And He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again!

Top 10 of the week:

1. Finished reading II Corinthians and Romans
2. Listening to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on audio
3. Last day of student teaching at Carver/going away party
4. Field Trip to Dittmer Recycling Plant
5. Visited PreK, K, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classrooms at Carver
6. Visited the Schultz family (my sister-in-laws' grandparents place in Neilsville, WI)
7. Read Catherine, Called Birdy and Where the Red Fern Grows, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes
8. Made 3 pie crusts!
9. Enjoying Easter Break!
10. Visited the Lutheran church that Donna Stieglitz' (my sister-in-law's mom) grew up in. Lots of history and that part of the country!

Week in Pictures:

Visiting St. Vincent De Paul's (a second hand/recycling shop)

Before going into Vincent De Paul's

How they separate all of the donated items

My ice hockey fanatic found a helmet he liked!

Walking to the Dittmer recycling plant.

Blocks of crushed plastic containers

Here's where your milk cartons go...

Ringing the replica of the Liberty Bell

Top Quotes & Stories:

On my last day at Carver the class threw a going-away party for me and these are some of the things I received:

• $20 Gift Certificate to House of China restaurant, Because of Winn-Dixie, 3 books for my own pleasure reading, Peeps, Motivation Stickers, Pair of scissors, Crayola Markers, Highlighters, Stamps, Pencils , Notecards, Sticky notes, Dry erase markers, Glue sticks, Stapler and staples, Black pens, Spiral notebooks, Loose leaf paper and about 20 cards or notes.

For my students I had hand written personalized cards for each student in the class and though it took a lot of time I was glad to have been able to do it for each of my students because they really appreciated it.

Please Pray...

• that I will finish my Student Teaching Portfolio
• that I will wrap-up the loose ends that I have at Emmaus
• that I will read God's word more and more
• that I will commit myself to prayer and Scripture memory as I have been slacking in these areas

Praises!

• That my last day of student teaching at Carver went well. Thank you so much for all your prayers!
• Only 16 days until I return to Japan!
  

Week 14: May the mind of Christ my Savior live in me from day to day!

This week...
This week was basically my last week of having teaching responsibilities and in the remaining days that I have with my 3rd grade class I will be helping my cooperating teacher and will be observing other grade level classrooms in the school.
Tonight is the Spring Banquet where the seniors are recognized and I am looking forward to an enjoyable evening. We have had some interesting weather lately and I hope it is warmer during this evening's banquet. Yesterday we had some snow but today we have a blue-sky-sunny-day. Iowa weather is incredible.
Just to let you know, I do plan to continue this blog even after my student teaching is done so that I can keep you all updated on what the Lord is teaching me. Thank you so much for all your prayers!

Top 10 of the week:

1. Finished reading John, Acts, and Hebrews
   
2. Listening to Double Fudge and The Hiding Place on audio
   
3. Power Outage at school during reading groups and false fire alarm
4. Final Friday Nighters lesson on Salvation. This was my 4th year of being a leader at this downtown children's ministry.
   
5. Saturday morning men's prayer breakfast
6. Went to Hope Church with Mrs. Schmidt and Cael Schmidt who are at Carver Elementary
7. Laundromat adventure (I discovered a run-down laundromat not far from the house)
   
8. Visited the Kalyanapus (Drew pictures with colored chalk with Caleb Kalyanapu and played a lego game with Joshua.
   
9. Read Bud, Not Buddy, The Egypt Game, and Matilda
   
10. Made double batch of chicken enchiladas!
    

Week in Pictures:

Our water experiments using plastic syringes and vials!

The Smart Slate that I was able to use in the classroom.

I created a "Mr. Eby's Favorite Books" tub for students to get books from.

The Smart Clicker system I was able to use for giving quizzes (formative assessment).

Signs of spring in Dubuque!

Beautiful view of downtown Dubuque from Loras street.

Perhaps the trash can should be thrown too? (I saw this on an afternoon walk)

"Get in line if you want to bring your car to heaven with you!"

The Greek pasta that I made last weekend. (Pasta, olive oil, feta cheese, green olives, bell peppers and tomato juice to go with!)

Hope Church that I visited last Saturday evening.

Top Quotes & Stories:

We had a power outage at Carver and it is a good thing it didn't happen in the morning because we had MAP testing which required the use of the computer lab. You don't realize how much you rely on electricity until it is gone. Carver is a very "high-tech" school but being "high-tech" has its downsides. The Smartboards didn't work, the projectors didn't work, the microwave in the teachers' lounge didn't work, the toilets wouldn't flush and the bathroom taps wouldn't run because they have electrical sensors, the lunch count had to be done manually et cetera. It was interesting. We had emergency lights on in the building but when kids went out for recess at lunch it started to rain and fortunately the power came back on when the kids came back in.
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In our spelling textbook the students were supposed to write out in words the directions of how to get to their house. To give you some background: Alex is a boy who is obsessed with ice hockey.


Lily wrote:
"Leave school, driving West to Heackock Road. Turn left and drive to Middle Road. Trun right and drive to Seipple Road. Follow Seipple Road to Highway 20 and turn right on Highway 20. Turn left onto Swiss Valley Road. Drive 30 feet and turn right onto North Cascade Road. Follow North Cascade Road and trun left onto Royal Wood Drive. Drive 0.7 miles to our house on the right. Our house # is 9147. Our house is not very big. If I did not tell you already I live in America."

Alex wrote:
"Steer right. You will see me playing hockey."

Is there a difference between how girls and boys explain things? Definitely!!!
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How many ways can you answer a math question? Here is one from our last math test.

Tiny and Tony's dentist schedules appointments 15 minutes apart. How many patients are scheduled to see the dentist between 9:30 and 10:45?

Student Answers:
1
4
5
5 1/3
6
7
8
120

Who ever thought that math could be so difficult to grade?!? What I discovered that 3rd grade students have a very difficult time with telling elapsed time and the next time I teach this I will definitely make it more of a focus.

Teacher Thoughts:

1. Get science experiment materials ready at least one day in advance. It makes life so much easier.
   
2. Read a good children's chapter book every now and then. It reminds you of the joys of reading!
3. Have students line up by their desks and dismiss them by groups to line up at the door at the end of the day. This way it is not chaos when school is dismissed.
4. Get to bed early, wake up early...it makes the day go so much better if you are ready to go.
5. Take pictures of your parent helpers working with the kids and send them thank you letters at the end of the year.

Please Pray...

• that I will finish student teaching strong
• that I will finish my Student Teaching Portfolio
• that I will wrap-up the loose ends that I have at Emmaus
• that I will read God's word more and more
• that I will commit myself to prayer and Scripture memory as I have been slacking in these areas
  

Praises!

• I received an estimate on the hail damage on my van and it looks like I will be able to receive above $2000 because I had full-coverage! I do need the van sold sometime this summer so that would also be something you could be praying for.
  

Week 13: The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want...

This week...
This week I have been quoting Psalm 23 to myself time and time again. He provides for my every need even when I feel like the week is rough or tiring He still shows Himself to be a source of comfort. I have also been singing a song that is called "Revelation Song" and has the words "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Holy, holy is He. Sing a new song to Him who sits on Heaven's Mercy Seat. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come! With all creation I sing: Praise to the King of Kings! You are my everything, and I will adore You!" Truly He is the Holy and the One who is worthy to be praised!

Top 10 of the week:

1. Finished reading Gospel of Luke
2. AfroCuban Taiko Drumming Group (a middle school/high school traveling group)
3. Skype Interview for Student Support Services (SSS) job position at CAJ
4. Wednesday Night Bible study and also playing some video games with the kids
5. Hailstorm with golf-balled sized hailstones
6. 3 Wishes Paragraphs (my students finished up their writing project!)
7. Racquetball 12-15. My highest score against Dale!
8. MAP testing (to test our students reading)
9. Friday Nighters (we had about 25 kids and the lesson was on prayer)
10. 3rd Grade Water Unit

Week in Pictures:

Some of my students writing accomplishments! We were learning how to write a five-sentence paragraph that uses different sentence beginnings.

Another writing piece.

The hailstorm we had. The hail was golf ball sized I had some damage mostly on the car hood.

The Afro-Cuban-Taiko drumming group that visited Carver Elementary

Some of the students playing drums with the drumming group during music class.

Top Quotes & Stories:

In my guided reading group we were learning about pirates and how they used to be executed by the government because of their deeds. After being executed governments would put their bodies into cages and leave them there to keep people from becoming pirates. Since we had learned about pirates from different time periods and had discussed Greek and Roman galleys I drew the correlation that during Roman times they used to do a similar thing. Romans used to put criminals on crosses and leave them by the sides of a road so that people would not become criminals. Some of the kids made the connection of crosses to the fact that Jesus died on a cross and one student said that they would put swords into their side to make sure that they were dead. I never planned to have this connection but the Lord did. I never would have guessed that their could be a connection to Christ on the cross from learning about pirates who sailed the seven seas!

On another occasion we were reading a book that talked about how cupids were pagan. I had one student look up the word pagan and we ended up discussing the difference between angels and cupids. Angels have to do with "God" capital 'G' and cupids have to do with 'gods' lower case 'g.' This is because cupids were from Greek origin but angels were not. I discovered later that Cupid was actually the Roman god of desire, affection and love and was therefore not an angel by any means. The Roman 'Cupid' was the same as the Greek 'Eros' and was the son of Venus and Mars. Anyhow, long story short, who would've thought that we could have had a discussion about the difference between God and pagan gods?! God sometimes uses very unique opportunities for His glory!

Teacher Thoughts:

1. When working in groups for science experiments give students each an assigned job: Materials Manager, Messenger, and Tracker (these are 3 options). The Materials Manager gets the materials and puts away the materials. The Messenger is the only one that can ask the teacher a question. The Tracker is the one who makes sure that responsibilities are being shared among group members.
2. When assigning jobs for science group work it is also good to model for the students different scenarios and how people might perform their jobs.
3. When using droppers in science, provide one dropper so that all students have to share equal responsibility when using the dropper. It forces them to work together.
4. Use a document camera such as the Point2View camera to model the experiment or the setup for the experiment for the students.
5. It is better to give longer more detailed instructions at the beginning of the lesson than to continually have to get students attention throughout the lesson.
6. When students are done performing experiments and you want to discuss the experiment, have them come to the front carpet area so that they are not distracted by materials or by other classmates. Then you can have their undivided attention for discussion.
7. Having all your guided reading group plans ready ahead of time makes your week much easier because you can be more flexible.
8. If the students are very chatty and are not paying attention when you ask them for it, set a timer until they quiet down. If it takes them 10 seconds then write the 10 seconds on the board. The seconds will accumulate throughout the days of the week and whenever they get to 1 minute (or whatever time you designate) have them come up during recess to serve their 1 minute of time since it was time that was taken away from classroom instruction.
9. If you give students an instruction, wait for all of them to do it before you continue otherwise your instructions are meaningless. (i.e. "Please take a seat before I give you instructions." means that you should wait until all students are actually in their seat before you give instructions)
10. Use the NLVM website to model percentages, fractions or graphs. It is also helpful for other things as well but it has proven to be a wonderful visual for my students in math class and it is a simple way to integrate technology.

Please Pray...

• that I will finish these last 2 weeks of student teaching strong (I have 9 actual days if you don't count weekends)
• that I will be able to finish my Senior Portfolio that shows all my student teaching accomplishments
• that I will be diligent to read the Word and in prayer in these final weeks
• that I will wrap up all that needs to be done before I return to Japan
• for my health (I was losing my voice this last week but am still doing well)

Praises!

• Opportunities to get to know my students better
• For God's provision financially
• For God bringing me to this point in teaching. Student teaching has taught me so much.
• That I have full-coverage for my van when the hail did damage to it

Week 12: For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?

This week...
Today, Saturday I was reading in the book of Mark and I enjoyed it so much that I decided to read the entire book in one sitting which is something I have not done for awhile. The passage that stood out to me the most were the words of Jesus in Mark 8:35-36 "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?"
Those last words are a reminder to me that the things which I possess here on earth are of such little value in comparison with the blessing of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord. I could lose all things and still be content because my satisfaction and greatest treasure is found in my Savior. Praise His mighty Name!

Top 10 of the week:

1. Finished reading 2 Kings and Mark
   
2. Started reading The Wizard of Oz with one of my guided reading groups
   

3. Finished my 16-hour Oliver Twist audio book
   

4. Police Officer Nate Tyler came into the classroom to share about bullying
   
5. Helped out with "Around the World in 60 Minutes" where different displays were set up in the Emmaus gym representing different countries and you could visit each place and learn about it
   
6. Saw Caleb and Amy in the Dubuque newspaper!
   
7. Skyped the uncle of one of my students. Cael's uncle is a missionary in France
8. Started a “Mr. Eby’s Favorite Books" tub in the classroom
   
9. Fire drill and tornado drill at school this week
   
10. Was digitally fingerprinted so that I will be ready-to-go for my teaching license
    

Week in Pictures:

Officer Nate Tyler sharing about bullying.

Skyping Cael's uncle who lives in France. Each student prepared a question so that they could ask him about life in France.

This is Cael's uncle up close but lots of the questions were answered by his daughter who is currently in 3rd grade and it was a unique opportunity for the students to learn about France from a fellow American 3rd grader who is living in France.

My bulletin board for Ch. 8 on "How does our economy work?" We learned a lot about supply and demand and how those two factors affect price.

Top Quotes & Stories:

My class in numbers:
-3 girls love Justin Bieber
-2 students like drilling holes into their pink rectangular erasers
-1 student is passionate about ice hockey
-More than 15 students have read the Diary of a Wimpy Kid
-About 4 students have sack lunches
-About 90% of my class has German ancestry
-At least 2 of my students are fanatics about Pokemon
-At least 3 of my students love playing Club Penguin on the computer
-At least 5 students have read a book by Rick Riordan
-Only about 3 students take the bus
-About 4-5 students stay for Y-Care after school program
-At least 3 students have been to Wisconsin Dells during the school year
-1 student is doing a research project on J.K. Rowling
-1 student is doing a research project on Michael Jordan

"I will occur tomorrow." (Student trying to use the word occur in a sentence)

The IT lady at Carver Elementary put sticky notes under teachers' computer mice so that they wouldn't work. When teachers' pulled the sticky note off it said, "Happy April Fool's Day!"

Teacher Thoughts:

1. 3rd graders need a lot of scaffolding when it comes to writing. Be sure to provide ample time to work on writing projects and have sponge activities for those who are fast writers so that they are challenged as well.
   
2. If students are not able to quiet down when you get their attention, count how long it takes for them to stop talking, put that number on the board and continue to add to it as the day progresses. Explain to students that they must come in for that much time before they go to recess.
   
3. Having copies of writing rubrics is helpful for students to have while they type up their writing pieces.
4. Make sure students save their document so that they do not lose it.
   
5. It is helpful to read the portion of a guided reading text the night before so that that you will be able to discuss it with your group while it is fresh in your mind.
6. Make sure you have a list of those who completed a test so that you don't have missing tests floating around. Sometimes, students will put it into their desks without thinking and they will become frustrated when you tell them that they didn't turn in their test.
7. During a spelling test encourage students not to take drink breaks because otherwise they miss a couple words and you have to catch them up at the end and take everyone's time.
8. Get good rest. Rest is important. Also read the Bible in the morning to start the day on the right foot. Even if it a short verse or a short passage. You may want to do more reading in the evening if that is when you are most alert but ALWAYS set aside time for the Lord...especially on the busiest of days.
9. It never hurts to ask another teacher. Get their input and see what they think of a student's answer or of a lesson idea.
10. Make sure students do not get paired up with the same people every time.
    

Please Pray...

• that I will read the Bible and pray with diligence
  
• wisdom as I finish my student teaching in the next 3weeks (My last day is April 28)
  
• that I would learn how to teach writing successfully
  
• for me to be more firm and know when to use appropriate discipline with my students
• for me to give clearer instructions when teaching a lesson