When the unplanned becomes a better plan.

Sometimes TfT elements just sneak into the picture. After collecting and grading the College Composition papers on their Veterans, the higher audience, the Sioux Center Historical Society and the Sioux County Museum, both received copies of the student's work.But without any planning on my part, the students will get an additional audience this coming week. Unity will hold a Veteran's program on Tuesday, so the process of this paper and each paper will be available for the visitors that attend the chapel on that day. So sometimes what you don't plan for with a TfT lesson becomes an even better lesson. My deep hope is that what the student's discovered in their research will serve as a memorial for those Veterans and for those who read the papers.

Knowing the Story

At the end of reading Okay for Now, the freshmen responded to the questions that the storyline asks.  What did this story teach you about knowing others, teach you about yourself, and teach you about God? Here are some answers.

Learning about Doug's life has taught me that even if I am broken there are always people I can go to and talk to who will help guide me through life and make me a little more whole. 

Doug's story has taught me that if people are acting different or being obnoxious it's not just because they are weird or different, but it could be because something hard could be happening in their life.

Learning about/from his story has taught me to love more and see the people who love and care about me.

God puts different people in everyone's life for a reason, to impact them somehow, for better or worse.

Reading Okay For Now has let me see that many people have back stories and you can't judge a people  by their covers.

Okay for Now taught me to be aware that more than likely the people I rub shoulders with every day don't have the perfect lives I think they do.

Learning about Doug's story has taught me that community can make a huge difference.

Reading "Okay for Now" has helped me learn the importance of knowing other people's background. just like I feel that if people knew my story they would understand why I seem distant at times and struggle with social anxiety.

Doug's story has taught me that I should first off, be thankful for what I have and my good family. His story also taught me that I will always be okay for now because I have a community of people around me, my great cloud of witnesses.

I think God is working out all things to fit together in my life and I know that people are helping me out along the way that are shaping me into the kind of person he wants me to be. God's story in all of our lives is that he can take whatever struggles and hardships we have and can turn all of that hard stuff into a beautiful and happy life.  

These two stories connect together through being broken and then restored at the end. Throughout history, people grow up in broken families, cities, countries, etc but the people who know God can be restored again, a little broken still because of what they lived though, but God fills them up with love, shows them compassion, cares for them, etc. He helps them come to Him which helps their lives from what they were to where they are now.

Wrapping up a Unit with a Flex

The Flex activity for our novel Okay for Now,  was choosing 2-3 people who encouraged the freshmen in their life and to write a simple thank-you to those people. Throughout the entire novel we looked at the role of community in Doug's life and in our own. As we read, we did small exercises to introduce the idea of our own communities that exist in our lives and to understand what those communities mean. After finishing the book, we made a timeline, tracing the main character's community as it unfolds in the story. We then made a timeline of our own. As an adult, it was a great practice for me too. Seeing all the people God placed in my life was nothing but a blessing. So my deep hope is that these little notes of thanks will be a big blessing to those who receive them. I also encouraged the students to write notes to folks without it being an assignment. It's a great life skill that does address a real need and real people. 

Working Through a Novel: Okay for Now

Beginning a year with Freshmen who represent four to five different feeder schools can be a challenge. The idea of community needs to be created. And I have found that the novel, Okay for Now,  by Gary Schmidt, to be the best way to create community and gather the Freshmen in for some wonderful storytelling. This is my second year at attempting to TfT this novel. Whenever I begin the brainstorming process, I always begin with the "How do we get peculiar" worksheet. Here is my attempt of adding TfT elements to this novel. Last year I had good success with it. I'm trying to be more intentional with reflection and storyline this year.

How do we get Peculiar?

Claiming Learning for the Better Story

Subject:Freshmen Unit: Okay for Now

1. What is your deep hope for your students in this unit?  What story do you want to invite your students into?

My deep hope is that students will grow from knowing Doug’s story, will connect his story to God’s story, and will see our own story through Doug’s story.

My deep hope is that the students will identify and appreciate the encouragers they have had in their life.

2. What do your students need to practice to become these peculiar people in this story?

Seeing others first. 

3. What real needs can they meet in the study of this unit?

Sending thank-you’s to those who encouraged them.

4. Who is the potential audience or ‘Real People’ for this learning?

Classmates and mentors.

5. What real (Baraka) work can the students do?  How can they co-create with God in the making of all things new?

As they reflect on their own lives throughout the novel, they will see the encouragers in their life and practice being one to others. 

6. What through-lines (habits of discipleship) can they practice in this unit? 

Community Builder, Temple Respecters, Beauty Creators

7. What is the driving question for this unit?

What can community do for a person?

8. What are the Essential learning targets for this unit?

To identify the Audubon birds blended throughout Doug’s story. 

To see God’s story in Doug’s story.

To live out the lessons we learn from Doug’s story in our own lives.

“To know the story” and it’s impact on our own lives. 

Reflection:

What did Doug’s story teach you about people?

What did Doug’s story reveal about your own story?

Flex:

1. Students make a heart and identity 5-8 folks who have encouraged them in their lives. They also explain what each person provided.
2. The students travel throughout the room writing words on encouragement on other students worksheets.
3. The students will pick 2-3 mentors in their life and write a thank-you note to them. 

Visuals:

1. We will add to my storyline board as to how this novel helped us see stories.
2. Based on this quote: “When you find something that's whole, you do what you can to keep it that way. And when you find something that isn't, then maybe it's not a bad idea to try to make it whole again. Maybe.” 

The students will take a picture that represents them. The next day in class they will break the picture and then put it back together. They will journal as to how this picture reflects their life and also write about the process of putting it back together. How did that process reflect life?  What did each student learn about brokenness and putting things back together?

Making Non-fiction Live in Your Area

College Composition reads Unbroken for their first book. In the past, I tried connecting Louie’s story of God’s resilience in his life to someone from today. It didn’t work. I tried it twice and failed. So this year I’m trying to bring in the “real people” part by letting them soak in stories about Veterans from Sioux County from WWII.  We began with my storytelling about my Dad, followed by Larry Wielenga’s stories about his father and father-in-law. The next day we met Jim Schaap at the Orange City Cemetery where he told us stories of his mother-in-laws finance who died on D-Day and his father-in-law’s brothers story and how he died state side. He also told more stories of veterans  who lived past the war. The next class period we met at the Sioux County Historical Museum. There Arlo Van Beek walked us through the Veteran, WWII, section of the museum. On Friday, we visited Northwestern College so see their display of Ralph Mouw. All of this soaking up information hopefully will give them a curious mind to dig deeper into Louie’s story but also to know that they have some incredible stories in Northwest Iowa too. From our week of soaking, the seniors will be assigned the following paper, bringing in the real people part of TfT.  

Find a WWII Veteran from Siouxland and research his story. You will need at least one source, but better yet would be 2-3 sources. If he has family in this area yet, interviewing them might be a great source too. Between Sioux Center Library, books, NWC library and museum information, we should be able to find a person for the job. Dig deep. Let this be a work of honor for this person. The end result should be 2-3 pages, DS, MLA with a works cited page. You will need to come up with a thesis for your person. If you can connect to the Unbroken story, do. If not, that it OK too. I will grade the final draft, but I will also give a copy of your work to the Sioux Center Library and the Sioux County Historical Museum.  

Handing over the final project also fits into the TfT element of a higher audience. 

Making It Visible

One elements of TFT I'm trying to be very intentional about is making things visible. Not only will this be something I can add to throughout the year, but something that will be before us all year, reminding us of this driving force. Our school's storyline is about planting seeds this year, so one side of my room refers to that storyline. My overall deep hope for the students in my room is the hope that we can always be great communicators that help build communities. My learning targets sit by my door on clip boards. My storyline for my room is a bulletin board that we will add information to throughout the year (for some reason that pictures did not get here). So here's to making things visible this year and making these things a part of our lessons, conversations and activities.

#knowthestory

This year in my classroom, my storyline is #knowthestory. A storyline is suppose to "drip" with the teacher selecting it, so the idea of "story" in my room fits the drip.  My hope is to build community in my room, town and world as we learn more about God's story and the impact of that in our lives, to learn about others stories and what we can learn from them, and what we learn about our own stories and how that helps us grow. My hope is to bring that storyline to life on this blog through pictures and the activities we do. I will also be including other Teaching for Transformation ideas on the blog to hopefully be a springboard for ideas for other teachers.