So Much To Say

And so little time....

I love teaching intersession. It's great to get to teach a different subject / grade for a couple of weeks, and go more in-depth. A major flaw in American education is that our system requires us to "cover" a lot of material, and cares little for real understanding. Standardized testing has only made this worse.

But to be successful in life, our students need to understand things. So, intersession gives us a chance to build broader background knowledge and deeper comprehension.

A lot of students in this country are gradually disengaging from their own education. It's telling that several years of focus on multiple-choice testing has not increased our high school graduation rate. So it's comforting to see that students do, in fact, still love to learn - when given the chance to do it right.

We can do it right during the regular school year, of course. And we're getting better at it all the time - the delicate balancing act between what politicians demand and what professionals know.

I just love this time when the balance can tip 100% towards the children.

Sunday

8:00 AM - AM stuff.
8:40 AM - Drive to church (thankfully a short drive)
8:50 AM - Warm up and practice for morning worship
9:30 AM - Attend discussion about Holy Grounds community in the church parlor
10:30 AM - Choir warmups and prayers.
11:00 AM - Play and participate in worship
12:15 PM - Go to Rockland's with Chris and Brooke for BBQ. Frequently consult phone for SU Basketball Info. Drive home via Harris Teeter for quick grocery shop. Finish watching SU game (go 'Cuse!). Start on Sunday Post.
2:30 PM - A nice walk outside.
3:30 PM - Naptime.
4:40 PM - Household stuff: laundry (3 loads), clean kitchen and bathroom, take out recycling, etc.
6:30 PM - TV time. Simpsons, Family Guy, and some TIVO to catch up on. Also make supper (mustard dill salmon, garlic mashed potatoes, peas, salad, girl scout cookies). Make lunch and get clothes ironed for tomorrow. Replace missing buttons on 2 shirts and 1 pair of pants.
10:00 PM - Early bedtime today.

Saturday

6:30 AM - still asleep.
7:30 AM - see above.
8:30 AM, 9:30 AM, 10:30 AM - see above.
11:30 AM - finally getting up. Breakfast etc. Read the Post and skim the ones I didn't get to spend much time with this week.
1:00 PM - walk outside for a while, gym for half an hour.
2:30 PM - clean out inbox (snail mail and email) and deal with things that need dealing with.
3:15 PM - house cleaning for a little while.
4:00 PM - a little nap.
4:30 PM - get ready to go out. Metro to Kennedy Center.
5:30 PM - walk around Kennedy Center and enjoy the atmosphere.
6:00 PM - Eastman Trombone Choir concert on the Millenium Stage.
7:00 PM - meet up with an old acquaintance from the concert. Agree to meet at Elephant and Castle for dinner at 8:00.
7:45 PM - after metro and walk, decide to use GPS feature on new phone to locate Elephant and Castle. (I've been before but not from that direction.) LOVE having this feature on phone!
10:00 - Metro home well satisfied with food (and drink) from pub.
10:30 - Watch old British sitcoms on PBS for a while.
12:00 - Bed.

Friday

6:30 - Start again.
7:00 - Drive time.
7:30 - Staff Breakfast (a regular monthly one, no special occasion this time.)
7:45 - Kiss and Ride. (Last day! Won't have this again until May. :) )
8:15 - Morning Meeting, 6th grade.
8:45 - Teach 4 hours of music classes. Eat with a second grade class in need of support, and some of their 6th grade 'big buddies.' Find a crew to put instruments away for intersession. Do same for colleague. Get 25+ sixth graders who signed up for chorus (or might want to) into a meeting with the middle school director. Help try to figure out why most of the people who already signed up, aren't even on her list. Go to 6th grade presentation of Restaurant Concepts (an exercise in creative use of language for advertising).
2:55 - Dismissal.
3:15 - Go home. Stop at Macy's Ballston on the way for new shoes. Come out with shirt, cufflinks, socks, and tie as well. Thank self for single-handedly rescuing the local retail trade. Light snack. Gym for an hour. Charge and activate new phone (yay). Phone calls re: weekend plans. Get ready for weekend plans, wearing new shoes +etc.
9:00 - Nowruz / Uncle Bashir's Birthday party at "Aghan Restaurant" in Alexandria.
12:30 - Home and to bed.

Thursday

Well, not normal. But a little relief.

6:30 - Up and get ready. No need for breakfast.
7:00 - Drive time.
7:30 - Staff breakfast in the Library. Superintendent comes. Good news about AYP from last year. It's a long story for another post.
8:15 - Morning Meeting in a 3rd grade.
8:45 - Regular day begins. 1st hour class is out testing. 2nd class is late due to testing and needs a little extra recess. Only end up teaching 1 and 1/2 hours of actual music. Also, an hour with fifth grade science. Use extra time to: clean a couple of shelves in my storage room, meet with strings teacher about the instrument grant, answer more emails, file forms. Use lunch to: shop for a phone (finally something good from Sprint: a $200 voucher for an upgrade!) Also, make final arrangements for middle school chorus teacher to come meet 6th grade students who want to register for middle school in 7th grade. Proofread bulletin. Find midi file so I can listen to new hymn.
3:15 - Leave at the bell for a change. Get cash and gas. Drive to Alexandria (blissfully, only 35 minutes today. Almost a record for a weekday afternoon!)
4:00 - Eat at Atlantis. Read the post, almost all of it.
5:00 - Practice at church for 2 hours. Walk to Starbucks for madeleines and a latte.
7:30 - Choir practice for hour and a half.
9:15 - I'm home. Watch Hell's Kitchen. Make 3 new rehearsal CD's for All-County kids who lost/broke theirs. 12-year-olds: gotta love 'em!
10:30 - Ready for bed.

Wednesday

Ah, normalcy. Sort of.
6:30 - You know the drill. Also get on Facebook and wish my sister a happy birthday. Hope to dickens it goes through - new Facebook slightly confusing. I JUST got used to the old one and they changed it again. AAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH.
7:45 - Kiss and Ride.
8:15 - Morning Meeting with a 6th grade class.
8:45 - Teach a total of 5 hours of music classes. 3 days to go until a 'break' and it shows. We manage to keep it together. Eat alone for a change. Help out colleague who's taking her son to check on his broken collarbone by supervising cleanup and dismissal.
3:15 - Set up room for grad class tonight. Go over agenda. Etc. Decompress.
4:30 - Class.
7:30 - Clean up. Go home. Gym. Supper. Urgent email from boss - we're all meeting the Superintendent tomorrow. I think it's a good thing.
9:45 - Post this blog entry. Will do dishes and go to bed.

Tuesday

Ok, Mark, sorry about the dig on Whitman. But I think you understood my general point. :)

Tuesday:

6:30 - Morning stuff, same as Monday but different breakfast.
7:15 - Drive time.
7:45 - Kiss and Ride.
8:15 - Check in with my sub. She's all set.
8:20 - Start marathon meeting and planning day to: 1. Work on grant application for musical instruments. 2. Get roster for my 2-week intersession class, starting next Monday. (28 5th and 6th grade GT/Young Scholars students will be exploring careers of interest and learning/practicing basic communication, teamwork, and time management. I have 14 kids AM, and 14 PM.) Interview all 28 children about their interests. Look for online resources (God Bless 4H). Consult with counselors and GT teacher. Email several outside people. Check out 83 library books on 14 possible careers. Re-attempt to hex the same three printers that didn't work on Monday. Prepare reminder packet for All-County Chorus students that has to go home pronto. Try to figure out why 2 kids I was expecting aren't enrolled in my class. Try to figure out why several kids who signed up for middle school chorus for next year aren't in it now.
2:50 - Recheck with sub. All is well. Help with dismissal. Set up room for dance team.
3:15 - Dance team. 18 sweaty children and 2 tired choreographers.
4:30 - Clean room and set up for Wednesday. Double check grades for a few kids before report cards get printed. Read homework for grad class I'm co-teaching on Wednesdays.
6:00 - Meet Fasih of soccer fame after his practice to make sure he knows how to fill out financial aid forms (Mom speaks little English and has no college experience in the US).
6:30 - Drive time.
7:15 - Gym, supper, read. Put away Sunday's laundry while watching Last Restaurant Standing.
10:30 - Bed.

Monday

This week I am taking my cue from Pastor Jan, who shared informally last Sunday about her week. This is hardly a typical week for me (it's the last week before a 3-week intersession/break). But anyway.

Mine will go day-by-day. Here's Monday:

6:30 - shower, dress, breakfast (bacon and eggs, toast, yogurt w/fresh strawberries).
7:15 - drive 30 minutes and 18.7 miles to work.
7:45 - Kiss and Ride duty. Open doors and make sure children get inside safely.
8:15 - Set up chorus chairs and music. Help colleague carry juice and donuts. Copy CD of accompaniments.
8:45 - 2 chorus rehearsals, 45 minutes each. This week, boys' sectionals - 1 for 6th grade, 1 for 5th. In between, talk to admin. about a behavior situation (wouldn't sit where the chorus needed him to.)
10:45 - meet with L., my co-director,re: how sectionals went. Answer emails re: church organ, SOL testing schedule, FGMEA constitutional amendment. Start writing sub plans for Tuesday.
11:30 - lunch with 15 6th graders.
12:00 - Make sure everyone has rides for All-County Chorus practice this afternoon. Double-check building use form for spring concert. Take another stab at sub plans. Interrupted by:
12:30 - Dismissal. Make sure nobody gets plowed over.
12:45 - Team Leaders meeting. Discuss how we can help our teams plan and collaborate more effectively.
2:15 - Staff meeting on budget update.
2:30 - Leave early to go to All-County rehearsal at a nearby school.
4:30 - Come back to Dogwood to finally finish my sub plans. Attempt to hex at least 3 printers for technical failures. Answer emails re: AGO, Church finance, piano tuning.
6:00 - Go to South Lakes High School to: walk the Lake Thoreau trail (a beautiful 2 miles and my only hope of excersize today). Stop at CVS, Starbucks, and SunTrust along the walk. Then,
Varsity Boys Soccer vs. TC Williams. Had about 10 former students on the field, and 4 from the travel team I currently work with. SOUTH LAKES WINS! (For the NY people reading this, this is the equivalent of Whitman beating Fairport in, well, anything). I love SLHS but Williams is at least twice the size and this usually isn't a fair match.
9:15 - Meet Fasih after game, give needed college aid forms.
9:45 - Home. Email. Read. Bed by 10:15.

Tuesday will be a very different day.

Making Disciples

"The Great Commission:"

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

We seem to be doing at least OK (not super, but OK) with the 'going out' part. We deliver furniture, serve meals, offer classes, and fund clinics. But I think we're doing it only in light of the commandment:

Love your neighbor as yourself.

We have neglected the full meaning of the commission, because we are weak on the "making disciples" part. We do our good works, but are embarassed to mention Jesus in the process. Understandably so - some elements in the Evangelical movement gave Christianity in general a bad name, by using the Gospel as a weapon rather than as a tool. The minute many people hear "Jesus" or "Church," they think of judgmentalism, fear, and divisiveness. Or they think of the message, "Repent and come to church right now or you're going to hell forever." This was not a productive way to make disciples.

But neither is never bringing it up. When we are allergic to talking about Jesus, we can't claim to be doing good works in the name of the Lord. We might as well be good Buddhists, good atheists with a dose of liberal guilt, maybe even morally defunct souls who have been ordered into community service by a court. When our good works are repeated, over and over again, without ever a mention of WHY we do them, we are equally ineffective at making disciples.

The song says, "They'll know we are Christians by our Love." That love certainly includes caring about people's bodies enough to feed, clothe, treat, care for them. It includes caring about their minds enough to train them.

It also includes caring enough about their souls to tell them about the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Not as a weapon - "I'm doing this as a way to conquer my enemies." Not as a bribe - "Join my church or I'll stop helping you." Not as an instrument of shame - "I'm trying to embarass you into joining a church." Not as threat - 'Join me or you'll go to Hell.'

As an instrument of Love - "Jesus calls us to make earth more like the Kingdom of Heaven." When we are serving people, ostensibly in the name of the Lord, we ought to be able at least to say that much.

An extended comment

This started as a comment to another's blog but I felt I would rather give it its own place here:


The concept in question is that 'the glory days of the institutional church are over.'
In general, agreed, if by "glory days" we mean "lots of people show up, but a lot of them attend only because they're expected to, not because they really mean it or because they're trying to live as Christians in the day-to-day." Personally, I'd rather have 100 sincere Christians than 1000 just trying to be seen. But...

I'm not sure it's entirely fair to call them "THE" glory days of "THE" institutional church.

The church as an institution has been through many life cycles and always reinvented itself. The circuit-riders of the early-19th century Methodists were an institution. So were the camp meetings of the great revivals. The monasteries of 8th century Ireland. The town churches of reformation-era Holland. The missions of 17th century New Spain. The underground house churches of the 1st century AD. Etc. Etc. Etc. All of these had their glory days, and then evolved - or faded.

It may be more accurate to speak of "SOME" glory days of "OUR" institutional church. It doesn't ring as well in the ears, but it may be more accurate.

As Jan said in church on Sunday, "Jesus will always have a church."

The true glory days of the institutional church are still in the future: the church will become one with the Kingdom of Heaven. No other institution will be necessary.