HARMLESS THOUGHTS

(This is my entry for the first part of my project for my New Learning course that I am taking.) Introduction Corn Fields in Illinois I have lived the majority of my life in the Midwest: mid-state Illinois to be specific. Where I live, farming is everywhere. My grandparents and great-grandparents on both sides of my family were farmers. My dad grew up on a farm and owned farmland, well into my own adulthood. But, even if it wasn’t in the family, I still would have been surrounded by farming. You can’t go more than a mile outside of my city’s limits without encountering miles and miles of fields. Most of our highways, and even interstates, are located between acres of farmland.

As I've mentioned before, I'm taking a course this summer called New Learning through the University of Illinois. As a part of the course requirements, I must add 7 different updates related to the topics in the course.  This is update #4 on the topic of Authentic Pedagogy: More Recent Times .  The update ended with the prompt: Describe and analyze the features of an example of authentic pedagogy today.  Here is my update:

Morning Bible Reading today is Psalm 44

Morning Bible Reading today is Psalm 43

The Morning Bible Reading today is from I Peter 5:1-11. This is near the end of Peter's first letter to the church. This particular portion is addressed to the elders of a church.

Morning Bible Reading today is from Psalm 42.

Your morning Bible reading is from Psalm 41 today.

Your morning Bible reading.  Psalm 27 today.  

Update 3: “Did That Take?” Education As a teacher, among my peers, I am usually one of the first to adopt new technologies and find ways to integrate them into my teaching. In 2008, when Google Drive was still just called Google Docs, and it was still in it’s beta phase, I started using a version of Google Apps in my tech class. It was still very rudimentary, but it worked for what I was trying to accomplish in my class. I was running my tech class like it was a small business. So, I gave each of my students their own e-mail account under the domain that I had purchased, in order to use the Google Apps suite. At that same school, I worked with the administration in 2009, to introduce Google Apps to the rest of the high school, and enabled e-mail and other online functions for the remainder of the students.

Your Morning Bible Reading today is Romans 5:1-11

I am currently taking a Master's course through the University of Illinois. This is an online course, and the requirements of the course involve me contributing to the "discussion" through typing my own updates and adding them to the course's page. There are seven updates that I need to compose, and I have decided to cross post those updates on this blog. Here is the first update, in response to the instructor's update, titled Being an Educator in Interesting Times. -------------------------------------------------------------

"God's ways are fathomless. We can't ultimately comprehend the works of God (cf. Romans 11:33-36). Hymn writer William Cowper said, 'God works in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform.' Why does James die and Peter live? We aren't told the reasons. We know that Jesus promised James' death in Mark 10:39, but we're not told why. Surely the church was praying for James, like Peter, yet he was put to death. John, James' brother, lived to be an old man. Sometimes believers suffer terribly, and sometimes God delivers miraculously (Schreiner, 'God's Inscrutable Sovereignty'). We can't predict the ways of God.   "Sometimes those who would be great parents can't have biological children. Sometimes those who are terrible parents keep having babies. Sometimes God answers prayers for healings, and sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes the wicked prosper while the righteous suffer -- at least for a season (Psalm 73).   "While s...

Elsewhere in the Universe... "I don't feel so good, Mr. Krabs."

Here are my two "doodles" from last night. I feel like the one on the left has some deep meaning, I just don't know what it is.  March 27th, 2018 Doodles And here are the book marks from my "book mark spree" last week.  March 25th, 2018 Doodles I need to find an easy way to laminate the book marks... I think some of these might sell...

Last week's sermon... (In all of our "technical difficulties" glory!)