Oh the things you can find

So I admit it, I'm a lurker. And a lot of you are lurkers too. It's amazing what you can discover by lurking on places like Facebook and doing a little Googling isn't it. For example this week I discovered an old friend of mine has been divorced, remarried and has a new baby. I didn't find him, I found his new wife. Completely by accident. Strange isn't it? Do you ever google yourself? I've done it. My blogs and some of my friends blogs come up. As well as some work I did with the local Shakespeare society. Not too surprising. I know it's harder to find me on Facebook. I've set my privacy settings pretty high. But really, the stuff I post is mostly for me and my good friends. Is that hypocritical of me? Kind of a new morality quandry isn't it? What do you think?

Happy Canada Day!

So I'm one of those annoying people that knows stuff. Random stuff. My husband hates playing any sort of trivia game with me because he says I turn into a completely different person (all competitive). Anyways, I read an article this week on how Canadians really don't know a lot about their own country. Most of the questions seemed like they should know it, but I'm not really surprised at the ignorance. I teach children and I've gotten over the shock of them not knowing their provinces, because they never do. I do have a song to help them learn them of course (you knew that was coming). So here's my own Canada Day trivia quiz. Just 10 questions long. I'll post the answers in the comments section. Let me know how you did (no googling!)

1. It is currently 2009. How old is Canada this year?
2. How many territories are in Canada? Name them.
3. How many provinces are in Canada? Name them.
4. What is the capital city of Canada?
5. Who was the first Prime Minister of Canada?
6. Who is the current Prime Minister of Canada?
7. Who was the first Canadian to win an Academy Award?
8. What is Canada's newest province?
9. What is Canada's official national sport?
10. What was the last Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup?

For some fun Canadian reading take a look at Why I Hate Canadians by Will Ferguson and How to Be A Canadian (also by Will Ferguson and his brother Ian Ferguson). They are really interesting and really funny. Very Canadian.

Happy Father's Day

The house is quiet. Elijah has taken Jonathan out on a father-son date to see UP! Jeremy being quite disappointed that he's too young to go has suitably crashed into a nap - he's taking his Daddy to Starbucks at a later time for his date with dad.
Hope you all are having a Happy Father's Day!

On Duty

3 times a week I'm on duty, teacher supervison duty. Basically that means that I am one of several teachers who are out in the play yard making sure that the kids are doing what they are supposed to be doing and keeping them out of harm's way. These are just a few observations of my interactions with the kids during yard duty.

-dismissed the entire upstairs floor
-made sure that no one was hiding inside
-walked one class down the stairs to prevent running and chaos
-untangled bouncy balls on elastic strings
-taken away a bottle from a group playing spin the bottle
-taught a girl how to properly dribble a basketball so that it wouldn't get away from her
-broken up a 'secret' club (read - exclusive hurting others' feelings)
-broken up a physical fight
-broken up a game of truth or dare
-had kids assist with erasing the inappropriate chalk grafitti
-discussed with one child how yes indeed, those clouds really looked real
-directed the traffic on the monkey bars
-sent one child in for a band-aid for a skinned knee
-tracked how many students were in and out of the building to use the washroom
-decided which two students would be allowed to hold the door when we all went back inside
-blew the whistle to signal going in time
-supervised that they were going in the building okay
-wrote out lunch violations for those who were fighting

Oh yes, and all of this happened over the course of one lunch period.

Just a great old song

My grade 5's are working quietly and as requested I'm playing music for them (as long as they are quiet). I've put on a Motown mix (school appropriate music). And a funny thing happened...they all got very, very quiet when My Girl by the Temptations came one and they started to sway to the music, move their feet a little and I even caught a few of them singing along quietly.

Why must we do these things?

I've been thinking a lot about California's proposition 8 these past few weeks. One thing that has really stood out for me is how hateful Christians are being about this. Ugh. I'm a Christian and I really don't want to be lumped in with the people that I've seen in the news. Please, my brothers and sisters, could you take a moment to read this and really think and pray about what I'm saying here. Now, I'm not a fan of gay marriage, particularly gay marriage in the church. But I'm also not a fan of the message that some of you are saying as an arguement against gay marriage. You say that God doesn't approve of gay marriage, so it shouldn't be so. Well, what good is that to someone who doesn't believe in God? How does that hold up in a society where there is a separation of church and state? It doesn't. The fact is that we live in a time where gay people are living in recognized unions. Just because you don't agree with it, doesn't mean that you need to be nasty about it. How does that show the love Christ has for people? How does that attract people to Him? It doesn't. I don't think it's right not recognising families. I don't think it's right to keep someone's partner from their deathbed because there isn't a legal recognition of their right as family. I don't think it's right that their children should be kept from them. I don't think it's right that the validity of their property should be kept from their partner and children should they pass away. This is the reality of the world that we live in. How does that help these people out? How is that being compassionate? It's not. It's being completely legalistic. We get so caught up in seeing homosexuality as a sin that we lose sight of the people. We lose sight of the emotion. We lose sight of the reality of lives being lived.
I know a wonderful pastor who thought of a great idea: the church should get out of the business of marriage. Now before you get all up in arms about this, look closer. Why not? Why not have a civil ceremony followed by a church blessing ceremony if you've always dreamed of a big church wedding? That's how they do weddings in places like France. Can't you see the problems that would erase? There are many gay couples who are fighting for the right to be married in the church. Well, what if the church wasn't responsible for marrying? What if the legal aspect of marriage was taken care of by the law, a justice of the peace? Would it make your marriage blessing ceremony any less special? My sister in law and her husband had such a wedding. They had a civil service at their home in Canada and then a blessing service at the church near her grandparents place in England. Both were lovely. Both were celebrated.
I am most concerned with how many Christians are choosing to walk out their Christianity on this one issue. We've contributed to making it Christian vs. Gays. It shouldn't be that way. It shouldn't be Christians vs. anyone except Satan. If we are really and truly walking as Christ walked, then why are we showing so much venom?
I want you to think about your own personal flaws and sins (and don't say you don't have any because everyone does - except Him). One of mine is the sin of glutony, I overeat. Do you honestly think I would have ever found the Lord if every time I turned around someone was saying to me: God hates fat people. ? No, I would have never come anywhere near a church. I would have felt so uncomfortable and so unwelcome. How is screaming out: God hates gay people any different? It's not. We've made being gay such a huge thing, that we've made it a stumbling block for anyone gay to get to know who Jesus is. The fact is, God created all of us. He loves all of us equally and whole-heartedly. He doesn't see any sin as any bigger than any other. We will all face Him one day and how are you going to answer the questions: How did you show this person love? How did you show this person who I am? How did you show compassion?
I have known and loved several gay people in my life. We have one friend so close to our hearts that our kids are being raised calling him 'uncle' (not biological, just a good friend). He's a great guy. I couldn't imagine if I had decided to gather up so much righteous, legalistic anger inside me and screamed hate at him. I would be the one to lose out. Instead, I have a good friend.

Do we have to be so negative?...really?

Argghhh - I am frustrated with the media!
First, let me remind everyone that while I don't actually have cable, I do enjoy a good TV program. I particularly enjoy British TV (can you see where this is leading?) and one of my favorites is Britain's Got Talent. I enjoyed Susan Boyle as much as the next person (in fact her story made a lovely lesson plan with one of my grade 7/8 classes), but the fact is there were many amazing acts that were on the show this year.
I'm quite pleased that Diversity won the show. I have never seen anything like what they did ever! Their choreography and movement was so unique, so precise, so perfect, so wonderful...(I could go on) - absolutely amazing stuff! But does the media write that? NO! They don't point out how good this group it. They don't point out how good the other talent was either - their focus is Susan Boyle lost(she placed 2nd).
They also wanted to dwell on a young girl, Hollie, who got a case of the nerves during her semi-final (she went on to re-do her performance and make it to the finals brilliantly) - is it too much for children to be on a show like this? Well they didn't see Shaheen Jafargoli perform and say that now did they? (Brilliant vocals) Or Aidan Davis, the 12 year old dancing phenom? Nope, the hot story is the negative story. Can we start building people up? Can we give credit for the combination of hard work and talent? Will that sell stories? I would much rather have woken up to headlines of Diversity Wins It All than Susan Boyle's Dream is Dead - find out why which a rediculously warped picture of her. You know, she is a lovely singer and I hope she continues to sing and that she does well with it, but I also hope that for a good many of the contestants that I saw on the show this year. Well done everyone, well done!