Thursday, 31 October 2013

Happy Reformation Day!

For your edification, here's a brief history of Martin Luther (sort of)...



And let's not forget the classic Reformation Day song...
 

Sunday, 27 October 2013

Strange Conversations

Today I was waiting for my ride after church. Sometimes I get the pastor and his wife to give me a ride and that means being there forever. Church ends around noon, maybe a bit past. Today we left at 2:30 with the final 3 families (although in defense of one family, they were going to the pastor's for lunch). Anyway, to entertain myself after I finished in the library and did some homework, I went to see what the kids were up to. I found myself with a group of them and mostly talking to a cute little 3-year old girl.

First she told me about a ladybug she had found. Her brother had it right then and was inspecting it carefully.

Him: Look, he's two years old. Oh, and he's dead. (Note: both sentences were uttered in the exact same tone.)
Her: I want that ladybug.
Me: Why do you wants a dead ladybug?
Her: I just love it so much!

Later....
Me: So, what's your name?
Her: My name is __________, but sometimes Mommy and Daddy call me Monkey.
Me: So can I call you Monkey?
Her: No, I'm Monkey-head!

A bit later she was Monkey-brain, Monkey-eye, and Monkey-blood. Then she was a small dog who grew into a big dog.

Later....

Me: So what do you like to do for fun?
Her: Fart! (pause) No, don't talk about farting! I play with my brother.
Me: And what do you play with your brother?
Her: Farting! No, not farting. No potty talk!


Saturday, 26 October 2013

Saturday at Work

Work is going fairly well lately. I haven't been working very crazy hours, and I actually got off early today. I only had one test, first thing this morning, and was done with the test and conference by 12:30. Normally on a Saturday, I test at 10, 12, and 2, so the days are a bit longer. I had all my reports updated and entered by 1:30 (for both centres), had answered emails and adjusted schedules, and was generally good to go. In fact, the only reason I didn't leave by 2 (when the students leave) is that we had a staff meeting scheduled at 2.

I have a great staff. When I let them know last week that there would be a meeting today, their response was to make a sign-up sheet for snacks at the meeting. A couple of them finished teaching at 1:00 (thanks to some cancellations and no-shows) and headed out for coffee and more food.

My little guy who came in for a test is rather interesting. He's 6, in grade 1, not too bad except for his sight vocabulary. The main issue is that they're going to be away from school for over a month in the new year because of a wedding in India. Anyway, it was his expressive vocabulary answers that interested me:

Me: Tell me about "knife."
Him: It means you fight.
Me: Um...tell me more about knife.
Him: You use it if there's bad people.
Me (trying to get an answer that shows up on the list): What do you do with a knife?
Him: You kill them.

(For the record: there's nothing about fighting, bad people, or killing on the list. I was going for stab or cut by the end!)

Then....

Me: Tell me about "envelope."
Him: It's a fruit. You eat it.

So work is good and the students are interesting!

Saturday, 19 October 2013

The Fun of Being Thoughtful

For your entertainment and edification, another 50s educational video.

Friday, 11 October 2013

A Quick Thought

There are very, very few times when I wish I had twitter. Most of them are when the students say something that really should be shared. In general, I accept that no one cares about my life that much and I don't have anything deep enough to say to make it worth it.

And then there come times when I read things that should be retweeted.

Today I read this from Dan Phillips:

We probably shouldn't speak of the *doctrine* of the virgin birth any more than we speak of the "doctrine" of the assassination of JFK

and...

The virgin (conception and) birth of Jesus Christ is a fact of history, an event; not a doctrine

Think about it.

Thursday, 10 October 2013

What's Happening

I asked my Sunday School class what we're learning this year.
Them: Turning the world upside down!
Me: Yes, and what do we use to turn the world upside down?
One of them (while the rest hesitated): Oh...that world-tilting gospel book!
Me: Noooooooooooo! (Imagine it said with dismay and despair) We use the Bible, people!

Of course, this is the same class with 2 students who wrote that Adam and Eve sinned because of Satin.

I should be working on my essays right now. I'm not (obviously). One of them has to wait until I get more commentaries from my pastor. In my world research = call pastor to see what he has! I'm enjoying that essay. It's on the concept of light through the Bible. I've finished the Old Testament portion and next week I'll write about the New Testament. I can't say everything there is about light because the paper is due by the end of the month and there's a LOT about light in the Bible! It's been fun and interesting and encouraging to research. The other essay is less interesting.

Today at work I had a call from a parent. Her daughter has a test tomorrow and she knew it was too late to cancel her class with us, but she wasn't sure if we could help. The child attends a Christian school and the test was for Bible class. I quickly set her mind at ease!

Our public library has changed its policy on renting videos. We used to be allowed to check them out for only one week, but recently they changed that to 3 weeks. This will make me happy when I finally make it to the head of the line for Doctor Who: The Complete Second Series. Until then, I wish it was only one week! On the plus side, they have acquired three more copies since I placed a month ago. At the same time, I'm number 36 on 12 copies (which is like being about number 3 so it isn't all bad).

About Doctor Who: I blame Firefly. I think it's a gateway TV show. I was perfectly happy avoiding science fiction until someone convinced me to watch Firefly. I loved it. Then I thought I should try Doctor Who since the same person recommended it. Now I'm hooked. And honestly: I watched the first series (with the ninth doctor) and it was sometimes beyond strange and sometimes freaky and frightening (and that one episode made me cry) and I had no idea why I was watching it and I couldn't stop watching. And now I want more. Although I watched an older episode on Netflix (in Canada there are only a few older episodes available) with the fourth doctor and the whole time what I really wondered was how his companion kept her hat on. It seemed glued to the back of her head.

And on the same note, a couple weeks ago I was going through some old email folders and stumbled upon a geek test that someone had sent me. I tried taking it again. I am very sorry to say that I've gone from about 8% to almost 15% geek since I first took it. I'm still in the "geekish tendencies" stage, but once I hit 15% I'll be a full-fledged geek. It worries me. In my defense, I was promised cookies for coming over to the dark side.

And that is a bit of what's happening in my mind this evening!

Sunday, 6 October 2013