Freedoms

"Why don't we use our freedoms and liberties that so many people fought and died for?"


This quote came to me from a man who came to speak to my church family and me one Sunday at the end of May. The thought of it is so fascinating and, at times, earth-shattering. When you think about it, it gets you to analyze how we, as Americans and Christians, use our American freedoms in our daily life to live out our Faith. We have to ask ourselves, "What am I doing in my daily life to make sure I don't let those freedoms go to waste?" Part of using our freedoms consists of being conscious of our actions. Be intentional of how you live. And continue to use the freedoms our country was built upon and the freedoms men and women fought and died for in order to give us a better life. If we don't, we might wake up one day and find ourselves without the freedoms and justices that are so important to us.

Be very careful, then, how you live-not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Ephesians 5:15-16 NIV

P.S. I know it is past the Fourth of July, but I believe anytime is a good time to talk about our freedoms, especially before the start of a new school year filled with opportunities to use them.

Two Weeks and Four Days...

There are only two weeks and four days left until school starts again for me. And other schools are not far behind. This is only about half a month to eat, sleep, and finish summer reading. All we have left is two and a half weeks to travel with family and friends. School will be here before you know it. Life is too short in which to waste these two weeks and four days. We should all be preparing for this next school year, this next phase of life. For me, I will be a junior and have to seriously start looking at colleges. I have the ACT and SAT to take. I have one more year with my friends who will be seniors. But more importantly, I look forward to another year to be an example of who God is. I have another year where I can grow spiritually, pray, and be a leader for Christ. Am I guaranteed this next year? No. I, along with everyone else on Earth, am not even guaranteed my next breath. But I will try my best to live for God and not loose sight of Him for every moment He allows me.

Home Again, Home Again

I am home! The last five weeks of my life have been amazing. I have learned, grown, and experienced different things. I would not trade the last five weeks for anything in the world. I would highly recommend governor's school to anyone who has an interest in it. Not only did I learn more about the teaching profession, but I got to learn some personal life lessons, as well. I know there is a reason God let me go and a reason it was this summer. I am seeing this more and more as time goes on, even if I do not know all the reasons yet. I am so thankful for this time in my life and am still trying not to burst into tears at every waking moment when I think about it. We all became a family there. When you live, eat, and play with people for a over a month, this is what happens. Thus, that is another reason why it was so hard and sad to leave. Therefore, I can say nothing but good things about governor's school and encourage anyone who has an interest in it to apply.

Mixed Emotions

Do you ever have one of those moments when you truely enjoy what you are doing and want it to last forever? When you cannot even imagine yourself doing anything else because it seems so natural for you...but at the same time, you want life to progress, to go on. I am having one of those days/weeks. I have enjoyed my time immensly here at governor's school. It feels like I have been here forever and cannot even imagine what life will be like this Friday when I go back home. We have genuinely become like family here and I am not looking forward to saying all of my good-byes. However, I am excited to go back home to my friends and family. It seems as though I have missed so much back home and cannot wait to hear all the stories.

So, while I am excited to catch up on all of the events back home and see all my friends and family, I am sad to be leaving governor's school and my month of learning and fun.

Days 17-25 - Teaching Experiences

During the past week I have had the opportunity to taste a little bit of what teachers do. I taught students going into fifth and sixth grade with two other governor's school students. We did this through a program called Youth University (YU) at UT Chattanooga. It was an awesome experience. We all had to do thorough lesson plans, implement guidelines and classroom rules, practice classroom management, and teach for an hour and twenty minutes. While we were doing all of these things we were also getting observed by UTC staff and some of our governor's school counselors. They all gave us a lot of input, including things we did very well and things we needed to improve on. It was a tremendous learning experience that I can reflect on as I am considering a career in education.

My group was given the topic of Knights and Castles. What we did was we took that topic and taught about things related to that time period, the Middle Ages. Every day we had the kids interact with us while we were teaching and we periodically completed projects so the kids had something hands-on to do and so they could have a chance to be creative. This worked very well for us and it seems that the kids learned a lot. By today, they could respond appropriately to questions we asked them about topics discussed this week. They all also did very well on a jeopardy game we played in class today. This also happens to be a jeopardy game that we designed in our tech class.

This week was very fun, but also hard work. I learned some things I am good at and some things I need help with. But after all, an effective teacher is always learning and seeing what works and what does not.

Days 13, 14, 15, and 16 - Preparation

Next week all of us at governor's school get to teach a lesson every day for an hour and twenty minutes to a class of kids in a UTC camp program called Youth University. I have mentioned this before, but now I feel the clock ticking. As said before, I get to teach fifth and sixth graders about knights, castles, and basically the middle ages. A lot of preparation and planning has gone into these lesson plans. Our plans have to last the whole time, there has to be activities, and they have to learn through it all. We also have to come up with different ways to teach them because kids all have different learning styles. I think I will feel a lot better when my group and I have all of our plans ready and finalized. We also have to have good classroom management and be able to keep their attention. Teaching is not the easiest job in the world. I did know that before, but it is one thing to know it with your head and actually experience it yourself. I still have not decided for sure whether or not I want to be a teacher, but I am hoping that by the end of this experience I will know for sure if teaching is the profession God has for me.

As for all of the things we have done this week...
We have mostly done work and just socialized with each other. We did, however, have a water fight last night, and we have a surprise for us tonight. We also went to an art museum today and had to create a skit and discussion/topic on a painting. I have really been challenged to come up with different ways to teach and to come up with different topics from things I never would have thought of before.

I have to go now, but will continue to keep you posted, even if it takes me a few extra days than when I first started out.

The Challenger Center

Yesterday we went to this thing on the UTC campus called the Challenger Center. It is a place where you can go to experience what it is like in a Space Crew and in Mission Control. You get a mission and you have to rely on every other member, whether they are in Mission Control or Space Crew, to do their job. It was a very hands-on team building experience. I personally found it very stressful to work in Mission Control because we had to do most of the work and get it to the Space Crew in time. If you are part of the Space Crew you still have to work within a time limit, but I did not stress over it as much. Well, that was more for my job. I know other people's jobs were probably more stressful in Space Crew. I was Remote #1. We had to analyze data in Mission Control and collect data in Space Crew. We all got to experience both. However, if one person did not do their job, it would mess up the entire operation. It is a good concept to learn in life, especially when working with other people. All of our jobs are different, but if one person does not do his/her job, it can mess the whole project, or whatever else you are doing, up. It also teaches us that we need other people in our life and cannot just go through on our own. We need to work with other people and learn from other people. While Jesus is our ever-present strength and he can do anything, I still believe we need a community of people to help us and who we can help. We can all work together and use our own gifts and abilities to work together for the glory of God, serve others, and show God's love to others.