Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The Holacaust

A requirement for one of my history classes is to teach a day in the high school. So I taught yesterday- I really enjoyed teaching. I am still a rookie for sure, it was only my second time. Last semester I taught on the Ancient Olympics. That was a lot of fun. The students seemed to thoroughly enjoy the topic- and let me say it is interesting to say the least- Did you know if a married woman attended the Ancient Olympics they would be thrown off Mt. Typaeum? Yep, there is a lot of stuff you probably wouldn't know about this interesting topic. This semester however, my topic wasn't as "fun" but I really enjoyed digging in and finding out more and more about the Holocaust. What an interesting topic! It broke my heart to read all the first hand accounts of the millions and millions of people: people who perhaps watched a friends die, walked the hundreds of mile on the Death March, or maybe attempted to hide a Jew away- but they were caught and hung in public as a warning to others. I was even able to find some videos of people who gave first hand accounts of what happened in those Death Camps. I encourage you to read into this. The more I read the more I became disgusted with those Nazis...what was wrong with them...I read one story in particular... a young teenage boy describes what he saw the day his family was taken to the Death Camp. He says:
"...And everything went so fast: Men separated from women. Children torn from the arms of mothers. The elderly chased like cattle. The sick, the disabled were handled like packs of garbage. They were thrown in a side together with broken suitcases, with boxes. My mother ran over to me and grabbed me by the shoulders, and she told me "Leibele, I'm not going to see you no more. Take care of your brother.” And I never did."
The more accounts I read, the more disgusted I became. I read phrases describing the elderly and handicapped as worthless, good for nothing, and unprofitable to the society. After all, how would they help Germany become racially pure. They were unwanted. Did you know 80,000- 100,000 thousand elderly and disabled were killed during the Holocaust. Why? Because they were no longer useful to the society, that's why....Hmmmm.... Sound familiar??? Does it remind you of this man:
How easy it is for us to be disgusted at the cruelty of the Nazis. But what about us...what about our Health Care Plan. Are we really much better. Is Obama really much different than this man:
You see..they both believed people like this:

were no longer useful. After all they can't contribute to society any longer. After all, they have lived a long enough life, it is simply time for them to die....
Maybe I am taking this a bit out of context, I don't know. But the more I read about the philosophy of Hitler and his army the more I thought about Obama and his Health Care....Am I really making too big a contrast??? Where will America be in 25 years???

My Bulletin Board

My Spring Break has certainly been a busy one. Yesterday, with the help of Nicole I put up my bulletin board. I have such a hard time coming up with ideas. I finally decided on doing a good work board. With "a little" help from Nicole and my mom, and Liz (thanks for letting me use your cricut) I was very pleased with how it turned out.







Sunday, March 14, 2010

Impress or Impact

I just finished reading the above book: Teaching to Change Lives by Dr. Howard Hendricks. I was assigned to read this book for one of my classes. It was a great book!
I am the type of reader who can be reading for a long period of time without truly comprehending everything I am reading and then all of a sudden something will jump out at me and get a hold of me. This was definitely how this book was. I was reading along when this small paragraph jumped out at me.

"“You can impress people at a distance. But you can impact them only up close. And the closer you are to them, the greater and more permanent the impact.”

It is just a small paragraph, but it really made me think....
I thought back to the many teacher I have had through my many years of schooling. I remember how impressed I was and still am at the brains of some of my teachers, especially some of my math and science teachers... but that is all...I was impressed. And then I can think back to one or two teachers who didn't necessary impress me but boy did they impact me. There was one teacher in particular you had more faith in me than I ever had in myself. She encouraged me, worked one on one with me, prayed for me- and told me she was, wrote little notes to me, and even worked out with me. Now...that is the type of teacher that truly impacted me. In fact because of her impact I am taking Secondary Education in History in Speech. Who ever would have thought that I, a shy backward little girl would be minoring in Speech...all because one teacher took the time...the time to impact. This little saying reminded me why I am taking Secondary Education in the first place. It is not so I can impress people, (don't get me wrong- I do want to learn it all so I can teach intelligently), but to impact my students. Like Christa McAuliffe said, "I touch the future, I teach." As I future teacher I have the opportunity of a life time. I can impact the future generation. But it is all up to me- will I impress my students with my understanding of History and my ability to speak or preform a drama, or rather will I impact one student who will never be the same all because I came "up close."

Volley Marathon


Paul and I had a great Volleyball Marathon together. Actually I really don't know why it is called Volleyball Marathon- I played no volleyball at all :) But, regardless of the lack of volleyball playing Paul and I had a great time playing games of our own.


Thursday, March 11, 2010

5.4.3.2.1...Blast off

This month, at work, is dedicated to Space. So Nicole and I were given the ultimate task of making a rocket ship out of cardboard boxes. At first we were dreading it a bit...how were we going to make a space ship out of several different odd shaped boxes? However, after we jumped in we actually had a lot of fun. And I am pretty proud of how it turned out in the end...

We even put stars in the top...so when the kids looked up in the shuttle they saw stars. (that was my idea)
This was also my handy work...
Ok- I have to admit Nicole did most of the exterior decoration with the puffy paint...
Tadaa...Shuttle Wee Care
Then the kids got a hold of it...they obviously did not think Nicole and I decorated it well enough. So they added their own decorations to it as well.







The kids really had a blast playing in our little cardboard shuttle. I am also really impressed with these little guys; they are really learning a lot about space. They know a fact about each planet, a little about constellations, about the sun, etc... These kiddos are pretty bright. And I hope Nicole and I can continue to show these children how much FUN learning can be.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

The Death of a Snowman



I was sent from heaven above,
I was built with, oh so much love.

The kids, they gave me two eyes of coal,
Then in my face, they made a small hole.

In the hole, a carrot, the children did place,
a small balloon like smile was put on my face.

A top hat of black was placed on my head,
"All he needs is a scarf!" one of them said.

I was the first snowman in all the town,
my head and my body were perfectly round.

The children and I always together did play,
and oh now I wish I could go back to that day.

Atlas, Mr. Sun one day shone too bright,
I tried standing tall, with all of my might.

My carrot nose was the first thing to go,
it fell before me, right into the snow.

The lumps of coal slowly slid to the ground,
before I knew it- I was just a mound.

All of the children wept and they cried,
there was nothing I could do- for I had died.
-Brooke



Monday, March 1, 2010

Our Creation in Pictures

My dad, Lauren, and I made our first snowman of the year...


I forgot how hard snowman making can be...
Good thing dad was there...I don't know how it would have turned out without him...


Oreo Eyes
Carrot Nose
Oh, so cute!