Several weeks have flown by and I want to share some of the highlights...
Last blog post I had posted a few pictures from our visit to a Thai restaurant but and I do have a few other photos from that week that I'd like to share with you. The week was very memorable and was spent in much grading of papers but also much time with family. We went to the free 9-hole putt-putt course down by the Nagara River and to take a break Mom, Caleb, and I went to a hotel coffee/tea area and enjoyed a wonderful conversation over tremendously good tea :) We also celebrated Christ's death and resurrection by having a Passover meal with some home-cooked lamb bought off Rakuten.
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| Enoch face |
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| Helping get the golf ball out of the hole |
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| 3 Generations of Eby |
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| Passover Celebration |
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| Sakura in bloom along the highway |
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| Sakura Road |
Badminton
The school year is quickly coming to a close but it has been a blessing to be able to join some other staff members for some friendly badminton matches at the school gym. Gina and Sobi Abraham, Akiko and Mitsuo Fujishima, Debbie May, and Martha Okayasu are often our regulars.
Guys Night Out
Recently I was invited by Charles Smoker (the HS guys soccer coach and parent of one of my students) to go with some guys to a movie and enjoy some 'guy time' together. So, this last Friday evening I went to watch "Iron Man III" with Charles Smoker, Steven and Alex (two English teachers at the neighboring Jiyu Gakuen, Hisashi (a college student at Jiyu Gakuen) Jesse, and Michael Vanderpoel. The plot was good but due to some scenes in the movie I would not recommend very readily. However, I was very thankful for the opportunity to talk with Steven for quite some time afterward and hear his story of how he came to Japan shortly after the tsunami. As it turns out he knows Masa Suzuki (a brother of one of my CAJ classmates) and Steven had attended the same college as Masa: Westmont College in California. Long story made short, we ended up talking until 12:30AM and were able to pray for each other before parting ways. God is tremendously good!
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| Iron Man put out by Marvel |
Coaching Track
Though not acting as head coach, I have been privileged with the opportunity of working with junior high students in CAJ's track & field. Among other things, I have been helping out with coaching hurdles, long jump and relays. It has definitely been an opportunity for me to get to know the junior high students better but it has also honed my coaching skills. I look forward to a strong finish to the season and improving on my coaching more next year especially as I anticipate having some more time than right now since I am keeping up with first year teaching responsibilities.
Bible Classes
Classes are going fairly well so far. The freshman are wrapping up a section on Judaism, what Jews believe, and how it is different from the Christian faith.
Tenth graders are wrapping up their world views study with a "how then shall we live?" unit in which we approach every day issues and discuss how to approach them. Also we will be critiquing movies and songs to discover what worldview they portray.
Eleventh graders have recently begun their spiritual disciplines unit and they are required to practice the discipline outside of class, create a handout, quiz, and powerpoint and provide an in-class activity to engage the class during a 20-30 minute presentation. The first presentation group was on fasting and they did a 3:30PM-3:30PM fast and then shared their experience with their classmates. Immensely fascinating!
At the beginning, I told them they had 1st, 2nd and 3rd choices on which discipline they could choose to present on. This way the presenters were presenting on usually their 1st or 2nd choice. Those who were presenting actually bought Cinnabon rolls, microwaved them and set them in front of their classmates to intensify the idea of abstaining from food. It was an excellent presentation and I think they learned a lot from the experience.
Seniors are coming up to their end-of-year comps presentations which deal with global issues (e.g. human trafficking etc). In my class we are discussing the 10 Commandments in an open forum format in which it is very much a discussion between their classmates on the issue of what the 10 Commandments look like in today's world when lived out.
Graduate Coursework
As many of you know, I have recently begun my graduate coursework and am involved in a multidisciplinary master's program through Buffalo State, NY. I have already completed Course 1 and just today began Course 2. This session is entitled 21st Century Literacy Ideas, Questions, and Issues and basically has to do with copyright issues today. Lots of ethical issues involved and will be a learning curve to be sure. One of the highlights is the lunches which are prepared by a catering company called Zest. I've attached a picture of our meal from today. Amazing! The two gentlemen who are the chefs hail from England and Australia.
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| A meal made by Zest at my Master's class |
Of course CAJ's annual Thrift Shop did come around and it was very enjoyable to help with the setup. I was able to talk with one of my student's parents while doing setup and also was able to spend some time talking with the students as well. I found some good book buys and a gift for my nephew Enoch which I'm excited to share with him (a toolkit made of wood, with wooden 'screws' and 'nails'!)
Book Reading
I recently finished reading Eric Metaxas' book Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy and it was definitely a beneficial read. Not only did it challenge me to know my history better but it also was spiritually challenging since Bonhoeffer quite the theologian and wrestled with some ethical dilemmas which were presented to him during the WWII era and the Nazi regime which so quickly took over his home country of Germany. Its about 500 pages but I wholeheartedly recommend it.
Teacher Tips (Top 10 recently)
- Don't give long term assignments unless you intend to have checkpoints along the way...students just put it off until last minute!
- If students submit their papers online, check all their works cited and in-text citations assembly line style so that you can save time. It typically takes about 15 minutes to edit a 2-3 page paper well. For a more in-depth paper or one that is 5 pages it can take up to 30 minutes.
- If you have struggling ESL students and you have a book in class that you are using see if you can get an audio version. It helps your ESL students!
- Befriend thy librarian :)
- Drink lots of water throughout the day.
- When assigning scripture memory hand out a sheet of paper for students to right on...otherwise they all turn in different sizes.
- If you want discussion do pair share, group share, class share. It stimulates discussion.
- Grade as soon as you can. Otherwise it catches up with you. It also helps your students know right away if they have missing work.
- If you have technical difficulties and you can't solve it in a couple minutes...call tech. That's what they're there for.
- If you have a big assignment ask the students what other assignments they have since you may be able to move the due date to a more doable time for your students.
Things for prayer
- Time in the word and prayer (I just recently finished Acts and 1 Timothy and plan to begin the gospel of John; my goal is to be praying for my students more regular and by name)
- To get rest (sometimes I don't know how to rest and overwork, God has been giving me wisdom in how to pace myself thus far)
- Plans for the summer (I co-direct at JBC, visit the US, and teach lifeguarding at Nojiri, I do need to have more of an itinerary for my time in the US)
- To be a light for Christ in my master's class (many in the class are not believers and there have been opportunities to share about what I believe and why I am here)
- To learn more Japanese (I have not had time to work on Japanese recently but I do want to continue my study of the language and to use it more which means I need to get out of the CAJ context somehow too!)
