summer is approaching its end. this fact saddens me and fills me with anxious anticipation, but also excitement for the upcoming year. to be quite honest the summer could not have gone much better, and i believe that the things i have learned and experienced this summer will help in making my second year of teaching much better than the first. so what are these “things” i speak of you might ask? well allow me to share a few...
1. i will be teaching keystone (refer to previous blog posts for an explanation of what that means) next year, but i still am weirdly passionate about algebra. i think this passion mainly grows from the fact that it is a high stakes test, and i want to see my kids do well on it. as luck would have it, i am going to be able to teach lots of algebra standards in my keystone course (maybe even half the year). because keystone is all about goal setting, we will be setting goals pertaining to performance on the algebra end of course test. this excites me
2. i really enjoy thinking through, writing, and delivering an organization of thoughts known as a sermon. i was able to deliver one of these to the members of savannah FUMC last sunday, and i think it went pretty well. i had about a million and one things i wanted to say, but managed to fit it all into a twenty minute block using the strategy of staring at my watch the entire time. i had perfected this art in the classroom this past year, and it sure came in handy. it was a blessing to get to speak to my home church, and i am very thankful for the opportunity. since the sermon, i have been told by more than a couple of people that i need to make this art of sermonizing a part of my career path; we shall see :)
3. the act of reading, thinking, and writing may be the most underrated practice in the world. i have spent so much of my summer at uptown restaurant drinking coffee, journaling, reading, etc and man has it been great for my life. we are taught from an early age in our society that success is measured by your ability to keep going and keep producing. i believe this is a fatal flaw in our culture which leads to lots of empty lives of chasing after nothing. periodically putting a hold on the constant chase for more allows us to refuel. we weren’t created to live without rest. now, this is all easy for me to say when i have the summer off. we’ll see if i can put what i have learned into practice this upcoming year.
there’s a few things. i know there are many more, but i will leave you all with that for now. i sincerely miss the presence of the “funny stories about my students” portion of my blog updates. i suppose that means i sincerely miss my students, at least in a way. well, they are coming soon, and we’ll see just how much i miss them after a week of “mr. rah, don’t nobody know this stuff. why you always be tryin to make us do all this work mr. rah?” haha.... ohhhh the children. as a side note. if anyone is interested in reading my sermon, i’ve got the text in a document i can send to you. hope everyone is doing well. peace.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Thursday, July 1, 2010
summer?
"why is it, that if i have all this free time in the summer, i haven't updated my blog more often?" the blogger wondered to himself. okay, that is the last time i will refer to myself in a weird, third-person, existentialist (i don't even know if that word really makes sense there but i really wanted to use it) fashion. so yeah, i don't know why i haven't updated in awhile, but i haven't so here goes. i'll break it up into parts so that you can decide which part you'd enjoy to undertaking the difficult task of reading my babble. part 1 shall be - "test scores" part 2 shall be - "savannah fumc" part 3 shall be - "other"
part 1 - so as anyone who has glanced at my Facebook page will be completely aware, the test scores came back in, and they were good. good is the understatement of the year when it comes to just how excited i was about these test scores (ask anyone who went on mission trip, they will attest.) my overage average for my kids was 204 (which is above proficient). 32 out of the 59 of my kids who took the test scored proficient. thats about 54%. to give a few comparable measures.... last year at central 27% of the school was proficient (this year 38% of the school overall was proficient.) the 54% that my students scored is SOOO much higher than anything i expected, and i am blown away by my kids performance. i am attempting (apparently unsuccessfully according to a very critical fellow TFA teacher) to be humble in receiving this news and deflecting it all back to the God who gave me the strength to make it to this point, but that is proving to be a very difficult venture. yet i try. before departing from the subject of test scores i must tell the story of how i came to receive the good news of the scores. i was on a mission trip with my youth group (a subject which will be breached in part 2) and i had just come back from a day at the work site. i had three missed calls from MJL (my roommate) and this let me know that the test scores were in. i didn't know what my next move should be. i was in charge of driving the van of childrens back to the place we were staying (a forty-five minute endeavor). those of you who know anything about me and patience know that it is not one of my strong suites. i decided to call dad's office and get amy (who works for him) to look up the scores online. the only decoding of the scores she could really do was to give me individual kids' scores as a reeled them off to her one by one. here about how the conversation went.
Levi: "ok... Braylan Lewis."
Amy: Pass.... score of 223.
Levi: "WHAT!???!!? OH MY SICK... (SWERVES VAN AND RUNS OFF ROAD....) ATTA BOY... YES SIR!!!
part 2 - so for those of you who do not currently know, my summer job is leading the youth of savannah first united methodist church. thus far it has been a very different, yet fruitful and enjoyable experience. the youth group is pretty small (about 5 to 7 on average) but i've gotten to know the kids pretty well. we've been reading through rob bell's "velvet elvis" and i think the discussion has gone pretty well. this marks i think the 4th time i've read velvet elvis and 2nd time i've lead a small group in discussion based around his book. needless to say, i enjoy it, and each time i read it new realities and questions are opened up that i missed the first few times around. as previous stated we went on a mission trip last week which was a real blessing. we worked in the yard of an elderly couple named gary and anna, and they were both very enthused to have us there. i attempted to be richard rogers (but of course failed) and climbed off into the jungle that was gary and anna's back yard chopping down everything in my path. after three and half days of trying to be like my father, i decided that was a job best suited for him. the site coordinators nicknamed me "jungle joe" and "lumberjack levi" (probably when i wasn't around they referred to me more along the lines of "idiot with a chainsaw.") nonetheless, the trip was pretty awesome, and the kids did a great job. many thanks to page ledbetter, who dropped everything she was doing and decided to selflessly come along and chaperone the trip. she's a pretty awesome person if you don't know her. we've got one more trip coming up this summer, and then our usual meetings on tuesdays and sundays (as well as hopefully some other cool stuff.) working with the youth this summer has opened my eyes to a lot, and i think further maybe pushed me in the direction of pursuing full time ministry after i finish this teaching stint. we shall see. as an aside, if anyone plans to be in savannah, tn july 18th, levi rogers will be preaching a barn burner of a sermon on sunday morning at savannah first united methodist church entitled....... hmm i should probably figure that out soon.....
part 3 - i actually think that just about covers it. let's see if i have any other parting things to leave all of you interested readers with.... well, if you would like to go see the worst story line in the history of cinematic film, go see the movie "the killers" with ashton kutcher. also, if you are looking for an amazing read, go buy anything NT Wright has ever written. he's a beast. if you want to absolutely destroy yourself and not have the energy to pick yourself off the floor, go do the "insanity workout." in summary, summer is great. its not what i was expecting in a lot of ways, but its been an awesome, welcome break. after getting the test scores back, i want to teach algebra again next year. we are currently in the process of figuring out if that will actually happen. i suppose that will do for now. peace.
part 1 - so as anyone who has glanced at my Facebook page will be completely aware, the test scores came back in, and they were good. good is the understatement of the year when it comes to just how excited i was about these test scores (ask anyone who went on mission trip, they will attest.) my overage average for my kids was 204 (which is above proficient). 32 out of the 59 of my kids who took the test scored proficient. thats about 54%. to give a few comparable measures.... last year at central 27% of the school was proficient (this year 38% of the school overall was proficient.) the 54% that my students scored is SOOO much higher than anything i expected, and i am blown away by my kids performance. i am attempting (apparently unsuccessfully according to a very critical fellow TFA teacher) to be humble in receiving this news and deflecting it all back to the God who gave me the strength to make it to this point, but that is proving to be a very difficult venture. yet i try. before departing from the subject of test scores i must tell the story of how i came to receive the good news of the scores. i was on a mission trip with my youth group (a subject which will be breached in part 2) and i had just come back from a day at the work site. i had three missed calls from MJL (my roommate) and this let me know that the test scores were in. i didn't know what my next move should be. i was in charge of driving the van of childrens back to the place we were staying (a forty-five minute endeavor). those of you who know anything about me and patience know that it is not one of my strong suites. i decided to call dad's office and get amy (who works for him) to look up the scores online. the only decoding of the scores she could really do was to give me individual kids' scores as a reeled them off to her one by one. here about how the conversation went.
Levi: "ok... Braylan Lewis."
Amy: Pass.... score of 223.
Levi: "WHAT!???!!? OH MY SICK... (SWERVES VAN AND RUNS OFF ROAD....) ATTA BOY... YES SIR!!!
part 2 - so for those of you who do not currently know, my summer job is leading the youth of savannah first united methodist church. thus far it has been a very different, yet fruitful and enjoyable experience. the youth group is pretty small (about 5 to 7 on average) but i've gotten to know the kids pretty well. we've been reading through rob bell's "velvet elvis" and i think the discussion has gone pretty well. this marks i think the 4th time i've read velvet elvis and 2nd time i've lead a small group in discussion based around his book. needless to say, i enjoy it, and each time i read it new realities and questions are opened up that i missed the first few times around. as previous stated we went on a mission trip last week which was a real blessing. we worked in the yard of an elderly couple named gary and anna, and they were both very enthused to have us there. i attempted to be richard rogers (but of course failed) and climbed off into the jungle that was gary and anna's back yard chopping down everything in my path. after three and half days of trying to be like my father, i decided that was a job best suited for him. the site coordinators nicknamed me "jungle joe" and "lumberjack levi" (probably when i wasn't around they referred to me more along the lines of "idiot with a chainsaw.") nonetheless, the trip was pretty awesome, and the kids did a great job. many thanks to page ledbetter, who dropped everything she was doing and decided to selflessly come along and chaperone the trip. she's a pretty awesome person if you don't know her. we've got one more trip coming up this summer, and then our usual meetings on tuesdays and sundays (as well as hopefully some other cool stuff.) working with the youth this summer has opened my eyes to a lot, and i think further maybe pushed me in the direction of pursuing full time ministry after i finish this teaching stint. we shall see. as an aside, if anyone plans to be in savannah, tn july 18th, levi rogers will be preaching a barn burner of a sermon on sunday morning at savannah first united methodist church entitled....... hmm i should probably figure that out soon.....
part 3 - i actually think that just about covers it. let's see if i have any other parting things to leave all of you interested readers with.... well, if you would like to go see the worst story line in the history of cinematic film, go see the movie "the killers" with ashton kutcher. also, if you are looking for an amazing read, go buy anything NT Wright has ever written. he's a beast. if you want to absolutely destroy yourself and not have the energy to pick yourself off the floor, go do the "insanity workout." in summary, summer is great. its not what i was expecting in a lot of ways, but its been an awesome, welcome break. after getting the test scores back, i want to teach algebra again next year. we are currently in the process of figuring out if that will actually happen. i suppose that will do for now. peace.
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