Book Review: In God's Underground

We are headed into Week 8 of a new school year and I have done nothing except school-related activities for the last two months. Shopping - for school; reading - for school; Pinterest - for school; even blogging - for school. I needed to do something different, something for me, something that would boost my spirit. 

So I headed over to my dear friend, the Amazon Kindle store, particularly the under-$3 section and typed "missionary biography." This $1 gem popped up - In God's Underground by Richard Wurmbrand. 

A Luther pastor in Romania. The end of World War II. Communist takeover of Eastern Europe. You can image what happens from there. 

According to my kindle app, I am only 39% of the way through the book (so technically, I shouldn't be reviewing), but as of right now this is a must read!

I have been struck by a few things...

1. Pastor Wurmbrand may be Lutheran, but the man knows his Bible. At the end of the day, the doctrine of salvation will determine whether a man enters heaven or not - not the title which he chooses to associate. I don't necessarily agree with all that Pastor Wurmbrand has said, but he has been a fresh reminder to not be sooo caught up in religious titles and associations. 
2. What was the United States thinking when we let Russia claim half of Europe? Were we insane? 
3.  I am so blessed to live in a country where I do possess religious freedom, but should the day come that my freedom is taken I way, I pray that my faith may be as strong!

A few incredible quotes...

"The conversion of Svetlana Stalin, only daughter of the greatest mass-murder of Christians, a soul brought up in the strictest Communist discipline, proves that there is a better weapon against communism than the nuclear bomb - it is the love of Christ." (Dear sweet American Christians, may we apply this same thought to terrorists of our day. The love of Christ!!)

"So if a man calls himself an atheist as he sits with his wife over tea and cakes, that is no proof of atheism. A true conviction must survive enormous pressure, and atheism does not." (Wurmbrand wrote this after describing the genuine salvation of countless early communist leaders in Romania, whom he witnessed to as a fellow prisoner. He said that very few communist could maintain their atheism without claiming Christ closer to their death. But I also look at this as a challenge - for my faith to survive this enormous pressure if I were in a similar situation.)

"A man who visits a barber to be shaved, or orders a suit from a tailor, is not a disciple, but a customer. So one who comes to the Savior only to be saved is the Savior's customer, not His disciple. A disciple is one who says to Christ, 'How I long to work like Yours! To go from place to place taking away fear; bringing instead joy, truth, comfort, and life eternal!'" (Best description that I have ever heard about this exact thought!!!)

Moral of the story: You need to stop what ever book you are reading and get this book. It is convicting, inspiring, and truly life changing!!

Note to parents: The unspoken reality is that Communism was a brutal, Satanic beast. The Communist often used the worst sins of the world to torture faithful Christians. This is outlined in the book and I think in some ways, the longing of the sinful nature fighting against the spirit of Christ is more graphic than the description of physical torture. This book is best for more mature teenagers and adults. 

How to Make an Awesome Powerpoint

It's 11 PM and you have class first thing tomorrow morning. And there are two more assignments to grade. But... you really need a powerpoint ASAP. 

Ok, sorry, I can't really help you with that. But if you have a little bit of "free time" (aka work time/prep time), pull out your computer and pull up either Microsoft Powerpoint or Apple's Keynote. I personally prefer Keynote. When I first bought a Macbook in 2010, I couldn't figure out how to navigate the program, but when Apple rolled out an update that was free for everyone who had purchased the previous version and it was super-amazing! So easy and it makes so much more sense. 

I am currently working on a website for my students and classes.
So this article is shown on both my personal website and
my school website just so I could practice the design.
When it is functional, if ever, I will have to let you know. 

Choose A Layout

First thing that I recommend doing is choosing a layout for each class. I pick a layout that will work for the entire school year. For 7th grade, I use the brown "Typeset" layout. Eight grade gets the orange and charcoal "Improv." Ninth grade sees "Renaissance" on a daily basis, and the 10th grade gets my favorite "Moroccan." Whenever I have a special presentation like "Remember 9/11" or a Presidential speech from the night before, I will use "Photo Portfolio." I think consistency is a key aspect to a well-run classroom and that goes all the way to the background of my presentations. (By the way, I am just a little OCD. :) But, the kids know and appreciate it (whether they realize it or not). 

9th Grade: Cultural Geography always knows this Layout is theirs.
Also I make sure to place a limit on the amount of information included
on each slide. Sure, I said a lot more about Scandinavia,
but this was exactly what they needed to know at this moment. 

Include Only the Most Important Information

Don't put every word that you plan on saying on the presentation. The students will have a hard enough time discerning what information they need to know for your assessments. You don't want to overwhelm them with a flood of information. I filter this information by only including that I want them to write in their notes. The students are informed that they can put the information in their own words, and I typically will not slow down for them to copy the notes. For the 7-8th grade, I will pause for a few moments after I finish that slide's worth of information because they are still learning, but the older ones just have to deal with it. 

Use Basic Animation

During my class time, I want the students to focus on me - not my digital presentations. To accomplish this, I use very basic animation. Just enough to keep the next bullet point hidden until I am ready to present it. I keep it boring (only in animation), so the students are not distracted by motion on the screen. Every last bullet point in my presentations are animated to "Appear." You might want to use a different animation, but don't go wild!

Be Interesting

I Know I just told you to be boring, but don't! Be interesting! Using digital presentations allows you to visually connect with you students. It opens you to a whole level and learning style that you cannot attain simply through auditory learning. Use pictures appropriately throughout your presentation. What did Cicero look like? What are some illustrations of the Tower of Babel? What might the Hanging Gardens of Babylon looked like? I insert as many pictures as humanly possible without pulling off a cluttered look. Some of my presentations are about 25 slides of information and another 25 slides of pictures. Sometimes I use real life photographs, illustrations, cartoons, comics, and photos from places that I have visited (that relate to the class.) I also use video clips, but that is another story. The students love seeing what you are talking about! Also, they do live in a media-obssessed world, so it makes sense to relate as much as they possibly can. One last thing, the pictures make history real. It goes from dusty old textbook to living reality. 

8th Grade: American Republic is my favorite presentation layout.
I love the charcoal and white. It makes the pictures pop.
And who doesn't love American history?

Little Details

For the benefit of your students and more so for your own sanity, preview your presentations between you take it into the classroom. Make sure that the font is large enough to clearly be seen by everyone in the room. Make sure the pictures are not blurry or too blurry to be seen. Make sure the slides have the same consistent transitions. Make sure that words are not running of the page or details of a picture are obstructed from view. I often check presentations on my own computer, and if I have any concerns I will project the presentation on my tv at home just to make sure. 

Plan Ahead

I would be lying if I didn't tell you that it takes lots of time to prepare these presentation. Sometimes I will have just a short period of time or a poor internet connection, so I will just pull out the notes that I have prepared ahead and start transposing the text into Keynote. That will save me a ton of time late. Also if there is a really rough patch of time and I couldn't get the pictures in - at least I have the text complete and can still teach without changing the consistency in my class. (I am saying only do this in an emergency! Don't make a habit of it.) And finally, it really does take a while to do this. A regular week night is not the best time for me to create a presentation - look over it, sure! but never create. So look at what is coming up for your next week and add the pictures and animation while you are watching your favorite tv shows or movies over the weekend. 

The Best Thing I Ever Did

... Was get off Facebook!

I am sorry, but I am not kidding. I am a people-pleaser. I want people to like me. I always have. That is part of who God made me, but I started realizing that I was letting Facebook dictate my emotions. I am very visual and wear my heart on my sleeve. 

It was getting impossible to go onto to Facebook and reading people's "highlight reels" and wondering what was wrong with me? Why wasn't God blessing me with that? What did I do to deserve less than that person? I didn't get to spend four hours in my devotions today. Hey, I haven't done that (the four hours part) since Christmas break... maybe I am not as spiritual as that person. Or look at the person's beautiful new house. Oh, wait, you mean this is the third house upgrade they have had since we graduated college together? (Oh, yes, I am living in my third and smallest apartment in three years.) Oh, no, I am not a youth pastor's wife anymore. Oh, no, I don't have any kids. Oh, no, we don't have two awesome cars, two brand new iPads, a house, a dog, the latest clothes, huge diamond rings, and four perfectly angelic super-spiritual kids. Yes, I work outside the home and no, I don't do a great job cooking for my husband every night. It's a miracle we have clean clothes sometimes. 

And I was letting all of that crazy dictate my relationship with God and my emotions.

And that's wrong. 

My relationship with God is dependent on my time with Him and it is a personal relationship between us, not between me and Facebook and God or me and the entire planet and God. It is a relationship between me and God. I cannot let someone else determine how spiritual I am. I am never going to be Pricilla Shirer or Beth Moore or the most popular girl from my college campus. Right now, God doesn't even have me as a youth pastor's wife. 

But that is ok because I am right where God wants me to be. I am being who He wants me to be and my relationship with Him is growing. I am not perfect. I am will be the first to admit that. I mess up and fail God regularly, but my goal is to like Christ, not to be the person my "Christian culture" tells me to be. 

I had to come to the point where I realized that Facebook was part of what hindered me from growing closer to God and also what was causing some of the emotional distress I was facing. 

To break the Facebook chains of bondage I started by deleting the apps on my phone and iPad, but quickly realized that I needed to go through a period of complete separation from Facebook. For me, that was a two solid week period of zero-facebook. 

Since then I go on Facebook for ten minutes a week on either a Friday or Saturday night. Once that ten minutes is up, I get off.

The difference has been near magical!

In the last two full months that I have been off Facebook, I feel a little more focused, more content, more apt to ask a  person how they are doing personally, and far less dependent on social media. Yah, I missed my best friend's Facebook announcement about her second pregnancy. She lives several hours away, but we actually got to talk a few days earlier so I knew before the wonderful world of Facebook! I don't know what is going on in certain people's daily lives. It has been good and bad.

Moral of the story - I survived and I am surviving. I don't think I will be heading back to Facebook any time soon. The world keeps spinning. 

Map Skills Bulletin Board

As a first year teacher, I didn't want to spend a fortune on bulletin board sets, but at the same time I only have so many hours a day to prepare for a new school year. So I opted to use my limited budget to purchase a store-bought bulletin board set. It was a sacrifice that needed to be made. 

The first several chapters in my 9th grade Cultural Geography book are related to maps and general cartography. This bulletin board set was perfect. Almost every piece of the set coordinated perfectly with the terms. The latitude and longitude were an idea that I saw on Pinterest. 

My high school students loved the bright colors. They said it was fun to look at and educational. I call that a win! :)

Maps and Map Skills - by "Creative Teaching Press" 

All letters and borders purchased at my local teacher supply store.