Besides Teaching

Every year there are numerous responsibilities that we as teachers have in addition to teaching. As the freshmen homeroom teacher, I am responsible to chaperone the spring freshmen social. That class is rather inexperienced in planning and carrying out such activities, but this particular class has good student council members. These three young teens took their responsibility well: they planned the games and meal, gave leadership to the group throughout the evening, and cleaned up after the social was over. That was five hours of activity that they were responsible for, but they put in more hours than that in planning and preparing for the evening.

The EGG Toss

Oops! She missed the egg, but the egg didn't miss her!

Unity supper

Newspaper Scavenger Hunt

Free time between games was rather noisy and active.

Static Electric

Moses Burkholer was at school today to give a demonstration in science class. The freshmen were a bit nonchalant and and univolved when he started, but it didn't take them long to be fascinated by the demonstrations. They were soon volunteering to be shocked, etc.

Mini-Terms 2008 -- Day 4

No photos at all today. Mini-terms is over. It was a good week, but we are ready to go back to a normal schedule and activities. We were glad for all the time it wasn't raining this week (especially the horseback riding, tennis, biking, etc. classes). The school is returning to norm again. My room has desks in it again. Ping pong tables have disappeared. Sewing machines are back in the home ec room. The library has returned to being a library rather than a scrapbooking room. It has been a good break, but a break doesn't last forever.

Mini-Terms 2008 -- Day 3

I did not get to walk by or stop in many other classes today. Hence, the photos are rather limited to my two Readers' Theater classes today and the bean bag class that runs in the yearbook room close to the office the period I am in the office to answer the phone.

Readers' Theater class carried 12 ft. ladders through the hall and then set them up in the foyer. Some of the ladders were amazingly flexible!

Readers' theater class "ice" skating.

rag quilts patches are ready to be put together

bags of bean bag stuffing waiting in the furnace room for the girls to finish their bean bags

While some girls are still sewing their bean bags, others are beginning to fill them.

or at least trying to fill them. But there is a problem when the bag gets a hole at the top and the bottom and the person holding the bean bag runs off.

Mini-Terms 2008 -- Day 2

More activities of mini-terms . . .

table tennis

candy making

cake decorating

June, a former student, came in to talk to the college prep class about applying to college, first impressions of college, how college is different from high school, and anything else she could share from her experience. It was helpful that she is an LPN and the two students in the college prep class are interested in the nursing field.

The math room has turned into a bike storage area.

painting class is doing a painting of snowmen

Mini-Terms 2008 -- Day 1

This morning we started mini-terms at school. I am teaching two classes of Readers' Theater and a College Prep class. Each class is 1 1/2 hours, and there are four periods in a day. The fourth period I am sitting in the office to answer the phone.

Today I took my college prep class to the local high school Career Center to get information about colleges, scholarships, etc. They came back with a handful of information and a lot more questions than they had when they went. I think it was worthwhile visiting the center and getting them started asking the questions they need to ask at some point.

The two readers' theater classes have a very improvised "stage" identified with masking tape on the floor of my classroom. Today we talked about characterization and read through several skits in each of those classes.





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Not a part of the skit!

I have not been able to observe much of what is happening in other rooms. The other classes are breakfast foods, basketball, chess, scrapbooking, electrical, CPR, horseback riding, Creation Research, woodshop for girls, hometown cooking for guys, archery, digital photography, meteorology, quoits, rag quilt, candle making, blasting, hockey, slate painting, cake decorating, table tennis, candy making, auto body, tennis, cross cultural class,biking, chip & putt, auto mechanics for girls, urban youth, bean bag chairs, lawn golf.

Bean Bag chair class

Obstacle Course in Urban Youth class

"Leading the Blind"

The Extra Day?

So what did I do with the "extra" day, February 29?

It started out a rather normal day. Jan made egg-in-a-nest for breakfast. I packed lunches. Mary tended to dog and chickens. Then, we all headed off to work.

I taught my first two classes followed by chapel, two more classes, hot lunch, and one more class. I had a former student visiting my classroom for periods 4 and 5 to observe as a part of her college training to be an English teacher. At lunch I received a friendly reminder note that I am responsible for the bulletin board in the hall for the month of March. At that point, my day changed.

Rather than studying my Sunday school lesson and reading Ben Hur this afternoon, I pulled a bulletin board out of the archives in my room and put it up. By 5 PM I was finished with that and ready to start on the tasks at hand. That's when Mary called and said she would be working another 2 hours because they had a job at the cabinet shop that was behind schedule.

So, here I am at 6:30 with my school work finished, a new bulletin board on the wall, my Sunday school lesson studied, and ready to begin reading Ben Hur. I am only about 25 chapters behind my students.

I need another extra day to catch up!

The Cat Comes Back . . . or Maybe Not!

P.S. I'll add this at the beginning. On Sunday the man I bought the Suzuki from stopped in and told us Tyler sold it on ebay and there was a truck coming in from Ohio to pick it up that day. I guess we won't be seeing it around anymore. Goodbye, Suzuki!

In August we sold all the Suzukis. Mine was purchased by a local college student. Apparently he tired of it in several months. It could be rather annoying especially when it rained and the passengers received an involuntary shower. I guess I understand why he tired of it.

This week we saw "the" Suzuki parked by the road with a for sale notice in the window. It gave us a chance to get pictures of it with the hardtop (somehow we had never taken any picture with that on while I owned the vehicle).

He is trying to sell it for twice what he paid for it six months ago. I don't think it will happen very quickly. We certainly have no intentions of buying it back.

Bible Quizzing

I spent Saturday at Lititz Area Mennonite School watching the MACSA Bible Quizzing. We had seven teams there quizzing all day. It started around 9:30 AM and was finally over about 5:20 PM. It was a long day of quizzing with stressful moments, funny moments, and a great time for meeting people I don't see very often. One of the funny moment was when Demetrius had no idea what the question was going to be except that it started with "what?" His answer: "What is this thou hast done?" The crowd packed into the too small classroom burst into laughter. It was the only verse in Genesis 1-11 that he could think of that started with "what."

Tyler concentrates on the passage during a quiz, comes up with the right verse,

but says the wrong question.

The "Babblers" won second place in the finals.

Holiday Activities

Our holiday activities began by hosting the senior girls for a sleepover. Janelle shared some of the W.I.L.D. concepts (The Learning Cycle) with the girls in the evening. The following morning the entire school was Christmas caroling at Rockvale Square for about two hours. Then, Christmas vacation began!

One of the holiday activities was the exchanging of gifts among Mary, Jan and I. I gave Mary the license plate below for the front of her truck.

Saturday evening between Christmas and New Year we spent with several friends. I helped to finish the quilt they were working on and Mary helped to cut patches for comforter kits for CAM.

December 31 we celebrated Romaine's 60th birthday by cutting patches from Mom's old dresses. It was a good way to end the year.


By the time I got home from the day with my sisters, our New Year's Eve party had begun. We attempted to stay awake until midnight. It is getting harder every year to stay up that late. The next day we had the annual mashed potatoes, pork and sauerkraut dinner.

Now, we are back at work in the new year and thanking God for the blessings of family, friends, jobs, and a home.

THE ICE IS STILL WITH US!

The ice is still with us and the road is still closed.

I took a few more pictures when we got home from work this afternoon.

ICE!

We are in the middle of an ice storm. Late last night a cinder truck was on its side at the top of the hill. The road is now closed. The electric blinked several times. Mary heard a tree crashing down out back. The green trees in the first photo are usually about twice as tall. They are very bowed over by the ice. There is another picture of them at the bottom of the post. The fence around the chicken yard is covered with ice--as is EVERYTHING else. We are staying home!

Farm Sale

Black Friday dawned bright and chilly. We did some work around home and then headed for the farm sale. There was a nice group of spectators and bidders. I was, of course, just a spectator.

I was at many auctions before, but I think this was the first farm sale I ever attended.

The grandchildren sold hot soup, doughnuts, and hot drinks.

Benefit Auction

Last week we attended a benefit auction for Mary's 17-year-old niece. Geril has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Her youth group friends organized a benefit auction for last Saturday. The response was a bit overwhelming for the family. There were nearly 200 bidders who raised somewhere in the neighborhood of $15,000. That will not go far in paying medical bills these days, but it is certainly a financial lift for a family of 10 children and no medical insurance.

Lauren, Sharita, and Geril