Monday morning you wake up early, but you’d rather stay in bed. Oh well, “Up and at ‘em,” as they say! You get to school and head off to your department meeting with a handful of ungraded papers and the other hand full of breakfast. Hmm, not quite put together, but I guess it will have to do. The meeting wraps up. Check. Ten minutes until class starts.
A proud moment! My student is accepted into Butler University’s Cheer program for next school year. Well done, student! She works so hard, and I am so excited for her.
After you take attendance, let’s start today with a little “Food for Thought.” It’s been a while since you’ve shared a verse or idea with your students. You ask your students to be curious, learn, and grow. They put so much energy into gaining knowledge. This is all well and good, but let’s take a look at a different kind of challenge. Read Psalm 131,
”My heart is not proud, Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content. Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore.”
Be curious. Pursue knowledge, but remember that some things are outside of our hands. There are some things we cannot understand. Trusting in God is difficult, but it is also where we find safety and peace.
Your 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th classes roll by. ICP (Integrated Chemistry and Physics) just finished their unit on forces and will be starting the unit on energy. Physics just finished their unit on energy and will be starting their unit on periodic motion. AP® Physics is well into the unit on rotational motion. Just two more units to go until the AP® test in May!
Pop by the boy’s volleyball practice tonight. The new coach, Tony Terrell, was kind enough to invite you to swing by and check it out. It should be an exciting year! Concordia gets to jump on the bandwagon with other schools in Fort Wayne and adopt this as a new official high school sport!
The middle of the week rolls in, and it’s time for chapel. The chapel message is about peace and how we find it in God’s care. Thank you, Pastor Croucher, for sharing that message. Also, great job to our student reader this week! He is a senior in high school, a pilot, one of our drum majors, your physics student, and an exceptionally humble and conscientious young man. And you’re the teacher of these students…Oh My!
It’s the end of the week. Faculty devotions this morning….but you’re late of course. No matter. Go anyway. It always helps to fill you up. The devotion topic today? Guard your heart. Thank you, Mr. Kevin Macke, for the reminder! We end devotions with prayer. There’s a lot to pray about today. I’m glad and unusually blessed to have a group of like-minded, supportive, and faithful people to join in prayer with every week. Now, upward (to the 3rd floor) and onward! It’s another day.
Well, you ran out of time to pack your lunch last night…I guess you will be working the lunch room today. Wait, I actually enjoy this. There’s one of my students that was my service worker last semester. I wonder if he has figured out what he is doing for college next year. Let’s check in. Congratulations on getting accepted to your desired colleges! He thanks you for writing a recommendation letter for him and shows himself once again to be the grateful young man you’ve witnessed before. You meant to encourage, and now you feel encouraged. A few laughs with your fellow co-workers in the lunchroom, and you’re headed onto afternoon classes.
Oh Wait! This is the day you get to play “student.” Lydia and Harry, two of our advanced engineering students, have been busy at work making a Rubens Tube (a really cool contraption that allows you to see sound waves in action by watching multiple little tongues of fire move up and down with the music). Today you try to follow their instructions to set the demonstration up in your classroom. What a cool project! Way to go Mr. Kyle Jane for heading up those classes!
You set it up, and BAMB! There are the sound waves of my Pandora station playing out in little tongues of fire along a 4-foot-long tube. Now let’s try it with a set frequency, playing a note of a single pitch. Beautiful standing waves form along the pipe as we fine tune the frequency. This I will use in my classroom! Once my physics students finish their unit on periodic motion and springs, we will be studying waves and sound. I will pull this Rubens Tube out and through the flames show the students the standing waves that form along this pipe just like they do in any instrument. Our students made that! Thank you, Lydia and Harry, for the positive impact you have had on our school.
Well, that about wraps it up for this week. It’s 5 p.m. on Friday afternoon, and it’s about time for you to head home. You know there are days when you’re not sure you’re right fit for this job, but there is rarely a day when you are not aware that you are privileged to be here.