Kids, Chores, and God

Nolan is at the age where he loves to help me with chores, no matter what it is that I am doing. "Daddy, can I help?" is a question I hear almost every day from him. If I had all the time in the world, I would have him help me with everything that I do, not only because I love his natural curiosity and desire to learn, but also because I simply love being with him.

However, when I include Nolan in whatever chore that I am doing (i.e., unloading the dishwasher, sweeping the floor, folding laundry, etc.), it almost always takes much longer than if I just did it myself. Since he is four years old, it takes time to teach him, reteach him, train him, practice with him, watch him, talk him through it, and then once we are finished doing it together, I often need to redo it all myself anyway if I need it done correctly. If I include my son with my work, it always takes longer, and the work is never done perfectly.

This is just like our Father in heaven. I visualize God looking down on us, seeing all the pain in the world and Him working in the lives of the people all across the city. However, the awesome thing about God is that He actually includes us in his work! God doesn't need us to help. He could get His work done a lot sooner if He didn't include us in the work He is doing in our city. We make mistakes when we help Him, but He is patient and talks us through it. Sometimes He just watches us and sees how we do on our own. And most importantly, we can talk to Him through the process. He listens to us and speaks into our lives. God is our Daddy who lets us help Him with His work.

The best part is that Nolan thinks he is actually helping me with my chores! It's hilarious! When I tell him we are finished, I say "thanks so much for helping" and he skips away with a big grin on his face. He is certainly doing his best, but is that really making a difference from my perspective? No way! I just love being with him, and it's the same with God. Am I really making a difference in the work that God is doing? Not at all. He just loves being with me.

Remembering Ontario...

In May of 2012, I doubted my future as a teacher. Asking for help to survive the last month teaching a horribly disrespectful group of students, I wrote an email to all of the other teachers at Ontario Middle School. In the email, I told them about how my Teacher Appreciation Week went and how it pretty much summed up my entire year teaching there. I had already talked to certain teachers in person, but I also wanted to get advice from as many other teachers as possible, since I was considering leaving the teaching profession because of how crappy that year of teaching was. Being verbally abused by my students was not something I wanted to continue. A teacher can only handle so much cussing from students, throwing objects, suspensions, selfish attitudes, and disrespect before I realize that I might be better suited for another job elsewhere.

This is a snippet of what I wrote in that email:

"We all received an email from [our assistant principal], in which he stated, 'I hope at some point this week you felt appreciated.' Well, that very day I was called 'racist' by one student, 'idiot' by another, 'you're fucking stupid' from another, 'gay' from another, hit by a pencil, almost hit by a calculator, and not to mention all the usual ways I get disrespected by adolescents. At one point in the week, I did feel appreciated: I received a goody bag with my name on it that had candies in it, in addition to a granola bar I got in my mailbox. I put both of them on my chair behind my desk ...and guess what... THEY WERE STOLEN BY MY STUDENTS!"

My co-workers provided me with very helpful feedback. Most of them told me exactly what I needed to hear, supported me when I was struggling, and encouraged me to continue teaching in the future.

I realized that I learned a TON that year. Looking back, I knew that time of my life was God opening my eyes and humbling me to all the crap that goes on in this world. I needed to see how such a shitty job was actually a realistic representation of the every day lives that some of those students I taught go through day after day. I know now that because I took teaching so personally and wanted to improve, God had been preparing me for something better in the future.

Giving up when the times are tough is not the attitude that Jesus portrays for us in His exemplary life. He showed us that when the going gets tough, that's when we are in the best position to cry out to God and ask Him to help us see the bigger picture.

When I look back on Ontario now, 2.5 years later, I now see more positives than I see negatives. Even though that job was one of the most painful experiences of my life, I think about Ontario now as a time of growth. We had a great time spending time with friends from church, serving others in the community, walking Nolan in the stroller around the town, spending time together as a family at home, and learning about how God prunes us when we don't expect to be pruned. 

Asher: My Miscarriage Story

We found out we were pregnant at the beginning of June and we were thrilled. We were excited for one of our kids to have a same-gender sibling, and excited to go beyond the typical “perfect” family of one girl and one boy. We already had names picked out and were planning how to announce our newest addition to the world.

On a Tuesday in July, at 9½ weeks, we flew to Arizona to visit my parents and brother and sister-in-law. The first night we were there, we sat on the floor of my old bedroom in the house I grew up in, introducing the kids to Grandma’s dogs, and exploring toys she had bought for them. We sat and talked for a bit, and I went to the bathroom and discovered I was bleeding. It was a small amount, but bright red blood. I tried not to panic, but the only other time I have bled in pregnancy was when I had a miscarriage at five weeks, a little over two years ago.

I called my midwives back home, and felt reassured that the midwife I spoke to believed it didn’t mean miscarriage was inevitable, and the fact that I was not in pain was a good sign. I was instructed to go to the ER if my bleeding got really heavy, or if I was feeling cramping. I had a small amount of bleeding for several hours, and then it tapered off overnight.

The next morning, I was feeling hopeful that the bleeding was over and that everything was fine. However, early afternoon, I began bleeding again. I knew that bright red bleeding was not a good sign, and began to really worry about my baby. I called my midwife again, and cried a lot while I was on the phone with her, discussing the “what ifs”. I was worried about going to the ER, finding out the worst, and being pressured to have a D&C rather than being allowed to miscarry at home. My midwife assured me that I could refuse a procedure, and that at 9 weeks, the baby would be small enough to pass at home. She encouraged me to go to the ER if I wanted to, so at least I would have an answer about what was going on, and we decided to go.

Aaron and I were checked in quickly and taken directly to a room without having to wait. The nurses drew my blood and started an IV. We waited just a short time, and then the Physician’s Assistant came in to do a pelvic exam. He said that my cervix was closed, but that any time you bleed during pregnancy it is considered a threatened miscarriage. Then, I was transported to radiology for an ultrasound.

I had multiple ultrasounds during my pregnancies with my two kids, and we knew what we should see and hear. The tech that did my ultrasound didn’t say anything while he working. But we knew. In the first ten seconds we knew we were not seeing the little flutter of a heartbeat. He had the volume turned way down, but I heard the silence when I should have heard the “whoosh whoosh”.

I didn’t cry the entire time we were at the hospital. We went to the pharmacy on the way back to my mom’s house, and when we checked out, the cashier handed us our bags and smiled and said, “Have a great day and be well.” I felt like I had been slapped in the face. And I cried for the first time since talking to my midwife on the phone.

I bled steadily, but not too heavily, all that day and the next. I had manageable cramping off and on until around 10pm on Thursday, when I realized my pain was coming and going rhythmically...contractions. They continued for a couple hours, and then Delaney woke up crying. I decided to take a couple Advil and take her to bed with me and try to sleep. Not too much later, I sat up in bed and felt a gush. This time when I went to the bathroom, it wasn’t blood. My water had broken. I decided to stay up then, since I was having more painful contractions that felt like I was in active labor. Aaron stayed up with me and we watched TV while I labored. In the next hour or so, I passed a tiny baby. It was only about an inch long, but we could see its fingers and toes, and dark spots on its face where its eyes were developing.

My contractions spaced out and got less intense. I finally was able to sleep around 4am, and my contractions must have stopped, because I slept for 3 hours. When I woke up, they started again, not too painful, but consistent. Around 9 hours after the baby came out, I passed two pieces of placental tissue, and one was as big as the palm of my hand. As soon as that happened, my contractions stopped. I bled heavily for the rest of that day and the next day, and passed a few more small pieces of tissue. I bled for a total of two weeks, mostly spotting or really light bleeding during the second week.

When I spoke to my midwife on the phone about passing the baby, I actually felt relieved. I had been concerned about whether everything would happen on its own. I can see how women who experience a miscarriage could feel their body has betrayed them, but I know there is nothing I could have done differently to change anything, and I feel that my body did its job when our baby died. Our baby measured 8 weeks and 2 days on the ultrasound, but the hospital gave us a 10 day window when the baby could have actually passed. I believe that it probably happened just days before I began bleeding, as I was still having pregnancy symptoms when it started, and the baby was bigger and more developed than we were expecting to see.

Losing a baby in miscarriage is one of the hardest things I have ever been through. Losing two this way is something that I never believed would happen to me. We named our baby Asher, which means “blessing”, because even though we lost our baby, Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” We hope that our story will encourage someone else someday. We chose a verse for Asher that gives us hope:

“To all who mourn in Israel,
he will give a crown of beauty for ashes,
a joyous blessing instead of mourning,
festive praise instead of despair.
In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks
that the Lord has planted for his own glory.”
Isaiah 61:3

Merry Christmas and Hopefully A Happy New Year

A lot has happened over the past few years, and my wife and I have grown distant from each other. We have continued to kiss each other every day, when I give her a peck when I come home from work. Many married couples understand when talking about losing the excitement and romance since the newlywed years. It probably has something to do with having kids, but this is different. We have been struggling with being connected to each other, which has nothing to do with excitement or romance but everything to do with having a healthy marriage.

It all happened very gradually. When it was just the two of us, Jen and I had lots of time to devote to each other as well as to ourselves. When Nolan came along, we had less time for each other, but it was still okay because if one of us was holding him then the other got a break. Since Delaney was born a year ago, our marriage has been tested like no other. If both kids were crying, then both of our hands were full and nobody got a break.

It was worse when I came home late from an exhausting day at work, fell asleep on the couch, and expected my wife to be in love with me. My view of things was very skewed and I didn't realize it. I felt like I was working extremely hard as the provider, while Jen felt like a single mom.

We never gave up on each other, but it was beginning to feel like a hopeless, lifeless, bitter marriage.

I have been trying hard to figure out how to be a better man for my wife. Since we have been feeling disconnected, I attempted to change a little of this and a little of that, hoping that she would fall in love with me again. Nothing seemed to work, I couldn't figure out why, and I often became frustrated with her because I felt like I was always the one working at our marriage.

My eyes were finally opened several days ago. God used this Christmas break to show me how blind I was. I finally decided to put together a little chart to show her everything I was doing and everything she wasn't doing. I ended up realizing that she felt like a single mom because she really was doing the majority of the work once I got home. I expected her to think I was the best husband in the world because I would surprise her by changing a diaper or doing the dishes without her even asking me to! However, looking at this chart I made, it made sense for us to split the duties 50/50 once I got home. So, all these times I thought I was loving her extra, she felt like I was finally starting to pull my weight a little... and that wasn't even nearly enough.

Now, we split the chores 50/50 when I am at home, she feels more supported, I already feel like she admires me more, and we both feel more connected. I think it's going to be a good year.

Adopt Foster Kids

I laughed out loud when I saw these funny commercials (AdoptUsKids.org) when watching the Uruguay v. Netherlands game today. But then I realized what an awesome message was embedded inside these simple ads: There are many kids out there that aren't looking for perfection...just a parent.

The narrator at the end of the commercials stated, "You don't have to be perfect to be a perfect parent." And another ad stated, "Because kids in foster care don't need perfection. They need you." That is so true. There are thousands of foster kids in the world who were just unlucky when it comes to family life. Lots of them would love a good family to adopt them, and it would be so beneficial for them as they prepare for adulthood.

Jen and I are planning on taking care of foster kids eventually. We are planning on practicing our parenting skills on two or three kids at first, and then looking into foster care. It all depends on how Jen's pregnancy progresses. We would love to adopt kids for a long time...until we get too old to take care of them!

A friend of mine has a great quote on her facebook page: "If you're going to be against abortion, you had better be willing to adopt some kids." I think that quote is just awesome. So many people in this country are against abortion, and yet, so few actually do something about the group of kids who survived pregnancy and end up in families that don't want them.

Anyway, just some food for thought. Enjoy these funny commercials:

If you can't see the videos, go here and here.

Jen is pregnant!

Last week we went to see a midwife at a maternal care clinic and heard our baby's heartbeat! It is difficult to describe my feelings about it. There are just so many feelings all at the same time! I am very excited to become a father and am ready for the responsibilities that come with it. I am a bit nervous because I do not have a teaching job yet. Jen wants to stay at home with our baby once it is born, and I need to have a job so that she has that as an option. I am also very fascinated with the biological aspect of it. Hearing the rapid heartbeat of our little fetus was mind-boggling! How can a little life form inside of my wife's body!? Quite strange, indeed.

Honestly, I don't have much else to say. It seems as though I'm just along for the ride with this whole pregnancy thing. Of course I will check out some soon-to-be-father preparation books from the library and learn what I need to about changing diapers and such. However, I feel like the majority of my preparation to be a father has been over the bachelor days of my life. When I was single, I worked hard to become the man I want to be and the type of man that can be a good father.

It's going to get busy from now on. I will not have a whole lot of time to be working on improving my own behaviors--that's what I was doing when I was single. Now, I'll be working on improving the behaviors of my own children. Even though I still have much to learn in this new phase of life, I can honestly say that I am happy with the direction I am traveling. Thankfully, Jesus will continue to lead me down the right road and I don't have anything to worry about.

5th Grader's Chuck Norris Joke

I started a new weekly morning activity with our journal entries, called "Wednesday Joke Day." One of my students was sharing his favorite Chuck Norris jokes and they seemed to really catch on. Now, just about every boy in my class is talking about Chuck Norris this and Chuck Norris that.

We are starting a new unit this week, a simulation mimicking the pilgrims' voyage from Europe to the New World. The boys started joking that Chuck Norris was one of the passengers on the Mayflower. Eventually, one of them came up with this hilarious joke:

Most people from the Mayflower didn't survive the first winter in the New World. What they didn't know is that the first winter didn't survive Chuck Norris.

In order to prevent the kids from believing that Chuck Norris actually landed on Plymouth Rock, I think I might have to teach them about how quickly jokes get old.

Mr. Dorito

The two best memories I have from teaching full-time over the last month:

• The 7th graders calling me "Mr. Dorito"
• One of the 8th graders said "Get inside! Mr. Riedl's coming!" because he knows I am not afraid to give detention for being late to class.

It's nice to be respected. :-)

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday (today) and Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Monday) are two big days for the school that I am currently teaching at. After all, it is named after him: King School. Today, we had a great speaker named Dion Jordan come talk to the students. He was very fun to listen to and took a bit of a different direction for a message than the stereotypical "dream big" speech that kids hear all too often.

He talked a little bit about Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks in order to connect the message with overcoming obstacles and standing up for what is right. The main part of Dion's speech was about how he grew up as a cripple. Up until the age of 11, he went through having to use crutches and leg braces because his legs were crooked and his feet pointing inward. He also had trouble speaking and stuttered when he tried to talk in public. He talked about his life and how he overcame the disabilities.

One of the highlights was Dion asking the students to participate in an activity. He instructed them, "Raise your hand if you think you have confidence." Just about all of them raised their hands. He then told them to stand up if a question he asks pertains to them. He asked them, "Who here can sing?" and only six out of about 120 fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth graders stood up. "Who here can dance?" he asked them, with about 20 students standing up. "Who here can draw?" he inquired, and close to 40 students stood. The large majority of the students were still sitting. He told us that when he asked the kindergarteners the same questions, they all stood up waving their hands, saying "Ohh!! I love to sing! I'm the best dancer! I think drawing is so fun!"

Why have the majority of the older students lost their confidence? Dion explained that we (including adults) lose our confidence when we listen to people that say "You're no good at singing" or "Your drawing needs some work" and we really do believe them. And then we start telling ourselves the same things. When in reality, we can all sing, dance, and draw. Dion didn't ask them if they were professional dancers or artists. Anyone can draw a stick figure. The lack of confidence comes from when we don't believe in ourselves. That is the biggest obstacle in the way of us achieving our dreams.

Overall, Dion Jordan was a great speaker. He made me laugh many times. I felt like I was laughing the loudest out of all the teachers there. The kids loved him. I would definitely recommend checking out his books and read more about his life story. He seems like a great guy and he's from Portland too!

The Pez Dispenser That Came To Life

Here is the final product! For my authentic writing project, we were instructed to create anything that we wanted that had to do with writing. So, I wrote a story about a Pez dispenser that started blinking and exploring. The original story was pretty boring, so I thought that stop motion animation would really spice it up. And about a week of frustration with Windows Movie Maker (it froze up on me about a million times) and many, many hours of editing later, I am very pleased with the result.

Hopefully I can use stop motion animation in my classroom when I get hired as a teacher. It is a lot of fun and I know a handful of kids already that would be interested. Maybe I can use it to teach them the procedures of the class and demonstrate to them what I expect of them. I was also thinking about turning it into a picture book. The possibilities are endless!!!!!

Enjoy the video...

Do We Dance Enough?

This last Sunday in Imago Dei Kids, we had a guest band come in, play, and sing worship with the children. They were really entertaining, playing a wide range of instruments (I'd say around 11 total).

The highlight for me was watching the kids. All of the children just sat watching the band, not sure what exactly to do. All except one boy. This one boy (about 7 years old), who is normally a child that has trouble following directions, was jumping up and dancing. He was jamming along with the band and doing what he felt most comfortable doing.

Most adults would likely frown at this boy because he was "a distraction" or "bothering the other kids." But I think that God was totally joyful at this boy's excitement, joy, and praise for such wonderful music.

Are we letting children miss out on how to express joy? Are we letting them shout and dance for fun, or are we constantly telling them to be quiet?

Adults can be really boring and often too quiet. I'm afraid we might be passing that on to our future generations. Hopefully, I can try to do something about that. :-)

Image from peopleclipart.net

First Time Teaching

I taught my first math lesson to the eighth graders yesterday. It went surprisingly well. These students are not known to treat substitutes or even their regular teachers very well, so I was pleased when they actually listened and did what I asked them to do.

I started out the period by giving them an assignment right when they walked in the door, while greeting each of them by name. Surprisingly, they got to work right away! After that, I went over my classroom expectations and told them a little about myself. I decided to be straightforward with them and explain that I am new at this teaching thing and hope they could be patient with me. They took it well.

The material was not difficult. Mostly finding patterns in numbers and then developing algebraic rules that correspond to them. So my main goal was to present the information in an interesting way. I applied the material to a problem about basketball. I solved the problem in order to estimate how many minutes I should practice my free throws in order to increase my free throw percentage. The boys were especially interested, which is what I was hoping.

I was humbled realizing how much work goes into teaching. I still have a lot to learn. The biggest thing I need to work on is making sure that they are quiet before I start talking. They need to learn how to be respectful to me when I am speaking, and I need to learn how to uphold my expectation of that. It is difficult to lead. It is difficult to organize. It is difficult to be a responsible adult in charge.

I am glad that this is the beginning. It's only going to get better with practice. Practice makes closer-to-perfect.

Related Post: Confidence in Christ

Confidence in Christ

Thinking more about my involvement with the 8th graders I have worked with at school, I am realizing why it is so easy to be scared of them: I am afraid that I will not be able to control them, I am afraid that they won't like me, and I am afraid to fail as a teacher.

All of us are often weak people. Myself included (obviously). We are not often genuine with others and we do not often do what we know is the right thing because we are afraid of something. God has recently been teaching me the importance of getting up off my lazy butt and acting like a man who is confident in Christ's redeeming power. He has the power to redeem my brokenness and the fears that I don't really need to be afraid of.

I have always labeled myself as an "introvert" because I often prefer to be quiet in large groups. I also label myself as a "people-pleaser" because I don't want to offend people and I want them to like me. I am realizing how easy it is to just use my labels as a crutch, never getting up to do anything worth while. God is constantly reminding me that the only way for me to be an influence in this world is to get involved and get my hands dirty. Christ gives me His confidence and His faith to get out of my comfort zone to do something beneficial with my life, because having confidence or faith in myself gets me nowhere.

My life rests in God's hands and He is the only One I should fear. Because of this, I can confidently live my life knowing that the best way to please Him is by devoting my life to serving others and declaring my thankfulness for Jesus.

Paul, who spent the first part of his life as a Pharisee persecuting Christians, says: "If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—-the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead." (Philippians 3:4-11)

Related post: MAT Update

Image from here.

MAT Update

I know... lame title, right? :-)

Well I am still on my way to becoming a school teacher. I am learning lots of good stuff in my classes right now, like differentiation strategies and classroom management skills and such. But the real meat of what I am learning right now is in my practicum. For Concordia's MAT program, they place us in two different classrooms: A shorter, part-time role in a classroom during fall semester for one day a week (practicum), and a longer, full-time role in a different classroom during spring semester (student teaching).

I am currently taking classes at Concordia four days a week and on my fifth day I help out in an 8th grade math classroom in NE Portland. In the spring I will be done with my coursework and will be placed in a 5th grade class in SE Portland, student teaching full-time.

The students in my NE Portland school don't come from the best neighborhood, so the biggest issue in the classroom is behavior management. I am gleaning as many tips as I can get from my cooperating teacher. The biggest thing that I have learned so far is that I should not be afraid of them. 8th graders are not little elementary kids anymore and deserve to be treated like older, more responsible people. However, they are certainly not adults yet and must still be trained to do the right thing (homework, decent behavior, etc). I must constantly remind myself that I am a responsible adult, I have my life together, and my role is to teach them the skills they need to grow up. How can I expect to teach them properly if I am scared of having the authority over them? I can't.

Halfway done with fall semester. Will give another update during winter break.

Adios muchachos!

Riedlblog label: Teaching, Kids

New Teacher Blog

I have decided to separate my two lives: Teacher life from Personal life. For professional reasons, I want to have my own blog as a teacher.

On my teacher blog (riedlteach.blogspot.com), I will put the posts about book recommendations for kids (such as A Single Shard and The Mouse and the Motorcycle) as well as other announcements once I become a full-time teacher. On my personal blog (this site), I will continue to write about personal thoughts on life and relatively regular family updates. "Kid Quotes" and "Teaching Tips" will stay here on my personal site since that is included in my personal reflections about life.

So if you enjoy reading about specific recommendations for kids and want to keep up on my work as a teacher, check out Riedlteach.com and my accompanying teacher blog! Thanks.

Riedlblog labels: Teaching, Books, Kids

Kid Quote: Shadeburn

One day when it was rather hot outside, a 1st grader was complaining about the heat. We had only been outside for about 10 minutes. I could tell that he was the kind of boy who didn't like to get dirty or breathe fresh air.

"Let's go in," he whined. "I'm gonna get a sunburn!"

I looked over to him and saw that the sun was not even hitting him. "But you're in the shade!" I chuckled.

"Oh," he said smiling, "Well then I might get a shadeburn! Let's go in."

Kid Quote: You're Welcome

We recently got back from a trip visiting family in Arizona. It was a lot of fun, especially since we stayed at a sweet hotel! (thanks Mom!)

One morning, we went down to the pool and there was a family playing together in the water. As I was working on my tan while reading C.S. Lewis, there was suddenly a beach ball that lightly touched my feet. A cute little guy (I'd say about four years old), with a life preserver dripping wet around his chest, stood there waiting for me to do something. I grabbed the beach ball, tossed it to him, and he naturally scooped it up and ran back over to his family in the water.

"Say thank you, say thank you," the little boy's family kept reminding him. "Remember to say thank you."

Hearing his family reminding him to "say thank you" over and over again, he repeatedly turned his head back and forth looking at them and then at me. I could see by the look on his face that all he wanted was to get out of the spotlight and back into the pool. So, he hurriedly turned to me, said "You're welcome!" and jumped into the water.

Riedlblog label: Kids

C.S. Lewis' Letters to Children

C.S. Lewis' Letters to Children, edited by Lyle W. Dorsett and Marjorie Lamp Mead, includes a brief introduction describing Lewis' childhood history. The rest of the book is a chronological list of selected letters to children that he wrote over the years. Lewis spent time every morning writing responses to all of the letters he received. The time span of these letters to his younger readers dates from 1944 to his death in 1963.

I absolutely love this book. I had already felt a connection with C.S. Lewis after reading Mere Christianity, but after reading this and realizing his love for kids as well as his own childishness, I think he's even more awesome. His humor is subtle and easy to miss, and it is especially funny to imagine the kids reading the letters. But most of all, I enjoyed his heartfelt responses to those who loved his books. He is honest, respectful, and doesn't talk down to the kids.

Random thoughts after reading:

• I love how much he integrated his faith into his letters, like asking the kids to keep him in their prayers.
• After hearing Lewis write to the kids about the Narnia series, it has driven me to read the series on my own during my break between semesters.
• I can use this book to motivate my future students to write to their favorite authors. Could make it a class activity.
• C.S. Lewis is a great example of a man that thinks little about himself and lots about others: specifically the little kids anticipating a letter back from their favorite author.

Riedlblog labels: Books, Teaching

Teaching Tip: Debriefing

Summer semester ended last week. I want to share the most memorable thing that I learned over the past eight weeks. Of course, I learned a ton of stuff...but this stuck out to me because it's such an important, simple opportunity that adults often miss when teaching young kids about life. This opportunity is the practice of debriefing events that occur throughout life.

Brief, execute, debrief. The military uses this strategy to assess individuals and allow them to talk about whatever just happened. It ought to be used with kids as well. So often teachers (by teacher I mean anyone who has some role in the life of a child) tell students what to do and how to do it, but how often do we talk about how the experience felt afterward? How did it go? It allows the children to process an event or experience while under the guidance of an adult. This opens the door to conversation, sharing, and growth.

This is the process that was given to me in my class for what debriefing with children (after a classroom activity) includes:

1. How did you feel after the activity?
2. Recall important events.
3. What did you learn?
4. What could've happened differently if people acted differently?
5. Any modification suggestions for next time?

Think about how often adults just ignore certain experiences because it happens to us so frequently (i.e., thunderstorms, homeless man on the off-ramp, where stuff in the grocery store comes from, the death of a pet, etc). These things have often never happened to kids before and need to process these common events with some guidance from adults.

The same thing happens in the classroom. During an activity, the kids often think about other people around them. Each child also learns something different than the other students, providing an opportunity to talk about seeing events from different perspectives. I know that I'll try to use this strategy every day when I am a teacher. It creates openness and comfort with the kids, knowing that they can come to me with their feelings and opinions.

Riedlblog labels: Kids, Teaching, Life updates

I Love Jen.

I am so in love with my wife.

Tomorrow is the last day she'll be volunteering with the City of Portland. She has been helping 8th graders to get excited about high school in order to promote graduation. Portland's high school dropout rate is over 43%. Can you believe that? That means, on average, almost half of all high school students don't end up graduating. Clearly, the city is trying to do something about this unbelievable trend.

Our church, Imago Dei Community, provided an opportunity for those who desired to help out by advertising what the City of Portland is doing. Jen jumped on this chance to be a volunteer and do her part. She went to a few meetings downtown, with other believers as well as non-Christians, and has been volunteering her time with the 8th graders. They visit cool places like TriMet and AMR with the kids, trying to spark some interest.

But that isn't the only reason I'm so in love with her. This volunteer work happens to take place on Fridays. Obviously, she has to take time off work in order to do it. So she is using up her personal time at work in order to go serve the city. Isn't that awesome?! I just thought it was so selfless of her. God gave me a good one! :-)

P.S. - I took this picture of her last year. It's my favorite photo of her. Another reason I love her: she is so cute because she's getting super excited about Fall coming up. That's her favorite time of year to bake and she keeps telling me how eager she is. It's so cute when she tells me about her passions. I love her so much.

Riedlblog labels: Kids, Life updates