My dad's cousin, at least to the best of our knowledge that is the relationship, is a Baseball Hall of Famer. Bert Blyleven was a major league pitcher for a few teams and he was a member of the World Series Pirates (1979) and Twins (1987). His best pitch was the curveball. Many baseball analysts will still compare others pitchers' curveball to Bert's. If you have ever played baseball, fastball, or slow pitch, it is always amazing to see how the baseball can move and quickly change direction. I had the chance to pitch a little bit when I played fastball. My best pitch was also a curveball. Sometimes I could really confuse a batter by starting the pitch outside and moving it in or in the middle and then outside. As a batter, I too was often fooled when thrown a curve.
Every once in while life throws us the occasional curveball. Sometimes we have plans but our plans don't always work out the way that we had hoped for various reasons. I guess I think that God likes a good baseball game. I say this knowing that God has a plan for all of us. These "curveballs" that we try to swing at are usually the things that we wish to do and God, sometimes with a slight curve or sometimes with a big swooping curve, reminds us of His plans for us. I am reminded and often humbled by Jeremiah 29:11.
If you recall from my very first blog post I mentioned that I would be trying blogging and tweeting on a regular basis. My curveball, or obstacle, I believe was that of time. It is not that I did not have the time, however, it was how I was using my time. I think it is important that I keep maintaining my blog. I have just finished a very busy past three months - I have wrapped up some teaching at Redeemer and just this week finished a course that I was taking. Each of these activities threw some curveballs at me.
In the Comm Tech class, it was the hope to have the students blog weekly as part of their presentations of learning and reflection. I can honestly say that it did not work as initially hoped. Some of the class is still blogging, while others, are coming up with other ways to demonstrate and share their learning, one in which they have more say and were able to choose what they think will be an effective communication piece. I will fill you in on this in a later post. This was definitely a curveball for me as, in my mind, the student blogs were going to be awesome but to my benchmark and not theirs. I am glad to say that the blogs and portfolios are still awesome and taking a different shape then what I had initially planned.
I look forward to see many of you this week at Parent Teacher Interviews where we can share more and have a chance to chat.
E-waste Collection - remember to bring in your electronic waste to Parent Teacher Interviews or drop by with it on Saturday, between 10am and 3pm as the grade 9 class collects electronic waste as part of a project. There is a free BBQ starting at 11am!
Grade 9 Computers - BTT 1O
Report came out last week. You may have had a chance to read the report and notice that there are not a lot of changes to it. What are we doing? The class has been busy of the last number of weeks as they work on their e-waste project. We are just about finished our in class time for the projects. I continue to be impressed with the ideas, planning and implementation of many of the group projects. I, as well as the students, look forward to seeing this being completed and presenting our finished projects. Mr. Brink and I are also using this course to help out with some of the foundational and fundamental elements of school. The class has also been busy working on a research report about topics in online security and personal privacy. These reports are also wrapping up this week. The next step for the reports is helping the students develop these reports into presentation for the class.
Grade 10 Communication Technology
