I was sitting in church service today after having a three-week absence, and I realized a couple of things I thought I would share.
Before I begin, though, it's important to understand it's okay to miss church service. Missing service isn't necessarily a good thing, but the end of the world doesn't occur with an absence or two or perhaps even a bit of a "run" of absences. (It's nice, though, to "make-up" the contributions to the offering plate upon your return. After all, financing the many church programs is very dependent upon the weekly offering.)
So having missed the other November services, I stopped by the ATM on my way to service this morning before the big "Snowmageddon" event and picked up some cash to help out the offering plate. And after the ATM stop, I made my way to Casey's to get some gas and pick up some batteries for Amber before arriving. There it was...Reynolds United Methodist Church...just has I remembered it.
My faith journey is a bit complicated, and it's a longer story than I care to share here. Instead, I'm just keeping my realizations the topic.
#1 - I attend church because I believe my attendance is a contribution to a community that I care about. When I attend church I make myself available to help out with service however I can, and I contribute the offering which helps the church's activities of reaching out to the community.
#2 - I attend because church is a positive role model for my life. The messages I receive in the hymns and songs, the children's message, the sharing of concerns and joys, the Bible scripture, sermon...they are messages that I need in my life.
So am I "religious"...I'm not sure. I don't think so. To be brutally honest, I'm not quite sure of the whole "God" thing. I am sure in the story of Jesus Christ, and I am sure that his life is a good role model for me to consider if I want a happy, healthy life and want to help people around me enjoy happy, healthy lives. For now...that's okay.
Sunday, November 25, 2018
Wednesday, November 7, 2018
Because I'm Competitive!
The SAT results each year don't completely define the success of a school. Finishing in the Top 10 in our school's area in a particular category shouldn't be misjudged as which school is the best school or which school is the worst school.
Here's the deal, though, does anyone really want his/her school at the bottom?
Recently, I crunched numbers to determine the percentage of our students that met or exceeded state standards, much like I had done last year. Below is the table of the results. In 2018, 42% of our students met or exceeded state standards in ELA. Is this good? Is so, why? If not, why?
I think "good" can be defined only when a comparison is made, and that comparison really needs to be "apples-to-apples". So in the table below, good would me that RHS would perform better than school similar in size, demographics, and money spent on each student.
Not good is the fact that ONLY 42% met or exceeded ELA state standards in 2018. Not good is that our percentage dropped 20 points from 2017 to 2018. On the other hand, it is good that our percentage was higher than most other schools in our county and neighboring counties in our area of Illinois.
Because I'm competitive, I want to have our percentages to be higher than other area schools. I'm not sure how much of that performance is a result of my contributions in the classroom, because we are only in the second year of the SAT in Illinois. If we are able to be among the leaders each year for the next several years, though, that data would seemed to be a positive by product of our school district's efforts.
Here's the deal, though, does anyone really want his/her school at the bottom?
Recently, I crunched numbers to determine the percentage of our students that met or exceeded state standards, much like I had done last year. Below is the table of the results. In 2018, 42% of our students met or exceeded state standards in ELA. Is this good? Is so, why? If not, why?
I think "good" can be defined only when a comparison is made, and that comparison really needs to be "apples-to-apples". So in the table below, good would me that RHS would perform better than school similar in size, demographics, and money spent on each student.
Not good is the fact that ONLY 42% met or exceeded ELA state standards in 2018. Not good is that our percentage dropped 20 points from 2017 to 2018. On the other hand, it is good that our percentage was higher than most other schools in our county and neighboring counties in our area of Illinois.
Because I'm competitive, I want to have our percentages to be higher than other area schools. I'm not sure how much of that performance is a result of my contributions in the classroom, because we are only in the second year of the SAT in Illinois. If we are able to be among the leaders each year for the next several years, though, that data would seemed to be a positive by product of our school district's efforts.
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