I apologize

for the woeful dearth of photos on the blog lately. Philip got the camera back (well, it is his, after all), and has informed me that he thinks it's dying. Something about the battery, I believe. So, words must suffice.

Adam and I are both very happy teachers because we've been informed that we will each have a Smartboard in the classroom, soon! Yippee! I can't wait to have one HANDY. Right now, I have to reserve one in another building; needless to say, I don't do that very often. The students love them because they're so cool. I want to figure out how to do editing on them with my students, and find software that will enhance my literature teaching also.

Well, we decided that we will stay home for Thanksgiving. I'm kind of disappointed, because I enjoy traveling, and it's just more festive to be with family. We were going to go to Mississippi to be with Adam's mom. It was lovely when we lived in Alabama - a few hours away. Now it is about 25 hours round trip, driving. That's also not too horrible, except when you only have a short Thanksgiving break to do it on. And the price of gas these days discouraged us also - over 3$ a gallon! This is like living in Massachusetts! And Adam is looking forward to a break from work. He's frankly very pooped. We REALLY need Christmas break, but Thanksgiving will have to do for now.

Philip has a new trumpet teacher, and we're thrilled to have someone consistent - a weekly lesson. He is a teacher at Lenoir-Rhyne College. He wants for Philip to start playing in the college's concert group, instead of the youth symphony he's currently playing in. He says it will be more challenging music. So, tomorrow evening Philip and I will go hear this group play and see what he thinks.

I have been convicted lately about doing a less-than-my-best job at teaching Christian worldview in the classroom - striving each day to integrate Christian faith with the material we're learning. This is very hard work, and unless you've tried it, daily, in the classroom, you may not realize how much harder it is to teach this way, than to just teach the material in the traditional way. Nobody teaches you how to do it; you must dig in and discover it yourself. There's no manual out there to help me know how to correctly evaluate Julius Caesar, or Ezra Pound's or Alexander Pope's writings, with a Biblical perspective. Even attending a college that served up Christian worldview as its meat and potatoes, doesn't necessarily help you in the daily pragmatics of the classroom. The biggest assistance I get is from the Holy Spirit, as I frantically ask Him to turn my fumbling attempts into something that breaks through the wall of apathy and cuts into the student's heart. That happened this week, and it was wonderful.

I asked my students a week ago: 1)define Christian worldview, 2)what frustrations do you have in how Christian worldview is being taught at our school?, 3) how can we improve, as literature students, in applying Christian worldview to our class?

Their answers were all over the place, but prompted me to work harder to do what I've been hired to do everyday. Many Christian school teachers don't. There's little accountability in this department. Many Christian school lack the distinctiveness they claim, because this field is neglected. For my part, I want to ensure that it is alive and well in my classroom, that it is addressed deeply and honestly.