THE LATEST...

It's hard to believe, but we just finished our first trimester (12 weeks) and have already embarked on the second one! How time flies when you're having fun!

In History 6, we just started Chapter 3, which is on the ancient Israelites. We will be studying that civilization for the next three weeks, and I look forward to paralleling the historical context with the biblical!

In Bible 6, we are studying the story of Noah, stressing the significance of Genesis 6:22, which tells us how Noah obeyed God despite the huge task of building such a large boat, collecting the animals, and providing enough food to sustain his family and all the animals for the duration of the Flood! We will then spend some time on the emergence of Abraham and his great faith, studying how God turned him into a great nation.

In Bible 7, we have begun a study on the Sermon on the Mount. We just finished examining the Beatitudes ("Beatitude" means "blessed") and Jesus' teaching on the meaning and significance of God's Law. Now we are moving on to the general teachings contained in the Sermon, and what they mean in today's world.

In Bible 8, we have finished our overview of I and II Corinthians and are now starting our study of Galatians. Right now, we are talking about what it means to stand up for the Truth.

I was very encouraged by how our 6th Grade Cartography class went! The students learned the shape and locations of: California, the United States, North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and Antarctica. The average score on the 50 States test (identifying the states on a line map of the U.S.) was 94%! Good job, 6th Graders!

We have now begun our second Exploratory class, a study on Superheroes for 7th Graders. This is a very exciting class, as you can imagine! Over the next 12 weeks, 7th Graders will learn all about several comic book heroes, focusing mainly on not their powers, but their character. With each hero, we'll be looking for the answer to the questions, "What makes this person good?" and "How can I be like them?" We'll also be examining parallels to ancient mythological characters and applying Scripture to these heroes' character traits. I will be teaching DC characters to two sets of students, while a partner teacher is covering the Marvel characters.

So as you can see, this is a very exciting time in UC Academy's Junior High! Don't you wish you could join the fun??

A RIDDLE:
"Where did Noah keep the bees?"
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"In the Ark-hives!"

MID-TRIMESTER CHECK-UP

We are now in the middle of the first Trimester! Can you believe it? It’s exciting to see all the things my students have learned already!

Before our 8^th Graders visited our nation’s capitol, we finished studying 1 and 2 Thessalonians and are now getting into 1 Corinthians. We are studying these books in the order that Paul wrote them. In the coming weeks, we’ll be studying what the Bible has to say about Christians fighting each other, human wisdom vs. God’s wisdom, and one of my favorite lessons on Christian liberty as defined by Paul in 1 Corinthians 8:1-9:23.

Our 7^th Grade Bible class is studying the Life of Christ as presented in the four Gospels. We have learned about Jesus’ character traits of compassion and holiness, and are moving on to His authority, His temptation (and how we can resist sin—yes, we can!), and what it means to keep Jesus at the center of our lives.

In 6^th Grade Bible, we just finished the first unit on Worldviews. Ask your student what a worldview is—they’ll tell you all about them! We also learned about the three main monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Now, we are beginning to study Genesis and focusing on God’s Creation, the Fall of Mankind, and God’s plan of redemption.

6^th Grade History has been a lot of fun! We’ve gotten in our time machines and have explored ancient Mesopotamia. Did you know that name was created by the Greeks hundreds of years later, and it means “The Land Between Rivers”? Ask your student which two rivers Mesopotamia was between! Now, we are studying ancient Egypt and how they settled in the Nile Valley. Ask your student how the ancient Egyptians were “lucky” in choosing their location, and why the geography made it difficult for hostile armies to invade!

I am really enjoying getting to know these students while teaching them about mankind and our relationship with God! This is only the beginning!

TODAY'S HISTORY ACTIVITY

The Code of Hammurabi computer lab activity in my classroom went very well today! The students looked up an English translation of the ancient set of laws, then answered some questions about it on Edmodo.com. Here are some pictures from my Period 1 class:

THE CODE OF HAMMURABI

Tomorrow in History, we'll be looking at an English translation of the Code of Hammurabi, then the students will answer the following questions on Edmodo.com:

1. Why would some people feel these laws are fair?

2. Why would some people feel these laws are cruel?

3. What do you think of these laws?

I look forward to reading the students' responses!

THE LATEST ABOUT MY CLASSES

History 6 – In History, we have finally completed going over all the introductory material and the first section of Chapter 1 (Early Humans) in the textbook! We have just learned about the differences between Paleolithic (“Old Stone”) and Neolithic (“New Stone”) Age humans, and we will be moving into the very first civilizations starting next week!

In 6^th Grade Bible, we are in the midst of studying Worldviews, answering the 5 basic questions of a worldview: 1. Questions about God; 2. Questions about the Universe; 3. Questions about People; 4. Questions about Truth; 5. Questions about Right & Wrong. The students have even taken some time to answer these questions for themselves, to start to formulate an awareness of their own worldviews! We will soon be getting into learning about different worldviews, including the biblical Christian worldview, and we will eventually do some comparing & contrasting of worldviews!

In 7^th Grade Bible, we are learning about character traits of Christ, and how we can be like Him. We just finished learning about Christ’s meekness and compassion. In the coming weeks, we will be examining Christ’s Holiness, as well as the very important teachings in His Sermon on the Mount.

In 8^th Grade Bible, we are studying the Apostle Paul’s writings. At the very beginning of the year, we did an overview of Paul’s conversion and learned about his calling to preach to the Gentile world, and why that was so important for us. We have just finished examining his first letter (chronologically), I Thessalonians. We will begin II Thessalonians next week and will then move on to I and II Corinthians, Galatians, Romans, and Ephesians throughout the year.

HISTORY - STARTED UNIT 1 TODAY!

I am excited to announce that 6th Grade History classes started previewing Unit 1 in our textbooks today! Over the next  few weeks, we will be examining the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Israel!

Here are some cool facts about those civilizations which impact our world today:

• Did you know the Mesopotamians created laws to govern people?
• Did you know the Egyptians created papyrus, an early form of paper?
• Did you know that Abraham, the patriarch of Jews, inspired the births of three major religions throughout history? (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam)

The three ancient civilizations we will be covering in Unit 1

HISTORY - REMEMBERING 9/11

Today in the midst of moving ahead with our introductory sections of our History textbook, we concluded with an 8-minute video tribute on 9/11, found on this 9/11 Memorial website.

I will never forget that day. I was in my second year at UC Academy, when we were at our Upland campus. I woke up that morning and turned on the local news, as I did every day while I got ready for school. The first image I saw as the TV warmed up was the first tower with black smoke billowing out. At that time, local anchor Kent Shockneck was speculating that a small Cessna-sized plane had "accidentally" run into the building. As I pondered that strange and confusing tragedy, I watched live as a second plane hit the second tower. My first reaction to that was, "Wow! It happened AGAIN! What's going on? Is there some sort of interference with the instruments on these planes?" And then as soon as I finished that thought, I realized the strikes were intentional.

Today I mournfully recall that day and the lives lost; I am grateful for justice; and I pray for peace.

Where were you on 9/11/2001?

WHAT IN THE WORLD IS A WORLDVIEW?

In Bible 6, we started talking today about Worldviews. We discussed how our vision changes based on the lenses we use put over our eyes. Sometimes we use sunglasses. Depending on the color of the lenses, our perception of the world is "colored" in an unrealistic way. Sometimes we need to use prescription glasses. When we don't, we aren't perceiving the world the way it really is; instead, the world looks unclear or "fuzzy." We discussed how people have different worldviews, and that worldviews are like "belief glasses." Our worldview affects how we think, react, or believe about anything we hear about or see. We will soon start talking about different worldviews, and what it means to have a biblical Christian worldview!

One of my students thought this is what "worldview" meant!

OFF TO A GREAT YEAR!

Today we had a wonderful school year dedication ceremony with all K-12 students. We were reminded of the amazing work God did for our school in 2009 when we moved to Rancho Cucamonga after the threat of being closed down in Upland, and how our enrollment has steadily increased every year, only by the grace of God! To Him be all honor, glory, and praise!

WELCOME BACK!

Hello everyone! Welcome back to school for the 2012-13 year! I will be teaching Ancient History and Bible, and I am looking forward to all the adventures we will go on together! This will be the spot to check once in a while to find out what's happening in our classroom. In the meantime, here's something funny I found: