Sunday:
Kari Eaves had a bridal shower. Yay for amazing cake. Yay for Kari and Mike.
Soccer was lots of fun, though I think I bruised my right shin.
Monday:
One of the kids in Study Hall had a birthday, so I brought in some pastries from Lacoste, the bakery in town. They all enjoyed the tasty breakfast!
Later at HBR, the birthday celebration continued. The birthday kids always get to pick what type of cake they want, so this particular student chose cheesecake. Before getting to eat the cake, however, there was the traditional birthday drone from the boys. It sounds like a creepy cultic chant, especially with the lights turned off and one candle lit for the birthday boy to blow out! Then the boys picked up the birthday boy and bounced him up and down on their shoulders. I’m not sure what they were saying/chanting when they did this, but they were excited about it. For underclassmen, a creeking would have followed, but seniors are exempt from this tradition.
The Birthday Boy eats his cheese cake. Don't worry, he didn't eat alone - the other boys are just up getting their own slices!
After dinner, I helped some kids study.
This student was taking a make-up history test from when he was sick. The large soccer ball in the foreground resides on the junior hall and is used as a chair.
Tuesday:
This morning I had a rehearsal for Christmas music. Tomorrow we will be going to the nursing home, and the kids that were there feel pretty ready to play now. The rehearsals have been hit-or-miss with attendance. In the future (if I ever have a concert where I’m pulling kids from other classes) I will schedule fewer rehearsals and make them all mandatory, instead of scheduling lots of rehearsals and saying “come to the ones you can.” When I make a very emphatic announcement over the intercom for 3 days leading up to a rehearsal, students tend to come, but I would like to teach the kids to be responsible for themselves and actually look at the schedule I gave them.
I tried using Gustav as a reminder tool for rehearsals, but he does not seem to do much good.
Gustav gains a red hat and an ornament for his goblet.
Gustav’s looks are not improved by his external adornment. This picture was taken a couple weeks ago, so it does not show the full extent of his trappings. You’ll just have to wait for a later post to see what else I’ve done to the poor paper mache man!
Study Hall: The other two HBR boys said today that though the senior did not get creeked on his birthday, he should get creeked at some point while he is here. It would be a pity to live in HBR and not get creeked. It’s like a rite of passage.
What do you do with a pair of scissors and a couple bored boys in study hall?
- A.) Cut paper snowflakes
- B.) Pretend to stab the teacher
- C.) Go crow hunting – unsuccessfully
- D.) All of the above
The answer today was D, all of the above. I started my annual snowflake making frenzy . . .
These are just a few of the snowflakes I made in study hall.
Two of the boys have attempted to make snowflakes, with some interesting but not bad results. I think one of them would prefer to shoot ice tea carton caps across the room like he did yesterday (it’s really fun once you get the hang of it!). That’s why he got bored with the snowflakes and pretended to stab me with the scissors. Maybe he was thinking of the time I hit him over the head with a plate when he wouldn’t get up from watching cartoons to go clean the bathroom. The scissors led to a discussion about what would happen if someone attacked a teacher in the middle of class. One of the boys said he would probably do nothing, or go somewhere else so he wouldn’t be blamed if something happened. In the middle of that discussion, they saw a couple large crows outside the window. They asked if they could chase the enormous birds, and I said they could. As they walked outside, I said, “Don’t get my scissors dirty!” Fortunately, the crows knew how to use their wings, and there was no bird blood spilled.
On a more serious note, the study hall kids have been taking the Bible Study devotions seriously. I started out by asking them to write down any questions they had related to things they had heard in classes or during church, etc. After this, we spent a couple days discussing how to study the Bible. Now I am having each student take one morning and share what he/she has learned from studying either a passage or a topic/question. Three students have discussed their thoughts so far, and all three have been diving deep into the Scriptures to seek out answers to questions that have been bothering them.
Just as all of these questions are coming out in Study Hall, Brian Post (BFA’s Middle School history teacher now, was a pastor for 21 years) gave a chapel message on doubting last Friday! He encouraged the students not to suppress doubts and pretend they don’t exist. Instead:
- Do ask questions – it airs out the infection, gives you the freedom to believe, and many times you get answers when you ask! There are answers out there, though we have not discovered them all
- The Bible tells us that if we love God we will obey His commands. Faith comes not by knowing all the answers, but by loving God and obeying His commands. If we seek to know God as a Being, the questions and doubts do not overwhelm us because we have the assurance from our relationship with God.
- Don’t give up your faith just because you have questions. It is one of the most valuable things you have. You may not recognize the full extent of its value now, but in 100 years you will, and by then it will be too late if you threw away your faith.
I asked the study hall students what they had thought of last Friday’s chapel message, and all of them said that though they zone out in many chapel messages, this one was actually related to something they thought about. It was a good message, and hit home for many students. Praise God!
At lunch today, the orchestra girls and I played Christmas carols in the student center. There were a lot of middle school students sitting there eating lunch and watching us play. I also saw several cameras appear, so I hope to see some pictures sometime soon!
We will be having school on Thanksgiving since it is not a German holiday. There is nothing to hold back Christmas cheer! Decorations went up around town today, but I had already started with Gustav, the snowflakes, and Christmas music in orchestra.
These days are packed full of events (Ereignisse). God alone knows what tomorrow holds; I rest in Him!
