National Day on Writing - a few minutes late

I’ve been sitting on this for a while, and haven’t posted it because I’m a bit timid. I’m a Christian. There’s nothing that I think more about than Biblical literature, interpretation, and application. But this subject is a bit different than anything else I’ve written about, so expanding into new territory isn’t easy. I figured today, on the National Day on Writing, I would be adventurous.

Four weeks ago I started going to an old school, proper Sunday School at Jefferson Avenue Baptist Church where a friend of mine leads the class. They started a series on the book of Philippians, which is one of my favorite books in the Bible, so I decided I would try it out.

The study started out by looking at Philippians 1:1-26. I was surprised by the idea of Christ’s work in Christians as a process. This is something that had occurred to me, but never quite so explicitly from the Bible. Personally, I had grown weary by the idea that when one “becomes a Christian” everything changes. We are physical beings, with urges and impulses and drives that become so ingrained within us that they become almost impossible to break—almost. But through the work of Christ, over time, change occurs. I think it’s pretty cool, even if it is a little crazy.

The verses that stand out to me, that encourage me in my thinking are Philippians 1:4-6, and 9-11.

In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

Later, after confessing his desire for death more than life and pleading with the Philippians to have the same attitude as Christ, he persists in his emphasis on process oriented Christianity in 2:12-13.

Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

Now, chapter 3 of Philippians is probably my favorite chapter in the entire Bible, and in this chapter, specifically verse 12, Paul looks toward his goal and realizes he has far to go.

Not that I have already obtained all this*, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 

*This refers to verses 8-11.

Paul is a man who, if we believe the Bible, heard and saw a blinding vision of the Lord, and this experience transformed him in an amazing way—he stopped persecuting the Church and Christians, became a Christian himself and was himself persecuted. But still this transformation was not absolute or complete. Paul uses words and phrases to represent a process or journey oriented life in Christ. This often is not what is represented in the modern Church, and often not what is presented by Christians as they live their lives. Often I have encountered a Christianity of immediacy and perfectionism, and experienced nothing but a stifling mood. According to Paul, and his letter to the Philippians, this should not be. Why not approach life in Christ as a journey in coming to know Him more? Why not approach living as a Christian as a process in coming to know Christ more, and allowing that experience to change oneself? 

The Sunday School class was really fun for me to attend. It was good to meet some new people, and experience a new a different church experience apart from the one I’ve had for the past nine years. It’s always good to be challenged in my thinking, and I’m grateful that I’ve been exposed to new ways of reading one of my favorite texts. 

it was a good day

Well, I'm extremely tired, so as has become my custom, I'm going to keep this short.

1. School went well. Lots of different short activities. Talked symbolism in Haroun and the Sea of Stories; heard from the kids about their own ideas. My favorite interaction: Student 1: "Are turtle doves a symbol of anything, Mr. Maerke" Me: "I don't know. Why don't you use the computer to see if you can find an answer." Student 1: "Sweet." Students 2, 3, 4: "Hey, can I look up something too?" Me: "Is it about symbolism?" Students 2 and 4: "Yes." Student 3: "Uh, nope." Me: "Yes and yes. What are you looking up?" "Student 2: "What time the Chiefs' game starts tonite." Me: "Nope." Student 1: "Hey, 2 turtle doves from the 'Twelve Days of Christmas' song represents the Old and the New Testaments from the Bible. I found a site that tells about everything. The five golden rings isn't about rings at all, it's about the first five books of the Bible." Student 12: "What's with the Bible?"

2. Exploratory even went well today. We read. We watched a video of Irving Roth's testimony. We even watched Channel One. They're getting the hang of things. Good thing, because it's the fourth week of school. Tomorrow we respond to the video on the wiki. I'm excited.

3. After school I did my best to get organized. I'm not great at that, but I tried.

4. I met with Lisa and Sarah about their experiences in Berkeley with the NWP MAKE initiative. They had some really cool stories to tell, and I loved hearing them. I'm hoping that experience really was a positive one for them, and helps them find a niche. We talked quite a bit about a mini-grant for the site. I don't even know if a mini-grant is necessary, but it sounds like they're going to spend some time working one up. When I heard what they were doing I was really excited. It sounds amazing and wonderful and I'm totally jealous of their experiences.

5. At the meeting with Lisa and Sarah, at Panera Bread on N. Kansas Expressway, I saw a former student and his mom. It wasn't a pleasant meeting because none of our meetings when I had the student in my classes were pleasant. All are unfortunate.

6. I could have gotten more grading done than I did, but I'm totally ok with out it. It'll get done.

from yesterday, and today, so I'm counting this one twice

I really like writing with pen and paper. Pencil and paper is nice, but I like pen and paper more. Typing is good, but I spend so much time on a computer during the day, that when I pull it out I can't help but open email, and twitter, and Google Reader, and check the OWP Ning. All of that feels like work. Lately, when I sit with pen and a notebook and write on paper, I can almost feel like I'm flying. That’s totally cliché and junior high, but it’s true. I'm becoming a writer; writing something that I want to do on a regular basis. It's something that, when presented with a new scenario or a problem, I want to do to sort out my thoughts.


Yesterday, after school, I went to MSU for an OWP meeting. It was nice to see people, and we really needed to get some work done. It was raining pretty good on my way in to Siceluff, so I didn't bring my computer in. (And I really didn't want to because then I would be more distracted and it would feel more like work). After sitting down at the table and reconnecting with everyone using our talking stick, I started to write, unprovoked. That's something that rarely happens. But now, as I'm writing every day, I'm looking for things to write about, and I'm finding things that I want to write about even when I don't have time.

I began writing about ironing. It's something that I've wanted to write about for some time, but just haven't. Below is not the exact version that I wrote, because I did go through and edit, but I actually told myself, as I was writing, that I would go through and edit. It's cliché filled and lousy, but I hope you enjoy.

Ironing.
It presses out the creases. It gets out the wrinkles.


It’s a great way to start a day. I do it to cleanse my mind. When I “press” my shirts I can feel my tightened mind loosen. I prepare myself for work by making myself “look sharp”—as my father might say. I act to stop the grind while somehow participating in the grind: I must iron my pants and shirts every morning; it is part of the routine. But somehow it is apart from all the rest of it.


Ironing comes after I read and journal and pray. That is a two-part intentional choice. I don’t want to sit down and wrinkle my newly crisp clothes. Sometimes I don’t want to read and journal and pray, but I force myself to do it, even when I’m running late. The intent is to prepare myself for the day—mentally and spiritually. The outcome is usually a desire for more time to sit and be quiet before my Creator. It’s then, in my morning routine, that I rise to iron out the wrinkles from my clothes. It is then that I feel my muscles begin to relax, and my mind grow at ease with the plans for the day. Yes, there is much to do, but with the right combination, anything is possible.


When I walk out of my study, where I iron, I walk out a neatly dressed, new man. I walk out armed to take on the day. There’s a mental shift that takes place, a loosening of the anxious bonds that rush me from shower to shave to shake to vitamins to _______________.


I don’t know why or how or when it happened, but I love ironing in the morning.

an attempt at connecting

I wrote this email today and sent it to all of the 2010 Ozarks Writing Project Summer Institute participants. It was pretty exciting reading Sarah Keeth's blog. Part of what I'm identifying as a desire of mine is connecting people with one another in meaningful ways so that good work can happen. Sometimes people are hesitant to make those connections. Sometimes people don't know that the opportunities are there. Sometimes people think they are the only ones thinking or experiencing "that," whatever "that" is. I want to help people connect to one another. Yep, that's really it. From there, if they're really interested in becoming better people, or better teachers, or better writers, or better learners, or better _______________, then they'll work together.

Margaret Wheatley, in Turning to One Another, says, "When a community of people discovers that they share a concern, change begins. There is no power equal to a community discovering what it cares about." And later, "Somewhere in the description of how it all began is the phrase: 'Some friends and I started talking...'" (p. 26).

I want to connect people, to foster conversations. I guess the email below is one attempt at doing that.

Hello all!

I know that for some the school year has begun, and for others the start is very near. I hope that the experiences from this summer’s SI are fresh in your minds and supporting your plans this year.

With all of the planning and thinking that we do as teachers, we know that things didn’t end on July 9th. I’m looking forward to seeing each of you on September 27th for our renewal, and to hearing wonderful stories of how you are using what you’ve learned in the SI.

The renewal isn’t the only way to stay connected though. Remember the Ning is always a click away. Just today I read Sarah Keeth’s wonderful blog post, “So many ideas… Where do I begin?” and was challenged with each of her points.

I want to use her blog to remind everyone of some things. #5 for Sarah is “to keep communicating with the incredible people.” The Ning is a great way to stay connected. Also, many of you are on Twitter. I recommend we use each of these resources to maintain the connections we developed in the summer.

#6 for Sarah is “I need to keep writing.” I hope each of you feel the same way. I’m so glad that Sarah chose to write and share her thoughts with us. Writing groups would be a wonderful way to keep each other accountable, without big, ugly deadlines. Sara Allen and I have been reminding each other, and checking in on each other, since we’ve begun blogging and writing everyday. Below I’ve listed personal/professional blogs of some involved (and I know that some of you are not going to be happy I’m doing that, but I’m sharing anyway). I would love to help people get connected to develop writing groups by using blogs. And if you need/want help setting up a blog, just let me know. I’ll help with that too.

Sara Allen - http://saraallen91.blogspot.com/
Casey Daugherty - http://journey2learn.blogspot.com/
Cody Walker – http://www.popgunchaos.com/
Keri Franklin - http://writingteacher.blogspot.com/
Thomas Maerke - http://mundanebrain.blogspot.com/

There may be others out there that I’m not remembering. If you do have a blog and want to share, let us know.

Have a great beginning of the year. I look forward to seeing you in September.

I'm late again, but I'm still up so it counts for today

Today I wanted to post something from all this Twitter crap that I've been writing and working on, but I wrote it in Word and the formatting is giving me such fits that I absolutely will not post it here. I'll be giving everyone who attends my session on Twitter for Teachers the link to a Google Doc which will serve as a resource when they leave. It's a ridiculously long and dense handout, which is why I'm going to tweet the link out to those who are following me. Only those interested will seek it out and use it. And that's how I want it to be.

Today I worked with the OWP LSRI VI research team. It's super weird for me to write, but I'll be leading the professional development. We worked from 9:00-4:30, took a break until 6:00, when we had dinner and continued our conversation. It was a completely exhausting day. At 4:30 I came home to read and watch soccer. I couldn't nap, because if I did I would have slept for five hours.

It was an amazing time for work with some wonderfully smart and nice people. Linda Friedrich from the NWP office came to talk us through this whole thing, and her assistance will prove to be invaluable, I'm sure. A new book which she just coauthored has come out, How Teachers Become Leaders, and she shared it with us. It was amazing getting to pick her brain as we sat at the same table and shared donuts and thoughts on research. I'm so blessed.

Two things stand out to me as impressive:

(1) We somehow gel. Even though that's the first time this entire team has been together, although we've worked in some capacity with one another, we get along really well. There were very fast introductions all around, and then we got to work. We weren't scared to disagree with one another, or to ask tough questions. I wasn't scared to ask questions that I thought might be dumb--and that's a pretty good indicator of the acceptance and climate in the room. We laughed at goofy jokes together. We talked about Twitter and Facebook--and more importantly, internet privacy and transparency. It was a great time.

(2) I was the only "dude" on the team, and I hope to remedy that. Also, I feel woefully undereducated sitting at a table with three Ph.D.s and a teacher who has been at it for more than twenty years. I'm going into my fifth year, and I just finished my Masters. Rarely, if ever, have I found myself in a majority when it comes to education situations. I'm starting to really know and understand how prevalent it is in my thinking and awareness, and I'm really wishing that I could be part of a majority at some point. I had a great time learning from these wonderful professionals, and working with them was challenging in a positive way. It would just be nice to have some other dudes around.