You know you're a confident teacher when you can do this. . .

Nicole and Me, Costume or Animal Day, SDA Spirit Week, October 14, 2008

Girlie, Rhonda, Nicole, and Cristina. Triplets or More Day, SDA School Spirit Week. Friday, October 17, 2008

Me striking a pose during a skit for joint worship, Friday, October 17, 2008

Me & Rhonda, Opposite Career Day. SDA School Spirit Week. Wednesday, October 15, 2008. (On this day we were supposed to come dressed as the career opposite the one we wanted to be. I came as a coal miner, and Rhonda came as a janitor. Nothing against those worthy professions of course. We'd just rather teach!)


Girlie decorated for Face Decoration Day. October 16, 2008

Cristina with one of our high school freshman showing off their facial hair fashions on Face Decoration day, SDA School Spirit Week, Thursday, October 16, 2008.

. . .and not lose the students' respect. Once the kids know you mean business you can afford a little silliness without losing the reigns of your class.

This past week, we teachers enthusiastically participated in our School Spirit Week organized by our newly elected Student Association officers. As you can see some of our costumes were pretty outlandish, but nonetheless, after the initial laughter from the kids, it was buisness as usual--pig nose, unibrow and all.

Each year's group of teachers brings something special and irreplacable to our students and our school. Each year's team makes a difference and changes lives. In the past several years we've had some particularly outstanding teams, each with their own unique group personality and style, and this year is no different. I've aleady decided on the theme for this year's team of teachers. If two years ago they were the Rock Stars and last year they were the Runners, this year, though these photos might suggest otherwise, they are the Professionals. Whether they hold their teacher certificate or not, this year's teachers are consumate professionals. They work really hard, they are serious about their students academic succeess, and they manage their classrooms like they've been doing it for years. Especially,this year with Babs out on maternity leave, it's been a real blessing to have such a strong team. Clearly God knew we'd need some special help this year and called in. . .the Professionals.



And now a pictorial version of the skit, "Run In Such A Way." Bev originally played this role of the runner who doesn't actually run. I did my best to live up to her performance.



We did this skit for joint worship this past Friday, and because it was also our second half of our Olympic Game Day, we actually did it out on the road where the kids would be running their races. The students thought that it was actually going to be the first race of the day, when suddenly I showed up decked out like this:


I made the other runners wait while I stripped off my flashy track suit to reveal this snazzy running ensemble:


After that, my flashy runner keeps stopping the race from starting so he can do various things like eat a snack, drink a soda or. . .


. . .warm up to some cool techno beats:

Ready to run again, the starter finally gets to start the race but my character watches them take off casually and then starts packing up his flashy gear. "Aren't you going to run?" the starter asks. "Me run?", I reply, " No I just come here to look good. See you next week?" The take home message? We shouldn't treat the Christian life like this runner treated the race. How many of us show up once a week to look and feel good, talk a big game about serving the Lord, but never actually run the race?

"Let us run in such a way that we may receive the prize." 1 Corinthians 9:24