  You wanted to skip your shoulder on the water and not falling.  You wanted to throw up as big of a spray as you could.  Therefore, we all fell a lot... sometimes the wipeouts were very impressive.

Not this day.  No one was falling or even getting close to falling.  Everyone was skiing very conservatively.  Everyone was afraid of Jaws and no one was saying anything about it.  It was really bugging me.  I was the youngest, everyone else was either a junior or senior.  At the end of each person's turn, they would ski right up to the beach and run out of their ski.  The only thing getting wet were people's feet and ankles.  I was the last to go.  I decided that it was up to me to show everyone else that there was no reason to be afraid of Jaws.  I was going to ski hard and fall and not get eaten by Jaws... that would show them... so I thought.

So I put on my farmer John style wet suit and then my ski vest and gloves.  I adjusted my ski binding tight and jammed my left foot in.  I waded out into knee deep water as my brother, the driver, started trolling away and nodded 'Hit it' as the rope grew taut.  Within seconds, I was gliding across the top of the water at about 36 mph.  I loved water skiing.  I loved pushing myself to and past the limits of my ability.

With intense effort, I started cutting back and forth across the wake.  I was getting lower and lower with each cut.  I was determined to not let some stupid movie ruin my summer of water skiing.  I was in the zone... then WIPE OUT!  I caught the tip of my ski as I flew to the other side of the wake after a cut.
I went skipping across the top of the water for a bit before I sunk in.  It was one of those impressive wipe outs.  Suddenly, I was overcome by an intense dread of Jaws.  I was in salt water.  I had just made a big commotion  by falling and I knew sharks were attracted to motion.  My ski had flown off in the crash and now I was panicking because I had nothing to protect myself with.  I fearfully scanned the surface of the water looking for my ski.  To my horror, I spotted it upside down with the fin sticking out of the water, looking like a shark fin.  It was about 20 ft away and I had to swim for it... but swimming meant more commotion.  I paused for a bit, then realized that I needed to go get my ski.  So I swam as fast as I could to it, grabbed it and slipped it back on my left foot.

Now I felt so much better.  My brother was trolling away from me and I was about halfway between the boat and the handle.  I've skied since I was 5 years old and fallen hundreds of times.  I've never had anything touch me in the water... until that day!

Suddenly, something brushed against the bottom of my right foot!  I freaked!  All's I could hear in my head was the sound of that lady in Jaws getting thrashed around and screaming and gurgling.  I pulled and pulled at the ski rope and got ahold of the handle.  There was a pile of rope right in front of me.  I screamed, "HIT IT! HIT IT! HIT IT!" as I frantically flailed with my arms.  My brother looked back and saw me panicking and with a questioning look on his face, he HIT IT.

The rope was zipping away from me and as it got close to the end, I threw my arms back over my head and arched my belly skyward and YANK... I was pulled violently out of the water... good bye Jaws.  But my sense of relief was short lived as I kept going forward and right over the front of my ski, face first into the water.  I refused to let go.  I rolled over onto my back.  I still was going to live... surely my brother will take me back to shore.  Surely he saw my panic and would do the right thing... NOT!

Soon I was bouncing around and rolling over and over from belly to back as he whipped me at full speed over waves.  He was thrashing me around like an inner tube ride... but I was the inner tube.  Finally, I let go.  I couldn't hold on any longer.  I was exhausted and totally afraid.  He had taken me way out in the middle of the bay where the sharks would hang out.  He was doing donuts around me at full speed. I was so mad at him but I was even more afraid of Jaws.  I was expecting dismemberment at any moment from Jaws and there was nothing I could do about it.

Then something inside me snapped.  I couldn't stand the suspense any longer.  I started flailing at the surface to attract Jaws and I stuck my face under water and yelled, "BITE ME! BITE ME!"  All the while my brother was still doing high speed donuts around me circling the spot in the water where I was... just in case Jaws needed any help.  I kept flailing and screaming into the water trying to get eaten by Jaws.  My brother finally came trolling up to me.  I yelled at him in full anger and hysteria and explained that something had brushed the bottom of my foot and that was why I had freaked out.

Sudden my brother and the other 2 guys in the boat sprang to my rescue and tried to pull me out of the water.  I harshly yelled at them, "LEAVE ME ALONE!"  Then to their amazement I continued to try to get eaten by Jaws by flailing and screaming under water.  They just stood there in shock as they watched me unsuccessfully try to get eaten.

Finally, I was exhausted.  I couldn't thrash anymore.  I wasn't getting eaten.  I had tried my best to get eaten and hadn't.  I HAD NO FEAR OF JAWS.  I asked my brother and our friends to pull me out.  The quickly did.  I didn't realize what I had done at the time.  I had totally humiliated them.  You see I was the little brother... and the little brother had just tried his best to get eaten by Jaws.

From then on, everyone skied hard, fell and didn't get eaten by Jaws.  Our summer was full of glorious days of water skiing.

I always tell my kids and students to face their fears.

Fear knocks on the door of faith.  Courage opens the door and sees nothing.

Day