“There’s 104 days of summer vacation And school comes along just to end it So the annual problem for our generation Is finding a good way to spend it”

Unless your parents let you be like Phineas And Ferb and create rocket ships, tree house robots, or drive your sister insane, you need to find other activities to keep busy during the summer.

Granted Summer should be a fun relaxing time. Swimming, playing, or staying up late can be all the great rewards. But, I hope none of our students take the entire summer off and do no learning! When I was a teacher I always gave a list, to my incoming students, of books they should read during the summer. At one school we even had the students do book reports over the summer. So following is a list (just a few) of books for a few of the grade levels. Depending on your own reading level you could pick a higher grade book or lower grade book.

5th Grade
Alien(series) – Bruce Coville
My Teacher (series)- Bruce Coville
The Best School Year Ever – Barbara Robinson
Caddie Woodlawn – Carol Ryrie Briat
Everest (series) – Gordon Korman
Holes – Louis Sachar
Wayside School (series) – Louis Sachar
The Laundry News – Andrew Clements

4th Grade
The American Girls Collection – Pleasant Company
Anne of Green Gables – L.M. Montgomery
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
Indian in the Cupboard – Lynne Reid Banks
Matilda – Roald Dahl
The Secret School – Avi
Superfudge – Judy Blume
Because of Winn Dixie – Kate Dicamillo
Stuart Little – E.B. White

3rd Grade
Boxcar Children (series) – Gertrude Chandler Warner
Judy Moody – Megan McDonald
The Littles – John Peterson
Magic Tree House (series) – Mary Pope Osbourne
Magic Schoolbus (series) – Joanna Cole)
The Mouse and the Motorcycle – Beverly Cleary
Encyclopedia Brown (series) – Donald J. Sobol

2nd Grade
Amelia Bedelia (series) – Peggy Parish
The Berenstain Bears – Jan and Stan Berenstain
Clifford the Big Red Dog (chapter books)- Gail Herman
Flat Stanley – Jeff Brown
Nate the Great (series) – Marjorie Weinman Sharmat
Get Ready for Second Grade, Amber Brown – Paula Danzinger
Horrible Harry (series) – Suzy Kline

1st Grade
Dear Zoo – Lois Ehlert
Green Eggs and Ham – Dr. Seuss
The Listening Walk – Paul Showers
Corduroy – Donald Freeman
If you Give a Mouse a Cookie – Laura Numeroff
The Very Hungry Caterpillar – Eric Carle

As American troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, President Franklin Roosevelt called for our nation to unite in prayer. He also offered a prayer to prepare each citizen for the road ahead. “Let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be. And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee.” The victory that followed on June 6, 1944-also known as D-Day-began the march to Berlin. Eighteen months later, WWII was over and one of the world’s greatest evils had been defeated. The prayers of a nation had been a powerful force.

Prayer has always been used in this country for guidance, protection and strength-even before we were a nation or a handful of colonies. The Pilgrims at Plymouth relied on prayer during their first and darkest winter. Our founding fathers also called for prayer during the Constitutional Convention. In their eyes, our recently created nation and freedoms were a direct gift from God. And being a gift from God, there was only one way to insure protection-through prayer.

President Abraham Lincoln knew this well. It was his belief that, “it is the duty of nations as well as men, to owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God.” When it came to the fate of the nation, he practiced what he preached. Before the battle of Gettysburg, he turned to God in prayer. “I went to my room one day and I locked the door and got down on my knees before Almighty God and prayed to him mightily for victory at Gettysburg.” Won by the Union, Gettysburg was one of the turning points in the war that ended slavery and kept the states united. Today the need for prayer is as great as ever. Our nation again faces battlefields, along with an epidemic of broken homes, violence, sexual immorality and social strife. As the heroes of our nation did in the past, we must again bow our heads in prayer. We must ask the Lord to bless our leaders with wisdom and protection, and that we will have the fortitude to overcome the challenges at hand. If Roosevelt, the Pilgrims and Lincoln never underestimated the power of prayer, neither should we.

WHY PRAY?

1. We pray because we love God.

2. We pray because we depend on God.

3. We need to pray in order to resist temptation.

4. We need to pray because it is necessary for men to invite God to act in salvation.

5. We need to pray because God commands us to pray.

BIBLE VERSE PSALM 91:2

~~ I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust

PRAYER

Almighty God, you are our Mighty Fortress, our refuge and the God in whom we place our trust.  As our nation faces great distress and uncertainty, we ask your Holy Spirit to fall afresh upon your people — convict us of sin and inflame within us a passion to pray for our land and its people.  Grant the leaders of our country an awareness of their desperate need of wisdom and salvation in You until sin becomes a reproach to all and righteousness exalts this nation.

Protect and defend us against our enemies and may the cause of Christ always prevail in our schools, courts, homes, and churches.  Lord God, send a spirit of revival and may it begin in our own hearts.

Remember America, we pray.  Remember the foundations on which this country was built.  Remember the prayers of our nation’s fathers and mothers, and do not forget us in our time of need.

In the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.

This has me thinking that we all have changes that happen and we all find ways to adjust and re-align our life.  This happens constantly in education.  Changes.  New curriculum, new staff, new students, snow days, sick days, new years, new technologies.  The list could go on and on.  How we deal with it is what makes the difference.  We can try and keep things the same or we can try and adapt and work with the circumstances we are given.  In today’s world, technology is making a place and this is changing education.   The focus is not technology, the focus is on how to reach our digital learners.  I posted recently at my Lutheran Tech Teacher blog a little more about this after attending the LEA convocation.  Feel free to check it out.  Because so much is changing, it is hard to keep up with everything.  Find one thing you can try.  Learn it well, use it well and add more as you go.  Make little changes that you feel comfortable with and you may surprise yourself!   Happy Learning!

As LEA started I knew there would be people I would know and I ran into some of them.  I was able to listen to Dr. Bull’s presentation on Media Literacies and then that night got to sit next to Dr. Bull and another college friend Jeremy Pekari a pastor.  The Skit Guys are always funny!

Later that night I decided and was urged to go to the Rock Bottom Brewery for the tweetup.  This was a bunch of Lutheran Educators who are on twitter (and a few others).  It was great to meet some of the individuals that I have converse with for the first time in person.  @kevcreutz @gilmorekendra @karacornejo @alhelmy are all great people and I am glad to get to know them better in person.  As always it is great to see @dawblack.

Friday was actually a nervous day for me, as I was going to be presenting also.  I really enjoyed sitting in the two sessions before mine and hear some twitter friends talk and even learn a thing or two.  Then came my presentation on Podcasts, I am always self-conscious about stuff I do, but I guess I did an ok job for some, I had some said they enjoyed it afterwards.    Here is a link to my presentation – http://prezi.com/_xptfwzaiay0/broadcast-your-podcast/

Both night the food was good, the speakers and other stuff was great.  The key to this conference though was the background conversations going on in the twitterverse world.  Which comes to the bad part of the conference, the lack of WiFi.  Connecting and conversing during and after the conference is KEY to a successful conference.  Even now, a week later we have new Lutheran educators on Twitter and we are still sharing thoughts and ideas.

This is just my thoughts, I liked LEA, and can’t wait for the next one in 2014!

She says she was blogging out of secrecy to start off.  She didn’t use her whole name, didn’t put a location. And she blogged about anything and everything.

In essence, people are latching onto pieces of what I wrote without A. knowing any back story, and B. knowing the whole story. The student or parents who took it upon themselves to dig up my blog–and be assured that that is what happened, as they were looking for it and didn’t just stumble upon it–are the ones who started this fracas, and they also made sure that only pieces of the whole picture came to light. I’m sure the media helped with that second part, too. After all, a juicy story is more exciting to the masses.

HERE IS THE STORY.  YOUR A TEACHER, YOU WROTE NEGATIVELY ABOUT STUDENTS!  Ask yourself why did students or parents search more information about you?  What was going on in the classroom to make that happen?

Everyone gets angry, even Jesus cleared the temple and flipped tables.  But again, Jesus died for every single person he was angry at.  Would you?

Schools are stressful, Teaching is stressful, life is stress!  WE ALL GET THAT.  The change from teacher to principal has changed the type of stress I have, but I get it.  Life isn’t peachy everyday, and you don’t get a long with everyone.  THAT IS LIFE!

Anyone who thinks when they write a blog is going to be limited to a few is seriously mistaken.  Although I don’t expect people to read my blogs (except this one, YOU MUST READ THIS ONE!), I know people around the globe have stumbled and searched for terms in my blogs, and have visited them.  I remember one of my blog posts talked about English Speaking vs not speaking English.  I got a reader that commented a few times.  It wasn’t expected, but it happens.   THE WEB IS WIDE OPEN!

But the fact remains that every year, more and more, students are coming in less willing to work, to think, to cooperate. These are the students I was complaining about in my blog.

THE FACT REMAINS, YOUR THE TEACHER.  FIND A WAY TO ENGAGE THEM!  FIND A WAY TO CONNECT TO THEM!  EVERY STUDENT CAN LEARN!!!

I am a professional

That is debatable and questionable!

YES THIS IS A BIG DEAL, because our STUDENTS ARE BIG DEALS.  HOW WE HANDLE THEM AND CARVE THEM INTO BETTER HUMAN BEINGS IS A BIG DEAL!

To all the teachers out there, take this to heart, what you say is A BIG DEAL!

To read more of her postings, as she believes she is on a crusade now: http://www.nataliemunroe.com/

What does the word mean? To some it just means what textbook are you using. Usually that is the easiest way to define what our Curriculum is. I  would like to share with you 5 other definitions of the word curriculum:

A course of study (derived from the Latin “currere” meaning “to run a course”)

Course content, the information or knowledge that students are to learn

Planned learning experiences

Intended learning outcomes, the results of instruction as distinguished from the means (activities, materials) of instruction

All the experiences that students have while at school

I really like that last definition. All the experiences. When I was a teacher, some of the best time to learn was in between classes or while at recess. As a teacher and educator, we must look at four different type of curriculum.

The explicit curriculum – what schools list and document as their teachings through course work and school activities, including goals and aims, courses and lessons, knowledge, skills, and attitudes

The hidden curriculum – the behaviors, attitudes, and information that schools many unintentionally teach students such as outlooks toward authority, ideas about “success,” and internalized beliefs about works righteousness.

The null curriculum – what schools do not teach or make available to students including certain courses (such as anthropology or architecture) as well as certain outlooks, attitudes, and beliefs (such as concern for assorted social issues or political perspectives)

The co-curricular program – already acknowledge in the explicit curriculum above for schools who view curriculum in a holistic way; but sometimes distinguished from formal classroom work. (Consider whether or not you want to make this distinction.)

As a Christian school we must have essential Biblical imperatives.  We must blend intentionally faith and Scriptures into our daily lives.

Source: Planning for a Lutheran High School, The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. 1997.

My Education Rep from Verizon invited us to this preview party, so Verizon could show us what is new.  So, I took my assistant principal and a teacher (So she could surprise her husband, my education rep from Verizon).  Although we were not allowed to win any prizes, being that we take state monies, we did swindle a notebook and pen.  We then were invited to a full course meal and open bar (which we did not partake in, water was fine with me).

We got to hear from top directors and senior managers about what 4GLTE does.  Their platform was four fold: Speed, Latency, Coverage, Innovative Devices & Solutions.  They are predicting that 3.6 exabytes per month will be downloaded by 2014, which is a 40X increase from 2009.

The second part of the night was seeing some of their products that they have.  Remember this wasn’t just for educational use, but overall possibilities.  As I took everything in, I was thinking about how can that technology be used in my school.  My assistant principal and teacher loved the Samsung Galaxy (Verizon’s own Tablet Device).  The first thing that caught my eye, was Verizon’s mediatile  (see picture).  This was an interactive kiosk. We could have all of our newsletters, blog updates, podcasts, schedules, directory, the possibilities are endless.  We can have maps to away game, and when you click on the team, Google/Bing map appears with the best way to get their from our place.  You could set it up with a live person if they needed a question answered.  I see this as a main informational point in our school, that would increase our technology value and parent interests.

There were other items that could be use like the security cameras, but I was stuck on this mediatile.  My hope would be that Verizon could partner up with my school.  We could be a wonderful piloting school.  We have Kindergarten to 12th grade students.  We are small enough that it would not cost Verizon a lot of money to test.  So Verizon if you are reading this, Please contact me at Principal@HoltLutheran.org about how we can be Verizon’s test school.

I love conducting faculty meetings.  I love teaching teachers!  I broke the day up, doing different activities.  The first half of the day was our PD with Devotions time.  I am working my teachers through the book, “What Great Teachers Do Differently” by Todd Whitaker.  The second half of the day was spent on numerous activities.  Learning our email system or website, curriculum mapping, 21st Century Education, and time to share and answer some questions I wanted them to think about and answer.  On the last day we also took time to be with a partner and pray for and with that person.

One advantage I will have this year is a lot of time for faculty meetings.  Almost every Wednesday is a half day for the teachers.  So the rest of the day is time for Faculty meetings.  Obviously there is the to-do list and administrative part.  But, I am using this time for continual PD , Curriculum Mapping, and departmentalized learning sections.  I will also bring in a few presenters and speakers.  Lastly the teachers will have work they need to work on throughout the week.

How are your faculty meetings run?  Are they informative as they should be? Why or Why Not?

Sixth Circuit has ruled that a grade school teacher at a religious school who taught primarily secular topics falls outside of the “ministerial exception” to the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”)

The “ministerial exception” allows religious entities to give “preference in employment to individuals of a particular religion” and to “require that all applicants and employees conform to the religious tenets of such organization.” 42 U.S.C. Section 12113(d). The First Amendment free exercise clause implies a safe harbor for religious entities to make employment decisions about staff free from judicial intrusion. For the ministerial exception to bar an employment discrimination claim, (1) the employer must be a religious institution; and (2) the employee must be a ministerial employee. 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 4891, *20 (citing Hollins v. Methodist Healthcare Inc., 474 F.3d 223, 225 (6th Cir. 2007)

The Circuit Court found that the school failed to demonstrate that the plaintiff was a ministerial employee. The Circuit Court reviewed plaintiff’s primary duties and found that “the district court erred in its legal conclusion classifying the plaintiff as a ministerial employee. The plaintiff  spent approximately six hours and fifteen minutes of her seven hour day teaching secular subjects, using secular textbooks, without incorporating religion into the secular material.” Id. at *26.

The Court also determined that the District Court erred in placing too much reliance on the school’s bestowal of a ministerial title on the plaintiff. “[T]he title of commissioned minister does not transform the primary duties of these called teachers from secular in nature to religious in nature.” Id. at *29 (emphasis in original).

So what does this mean? (Good Lutheran Response)

It means we are in trouble!  We need to be looking at our school and what and how we teach.  I have some questions like, why wasn’t this teacher action not reviewed earlier?  How can we have a CALLED TEACHER, not teaching the Law and Gospel in every class?  I taught from Secular books, but as Rob Jacklin will say, your textbooks is not your curriculum!

Where will this go?

If the worst happens, all Lutheran School Teachers will lose their ministerial  employee benefits.  For the purpose of Taxes, we would not have a housing allowance!  Schools would be open to more attack from disgruntled employees.  Non-Lutheran / non-Christians can now sue for not hiring them based on their religion .  The Divine Call would lose all of its meaning!
This is just a FYI… if someone is up-to-date on this court case or can give more information, please add comments

Some of you have no doubt had this class in your formal instruction or something close to it. I am looking forward to learning how the Christian treats education as opposed or contrasted with secular principles of education. As I go through the class, I will be sure to take notes and post some of my thoughts on our discussions here. My hope is that the discussions here will trigger some thoughts about how you handle educating Lutheran children in your classes and schools.

The course content will be divided into four primary areas that include Christian Nurture, Christian Education, Christian Instruction and Contemporary Issues. We will be looking at challenges to Christian education with case studies as well as the typical readings and reviewing books on the topics.

Once I get settled in New Ulm in the MLC dormitory, I will try to post my experiences.