Lesson(s) Learned

The Beauty of Supervision Today, I had a rush of childhood memories flood back into my mind as I sat in my fourth-grade classroom amidst a group of seven students. We had a group project to undertake in History today, and the curriculum only accounted for 6 students to be in a group. In a class with 7 students, I knew that a curriculum plan for 6 would be a no-go. You simply can’t assign everyone a “job” or a “responsibility” in the group and just let one person off scot-free. So, what did I do? I had no other choice but to create a position. The name of the position? “Group Supervisor” Here’s the description that I made up to go with it: “The Group Supervisor holds the clipboard and the ‘Miss Hill’ signature stamp. Every time the group completes a step of the project correctly, the group supervisor will stamp the checklist and tell the group to keep going.” Pretty lame idea, right? I thought no one would’ve went for it. I couldn’t have been more wrong...

The strangest thing happened in my classroom today. Granted, it was Valentine’s Day. Mustaches and mustache jokes were running rampant. If I had a nickel for every time I heard, “I mustache ask you to be mine” followed by a classroom full of giggles, I’d be a pretty rich teacher today. It never got old. Seriously, it was funny every time it was said. I’m dearly-so-thankful that my kiddos have such an overall FUN sense of humor. I don’t know what I’d do if they didn’t. Aside from all of the excitement of our sugar-filled day, the strangest thing happened in my classroom. For Math lesson today, the kids were given multiplication and division facts all jumbled up. After they figured out the missing numbers, they were supposed to match up the multiplication and corresponding division problems and label them as a “multiplication match.” (Yes, it was complete with hearts – just to give it a Valentine-y edge. :) ) For this activity, I put them into partner-groups, so the...

Sometimes, I like to make "deals" with God. Don't look at me that way... you know you've done it too. At the very least, you've thought about it. The deals I'm talking about look and sound something like this... "God, if You ______________, then I'll _______________." Oftentimes, in my own life, these kinds of prayer-deals with God flow from a result of uncertainty and a pure desire to have a "clear sign" from God on which way to go, what decision to make, what to do next, the timescale of when I should act on something, etc. However, sometimes, these kinds of prayer-deals that I make with God are a result of impatience or a lack of trust on my part. If God gave us all the "clear signs" we asked for, we'd start worshipping the signs and not the One whose very signature is written all over our entire beings. As a common worship song reminds us, "from life's first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny....