And since I'm on the topic, I'll start with birthday stuff. This has been a good birthday week. It started off with Easter, which is traditionally symbolic of new life and new beginnings. It was also the first time in quite a while that church felt like a normal church again. The room was full, there was a good energy, and the new pastor preached a strong, enjoyable, and relevant sermon! (More on that later.)
On my birthday, some of my upper division students decorated my office while I was teaching another class. I've already posted that picture on Facebook. That evening, I went out to Lucille's for dinner with Daniel and his parents. Tuesday night was small group, and I brought food. Since I get off work at around 5:15 (or later) and small group starts at 7:00, I had to cook everything in advance and reheat it that night. Yes, it was really a meal of leftovers. I made a potato-garlic-leek soup (I'm surprised at how tasty it was for how little effort went into it), wild rice (came out a little gummy), roasted chicken thighs (a little short on seasoning), and turnip greens (I've never made deep greens before). It was good, though I think I could have done better. Finally, we went out for all you can eat sushi last night. The last time I had all you can eat sushi was two years ago, for my birthday.
Now onto church things. I really like our new senior pastor. I don't think there was a single answer he gave or statement he has made that has caused me to hesitate. He has a good sense of what leadership looks like, and has a vision for how he's going to try to get there. I also really appreciated his Easter sermon. He spent a lot of time talking about the fullness of life, but placing it in the present tense. I also came across a quote sometime that weekend, which led me to an article by NT Wright:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/article_print.html?id=80880
The end of the article resonates well with the sermon:
Tomorrow is a church picnic. We haven't done this sort of thing in a long time. I made a cold pasta salad for it. We're coming off a windy/rainy weekend (0.01 inches of rain is still rain!), but the weather tomorrow should be nice. Soon, these nice weather days will be gone.
We started our study of the Celebration of Discipline in small group. I don't know how far we'll get, since the new pastor wants to have a unified small group curriculum. But that's okay. We're just going to go as far as we can until he implements it. The next month will be on the inward disciplines (meditation, prayer, fasting, and study). It's a very different thing for our small group, and I'm looking forward to seeing how we adjust to the new format and new ideas.
I watched a documentary today on childhood hunger (Hunger Hits Home on Food Network). This is the second documentary I watched that they've produced. (The first was The Big Waste). It started to mess with my head a bit, and it probably didn't help that I had all you could eat sushi the night before. (I also blame reading Celebration of Discipline.) Knowing what this region has gone through, I know that this is a real issue here. According to Three Square (local food bank), 55% of students in the school district qualify for free/reduced lunches. And CCSD is a gigantic school district. I don't know whether this is going to go anywhere or lead to anything, but it's certainly going to be another thing bouncing around my head for a while.
School stuff is slowly winding down. The students have reached the point where they're starting to crack. This is the time of year that I worry about whether they'll have anything left in the tank for their final exams. There are only two weeks of lecture left, and then final exams.
I'm heading out to Phoenix for another one day Complete College America Remediation conference. Thankfully, Phoenix is not Chicago, so it won't be quite as insane. Some of the content will be the same, and some will be new. It's been two months since my last travel for a conference. It seems like such a long time.
I've been looking at some online course content to supplement our math program. I have to admit that it looks a lot better than it did a couple years ago. I'm currently waiting to gain full access to the materials to begin seeing about whether to try to implement them as supplementary materials. I'm not completely sold on the idea, but I do have to say that I'm more interested than I've been before.
There are a few other random things going on. We had 20 students petition us to open a section of Calculus 2 for the fall. I've been helping put together a $300K grant built off of the modular math program that I've developed. If that goes well, we could possibly get up to $5M. Over the next couple weeks, I'll sit down and finalize my summer projects.
Now onto church things. I really like our new senior pastor. I don't think there was a single answer he gave or statement he has made that has caused me to hesitate. He has a good sense of what leadership looks like, and has a vision for how he's going to try to get there. I also really appreciated his Easter sermon. He spent a lot of time talking about the fullness of life, but placing it in the present tense. I also came across a quote sometime that weekend, which led me to an article by NT Wright:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/article_print.html?id=80880
The end of the article resonates well with the sermon:
It is not, "Jesus is raised, therefore look up into the sky and keep looking because one day you will be going there with him." Many hymns, prayers, and Christian sermons have tried to pull the Easter story in that direction, but the line of thought within the Gospels themselves is, "Jesus is raised, therefore God's new world has begun, and therefore we, you, and everybody else are invited to be not only beneficiaries of that new world but participants in making it happen."I look forward to seeing the vision that the pastor helps to develop, and the practical ways that he will begin to bring about the types of changes (cultural and structural) that have been needed at this church for a while. He will be starting in 6-8 weeks, and I have a feeling that he wants to hit the ground running.
Tomorrow is a church picnic. We haven't done this sort of thing in a long time. I made a cold pasta salad for it. We're coming off a windy/rainy weekend (0.01 inches of rain is still rain!), but the weather tomorrow should be nice. Soon, these nice weather days will be gone.
We started our study of the Celebration of Discipline in small group. I don't know how far we'll get, since the new pastor wants to have a unified small group curriculum. But that's okay. We're just going to go as far as we can until he implements it. The next month will be on the inward disciplines (meditation, prayer, fasting, and study). It's a very different thing for our small group, and I'm looking forward to seeing how we adjust to the new format and new ideas.
I watched a documentary today on childhood hunger (Hunger Hits Home on Food Network). This is the second documentary I watched that they've produced. (The first was The Big Waste). It started to mess with my head a bit, and it probably didn't help that I had all you could eat sushi the night before. (I also blame reading Celebration of Discipline.) Knowing what this region has gone through, I know that this is a real issue here. According to Three Square (local food bank), 55% of students in the school district qualify for free/reduced lunches. And CCSD is a gigantic school district. I don't know whether this is going to go anywhere or lead to anything, but it's certainly going to be another thing bouncing around my head for a while.
School stuff is slowly winding down. The students have reached the point where they're starting to crack. This is the time of year that I worry about whether they'll have anything left in the tank for their final exams. There are only two weeks of lecture left, and then final exams.
I'm heading out to Phoenix for another one day Complete College America Remediation conference. Thankfully, Phoenix is not Chicago, so it won't be quite as insane. Some of the content will be the same, and some will be new. It's been two months since my last travel for a conference. It seems like such a long time.
I've been looking at some online course content to supplement our math program. I have to admit that it looks a lot better than it did a couple years ago. I'm currently waiting to gain full access to the materials to begin seeing about whether to try to implement them as supplementary materials. I'm not completely sold on the idea, but I do have to say that I'm more interested than I've been before.
There are a few other random things going on. We had 20 students petition us to open a section of Calculus 2 for the fall. I've been helping put together a $300K grant built off of the modular math program that I've developed. If that goes well, we could possibly get up to $5M. Over the next couple weeks, I'll sit down and finalize my summer projects.
