I can’t stay mad at all y’all (that’s how a Southerner says it, right?)  so here’s some sub news.  Monday and Tuesday I was in near-city district again, and will be back there again tomorrow.  3rd grade was the name of the game Monday, and one of the first things I noticed was the teacher’s computer, or rather what was taped on (click pics for larger size):

How awesome- the teacher is a Christian and not afraid to show it! . Once class started, I found she had a good group of kids making it a much easier time than 3rd grade last week.  I also got two breaks in addition to lunch- art in the AM and PE in the PM.  Besides the monitor dressing, probably the most memorable part of this job was the huge spelling packet we had to grade- without a key!  Seriously, this packet was about a dozen pages, front and back, for around 24 pages of work.  Using some time in the morning and some time in the afternoon, we were able to get through maybe half of it.  It took longer than it should have because I had to think about the answers before I said them.  It’s 3rd grade work, but that doesn’t mean the answers come instantly.  I have corrected work without a key before, but usually it’s math and usually just me grading papers, not the whole class.  At least in those situations I made a “key” by grading one studen’t paper then using it (at least the correct answers) as the key for the rest.

Tuesday I subbed for art in the open middle school and was pleasantly surprised to find I only had five classes.  There was a second art teacher who taught two classes before going to the elementary school next door.  Actually, she had a sub too, but you get the picture.  All periods were pretty easy.  The 6th-grade just got a video.  We watched one of the HBO Artist Special movies.  I picked the Rembrandt one.  These movies, or at least this one, really don’t talk much about the artists’ work, but instead take the artist and his setting, and make it into a historical fiction story utilizing a boy or girl somehow to make it more appealing to kids.  7th and 8th grade were in the middle of projects so they just continued to work on them.  I actually ran into the daughter of my church’s camp and one-time youth director- I guess I know what town his family lives in now.

Today- just a half-day in PE.  I had the option of changing it to a full day in kindergarten, but I really didn’t want to drive all the way there (one of the further schools in near-city district) and, well, you know me and younger grades, especially when “ELL” shows up in the job description. . For PE we just played scooter tag, which was just a sharks and minnows tag game on scooters, where two at a time are taggers and anyone they tag have to sit down but may tag others as they pass.  The gym becomes quite the minefield for survivors after awhile.  It was fun.  I had planned on getting gas for the mower after work and doing a quick job on the lawn, but probably because of the scheduled walkathon at the school (okay, not really) it started to downpour just as school finished.  Since rain is scheduled for the next several days I guess I will have to wait a while longer.  Oh, well.

Just a quick note to say (in pictures shamelessly ripped from here and here):

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Happy Easter!

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Merry Christmas!

As many go to bed tonight awaiting a certain jolly old gift-giver to pay them a visit when fast asleep, it pays to remember the gift given to us from above that bears no comparison to the trinkets we give each other.  Praise God for His gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, for lowering Himself to live as one of us and die an unjust death as atonement for the sins of all who put their faith in Him.

The rest of these are just for fun.  Watch them, search for more on Youtube, but most important of all please watch the above video before leaving this blog.

This is the post you were expecting today.  Happy Thanksgiving!  My mother, my grandmother, my uncle, and I got together on this fine day for our nonstandard (read: restaurant) meal, followed by pumpkin and apple pie at home.  My brother and nephew always spend this day with Alex’s relatives on his mom’s side, so they didn’t join us.  Not a big gathering as you can see, so there is not much to say unlike my fellow blogger Jamiahsh.  As such, I will just say thank you God for my family, my job, my friends, and my salvation through Jesus who died on the cross for my sin.  Now I will end with a couple of Thanksgiving videos I pulled from Godtube.  They are sort of related to the theme of my site too, as they involve kids.  Enjoy!

[godtube]http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=e7a4e540c5408f9820be[/godtube]

[godtube]http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=63b7e045fc2964c6ed23[/godtube]

Several years ago my church had the choir sing on 4th of July weekend, and this is one of the songs.  I pray that as you reflect on the freedom we have here in the US, you will reflect especially on the freedom we have in worshiping as we please.  There are many places now where there is no such freedom, and there will be a day that we will all have to go underground for a time before Jesus takes the world back from Satan once and for all, as God promises.

[Godtube]http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=fd28e0f6fcdffbcdd760[/Godtube]

Tonight I write this as I should be partying instead.  Tonight is the end-of-year cast party for the children’s drama.  Or rather, that is what the schedule says.  The party was actually canceled due to lack of interest, plus a general grim outlook on people showing up on Wednesday nights for past rehearsals.  If it was going to be anything like last year’s get-together then I really won’t miss it.  It was a low turnout then and pretty unexciting.  Some ice cream and drinks, and a little bit of small talk.  The kids if I recall did some theatre games.  Those theatre games used to be part of the rehearsals, but this year they got cut due to time, though the director did do some one of the nights.

In any event, the end may have arrived for rehearsals, but we have one more weekend to perform- this coming weekend.  I suggested we have the show “canceled” and have “extras” carry off pieces of the set as we do the drama.  Unfortunately this suggestion was too late and Steve (children’s ministry pastor) cringed at the thought of having to take down and put back up the set for each performance.  I guess it was also kind of a negative note.  The show rather ends more positively by finally discovering the formula my character has been searching for for so long.  Of course the formula involves Jesus, the only super human.  He is the one who makes super heroes out of all of us who are children of God.  At the end we will take our final bows and the mock science show will end.

I really hope the performance goes without a hitch.  Last week I was the only regular cast member there for my performance time.  Another was prepared as a fill-in, but the rest just didn’t show up.  Steve said he knew a couple wouldn’t be there, but my guess is he didn’t have much advance notice as we had to scramble to get others to fill in, and needless to say they had to perform with scripts.  Something that was actually quite regular last year, but praise God was not so much of a problem this year.  The last episode is supposed to be the most memorable, so I pray that it is memorable in the right way…

Well, this wasn’t my regular sub-post, but you already knew I had PE at the one school again.  Basically, same thing different students.  Softball all day with similar pluses and minuses as the previous days’ kickball.  Until tomorrow then, when it looks like I will break the middle-school rut with second grade.  I will also get to sleep in an extra hour…