Blog post for Tech Class

Welcome parents to the wonderful world of blogging! This is a new era, and we want you to be a part of it. The Faculty Technology Program and PTA are joining together to raise funds for improved technology opportunities for our children. The school's desire is to make great strides in order to incorporate the vast world of technology and give our students a jump start toward the future. We need your help to make our venture successful.

I know that many parents are concerned that technology in the classroom will not be a useful tool but will only cause distraction. It is true, technology can offer many distractions and be used for many inappropriate and harmful ways, but there are also so many ways that, if harnessed, technology can be used for the success of your child. The world is changing and in order to help your student prepare for the future, we must start now in giving them the skills to:

• organize spreadsheets
  
• create word processing documents
  
• create presentations
  
• and to equip the students with the knowledge to succeed in the world.

There are 4 different perspectives that are helping to define Educational Technology which are laying the framework for what we hope you will help us to accomplish.

#1 Media delivers more concrete and more effective ways of learning than books and lectures

#2 Human and non-human resources can be used to create an efficient system for addressing instructional need.

#3 Educational technology is used as vocational training

#4 Computers have the ability to aid instructional teaching

(Roblyer, 7)

Some of the amazing things we can do with technology these days are simply...amazing. For instance check out this link:

Smart Board 600i

These whiteboards can connect directly to the computer. Lectures and any kind of writing done on the board can be downloaded to the computer and posted online where your students can upload the content! The whiteboard can also connect directly to the internet, which can be incorporated into a faster, more successful, interactive lecture. For example, there are many places online where you can find games that help learn anatomy and the body systems. This could be incredibly useful when it comes to helping to learn anatomy and how the body works.

Since this is a PE class, I want to teach the students the different heart rate zones and how those can be used for fitness. With heart rate moniters, all the students will be able to practice staying in zones and moving into others, thus creating an opportunity for a lifetime of fitness.

BodyTronics

We, as teachers, know that there are many of you with questions and concerns about technology. This blog is open to your opinion and your comments. We welcome any feedback you give. All we ask is that you keep and open mind and consider getting involved in the future we are working to create for your child. Talk to you soon!

Reference

Roblyer, M. D., and Aaron H. Doering. Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching. 5th ed. 8-9 Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2010. Print.

DISCLAIMER: This blog is an assignment for an educational technology course at National University. It is not a real fundraising blog.

Providence through Pain

If every semester was to be given a title, as of now, this semester would be Loss. My grandma passed away at the beginning of the semester, one of my friends lost her little baby and I lost the man I thought I was going to marry in the middle, and now my aunt is on the verge of death. Every heartbreak reminds me of the last.
I was talking to a dear friend this afternoon, a man that I consider to be a second father to me. He brought up James 1, which is usually brought up in times like this: Consider it pure joy my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. So, as I do, I looked up the Greek. The word "perseverance" [hypomone] means a steadfast endurance.
I'm guilty; last night, I laid on my bed asking God to deliver me. And yet, it is here, under the fire where we are refined. This word, [hypomone] may be one of the most important words in the New Testament. Through the [hypomone] of Christ, we are offered salvation. Through the [hypomone] of the apostles, the Word was spread throughout the world. What will God do with my [hypomone] if I change my attitude to allow Him?

God's Sovereignty

I know I haven't written in awhile...but what's new when it comes to me?
There are many thoughts rushing through my head, too many feelings to be able to decipher them all: loss, love, empathy, doubted hope, stress, relief, exhaustion...my heart is a paradox, and I'm stuck in the middle of it.
So maybe it's not strange that it's at this moment, I wrestle with the Sovereignty of God. Don't get me wrong: I whole heartedly believe that God is utterly Sovereign. Let me define: God's Sovereignty is everything that it means to be God. He has absolute power over all things. There is nothing that opposes or restrains His power but God Himself. Only God can restrain God. He is the Master Creator that needs nothing outside of Himself to fulfill Him. God is also the Ultimate Good. To say that He is the standard of goodness is not good enough in itself. God transcends creation. We are in error when we suppose that He is simply greater man, when we project ourselves on the frame of God. He is completely other than His creation. There is nothing that compares and no metaphor that can be used...God is simply God, and there is no Other. God cannot be corrupted, He cannot be thwarted.
But sin, O wretched sin, which tears us from the face of the Almighty. How I long to be unrestrained by this corruption that threatens to swallow me whole. Every fiber of my being has been corrupted by sin since birth. "All creation groans under the weight of sin...and longs for the day when the sons of righteousness will be revealed," for on that day, "He will wipe away every tear and there will be no more night."
So how do we find the Sovereignty of God in the midst of sin? I know the arguments: Lewis, Anselm, Augustine; and yet, I struggle. I understand how God can still be Sovereign in the midst of sin but I don't always understand how he uses sin. I can understand Romans 1: Because of the lack of the knowledge of God, He has given man over to his degrading passions and they have received the due penalty of his error, but what about in Deuteronomy? In a way, God telling the Israelites that when they turn away they will be plagued and go through famine is another "due penalty of their error." But is this how it works?: Colossians tells us that in Christ, all things hold together and have their being. If God were to remove His hand, all things would simply cease to be. He spoke the world ex nihilo and with one word, He could return it thus. So is the famine, the sickness and disease God allowing "atoms" to slip through His fingers? As with Job, God allowed Satan to cause sickness, death etc., but still retained His Sovereignty.
Here's my consensus: When the knowledge of God fails, so does the heart. God allows bad things to happen to good people through the Divinity of His will, but when all is said and done, the heart of one who truly seeks the knowledge of Truth will find God, and He that finds God truly, though the world falls into corruption and despair, will soar on the wings of faith in obediance to He who has dominion over all things.
Praise be to God

Tozer

So if you know me, you know that over the past year, I have become an avid A.W. Tozer fan. He's basically my favorite. Over the summer, my Bible study was on Romans 9-11. To start out, we studied that attributes of God. What was only supposed to take a week took me three...and let me tell you...it was incredible. God rocked my world with who He is and who I am in Him. As I studied each attribute of God I read the corresponding chapter in Tozer's Knowledge of the Holy. Here are some of the most amazing things I learned:

"When we try to imagine what God is like we must of necessity use that which is not God as the raw material for our minds to work on, hence whatever we visualize God to be, He is not, for we have constructed our image out of that which He has made and what He has made is not God. If we insist upon trying to imagine Him, we end with an idol, made not with hands but with thoughts; and an idol of the mind is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand" (p. 8)

"Sin has many manifestations but its essence is one. A moral being, created to worship before the throne of God, sits on the throne of his own selfhood and from that elevated position declares, 'I AM.' The essence of sin is to will one thing, for to set our will against the will of God is to dethrone God and make ourselves supreme in the little kingdom of Mansoul. This is sin at it's evil root...Man's best religious works God rejects as He rejected the offering of Cain. Only when he has restored his stolen throne to God are his works acceptable." (p. 30)

"God has charged Himself with full responsibility for our eternal happiness and stands ready to take over the management of our lives the moment we turn in faith to Him." (p. 63)

"When men no longer fear God, they transgress His laws without hesistation. The fear of consequences is no deterrant when the fear of God is gone. In olden days men of faith were said to "walk in the fear of God" and to "serve the Lord with fear." However intimate their communion with God, however bold their prayers, at the base of their religious life was the conception of God as awesome and terrible." (p. 71)

Those among many others, rocked my vision of God. We do God injustice when we think of Him as begging, fawning over his creation. Our opinion of God is so often based in our own self-worth. We "do God more honor by believing what He has said about Himself and having the courage to come boldly to the throne of grace than by hiding in self-conscious humility among the trees of the garden." (p 100) And because I see God in a way I never did before, now that I realize how often I think less of Him because I think that I should be able to understand Him...when really...I will be learning about God for ETERNITY...and even then, I will still never know God the way He knows Himself. There will be attributes of God in which I will never know anything!

How often I rob myself because of my image of God...and how much more effective could I be if I saw God truly.

Junior Year

So, apparently, I'm am most likely the worst blogger ever.
Well, let's see...
Junior year has come. Upper division classes are...hard...obviously. I don't really know why I expected anything different :)
I am having a blast though. Due to living circumstances beyond our control, two of our roommates couldn't come back, which meant we got a random transfer...but, it also means that we only have 4 living in our apartment, which is spectacular. I absolutely love my roommmate. She's basically the best, and my best friend. I've never had someone that I can truly trust...and I absolutely love her. We get each other. We serve each other. We love each other, and it's amazing.
This was on our day date to Oak Glen. It's this really cute apple farm place...kinda like the SoCal version of NorCal's Apple Valley, which obviously isn't as good, because nothing in SoCal compares to NorCal. It's the truth.

Last night was Fortuna Bowl, which is our championship intramural football games. I know it sounds lame, but it's a big deal. It's a $20,000 event the school puts on. The winners of Fortuna then go on to play the other schools around here at a tournament at Biola. My team, the Bus Drivers went...we won! Whoo!
Actually, I'm not that happy. I played like crap. I'm realizing more and more that I don't like winning when I know I'm not playing well. Two passes thrown to me I tipped and they were then intercepted...which pissed me off. But we won 7-6. And people said it was a good game. Redemption will come at Biola.
God is so good. He is teaching me and leading me in ways I could have never imagined. I'm going through Hosea again...more in depth this time. I love how Scripture interprets itself...and how it shows for the Faithfulness of God to an unfaithful and obstinate people. Which I am one of the greatest candidates. I find the closer I grow to Him, the more I need him. If I don't spend time with Him...I'm completely off the rest of the day. He's also teaching me how to love to those that are unloveable, how to accept people and their pasts, their futures, their struggles...all i need is to love them for who God is and not for who they are.

So of course it's been too long again...I suck at this.
I'm sitting in a Florida airport right now after a week in Fort Lauderdale with the family plus my new brother. Now we're waiting for the flight that will take us north to Virginia where I'll get to stay with Kendra and Greg for another week. Vacation was fun...remind me never to live in Florida: hot, humid, Miamii is like morally oppressive...but a week at the beach was very nice.

At the Kennedy Space Center
My last semester of college was rough; there was so much to do and so much happening to me I felt like Job at times, losing people I cared for, viral infections, car accidents, ect...but throughout, God was good, taking the things I had put my security in and reminding me that it is He who desires to be my all, and I, like Gomer, learned for a season, and then again forgot, pursuing my other lovers. So, God continues to take from me...and then give back...continues to break me...and then heal again.

Now, the lesson is patience and truly loving. Patience in what God has in store for me, patience in the people around me, working to exhibit the love that Christ has for me to everyone. I'm stretching to learn what it means to love when the other seems to despise you, to want good for others when they want no good for you.

I'm learning who God is, His attributes never cease to amaze and unsettle me. What am I worthy of this love? But that is the point. I am not worthy, and will never be...for God does not love me according to my merit but according to who He claims to be. His promises are structures already formed. And my future, He has already lived out. What a love, what a Savior, what a God!

Spring 2009...weird

HIIIII!!!
Well, it's now two days before the start of my second semester as a sophomore. This last semester was busy, intense, and more sometimes than I thought I would be able to handle. RAing has been an interesting experience. It wasn't exactly what I thought it would be, and I haven't done as well as I would have hoped. Let me break down what I did last semester:
~18 units
~Choir
~RAing
~Intramural football
~Intramural volleyball
~Boyfriend/Friend time
My Tuesdays last semester went from 8am to 10pm straight...and this semester they'll go from 9:30am-11pm almost straight...it's pretty intense. I also was helping as much as possible with Kendra's wedding stuff...
It's been busy, but the Lord is still teaching me.
I think some of the biggest ways I've grown has been by the things the Lord is using Michael to teach me. I'm learning to become less dependent on people and more dependent on the Lord. I'm learning to let things go and not hold grudges, I'm learning to really love the way Christ loves me, I'm learning how to communicate and not always win. I've learned so much in 5 months.
I want to be my best for him, but I know that he just wants me to be myself...in doing so, who I am is made better instead of the mask I wear becoming more decorated. His character pushes me to be more like Christ in my own. I am so blessed to have had him by my side all these past months. I'm not sure yet what the Lord has in store, and I'm learning not to put hope in that. Mans steps are established by the Lord and He delights in his way.