In Gennesaret

Last week, I wrote about a moment of accidental brilliance I had. This week, I write about a moment of unintentional snobbishness. As I’ve grown spiritually over the years, my prayer life has changed. When I talk to God, it’s usually very personal. Pretty casual. Always respectful, of course, but intimate, spontaneous and friendly. My team I work with at school is the same way. Our prayer times in the morning before the kids come in are very meaningful to me. I feel like Jesus is sitting there in the room with us, loving us and enjoying our chat with him. Prayers at my church are different – and I was irked by that during a recent service. My church is rather liturgical (which was a new thing for me), and this is usually evident in the prayer time. Most of the prayers are read. And to be honest, I just don’t care for that. Because for me, reading is not praying. It’s reading . Praying is a conversation, not a recitation. I wouldn’t have a conversation with friends by reading alou...

Every once in a while, I have a moment of accidental brilliance with clearly divine origins. Vocabulary is a big deal to me. I read research quite a while ago that said the biggest difference between inner city students who succeed and those who don't boils down to two things: parent involvement (duh) and a strong vocabulary. Having good words at your disposal changes not only your communication but your thinking. When you learn the word "vague", you start noticing vagueness around you and want clarification. When you know the words "irritated" and "distraught" and the subtle difference between them, you can recognize each in your friends and know better how to help them. My middle school students learn eight good vocabulary words a quarter – strong, useful, prevalent words that I think will impact their communication in positive ways if they know, understand, and use them. (That may not sound like much -- but by the end of middle school, that gives ...

As a general rule, I don't assume my dreams have any particular meaning for me unless something really smacks me in the face for some reason. That said, I've been having some weird dreams lately. Not weird as in atypical -- they're the kind of dreams I've been having all my life. Like, I'm a student in class and I don't know where to go or what I was supposed to study and I've been missing classes for weeks. Or I'm an actor in a play and I can't find my costume and I've been learning all the wrong lines -- or even doing the wrong play altogether. That kind of dream. Yesterday, it was a teacher/director scenario. I was helping in a class with a woman trying to direct a bunch of young kids in a play. And she was making me crazy because she had no idea what she was doing. She was talking way over their heads. She passed out some freaky picture (something like an ancient mosaic) to show the kids where she wanted them each standing on the stage . . . ...