Bits and Pieces

I found a list recently of things that I had apparently made a list to blog about sometime back in October or so, but I never got past the first 2. I finally put my blog close to the top of my list of favorites in IE, so hopefully I'll make my way over here a little more often. As for the bits and pieces, most is either student quotes, or experiences with them, so here goes:

1. It is interesting the contrast in home life that I can see just from comments that kids make. One student told me she didn't like a certain song, because she heard it in her dad's church, and, as she put it, her dad is "evangelic" and she is Catholic. Not long after that converation, one of my students told me that she loved her sister and that whenever she fights with her sister, her mom tells them not to fight because the Bible says to love one another-her parents just got saved a few months ago.

2. My 8th grade boys really enjoyed-and when I say that, I mean they kept bring it up for several days-a joke I told them that is one my dad had told me. They had been telling jokes, so I decided to tell them one- What's green and has wheels? After they guess, and I tell them no, for each one, I say, "Grass. I lied about the wheels." I never expected for them to go as crazy about it as they did.

3. Ifyou think about it, pray for one of my students. His mom was killed in a small plane crash here in PR about a month ago. He lived with mom, but he's living with his dad now, and seems to be doing very well, but at his age (2nd grade) that's a lot to deal with. He really is doing well, but as I talk to him in piano lessons, I hear things from time to time that break my heart-just continue to pray for him.

4. About a month ago, we had a really exciting visitation. I went with a first grade teacher, and we were talking to this family about school, but it didn't look like we'd be able to have a serious conversation because the two little girls were running in and out, playing and talking, and generally preventing anything serious. So, we gave both the parents tracts and were preparing to leave, when the mom said to her husband "While the teachers are here, why don't you ask them that question about church?" She actually asked the question for him, and it had to do with why he felt like a hypocrite sitting in church and realizing he had sin in his life. Obviously, even though we didn't think we would be able to share the gospel, God had other plans and opened the door. We began talking, and found that neither of the parents were saved, but they both had a great interest in the gospel. We were able to share the gospel, and as we read I John 1:9, the mom asked "How do you do that? confess?" The mom trusted Christ that night, and it was exciting to see how clearly God had prepared the way for us that night.

5. Not long ago, one of my 7th grade students asked me, "Teacher, do you want a violin?" Apparently, he used to play in second grade, but quit, and now is way too large for a 3/4 violin. I told him, "Sure, as long as it's alright with your parents." So now, I'm the proud owner of a violin that is way too small for me. But it's not too small for my siblings......

6. My 4th grade students have discovered that I can solve a rubix cube, so they've been passing them to me to solve-usually I'll do it on the way to lunch, in between students, etc. It's kinda funny-sometimes I'll have 3-4 at once. They know that if I take it up because they're playing with it in class I'll mix up their progress, so several of them just give it to me before class starts so they won't get tempted to play with it.

7. I am now an assistant coach for a co-ed softball team. "But I thought you didn't know any thing about softball" you may say. You're right, I don't.

Now for student quotes-
1. Liliana tells me that she wants to be a teacher when she grows up, or maybe a teacher who also teaches piano, or maybe a "pianist teacher"

2. Her brother Daniel told me he didn't want to go to Texas because there's lots of bulls there, and he saw a cartoon once about a bull trying to kill a clown. This same boy also said (when asked what he was thinking about instead of piano) "Babies. and that they do vomit."

3. My HS girls PE students told me when I introduced the sport we'd be playing for the quarter- "We're girls. We don't play basketball."

4. Ana asked needed an eraser for her work page, and she asked me, "Do you have a lonely eraser?"
"A what??"
"A lonely eraser, you know, an eraser without a pencil."

5. Sam (10th grade) asked me as I walked through the hallway one morning, "Miss Nething, you know what's been tugging at my heart lately? That there's people dying and going to hell every day all over the world."