Charm and Grace

NGHS Physics Lab Notebooks to be graded. There should be 150 notebooks (if they've all been turned in). My thoughts about grading papers...it's complicated. Fairness - Was the assignment taught well? Did my students understand the assignment? Was the assignment below, at or above the varied abilities of the student? Does my grading rubric measure the student's knowledge & skills? The Weight of the Grade - Heavy weights should be be reserved for final assessments. Daily work should be weighted lightly because it reflects the student's effort to master the material. The student should be given many occasions to practice their skills. Feedback without Discouragement - The feedback about assignments should be honest but not so negative that the student gives up. On the other hand, negative feedback is sometimes appropriate, especially when you have students that are not performing up to their ability level. Proceed with caution!!! I try to provide quick feed...

1. Never skip church, unless you are sick. Sick at heart doesn't count! Taking the sacrament is THE most important thing you do all week. 2. Never take home a stack of lab notebooks to grade (150 notebooks). Doing this will make you sick at heart. See rule #1. 3. People that berate you, not real constructive criticism, are trying to make you sick at heart. See rule #1. 4. Taking the sacrament arms you with the armor of God that deflects the arrows that make you sick at heart. Changing the Subject... 1. My family is the greatest gift I've ever received from God. In the past two weeks we've received visits from Jimmy, Bradie, Ellie, Johnny, Miles & Ashlyn. I've heard from David via Facebook. David & Ann went to the temple this week. 2. Cooking in the kitchen with my husband after church was the most fun I've had all week. I thank God for such sweet time with my companion. Then we took a nap. I scooted over and rested against his arm. The trick to bein...

Jimmy Fowler Eleanor Fowler I'm so glad to be alive. I'm so glad to have Eleanor in my life. I can hardly wait for more to come. I hope to live a very long time. Thank you God!!!

Mormons, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, are well acquainted with a story from the Book of Mormon about holding onto an "Iron Rod" which represents the "word of God", meaning the scriptures. I think the point of holding onto the iron rod is also about clinging, yes sometimes clinging, to the faintest of hopes that things will improve. A few years ago, I suffered such a devastating disappointment that I felt that I was actually broken. I was sitting alone at the breakfast table when a bird flew to a post on my deck & wobbled to a sitting position. I was thinking, "What's wrong with that bird?". I've never seen a bird wobble like that before. The bird stood to reposition himself on the post and I could see that he had only one leg. I sat there and wondered what had gotten a hold of that bird. Even so, he escaped without his leg & lived in spite of the trauma. I realized that even if I felt broken, I was still alive...

In 1980 I felt that my oldest son, John, then seventeen months old needed a playmate. I quickly set about "making that happen". Just before Jimmy was born I began to feel panic about whether I could ever love another child as much as I loved John. I could not understand how I would be able to divide my love for John & share it with another child. Perhaps my being an only child, or that I was still a child, explains my lack of insight about the nature of love. It was after Jimmy's birth, the nursing, the diapering, the playing with, and the bonding with my new infant, that I came to realize that love is multiplied rather than divided among people. In fact, I've recently realized that it's not even multiplied. Love is actually quadratic in nature. Meaning that love increases by the square of the number of people you have in your life to love. I started with the love for my parents, then my husband, then my children, then their spouses, now their children. How c...