Blogging in Context

I most often blog some rant about education or something I've read recently, but the thing that has most recently been impressed upon me is the old saying, "you must BE the change you want to see." After the dust settles, am I LIVING like Christ? Are my rants about education compliments of ravishing Christ following, or are they simply bubbles floating ethereally through the intellisphere, waiting to be popped? For those who think I'm simply playing foolish mind games and that I'll grow up some day, may I give you a bit of context from which I blog.

I'm a teacher with real students with very real faults, but they really give me energy for life.


Studying colonial America. (My Grandpa is a great resource:)



And these guys had never done leap frog races before!



Sometimes I'm energetic and love what I do.


Sometimes I'm discouraged and just feel like sleeping.


This message is brought to you by krriptonite. Photos, courtesy of ACS yearbook staff.

Z. Randall Stroope is one of the most active choral conductors and composers working in the United States today, with recent conducting engagements at the American School in Singapore, Canterbury Cathedral, England, Salzburger Dom in Salzburg, Washington National Cathedral, Vancouver Symphony, Lincoln Center, and Carnegie Hall. His compositions sell over 200,000 copies a year, and are performed regularly by esteemed ensembles throughout the world. Dr. Stroope has personally conducted/recorded 13 professional compact discs, and recordings of his music are heard frequently on radio and television broadcasts across the United States.

I have been listening to a lot of Randall's compositions recently which have grown on me immensely. His compositions range from quite modern pieces like "The Conversion of Saul" to more traditional arrangements like his "Invocation" for women's ensemble. Below are several renditions of one of my favorite excerpts from his "Passages" titled "Inscription of Hope" that I found at the Library while searching for music for my grade school choir. The words were taken from an inscription on the wall of a place of hiding used by the Jews during the Holocaust.

school room snapshot

One day recently when I was giving my students a bible memory test, one of my 7th grade boys raised his hand. Thinking he was most likely wanting a prompt, I grabbed my double edged sword and strode over to his desk. I was surprised to find that he wasn't looking for a prompt. No...in all earnestness he simply wanted to inform me that, "I know the next three verses, I just don't know how to word them!"