It really is the Small and Simple things

I gave a talk on Sunday in church.  I thought I would share it with you all.  It was about the small and simple things and how it really are those that lead to our Heavenly Fathers great and eternal purpose. 

By Small and Simple things

So there once was a father having a talk with his son.  He told him that he needed to keep a bunch of records safe and take care of them.  These records were to be passed down through generation and generation.  The son was probably like what is so important about these it is just about of writing and history because the father went on to tell him..

Now ye may suppose that this is ^afoolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by ^bsmall and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.  And the Lord God doth work by ^ameans to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very ^bsmall means the Lord doth ^cconfound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls.

And well the son simply did the small thing that his father asked him to do and the writings were kept and they retained their brightness.   Many, many, many years later these writings were found by a young boy who simply knelt down and said a simple prayer.  And because of these small and simple things that were done the great thing of the church being restored happened. 

That is what as a teacher on my lesson plan I would call an anticipatory set.  Are all of you engaged in what my talk is on today?  I hope so or I have been hanging out with 2^nd graders too much...it is not my fault I have been taught to teach little kids not big kids. 

SO!  Any guesses on what my talk is about?  ..Sigh...My best lessons are with less talking from me and more from the students figuring it out and talking.  So guess I have to keep talking since this isn’t a class.  (Please laugh at my unfunny attempts at jokes they are here to make me feel better and give you all and excuse to laugh at me.)

You can find the scripture I referenced in Alma 37:6-7.  Alma is probably the most quoted from me and the most colorful book in my scriptures.  I love reading Alma and applying the things he says into my life or taking what is said and asking is this happening in my life.  So when I read about small and simple things what are the small and simple things he is talking about.  I use the foot notes and everything basically says doing what I am supposed to be doing.  But when I think of small and simple things I kind of feel like it is more than just doing the small and simple things like praying and reading my scriptures and going to church.  So I went to lds.org

When you type small and simple things into lds.org you get talks and whatnot about charity, being an example, service, small and simple things.  This made me feel much better because service and charity are what I normally think about when I think of small and simple things so I was relieved that I am not scripture stupid and interpreting the scriptures totally and completely wrong. 

Small and simple things bring great things.  For some reason we always tend to think that we have to something huge and important and show off how righteous we are and things like that.  But it is the small things, the simple things.  I love how the scripture says that it will confound the wise.  Why how could something so small and simple be so important...Bigger is better right?  This really could be confusing.  And by these small means the great things that come to pass are the things that are working in bring to pass his eternal purpose. 

At a WoMANs (see for you too boys…men…) conference Elder Bednar talked about small and simple things…though there is not the address he gave on line but kind of a report on what was said and quotes from him.  He talked about patterns and how we need to have patterns of doing the things we need to be doing in our lives.  You know as you do those small things faithfully we will have great blessings in the end. We are bombarded constantly with messages from a multiplicity of sources promoting speedy supersizing, instant gratification, and outstanding performance that will impress our families and friends.  Heavenly Father works in His own time and way and typically brings to pass great things through small and simple means… no matter how much you ask (believe me I have tried.). 

So it brings me back to the thoughts of well we do the small and simple things now and get great blessing later isn’t only related to reading the scriptures and living right.  Service is the big thing that comes into my head when thinking of the scripture.  How do you feel when someone does something nice for you, just something small and simple?  What if it was a bad day and you went home to a made bed.  I know that has happened to me and it totally changes my attitude.  That can lead me to help someone else…and down the line someone might do something that can help someone.  The person doing the first act might not be directly blessed for their small and simple act but great things can really come from something like that. 

Heavenly father loves blessing us!!  What about another kind of simple act?  Inviting someone to church?  If that person joins the church the effect will forever continue down the line of their family for generations forwards and backwards.  Or maybe inviting an inactive member back to church?  They become reactivated.  Then by the change in their life styles they invite a friend to church and that friend joins the church.  A simple act and changes in many lives.  A simple blessing, doing your priesthood duty, to a sick pregnant mother and giving comfort to her to continue through the next several months of difficultly and bringing a life into the world.  A small and simple thing but great thing that would come from it.

I have another story to share.

There was a family that lived outside of the United States that were not members of the church but had missionaries that came knocking on their door but the father of the house would not let them into his house at all always turning them away.  One day on the news there was word that the president of the US was shot and killed.  The missionaries showed up at this family’s house that night and this father let these young men in to watch the news with them.  That small and simple thing of inviting them in to watch the news helped the family to join the church.  The grandchildren of that man were born into the church and baptized as well and the great grandchildren will someday too.  I never knew my grandpa but I am so grateful for his small and simple act that has changed and affected my life and my brothers.  Both brothers sealed in the temple to their wife.  In two weeks give or take someday my oldest brother will have a new born son who will be raised in the church and enjoy the blessings that my Grandpa Elliott gave to us.

(I shared my testimony)

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.  

<3  Erin Christina

Week 5 - Last 2 Days

I came out of this week feeling sad from saying goodbye to the students and happy that we all made it to the end of the school year and feeling confident after all the things the students had said to me over the last few weeks.  My kids spoiled me with confidence.  They were such a great class and I feel so blessed to have had them as my class to work with and grow with and become a better stronger teacher from all that they taught me, yes even the ones who misbehaved because they made me search for other ways to work with them and expand in classroom management strategies. 

            This week was really relaxed and not much happened it being the last week and only having 1 ½ days of school. 

·         Tuesday I got to experience two new things.  The first was an assembly.  Watching the students was more of a priority then watching the assembly.  Making sure students were behaving and not messing around and doing things they should not be doing.  The assembly went on kind of long and I could tell the students were getting restless.  They were for the most part good but some students had to come over and sit by us since they would not sit still and be respectful to all the others there and around them.

·         The 2^nd thing we did on Tuesday was watcher Where the Red Fern Grows with the 2^nd grade.  So this was just about like the assembly experience.  Making sure students were all sitting up and watching the movie.  Making sure they were talking and doing what they were supposed to be doing.  It was a day full of monitoring students.  It was a good day though.  They kids enjoyed the movie and they had lots to say in contrast to what was in the book (they read that earlier in the school year).

·         Thursday I spent the day working on a project for my teacher.  First I dicut the alphabet for her.  Then I cut out all of Fry’s first 300 sight words.  She wanted me to alphabetize them next so I did.  After that I had to alphabetize the words in each letter.   So all of that took most of the morning. After the kids left I continued my work and didn’t even stop to each my lunch and worked 12-3 nonstop to finish my project and finished right at 3.  I laid yellow paper out all over the room and walk around and laid the words out in alphabetical order and put each dicut letter right before that group of sight words started.  After they were all laid out and I got the approval I glued them all down to the paper.  Now this really does take longer than you would think.  I glued and glued and glued and glued.  I was so proud of my work when I was finished and I did something that I hope to also do for my classroom, I really liked the idea. 

·          I got to spend some time with the kids.  They were all having me sign things of their and really made me feel special.  Even student I did not know just because I was there wanted me to sign their papers and year books.  It really made my day.  Reminds me that students at such a young age don’t care who you are but love you no matter what and think that you are cool because you are older and a teacher.  Kids at that age are what I want to work with.  They don’t judge each other and they all love everyone. 

Stop and think moment this week was the random kids I have never seen asking me to sign their things. I didn’t say no to them but I was wondering why they were asking me to sign, I wasn’t their teacher, technically I am not even really a real teacher yet.  It however felt really good to be asked to sign things for them.  No one is left out of these kids’ lives.  They want everyone to sign and the more people sign the better they feel or just because of the fact that they love everyone.  None of them judge each other and none of them don’t like someone for one stupid reason or another.  The sweet innocence of being so young and still at that age before good friends out cast others because out of nowhere that person isn’t “cool”.  Why can’t we all be like the little children?  We are told to be in the scriptures.  The unconditional love for everyone around them including strangers and no judgmental feelings, we need to be more like them. 

I don’t really have anything to prepare for next week since I have no school next week.  But over the next week prepare myself for a new experience.  This will not be like what we just went through.  Read back over my journals from summer school for early field last year to remind me what it was like and just really remember what I have learned and retain it all to get ready to go into summer school. 

<3   Erin Christina

What have I been up to

Ice Caves
Fishing
Camp fires
Roommate photos
Homework homework homework

I can get pics for those too but it is past bed time now...this is enough updating for now!!

Who knows if I will ever get back into this to update like I should but I will try!!

<3  Erin Christina

Pics to do with my 2nd graders

 Hallie and I are BFFs!!

 Big hugs from Sarah

 Just the cutest thing anyone has ever done for me!! I love this one from Charity

 Jake made me this one. I could not fit it on anything so I made it a decoration for my name tag. 

 One student (Melissa) made me the ring and another (I feel so bad I cant remember who gave the bracelet becuase I was doing a bunch of things at once and they came up and just put it on me)

 My cow girl outfit

 Me and Hallie are Best Friends Forever  (she was the attached one from the field trip...still attached)

Megan is such a sweetie!!

I really do love this class.  Going into the last week is really sad.  :(  I am going to miss these kids that I have grown so close to in the last few weeks.

<3  Erin Christina

Week 4

With each week my feelings get better and better.  I feel more confident in what I am doing and how I am teaching.  It really is getting a better feel for everything and finding out how I like to teach and picking out the things I don’t like.  I love how it feels to have the class listen to you and be able to find the way I like to punish or just get the students to stop doing what they are doing and do what you tell them to do.  I have such a good class though now that the semester is coming to an end they are starting to get pretty crazy but they are a good class. 

            This week has been a different week since we have started to run out of things to do and have the students do. 

·         The majority of our day has been writing the pages for their All About Me Books.  This has taken over Reading time since we finished the book last week and also my center since we finished out work book last week too.  So besides my 2 math lessons all we did this week was write and edit the papers for their books.  I sat there with them and when they need to spell a word they would ask and I would help.  I would read their paper and give them prompts on what else to write.  I would check for punctuation.  The only thing that I didn’t know is if I should totally correct it or just help a little.  So I did what I could and helped them along.  Their books are starting to come together very nicely.  I can’t wait to see them all put together and the pictures they are bringing from home to put on them. 

·         The first math lesson I taught this week was on doubling.  I used coupons and told them about how stores will double coupons.  I should them there are two different ways to double a number (adding it to itself or by multiplying by two).  Each student got a coupon and had to double it and write it up on the board.  They students enjoyed the fact that they all got coupons and that they got to save even more then what was on the coupon.  It was a pretty simple lesson but they seemed to enjoy it.

·         The other math lesson we did this week was recording information on a graph.  We used dominos and probability to teach this lesson.  Each domino was an addition problem and they had to find out what the domino added up to be and write the problem in the column of the answer.  They seemed to enjoy this one too since they all got to take turns and answer the problems and check each other’s work.  We came back together in the end to talk about what we learned and go over the information on the graph to see what they could tell.  We discussed that you are more likely to pull out a domino that equals 6 and least likely to pull out one that adds up to 0, 1, 11, 12.  It was also a good way to walk around and assess how students are doing with their addition facts.  How long does it take them to figure out what it is equal to and do they have to count all the dots or can they just look at it and say 4 plus 5 equals 9. 

My stop and think moments were when I was helping student write their pages for their books.  I was able to stop and see the things in each of their writings that each of them were struggling with and helping them fix those main issues and how to go about helping them with those struggles.  So rather than focusing on all the mistakes we would just look at a few big problems they were having.  It helped them a lot rather than getting discouraged because everything was wrong and it also helped since we didn’t have a lot of time. 

My plan for next week is really just to try my best to keep the students on task and not out of control as best as I can.  They are still in school until they get out on Thursday and they need to remember that.  The last week is going to be a lot more relaxed but got to make sure they are still with us and doing what they need to be doing till the end.  

I have two cowboys in my class.  Last week their wore cowboy boots and so I decied I would dress up like a cow girl for them.  So Tuesday I wore my boots and some southern western clothes and they just loved it!! I had so much fun.  Over the last 4 weeks I have found the southern accent I thought I never had.  They speak in such a southern accent I start doing it too.  I love my kids!! Next week is the last week of school and I promiese you I will cry.  

Oh I have also been getting notes and pictures from my kids the last two week.  Also had some make little things for me!! I will try to get the pics on here!!  

<3  Erin Christina

Week 3

This week was a fun week full of lots of great feelings and experiences.  It makes me so happy to see the smiles on students face and I get excited when I see students understand the things that are being taught.  The “ah ha” moments are my favorite as well.  I love it when students will come to me to ask me a question and they think it is the coolest thing how I know so much.  With each and every time in the classroom I feel more and more like a teacher.  I am absolutely in love with what I am doing.  There are stressful points and points that I just have no idea how to handle a student but in the end I know that I will grow from that experience and that I can help the student as well. 

            This week:

·         We worked with the long /i/ sound.  Students were to identify the long /i/ pattern and also give examples of words that have a long /i/ pattern in it.  (ex: igh, ie).  Students took turns coming up to the board and telling me what words would have the long /i/ and also underlining the pattern in the words. 

·         We worked with irregular verbs.  The students had to identify the proper verb to go in each sentence out of a regular present tense verb and an irregular verb.  (ex get and got, tell and told, blow and blew)  Identify past tense verbs that do not end in –ed.  There were some sentences that the students struggled with but after rereading the sentences with the students and having them identify if the sentence was past tense or present and showing the key word that tells them it they were able to complete the worksheet. 

·         We worked on finding details.  Students had statements from the story we read that they had to go back into the story and find out more about that part of the story.  At least two details for each of the three statements.  Students struggled to come up with more details and when I would ask questions to probe their thinking they would write down one word answers.  It took a little bit of time but each student was able to come up with two different details from the points of the story.  Some students even went off on their own and dug much deeper into details of the story. 

·         We had to find and categorize adjectives.  Student had 3 sentences to find adjectives in.  They had to categorize the adjectives into either “what kind”, “how many”, or “special adjective”. The students had a little bit of difficulty in doing this but with a little help and reminders from me the student all were able to finish and accomplish the worksheet.  The helping included having the students find a noun in the sentence or I would give them the noun and they would tell me what word was describing it and helping to understand the concept that the adjective (the word describing the noun) will come right before the noun. 

·         We did some problem solving and inferring.  The students had a worksheet that gave them 2 different paragraphs that stated a problem someone was having and what they were doing about it but gave no solution.  The students had to tell what the problem was, what they were doing about the problem and how they might go about solving the problem.  The students could answer the first two questions but I had to help them with the last one.  I would ask a question for them to think about and answer to help them come up with an answer to the last question. 

·         I taught a reading lesson this week.  All it was for the reading lesson was to read that story and ask the students questions.  We did a vocabulary activity before we read the story.  The students were able to answer my questions and they did such a good job with giving ideas for what they think would happen in the story. 

·         The first math lesson I taught this week was dividing by two.  The class was so much fun and I could tell they enjoyed the activity we did.  I used the students had had them divide each other into two groups and tell me how many were in each group.  We even did remainders.  They class go this lesson so fast and concept.  They even tried to get into a more advanced topic about getting into decimals and not a remainder. 

·         My other math lesson this week had three different parts.  The first part was multiplying by 0.  That went by really fast, my class is so smart.  The 2^nd part was counting by 5, 4, 3, and 2 all the way to 100.  We colored charts to show the patterns to help them notice what happens when you count by those numbers.  The last part was a problem solving activity.  The students did struggle with this a little bit and I caught on to the fact that I needed to help them as a group, something I should of done from the start. 

The biggest stop and think moment I had this week was during the problem solving activity.  How am I to help these students understand?  The teacher said that they have done it before and would know how to do it.  I realized they needed some extra help so I made up my own example to show them what to do and how to do it.  I really wanted to help the students.  I hate that I hadn’t thought to give them an example from the start to help them understand more. 

This next week I am going to work on making sure to give the students enough information before they start working on something and it becomes too hard to finish because they are just too frustrated.  

 Another story to add to this day is when we were in the Library.   The kids were so cute and wanted to sit with me and play the clapping games (I taught them one from way back in my day ... "Miss Suzzy had a steem boat the steam boat had a bell....")  and the library at the school has a bunch of flags all over it from countries all over the world.  Well they started asking me what all of them were.  I was like ummmmm (no IDEA!! but you cant tell a student that because they look to you like you know everything)  I turned it into a learning experince.  So I thought on my feet...We are in a Library arent we?!  There has to be a book about the flags .. and one boy went and got it for me.  So we went through the book and found flags around the room.  I love my kids!! 

<3  Erin Christina