Secular teachers who happen to be members of WELS churches near schools may be called to teaching positions with the understanding that they complete the WELS Teaching Certification process through MLC. In my case, I do not live close to any WELS school, but have decided to dedicate myself to getting WELS Teaching Certification and move to where the schools are located via the calling process. You could say our family is taking a “leap of faith”.

I made contact with some personal contacts at Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato, which is part of the ELS (Evangelical Lutheran Synod) and in fellowship with WELS to inquire about teaching in the Lutheran school system. I was given the information to contact Martin Luther College (MLC) and did so in January 2009. My experience in finding out about the WELS Teaching Certification process took a long time. It was a 9 month series of email from April 2008 to around Christmas 2009. The process of how to become involved in Christian education without our Lutheran synods is not well disseminated. I hope I can change that a bit, so others wanting to serve can find the path more easily.

I requested the information from MLC in January 2009 and received it in early February 2009 in an information packet. I prayerfully considered the path I was considering again. The WELS Teaching Certification process required me to send a detailed application, transcripts and a letter of recommendation from my pastor. I received acceptance in March 2009 and planned a visit in April 2009 to New Ulm, MN.

I learned that I would be taking 18 credit hours of classes to provide a solid foundation that many secular teachers would not have taken in their past coursework. These courses include: three Bible Lit. and History courses, two Lutheran doctrine courses, a course on Luther confessions and also Principles to Christian Education. Lastly, after the coursework is complete, candidates will participate in a 5 week student teaching experience.

I will be finishing my coursework this summer, which include 2 weeks on the MLC campus to take the Principles of Christian Ed. course. All the other courses are online via Moodle, a course management software system that MLC uses for online teaching of courses. Next fall, the plan is to spend 5 weeks at some town with a Lutheran high school where I can complete student teaching. I am hoping, for logistics sake, that perhaps I can go to Minnesota Valley Lutheran near New Ulm, MN. where I can live in the dormitories at MLC.

Upon completion in this program, I should be placed on the WELS Teacher call list and my name passed to all the 12 WELS District Presidents for consideration of positions that become available. I have already communicated my path to a couple District Presidents in the Minnesota and Arizona districts, but will be happy to consider calls from any of the 26 WELS high schools across the country.

With God’s blessings, I will continue to relate my experiences going forward in this process, and also be called to a teaching position in our Lutheran school system.

By participating in this course, you will

• Identify the benefits of having a PLN
• Describe ways to construct and manage a PLN
• Select and use tools to construct a PLN framework
• Select PLN sources from a categorized list to initially populate their PLN
• Design a plan to locate new PLN resources
• Recommend additions to the PLN starter list
• Explain the importance of PLNs to their peers

To successfully complete this course, you will need basic Web browsing and search skills. You will also need basic knowledge of RSS feeds and presentation software.

You will need a broadband internet connection and the following software installed on your computer:

• Modern Web browser (Latest version of Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, or Safari)
• Adobe Flash player
• Apple QuickTime player
• Word processor
• Presentation software

The course is largely self-directed but it is important that you complete each “assignment” to the best of your abilities and interact with the other participants.

The course is divided into two units which are open for two weeks. Completing the various tasks each unit will likely take 2-3 hours.

I recognize that many of you will likely be on Spring break during the first week.  If that is the case, please consider enrolling for the second session which will be announced soon.

What did I learn from making French Fries for 3 hours?

Our school had the opportunity to work at McDonald’s today for a fundraiser.  We had to work for only three hours.  Some teachers were at the front counter.  Some were walking around trying to sell pies and cookies.  I was on the fries.  There were two other teachers with me.  The only task  I needed to do was put the basket of fries into the fryer, push a button, when it beeped shake the basket and put it back into the fryer, then when it beeps again take the fries out and let it drain a little.  Finally I dumped it into the pan for the other two teachers to salt and dish them into their containers.  That was it.  There was a little machine that put the fries into the basket automatically.

So what does this have to do with education?  Besides the fact I made a promise to myself when I was in High School that I would never work at a Fast Food place.  Although it was only 3 hours, I was dreading the night, but it was good for our school.  We made a lot more than I make in three days of teaching.  As the night went on, I let my mind think about things and one of the things I thought about was, “How can I make this experience benefit my educational pursuits?”  I was thinking more how I could use what I witnessed and thought about as making me a good administrator, but it is also had some “teacher” lessons here.  This is what I am going to talk about.

Although what seems like a simple task, making fries is and can be a tough job.

The first thing I found out was you need to pay attention.  You need to know what beeps mean and what the words on the fryer mean.  There were two different fryers for the fries.  One fryer would say “Shale” and the other would say “Duty” at times.  Both of those words meant that I needed to shake the basket.  If you are not paying attention, you might ruin the fries.  In school we need to pay attention to the students if we don’t read the signs our students are giving us, we might ruin them or lose them in a very important learning opportunity.

The next thing was you need to keep remaining fries away from the new fries.  That is pretty self explanatory, but it goes with the first fries made, the first fries served.  In education we need to take care of the tasks students do not understand before we move on to new concepts.  Master a concept before we let a student move on and be lost with the students that are on new material.

The third thing I learned was you need to adapt and adjust.  This was the hardest part of the night.  You never want to have too many fries and you never want no fries.  You have to go with the flow.  Each batch of fries took about 3 mins to make.  Some times fries could fly out of the waiting section and at times they can be just sitting there.  One part of the night I got finished making 6 batches.  The fries sat for a few mins, and we didn’t have any more room to put the fires into their containers, and in no time they started to go very fast, so I added another 8 batches to replace the ones we just sent out.  As soon as I was done making that last batch, no one else got fries the rest of the time we were there.  So we were sitting on a lot of fries.  As a teacher we need to be adaptable!  We have to go with the flow of what our students are ordering.  We need to give them concepts and projects as they need and want them.  We can’t overboard them with work all the time and we can’t give them no assessments.  It is a fine line.

The next concept I learned goes with the whole making sure we have enough fries but not too much.  According to McDonald’s rules every 7mins you need to get rid of the old fries.  They are outdated and stale.  I think you can see where I am going here for education.  We need to get rid of our old and stale methods.  If you are teaching exactly the same the last 5,10,15,20,40 years it is time to change out the fries and make some new ones.

The last thing I learned was things don’t always go as plan.  I mention earlier that there was a machine to put the fries in the basket automatically.  Well, I found that machine isn’t always reliable.  Maybe it was the grease and fry particles floating around, but this machine would fail every so often.  So you had to troubleshoot a little and take time to get it back on track.  Not to mention you needed to refill it after so many baskets.  In school we know lesson plans don’t always go as plan.  Some teachers can’t deal with this, others need  to deal with this.  If the fry machine stopped working, we could still make fries, I could fill the baskets myself, but that would not be feasible for my time.  This goes with technology in the classroom.  Many teachers don’t want to shift because maybe technology will go down and they think it is easier for them to do it themselves.  Recently I moved my spelling tests to the computer.  I use Spelling City (http://www.spellingcity.com) to administer my tests.  This online program will say the word, say a sentence, and then grade the work.  While students take turn taking their spelling test we work on other projects or reinforce some concepts we are having trouble with.  As a teacher I need to troubleshoot not just technology issues, but troubleshoot students.  Especially in third grade, the students do not always know why they don’t understand something or why they get a problem wrong.  I have to troubleshoot their thought process to help them understand.  Plus sometimes you need to do the maintenance or take the time to create a project for the students, to make your lessons more engaging.

It was an amazing opportunity for me to learn something new and in the end, when everything works the fries taste amazing, just like when in education things go the way you plan about the students turn out amazing.  So go into your classrooms and make some great student fries!

I hate it when I see teachers on strike. What are they telling their students that when they don’t get their way, just whine and throw a fit and quit. There has to be another solution to their issue that does not cause harm (not talking about physical harm) to the students.

Economy is in the toilet right now and everyone is hurting. Cut backs is in every ones mind. L.A. Teachers believe cutting these test will help financially and they are right But how can you support a boycott when the tests are increasing test scores.

Duffy remains skeptical.

“The pig does not get fatter when you weigh it 10 times a day,” Duffy said. “And if the test scores do go up, isn’t it phony? Because what you are doing is teaching to the test, teaching a subject that has been narrowed down radically. We’re not creating smarter kids. We’re creating smarter test takers.”

I have been a wrestler pretty much my entire life. The fact is, the pig does change weight every time you weigh it. One of my teammate had a technique if he was a little bit overweight at weigh in time. He would go and stand on his head for two minutes and when he came back he made weight. Explain that science teachers. Each time the students take the test they are exposed to questions they may not have seen or thought about before. Standardize tests is more about experience or exposure than knowledge. If a 1st grade student never seen a yacht before or read about one they would not get a question about a yacht correct. In a way it is showing you what you do not know, not what you do know.

I do agree teaching to the test is wrong and is not the shift needed in 21st Century Education. I also agree that we should be educating and not just taking tests all the time. We need students to create. As the article stated

Emerson English teacher Cecily Myart-Cruz. “We can come up with our own assessments in our classroom, and we do — every day.”

Quality teachers assess in their classroom everyday in many different ways. Written Standardized tests are not the only method to see where your student is at.

Top officials, however, had concluded that too many instructors failed to enforce high standards or didn’t focus properly on teaching the specific skills and knowledge required by the state.

So we fire or place teachers in a position where they can succeed. We do not let them keep failing the students. Pick your team that will give you high standards. Find the individuals you want on your Bus and get them.

Lets look at how we Assess that will save money and more importantly do what is best for the Students.