Feeling little again

Sometimes I wonder about my high schoolers. They surprise me every day.

After the great success of Infinitives! The Musical, Luiz brought in a rolly-polly bug. Luiz wanted to know the English name for this bug so I told him the official name (Pill Bug) and the informal name (Rolly-Polly Bug) which evidently in BrazillianPortuguesEnglish becomes "Rolly Bug". He played with it for about 10 minutes, then Cindy ran around the room with it chasing Vivian.

As class got started, rolly bug officially earned the name "Yang Jr." Yang was not amused. Yang Jr. became a part of our class that day even to the point where Luiz would ask, "Now Yang Jr., what do you think the answer is?"

During a review game, Eric noticed that Yang Jr. had stopped moving to which Luiz said in his laid-back life approach, "Ohhh, heez jus' resting."

Sure enough, Yang Jr. crawled over to their team sign and the boys claimed he was a lucky charm especially after they won.

After the bell rang, Yang Jr. just became another pill bug on the grass and my students remembered they were 17 and 18 again, not supposed to have rolly bugs for pets and moved on with their lives.

Yep, they definitely surprise me.

School fun!

I had too much fun in school this week.

The highlight was an activity I did with my students called, "Miss Ernst is too tired to teach so learn it yourself". That's not the official title, but still you get the just of it. Now you must understand I teach advanced grammar...really boring advanced grammar so I have to trick my brain (and my students' brains) into thinking advanced English grammar is exciting.

My students had 45 verbs to memorize that accompany infinitives. 45. Ugh.

So I gave them 20 minutes, colored paper, markers and said, "Make something that will help your classmates remember these for the test."

What I didn't expect was Infinitives! The Musical, an impromptu production created and performed by my students.

Act I was Luiz, Sean and Yang. Luiz (my sassy Brazilian) sang an infinitive-infused love song, Sean(your average Korean side-kick) beatboxed and Yang (my resident Communist and eternal pessimist) did his best Milli-Vanilli dance moves.

Act II was James, Andrew, Daniel and Eric. James and Andrew provided back-up vocals for the "Twinkle-twinkle, little star" introduction which then dove head-first into Eric's (unassuming, lisping Eric) gansta-rap backed up by none other than Daniel(quiet, polite, respectful) who added his own mix of Flava-Flav/Koolaid man interludes in his deep bass voice. "OH yeaaah..." I didn't hear the first half of it because I was laughing so hard.

Act III was Meg, Sunnie and Cindy (I'm not making this up) who sang their ABC song with verb lyrics, looking excessively cute as usual.

It is now the stuff of legend. And all because I let them have control of their own learning. I wonder how many students during their test will be mouthing "oh yeah".

Is God Enough?

Last Sunday, Pastor Art was out of town and the children's pastor, Bobby, preached. I knew Bobby was nervous about his first opportunity to preach Sunday morning and so I prayed that God would give him a Word, not just a word, but a WORD from God. Little did I know, it was a Word for me. Here's what Pastor Bobby preached on:

Job 13:15
Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him

Think about Job's life. He lost everything. He lost his finances, his family, his fitness(health) and his face(his reputation). He lost it all. Yet, he still said, "I know God did this. Heck, He could even kill me. But I will still hope in Him."

Wow.

Here are three questions that Pastor Bobby brought up with accompanying thoughts:

1. Can God be trusted while you are submerged in suffering?
Faith may not be a way out of trouble. It may be a way to endure trouble.
Faith is not receiving from God what you want. Faith is accepting from God what He gives you.

2. Can God be trusted when you are forsaken by friends?
Job 19:13-19
Psalm 41:9
Psalm 55:12-13

3. Can God be trusted when you are dismayed by darkness?
Remember, Job never read the book of Job. He didn't know the backstory. He didn't really know what was going on. He only saw part of the picture. Job never got the answers he wanted.
"Why" is God's question. "How" is ours. How will I respond?
Isaiah 50:10-11
¹⁰ Who among you fears the LORD
and obeys the word of his servant?
Let him who walks in the dark,
who has no light,
trust in the name of the LORD
and rely on his God.

¹¹ But now, all you who light fires
and provide yourselves with flaming torches,
go, walk in the light of your fires
and of the torches you have set ablaze.
This is what you shall receive from my hand:
You will lie down in torment.

When in darkness, don't light your own torch!