http://blog.dutchbingo.net/ Krazy Kelder Konversations... en-us Nucleus CMS v3.24 © Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://blog.dutchbingo.net//nucleus/nucleus2.gif http://blog.dutchbingo.net/ http://blog.dutchbingo.net/index.php?itemid=254 General http://blog.dutchbingo.net/index.php?itemid=254 Sat, 15 Nov 2008 16:11:00 -0500 http://blog.dutchbingo.net/index.php?itemid=253
First off, your gift to us this year can be no gift at all. We know money is tight for a lot of you and we'd rather you just saved it for whatever you need.

Secondly, I started to think about Christmas '09 which got me back to a conversation we once started about getting together in summer instead of Christmas. I bring it up now because if we'd want to meet some place in a campground/cottage/cabins we'd probably have to start looking for a place soon after the new year because some places book early.

A few things. We know that while Chicago is easy to fly into, it's not "home" to any of us so being at our house probably isn't a huge deal to any of you. Besides that, it's hard for all of us to sleep here. It's also cold in Dec. so outdoor activity is limited---put that together with a small house---yada, yada... So meeting some place in summer----camping in the Rockies, a cottage on Lake Michigan, cabins in Eagle River, we hear there's a great place on a lake near WI Dells, taking turn going to each of your home states, Smokey Mtns.etc., might be a good idea.

OR---we could be smart like the Antoons are this year and go some place warm over Christmas.

Or, we could keep things the same.

Just thought I'd start the thought process.
]]> General http://blog.dutchbingo.net/index.php?itemid=253 Sat, 15 Nov 2008 15:30:01 -0500 http://blog.dutchbingo.net/index.php?itemid=252
What's next, a giant camel spider on my face at night?]]> Lies & Phil http://blog.dutchbingo.net/index.php?itemid=252 Fri, 14 Nov 2008 22:17:09 -0500 http://blog.dutchbingo.net/index.php?itemid=251
PhD.

Yes, that's right. This prestigious school (I wish I could remember which one!!) let this guy skip the whole masters program and go right to his PhD. In theory and composition.

How's that for impressive?

Keep an eye out for Armin Karim. (He's from Turkey.) I know him.]]> General http://blog.dutchbingo.net/index.php?itemid=251 Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:33:09 -0500 http://blog.dutchbingo.net/index.php?itemid=249 General http://blog.dutchbingo.net/index.php?itemid=249 Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:44:52 -0500 http://blog.dutchbingo.net/index.php?itemid=248
For instance, California has state adopted curriculum. Rocklin Unified School District has adopted curricula also, based on the CA adopted curricula. My school does not have to abide by those adoptions. My school's charter was based on the Core Knowledge Curriculum (developed by a guy named E.D. Hirsch, who I studied before I even was hired at my school in my master's program). The curriculum is based on his book, Cultural Literacy, which basically spells out what people in our country need to know to be culturally literate. It includes math, language arts, literature (we do Alice in Wonderland in third grade, along with many different myths and legends, and The Wind in the Willows), visual art (in third grade, the Scream and many other paintings, music (which I love!!), Social Studies (in third grade we study the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, the Vikings, Early American Explorers, and Colonial America, to name a few), Science (animal classification, light, sound, the human body, including the eye (we dissect cow eyes!!) and the ear), and even sayings (such as "when in Rome, do as the Romans do" and "One rotten apple spoils the whole barrel."). It's a very, very rich curriculum based on the idea that if students know about such content areas, they'll do better across the board. Imagine reading a non-fiction selection about the Vikings on the on the state standardized test. If you have prior knowledge about the Vikings, you're going to do much better on the test than if you had no idea what they were to begin with. So that's one part. The curriculum goes way above and beyond the state standards, but we make sure our students meet those as well.

The other part of our schools' charter (we have two schools) is parent involvement. We require a 30 hours of volunteer time for parents. If parents can't meet that, that's fine, there's a financial sum (not overbearing) they can pay instead. But because it's part of our charter, we find ways for parents to be involved, whether it's working in the classroom, doing work for the teacher at home, helping out at special events, or driving on field trips. I've never had a parent not be able to meet the 30 hours.

Charter schools are great for a number of reasons. First, competition is a good thing. My school has had the best test scores in the county for several years, even ranking in the top 5 in the state. The district public schools want to do better to keep their students (because of funding--in California, it's a dollar amount per student). We have a huge wait list right now--kindergarten entrance is a lottery--because of our state (and national) reputation. That's good for schools overall.

Secondly, if schools are failing, based on No Child Left Behind, they can apply for charter school status. That means that the school can do what's best for ITS STUDENTS, instead of following state-mandated rules, curricula and laws. Sacramento High School recently went through this, and turned itself right around. It was failing its students, and now it has a great graduation and college entrance rate.

It's a whole different ballgame, because while we're publicly funded, we have our own Board of Directors, budget, etc., so it gets a little nuts trying to balance both. But I believe charter schools are great for providing choices and (free) alternatives for parents and for helping spur the system along to achieve.

And student achievement and learning is what it's all about anyway.

]]> General http://blog.dutchbingo.net/index.php?itemid=248 Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:31:48 -0500 http://blog.dutchbingo.net/index.php?itemid=247
Sam had the worst case of diahrea (where is spell check when you need it) we have ever cleaned up from kid or dog. Thankfully, the pills worked quickly and that's done. Otherwise, he never came when called and certainly doesn't now because he's deaf.

Dad finds himself being called more often. In fact, he's behind. Our new staff team---a sub-team of the original regional team that called him--is just great. They are out-of-the box thinkers and have great spiritual hearts. We look forward to being with them. It looks like we'll soon have one, if not two, "missional communities" start in the city---hopefully the first of many.

I've had some really nice coaching and training sessions this fall. I'm helping a church who is starting small groups for the first time and I've been able to stretch their thinking a bit---but not enough maybe. At least the pastor gets it. I met with a Coffee Break staff in an old church last week and just got a nice thank-you for some of them for challenging them to "get off their butts" and they actually going to act on some of the ideas I brainstormed for them and their church. Next week I'll be back in GR to work with a couple of others on revising all of the materials we offer through Home Missions. I still have great fun in email/phone conversation with an author who has totally changed my thinking on small groups. I'm honored that he sent me a rough draft of his new book to read and give him input. Thursday I'll be introduced to the staff of the Chicago Christian Counseling Center and have some time to present the assessment tool I'll be using with them. I'm nervous. Their buy-in is kind of key. I did meet with the therapist I know from there and he helped me brainstorm some ideas for how I could drum up some "clients." I'm not "giving up my day job." This will take a while to develop, but I like the idea of working in that environment and I have a really nice office.

I made some delicious applesauce. I learned that cooking a variety of apples together makes for a great taste.

Dad and I started the South Beach and he lost 8 lbs. and I lost 5 in 2 weeks. Now we've been eating out a lot so that doesn't help. I hope to lose 5 more before I spend time in Usemite in JUST 2 WEEKS! However, I just had a hot fudge sundae with whipped cream and nuts. Bad, Ruth, bad.

That's all I can think of.

Except for a funny story our young worship leader friend from church told us about a pastor who was preaching and meant to say "the were pitching their tents" and it came out that they were "pinching their tits" When he tried to correct himself, he said "pitching their tits" all over again. ]]> General http://blog.dutchbingo.net/index.php?itemid=247 Tue, 11 Nov 2008 22:48:16 -0500 http://blog.dutchbingo.net/index.php?itemid=246
On my end, however, I just lost my second job as a nanny for 3 little boys. To make a long story short, the mother of those kids lost her job (through a very complicated situation), which meant I wasn't needed there anymore. So, I found another position with the same hours, and 2 days before I was supposed to start, they e-mailed me and said they got their son into a daycare and would prefer that over a sitter. So...I am currently out a job. I've been able to get some extra hours in my work with Calvin Seminary, since the woman just above me was recently fired and the big January worship conference is coming up - and they can always use extra help preparing for that! The tricky part is, in order for me to be a viable "sponsor" for Jeremy's green card, we need to be above the poverty line financially, and without my second job, we're not. The extra hours help, but they're not very regular, so to be on the safe side, I'm currently looking for a seasonal job at stores like Petsmart, Target, and World Market. I had one interview today (which I won't get - they were looking for someone who could stay longer than February...) and I have another one tomorrow, so hopefully something will work out to fill in the gaps. So, you can pray for that...

Jeremy's almost done with his last semester at Calvin, marking 7 years in college (he went to school in Malaysia before coming to Calvin at age 21). He's very ready to be done. He has to do an interim yet, which will be on the philosophy of film, which basically means watching some cool, deep movies and discussing them. So, that shouldn't be too hard.

Charlie is also a good dog. He had a recent spell of being a not-so-good dog as "teenage basset hound" syndrome seemed to set in (apparently a common phenomenon for stubborn basset hound puppies...), but he now seems sufficiently re-trained and back to his nice dog ways. :) He's been very snuggly lately, which I like a lot. And, while I wouldn't trust him alone outside, given his love of chasing bunnies, but he's very social and is good at all the basic commands (although his "stay" needs work...). We like him.

Other than that, we're slowly but surely moving towards our move to Seattle! We can't wait to go...]]> General http://blog.dutchbingo.net/index.php?itemid=246 Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:20:32 -0500 http://blog.dutchbingo.net/index.php?itemid=245
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Hermeneutical Sophistication
A few weeks ago Debra and I - along with the estimable Nathan Bierma and his wife, Andrea -- visited our friend Nick Overduin and the wonderful people at 1st CRC in Toronto. They've made use of Deb's books and Nathan's in their small groups, and so wanted to meet and chat with them. Meanwhile, I came along to give Nick a week off from his pulpit duties. We had an enjoyable ride up on Saturday, and a lovely evening eating some fabulous Ethiopian food (our fave).

The worship service and other events on Sunday were very satisfying, but I was entranced by a display in the church's narthex.

It is the product of a children's Bible study of the story of Noah. Next to idealized Bible school pictures of an ark full of elephants and giraffes and so forth are comments the students made, like these:

* "The water could not have been this calm."
* "The animals could not have been this familiar to us."
* "They must have taken animals on the ark to be eaten, not saved,"

and my favorite: "The ark was probably not this cutesy."
Instead of fostering a childish view of scripture (not childlike), whoever was in charge of this study encouraged the children to read their Bibles with their brains turned on, working alongside their faithful trust in Scripture's trustworthiness.

To paraphrase someone I admire a great deal, I've not seen such hermeneutical sophistication in all of... well, in a lot of places I would expect to find it. Children taught this way are much less likely to fall into biblicist patterns of thinking about inspiration, or have their faith shaken to the core when they learn, for example, in their Religion 101 classes, of the documentary hypothesis.

Mark it up as one more thing 1st CRC in Toronto is doing well. ]]> General http://blog.dutchbingo.net/index.php?itemid=245 Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:10:56 -0500 http://blog.dutchbingo.net/index.php?itemid=244
1) Phil likes what he's doing. It seems to challenge him but make him happy.

2) I have no shortage of clients for web sites and other related work and am having to turn people away so I guess that is good.

3) I was an official photographer at the 2008 North American Sieger Show in Lexington, KY for the Working Dog Association and 24K Photos. That means I got to watch the entire dog show from the middle of the ring, which is the best view and I could listen to all the judges critiques (which are all in German). I also watched a handling seminar (also in German) by one of the top handlers in Germany.

4) Phil got a new phone. It is perhaps better than the old one anyway.

5) Nikon is an awesome dog. Not that Coke and Kenya aren't, but you already knew that. I am so pleased with everything about him. I am not a puppy person but I'm having more fun than I thought I would. He goes out to potty by himself and comes right back in (we don't have a fence), he has already learned more commands than Coke, he has great prey drive and ball drive but so far has not been mouthy with us. He is a beautiful dog, someone saw his picture and is drawing him because he is the "perfect" puppy. I think he knows it too, he has a HUGE ego. We have two shows planned for Dec. and three in April/May. Nikon is in puppy class (same one Charlie took) and Coke is in intermediate obedience (again). Kenya is on a break fighting an allergic reaction which became a staph infection which is now a yeast infection.

6) Our car is really messed up (again).

7) I think I'm getting a new camera soon. That's a big deal. Somewhere between a new dog and a baby.

8) I injured my thumb/wrist and now and developing arthritis in that joint (very similar to my right foot). I'm hoping I can mentally WILL it to go away, since the drugs and brace aren't really helping...

9) Phil's knee is doing good.

Here's Nikon










]]> General http://blog.dutchbingo.net/index.php?itemid=244 Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:11:27 -0500