What In Tarnation?!?!?

… that have very little to do with Halloween.

- On October 30, my church had a ministry day. We had numerous ministry opportunities lined up over the community and invited church members to minister to the community. We didn’t get a good count but it appears that around 250 church members chose to get involved. They say that a picture is worth a 1,000 words, well I got 54 of them right here. It was cool.

- One of those ministry opportunities actually happened today at our Fall Festival. Again, more pictures.

- I’m trying to install a new spam blocking measure on the MovableType blogs on Cranium Leakage. It isn’t working quite right. It is frustrating.

- After I made the changes that Doug suggested for preventing spam on my WordPress site, I have only had 1 spam and it was blocked by WP. That is quite a bit less than the hundred or so that I was getting!

- I hope that the trick or treaters that went to my parent’s house didn’t want any of the Kit Kat Bars. Whoops.

- “There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin.” — Linus van Pelt in It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Class dismissed!

Father in Heaven,

I thank you for this day. I thank you for another day to serve you. Others would have me believe that today is somehow evil, but I believe that this is a day that you created and I thank you for it. I thank you for your saving grace and for the relationship that you provide. Thank you for this country that allows the people to have a say in who leads the country.

It is close to the time when Americans head to the poles to cast our votes for who we think should be lead our country. I pray that the process is fair and the every vote is counted.

I pray that you would bless the man that is chosen and that he would lead our country in a direction that is in accordance with your will. May he lead the country in a way that the country would be a blessing for others.

I also pray that you would be with the families that go out tonight to Trick or Treat. I pray that they would be safe and protected.

I pray all this in Jesus name,

Amen

From Pressed:

Lord, as I come before you tonight in prayer I recognize my own weaknesses. I am altogether unworthy of you and it is only by your magnificent grace that I have the privilege to come before you in prayer. I thank you God for your patience with me and for the grace and mercy you show to those you came to save. Lord, I know that my ways are not your ways and neither are my thoughts your thoughts. Because of this I know that I must be careful to seek you in all things, refraining from making my own decisions based purely on my own ambitions and selfishness. God, I ask that you would forgive me for the times I do things on my own without coming to you in prayer. Your wisdom and guidance will far surpass anything that we can come up with or do. That is why tonight I pray for your guidance on the upcoming election. Lord, lead your chosen people to make the right decisions next Tuesday as we vote for the next President of the United States. Regardless of who is elected, I ask that you would let our attitudes be like that of Christ Jesus. Give us the right words to say and change our hearts that we me show honor and respect to the person you allow to lead this nation.

While I do not know who the next President of the United States will be, I pray that you would give them a special blessing as they lead our country. Lord, I know that you will use them to fulfill your purposes on this earth and it is by your sovereign hand that they have the privilege to lead us. Ultimately you are in control of all things, and nothing happens that is not allowed to happen by your hand. For this reason we shall not fear the future, but embrace it as another day, another month, and another year to live for Christ. Lord, give the President strength to stand up during the hard times that will come during his term. Lead him in the important decisions he will be forced to make and ultimately use him for your purposes. We lift our president, our government, and our nation up to you and ask that your will would be done in all things.

I pray specifically for President Bush and Senator Kerry tonight. Lord, protect them and keep them safe as the election draws near. I pray for both of these men that you would bless them, keep them strong, and give them what they need to be leaders of this country. Lord, I pray that they would seek you and find you. Reveal your truth to these men and lead them to you. I pray that in all things they will seek your face and that you would not be hidden from them. Reveal yourself, your purposes and your will in their lives and guide them in the journey you have for them. God, it is my personal desire that these men would come to know you in such a way that it would change their hearts, their lives, and the way they lead our country. Lord, in their search for power and glory, I pray that they find it only in you.

Thank you, Lord, for hearing our prayers. Thank you for giving us the freedom that we have to worship you in this country. Lord, don’t let us take that freedom for granted, but instead let us use it to the advantage of your kingdom. God I pray that you would continue to give us a passion for prayer. Lead us in your ways and teach us according to your truth. I ask these things in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.

Class dismissed!

Upgrade - The Matrix. I watched the first one on TV recently and it reminded me how much I enjoyed that movie.

Downgrade - The Matrix. I watched the first movie and it reminded me how utterly disappointing the two sequels are. Odd how I want to watch the sequel again, now. Maybe I am still holding out hope.

Downgrade - The Cardinals. *Awkward silence.*

Upgrade - Spare Change. Recipient of a SuperBlessed Award.

Downgrade - Political messages. I have been hit from every communication device I can think of. This week I have had 23 pieces of mail about the election, 7 voice mail messages, numerous e-mail, the occasional blog spam, TV and Internet ads. I am ready for Nov. 2 to be here.

Upgrade - iPod. The U2 iPod. Um, I got my iPod too early. Let’s not mention the PhotoPod.

Upgrade - Halloween. Candy, pumpkins, spooky movies. The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Yeah!

Upgrade - My class. This is the most well behaved, kindest class that I have had in my three years and three months. I didn’t even have a headache after the Halloween party!

Upgrade - WIT readers. You guys are the best.

Class dismissed!

While grading the first quarter common assessments in math I came across an answer that made me laugh out loud.

The story problem went something like this:

“473 people attended a concert. The local newspaper reported that ABOUT 500 people were at the concert. Was the newspaper correct? Explain how you arrived at your answer.”

The typical answer, and the answer that I was looking for is something like “Yes, the newspaper is correct. The newspaper estimated that there were 500 people there. 472 rounded to the nearest hundred is 500.”

Or something to that effect.

The vast majority of students responded with the answer that was wanted. My favorite answer, however, was not a correct response.

The student said that the newspaper was wrong. His reasoning: the only real news is on TV. Everything else is fake.

Hmmmm… Where did he get that idea?

Class dismissed!

P.S. There is a movie quote in the title of this post. Who can name the movie? Answer in the comments.

Well I don’t think that there are any accurate polls but I discovered via The Thinklings that one of the most accurate polls to predict who will be elected as POTUS is the Weekly Reader Poll. This poll for children from first to twelfth grade has correctly selected the winner of the presidential race since 1956. This year the WR poll chose Bush with 60% of the vote.

The students who read Weekly Reader’s magazines have made their preference for president known: they want to send President Bush back to the White House.

The results of this year’s Weekly Reader poll have just been announced, and the winner is President Bush. Hundreds of thousands of students participated, giving the Republican President more than 60% of the votes cast and making him a decisive choice over Democratic Senator John Kerry.

Since 1956, Weekly Reader students in grades 1-12 have correctly picked the president, making the Weekly Reader poll one of the most accurate predictors of presidential outcomes in history.

From MSN.

According to the grade by grade breakdown of votes every single grade chose Bush except for 10th grade (that was a confusing year, just kidding).

So far GWB is winning the WIT poll with 55% of the vote.

Electoral-Vote.com (a Kerry leaning site) has Bush with 285 EC votes and Kerry with 247.

ElectoralProjection.com (a Bush leaning site) has Bush with 296 EC votes and Kerry with 242.

I am trying my best to not go totally election crazy on you. It’s hard though.

Class dismissed!

A better question would probably be who’s not stressed?

I am. This year all the hubbub about testing is just insane. Right now I feel like I normally would feel in mid March. Then I get even more stressed when I realize that I am worrying and focusing on numbers, many times forgetting about the students that those numbers are supposed to represent.

Whoa! Who brought the SOAP box in here? Sorry.

Anywho, during parent/teacher conferences the following two e-mail forward made the rounds and were enjoyed by many.

I now bring them to you so that you too can be a bit more stress free.

Forward One:

I had seen this little singing Flash (the program) bug before, but he made me and my class smile. So he is worth a mention.

Forward Two (The Stress Test):

I’m not sure exactly how it works, but this is amazingly accurate. The following photo has 2 identical dolphins. It was used in a case study on stress level at St. Mary’s Hospital. Look at both dolphins jumping out of the water. The dolphins are identical. A closely monitored, scientific study of a group revealed that in spite of the fact that the dolphins are identical; a person under stress would find differences in the two dolphins.

If there are many differences found between both dolphins, it means that the person is experiencing a great amount of stress. Look at the photograph and if you find more than one or two differences you may want to take a vacation.

Choose more to see the photo and see if you are stressed.

(more…)

I have survived another set of conferences. The vast majority of parents that I talked to this year were very open to talking about their children’s achievement. However for only the second time I did not get 100% attendance. When I asked one of the girl’s parents who did not show up she said that her parents were too tired to come. I wish I could have used that as an excuse.

A few highlights from the week:

- One parent really did not want to talk to me. She did everything in her power to avoid me. She did a pretty good job. If she was to believed (and she isn’t cause I caught her in a lie and she didn’t really appreciate me calling her on it) she was working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I finally talked her into a phone conference. We set a time during my plan time and I told her the times that I would be out of the room to take the kids to their specials time. She called when she knew I wouldn’t be in the room. The voice mail that she left said that she would be available for about three minutes if I could catch her. Three minutes!

- One student missed 40 hours during the quarter (sorry Mr. President, I’m trying not to leave him behind, he just doesn’t come to school). I pointed this out as being a very bad thing to the mom. She got a little huffy and said that he has gotten every virus that has gone through the room. She went so far as to ask me if I wanted him at school when he had diarrhea. That would be fine but on at least five occasions the student had no idea why mom kept him at home except that mom just didn’t get up to take him to school. Looking at his list of tardies, I believe the student.

- My class is made up of an interesting mix of students. I have intelligent students who just barely did not make it into the gifted program. I have about 13 student who aren’t really capable of doing third grade work, they just aren’t equipped. However, they don’t perform low enough to receive any services to get them extra help. The remaining five are what I would consider average for a typical third grader that I have had in the past. Basically we are all stuck with each other, no outside help during the school day. As a result, I have to move much, much slower on curriculum to help the majority of kids get what I am trying to teach. I supplement for those other kids but it isn’t one on one like I would like. I would have to clone myself to get that done properly, and believe me, no one would like that. I thought it was interesting that eight sets of parents said that I was too moving to fast (never mind that I am behind) and expecting too much (I just want a complete sentence, that’s all) and I need to realize they are just third graders. Then about four set of parents were wondering why I was sending so long on several objectives, why didn’t I pick up the pace?

- I have another lengthy story about trying to “save” another teacher from one of her conferences but that really deserves it’s own post.

Class dismissed!