Every year our junior high goes to Camp Lakeview in Seymour, Indiana, to have school in the outdoors.  It's a fun 3 days, although it is exhausting for an old adult like me.  It takes a lot of energy to plan the trip, and then the fresh air, the exposure to 38 middle school students, and all of the walking up and down hills takes its toll.  I have to admit, I kind of dread the whole thing...that is until we are there. 

When we are there, it is absolutely great.  The kids were superb this time.  The weather was warm and pleasant.  We had fun, sang a lot of songs, canoed, went horseback riding, did archery...it was great for everyone involved. 

Now that I am back, I am playing a bit of catch up.  My life has been on hold for a bit, and now I see what's happened while I was thinking about Outdoor Ed!  I am getting a little time right now to regroup, and I am starting to feel renewed.  Praise God.

My classes are finishing mystery stories we started at Outdoor Education.   Some of my students were blessed to be able to choose to use technology (netbooks) to write their stories there.   It's neat to see the projects completed.  I may have to post some of their stories on this site. 

In the meantime, watch for pictures of our adventures at camp.  I hope they'll be posted soon. 

Hi!  These past weeks have been hectic for me.  My family and I have moved to a new home.  We love the new place, but it is filled with boxes of stuff to put away.  Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with my life at school in the midst of this craziness. 

Hey, here's something funny to lift our spirits this week.  Check out this video, Dad Life.  It was made by a church for Father's Day.  Hope you enjoy it. 

Oh, one more thing...the choir did a great job Sunday signing "Create In Me!"  Great work!  I pray that God creates in me a clean heart each day, that I could be renewed to better serve Him.

Another great week.   Today was a beautiful day.  It was a nice break from the heat for the lower grades who don't have air conditioning.  My eighth graders and I took some time outside as a treat, too.  They and the seventh graders faced the homophone challenge.  Both classes were able to amass 250+ homophones this week.  Becuase of their dilligent effort, both recieved brownies as a reward.  Both will have an outside recess, too, a rare thing in junior high. 

Overall, today was a celebration for me.  My family and I are celebrating because we finally sold our house and as of yesterday are moving to a new one.  Yeah!  This made my mood very positive, today.  The excellent students here at TLS were just icing on the cake.  This is all wonderful, but even more wonderful is the gift of eternal life from our Savior, Jesus Christ.  Today in choir we sang several raucous songs, but one was especially meaningful.  See the video below. 

So the first week is at a close.  Reflecting on the week at school, I'd have to say it's been a great one.   The students are excited (as excited as they can be in middle school!) and the teachers seem to be, too.  We have a lot of new faces which has really added positive things to our school climate.   Walking through the halls, I see a Spanish teacher reviewing Spanish pronunciation with a cluster of kids.  I see students using computers in the first week.  I see kids helping out because Mr. Bond is out this week.  I see kids focusing on their homework, making sure it's done and correct. 

What a thrilling and wonderful start to the school year God has blessed us with.  I praise Him for what He's done and what I know He'll keep on doing for His children.  Here's a song we sang in choir, complete with some middle schoolers actually clapping!  Praise God.

So it's the first day of school, and I'm playing with technology.  I hadn't really planned on it, but decided that I did want to show my students my website right off the bat.  It has had an interesting response.  I guess now that people know I'll have to keep it up.  If you're checking out this site, drop me a line by commenting.  Your encouragement, well, it encourages me. 

I'm so excited about the school year.  We have many new additions with new teachers, new students,  and new ideas.  Coupling these new things with the good old things will be challenging and rewarding.  It's going to be an awesome year. 

This summer has been a great blessing to me already, and it's only June.  I decided to take a class on technology at Ball State.  In this class, I hoped to be renewed and recharged.  It's day three of the class, and I AM!!  I am excited to present this website.  In the past years, I've wanted to have a website for my classes, and even toyed with creating one. It never panned out.  In the past two days, I have learned with the help of some great people how to put one together.  It's fun, too. 

On this website, I hope to post what's going on in class and in junior high.  It's going to be really cool!  I thank God for how He led me here and how He has crafted my life.