Beloved by Tenth Avenue North

Love of my life
Look deep in my eyes
There you will find what you need
Give me your life
Lust and the lies
The past you're afraid I might see
You've been running away from me

You're my beloved
Lover I'm yours
Death shall not part us
It's you I died for
For better or worse
Forever we'll be
Our Love it unites us
It binds you to me
It's a mystery

Love of my life
Look deep in my eyes
There you will find what you need
I'm the giver of life
I'll clothe you in white
My immaculate bride you will be
Oh come running home to me yeah *now*

You're my beloved
Lover I'm yours
and Death shall not part us
It's you I died for
For better or worse
Forever we'll be
Our Love it unites us
Find More lyrics at www.sweetslyrics.com
and it binds you to me yea now now

Well you've been a mistress, my wife
Chasing lovers it won't satisfy
Won't you let me make you my bride
You will drink of my lips
And**taste new life

You're my beloved
Lover I'm yours
Death shall not part us
It's you I died for
For better or worse
Forever we'll be
Our Love it unites us
it binds you to me

You're my beloved
Forever we'll be
Our love it unites us
And it binds you to me
It's a mystery

Amazing ! Beth Moore's story ....

Be sure to read Beth Moore's post today from her LPM blog. We prayed for her healing at the Deeper Still Conference in Oklahoma City thinking she had a herniated disk. Little did we know that she was to be scheduled for surgery at M.D. Anderson in Houston with a diagnosis of possible ovarian cancer.

Here's the link:
http://livingproofministries.blogspot.com/2009/12/ok-so-heres-story.html

I Will Not Be Moved by Natalie Grant

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyEMJBhCtU8

I have been the wayward child
I have acted out
I have questioned Sovereignty
And had my share of doubt
And though sometimes my prayers feel like
They're bouncing off the sky
The hand I hold won't let me go
And is the reason why...

I will stumble
I will fall down
But I will not be moved
I will make mistakes
I will face heartache
But I will not be moved
On Christ the Solid Rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
I will not be moved

Bitterness has plagued my heart
Many times before
My life has been like broken glass
And I have kept the score
Of all my shattered dreams and though it seemed
That I was far too gone
My brokenness helped me to see
It's grace I'm standing on

I will stumble
I will fall down
But I will not be moved
I will make mistakes
I will face heartache
But I will not be moved
On Christ the Solid Rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
I will not be moved

And the chaos in my life
Has been a badge I've worn
Though I have been torn
I will not be moved

I will stumble
I will fall down
But I will not be moved
I will make mistakes
I will face heartache
But I will not be moved
On Christ the Solid Rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
I will not be moved

Teaching with Technology Course Reflection

Video produced and narrated by Andy Comer

The outcomes I had envisioned for this course were to get a better understanding of what it meant to truly integrate technology into the classroom. I had hoped to continue to explore using Web 2.0 tools and I did have many opportunities to do that as well. By using Google docs and the Google site for our group project, I was able to compare this resource with using the Wikispaces site that was created in our first course. I felt that the Google site was much more user friendly and had alot more tools to offer in working with groups. I was challenged to work outside my comfort zone by having to create a lesson plan but having the encouragement of my group helped me do what I needed to do. I also learned to use Animoto to create a sample learning activity which is another Web 2.0 tool that was shared with me by the members of my group.

Learning about using Web 2.0 tools, lesson planning, group collaboration and dynamics, the importance of reflective thinking, and providing feedback and assessment are all very relevant to the work that I do now. In counseling and advising students, I can see the need to provide more opportunities for group interraction, feedback, and assessment. It is important that I continue to develop a greater awareness of the Web 2.0 tools in order to provide resources to meet the needs of the students and to better prepare them for the 21st century. The insights I gained from working in a group will better prepare me to assist my students in developing their collaboration skills and increasing their self-esteem. I will continue to encourage my students to work on their reflective thinking skills by posting on our group blog and will create opportunities to provide feedback and recognition in order to motivate them toward the goal of academic success.

I think I would have enjoyed spending additional time exploring techology activities for diverse learners. Since I have a child with a physical disability, I am familiar with some of the learning aids and tools that are available to meet his needs, but I am not familiar with those applications that are commonly used for the hearing and visually impaired students. I felt that the two textbooks that were required for the course are excellent resource tools and I plan to spend more time researching and using some of the ideas that I discovered in them. Possibly I would have had more time to explore these applications if it had not been for the holiday or if more attention could have been provided to this area in a video for the course. Working with the group tremendously enhanced the learning process but the necessary time spent in interacting with the other group members limited the amount of time I had to read articles or research the new concepts and ideas.

Although there was a holiday weekend and I had also scheduled another trip out of town during this course, I feel that I was successful in completing the course assignments. I was able to take my laptop with me and complete reading assignments as I traveled which allowed me to stay on track. Being able to communicate with my group via email and the Google site allowed me to continue working with little interruption while staying in my hotel room. I was also able to get email updates through my cell phone. I felt that an increased level of feedback and assessment could possibly have aided the group in determining our continued direction or any changes that were needed each week. Since I do not have a degree or background in Education I became discouraged early in the group project because I felt that I did not have the knowledge and understanding necessary to successfully create a lesson plan. Although my team members were very helpful and encouraging to me in the process.

A couple of new things that I learned about myself from this course were the importance and value of developing strong reflective thinking and group collaboration skills. I have come to see how using the class discussion board, writing on our blogs and wikis, and completing our group and individual reflection assignments enhances the learning process. Reading about and creating learning communities and working collaboratively in a group has made me a true believer in the importance of using these methods in working with students. What I learned about my technology skills was that I am not afraid of learning and using new technology tools and am willing to assist others in using tools that are unfamiliar to them. Something I learned about my leadership skills is that I have a tendency to take on a leadership role at times even when I am not in an assigned role of leadership. I approached the project with a positive attitude but quickly began to feel a small level of frustration by by being in a situation where I had to depend on others and not feeling "in control" of the outcome. One thing I learned about my attitude was that I although I was reluctant at first about the idea of working in a group, I discovered that I actually enjoyed the group interaction and collaboration and the opportunity to get to know people better.

Our Group Project - http://sites.google.com/site/edld5364ateam/

Reflecting on Reflective Thinking

From my textbook reading today in Web 2.0 New Tools, New Schools I ran across a quote from David Tosh who developed the Elgg program in 2004, an e-portfolio system (see http://www.elgg.org/). The reading states that "this tool was designed to promote reflective thinking, allow users to select artifacts important to them, promote social connections, and focus on the process of learning rather than the end products."

Smarter than the Smartest Person

"Next will be schooling that stresses the ability to solve problems, but not just to solve problems, but to be able to do it collaboratively so that you can work in a group where the group is smarter than the smartest person in the group, and also where you can innovate with the tools you've learned and not just do standard solutions to problems."

Edutopia.org (nd). Big thinkers: James Paul Gee on grading with games. Retrieved on 12/14/09 from http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-james-gee-video

Deeper Still Women's Conference 2009

DeeperStill Oklahoma City from Rich Kalonick on Vimeo.

I have recorded my notes below from the Deeper Still Conference. This conference had a huge impact on the ladies who attended. As for me, what I experienced at the conference was nothing short of a personal close encounter with God.
Session Three
Spiritual Discernment - Beth Moore
Key Scriptures - John 14:15-26; I Cor. 2:6-16
Beth began by sharing the fact that she had recently met a woman who was a holocaust survivor who had a tremendous testimony and had even written a book about her experience. Beth befriended her and even used her as an illustration many times in her messages. The lady wanted Beth to baptize her but being a Baptist, Beth would not agree but did agree to go down in the baptismal waters with the woman. Later Beth discovered that the woman's story was all a hoax! She had made up the whole thing! When they learned of the truth, one of her staff commented "We've been punked!!!" which illicited roaring laughter from the audience. So Beth posed the question to us "Have you ever been punked?" and "How do you know when you have been lied to?" She asked "When was the last time you believed something you shouldn't have or accepted something as the truth that was not?"
She went on to state the fact that spiritual discernment can save you from bad relationships and the importance of keeping our friendships free from entanglement. She said we need to learn to "go with our spiritual gut" and provided 4 questions to ask yourself so you can know when to go with your spiritual gut. If you can truthfully answer "no" to each of these questions, then you need to say "yes" to what your spiritual gut is telling you. II Timothy 3:1-5
1. Am I a critical or suspicious person by nature? Do I have trust issues anyway? Can I trust what I am sensing?
2. Am I jealous or do I feel threatened? A person who is jealous finds something wrong with a person right off the bat.
3. Do I have anything selfish to gain from this? from being right? from the outcome? People with the gift of discernment can be the most critical people ever. They need to be right about someone else's wrong.
4. Are my emotions clouding my discernment? We get emotionally entangled and we can't see truth from a lie. God is not calling us to love blindly.
Beth said, speaking to women, that we get emotionally entangled in relationships with women and men. She said "some of you have been best friends with someone for 15 years and you don't even like this person!" Then she made a very bold statement when she said that "someone sitting in this room is in a romantic relationship where someone is lying to you." She went on to state that we would rather be lied to than to be alone and that we are too busy to stop and listen to God. II Timothy 3:13
Next Beth shared 4 steps to take if we discern something is not what it seems.
1. Run - II Tim. 3:5 - Have nothing to do with them. Nothing is more dangerous than someone who has some form of godliness but no power. We were made for relationship and are meant to be connected to a local body of believers. She mentioned that she doesn't like "hyper-spiritual" people who don't go to church. She went on to say that in any relationship that takes on strong sexual overtones, besides your spouse, RUN.
2. Take a step back. Watch over your heart with all diligence.
3. Ask questions. Possibly confront the person, but don't do it over the phone or by email or text. Look them in the eye. Make sure they know you are on to them. Love them, but speak the truth.
4. Learn to love with your eyes wide open. The Holy Spirit may be saying "Get back, get back, get back!" We must learn to listen to our spiritual gut. You may not be able to explain it, you just may have to accept it. Humbly accept when God is telling you to retreat.
Priscilla Shirer
Session Two -
Key Scripture - Ephesians 3:20-21
"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. "
1. The Timing - Now is the time to consider the greatness of God. Now is the time to connect God's ability with your immpossibility. Paul's "now" was less than he would like for it to be. He was in prison. This was a "prison doxology". He worshipped God in the midst of an impossible situation.
2. The Turning - We become discouraged and we stop praying. We need to shift our attention to God. In Numbers 13, there were 12 spies that went into the promised land, but only 2 spies were willing to see God through the difficulties.
3. The Truth - God is able to do it! He does not change. The original word here is "dunamis" where we get our word "dynomite". God has dynamite power. Dynamite changes the structure of things. Power is not something that God has but is who he is! God is able to do FOR you. The disciples walked and talked with Jesus but yet still did not trust him.
4. The Transcendency - God does way beyond what we can imagine. "Hyper" is a super-superlative word and makes another word like a word on steriods. Paul says "hyper" twice - meaning "beyond beyond". Here Priscilla gave the illustration of a woman who was hoping just to get a card from her husband on her birthday. She was not expecting much, and was pleased that he gave a card and an umbrella. Then he tells her that she is going to need the umbrella because he hears it rains alot in Paris!!! He went "beyond beyond" what she was expecting. That is how God is with us. He goes "beyond beyond" all that we could ask or even think.
Here Priscilla provided another illustration of how we should not limit God to only what our mind can concieve. She gave an example of some boxes and had 2 women come up and hold the boxes in front of them. She said that there are things that we tend to put in our boxes such as: what our denomination has taught us, what our parents believe about God, the testimonies of others, and our past experiences. Then we put the lid on the box. We assume that anything outside the box is not of God. But God wants us to allow him to build on our box. He has so much more in store for us that goes "beyond beyond" our imagination.
5. The Totality - This means all. What concerns me, concerns Him. Why do we waste time going to everyone else, when God is the only one who can do something about it?
6. The Turbo Power - Because of the Holy Spirit, the greatness of God lives inside of me. We have to yield ourselves to or cooperate with the Holy Spirit in order to see God's turbo power at work in our lives. The power is available but is not being used.
7. Our Tribute - To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, forever!
Summary
I went to this conference seeking some answers to another issue I was struggling with in my life. I initially thought that God failed to provide the answer but instead directed my attention to another area that He felt needed some intense work. After reviewing my notes from all 3 speakers (Kay Arthur, Priscilla Shirer, and Beth Moore), I now understand that woven throughout the conference He was trying to remind me of some very important Biblical truths for my life. Here is what I discovered:
1. I need to listen to Jesus and His word.
2. I need to pay more careful attention to what I have heard so that I do not drift away. Hebrews 2:1
3. I need to fear the face of God and not the face of man. (God's face represents his favor.)
4. I need to shift my attention to God and consider His greatness and power.
5. I need to let him build on my box and recognize that he wants to do "beyond beyond" all that I can imagine.
6. I need to learn to listen to my "spiritual gut" and not let emotions cloud my judgement.
7. I need to learn to love with my eyes wide open.

Lesson Builder Planning Tool

We had four assignments to complete this week for my Teaching with Techonology class. In one assignment I had to create a lesson plan using the Lesson Builder tool from the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) web site. Our class practiced using the CAST Universal Design for Learning (UDL) site to learn new ways to apply UDL principles to reach and engage all students. We also experimented with using UDL for student-centered learning as a way to teach with technology by creating a sample electronic book using the Book Builder software which is also available through the CAST web site.

When I first started this project, I was very intimidated by the fact that my team members were all teachers. I had never had any experience writing lesson plans. Even one of my team members stated that writing the lesson plan was very challenging to her. Ususally I have no trouble following a set format, but this assignment seemed to loom before me as an insurmountable task. I have worried about getting it done all week!

I began the assignment last week and spent a couple of hours perusing the CAST web site and viewing examples of lesson plans. I began to use the Lesson Builder tool although I did not find the CAST site to be user-friendly. I spent some time doing a little research online to find some activity ideas to help me create the lesson. Then last night I spent another 2 1/2 hours completing the lesson plan. I decided that I must approach this project the same way you eat an elephant, one bite at a time.

After I thought I had finished the assignment, I began to review the rubric to make sure I had included everything and sure enough, something was missing, so I had to go back in and make some additions. I am not certain as to what sort of grade I am going to make on this assignment but I felt good about the fact that I was able to complete it and have something to contribute toward our team project.

Psalm 51

Generous in love - God, give grace! Huge in mercy - wipe out my bad record. Scrub away my guilt, soak out my sins in your laundry. I know how bad I've been; my sins are staring me down.
You're the One I've violated, and you've seen it all, seen the full extent of my evil. You have all the facts before you; whatever you decide about me is fair.

Speaking the "Language" of Technology

In my Teaching with Technology class this week I read the following quote, "It is essential that teachers design a quality lesson plan first and then select the most appropriate technologies to support that lesson."
Pitler,H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. p. 217

Alive Again by Matt Maher

I woke up in darkness surrounded by silence
Oh where, where have I gone?
I woke to reality losing it's grip on me
Oh where, where have I gone?

'Cause I can see the light before I see the sunrise

You called and you shouted
Broke through my deafness
Now I'm breathing in and breathing out
I'm alive again

You shattered my darkness
Washed away my blindness
Now I'm breathing in and breathing out
I'm alive again

Late have I loved you
You waited for me
I searched for You
What took me so long?

I was looking outside
As if love would ever want to hide
I'm finding I was wrong

'Cause I could feel the wind before it hits my skin

You called and you shouted
Broke through my deafness
Now I'm breathing in and breathing out
I'm alive again

You shattered my darkness
Washed away my blindness
Now I'm breathing in and breathing out
I'm alive again

'Cause I want you, yes I want you, I need you
And I'll do whatever I have to just to get through
'Cause I love you, yeah, I love you

You called and you shouted
Broke through my deafness
Now I'm breathing in and breathing out
I'm alive again

You shattered my darkness
Washed away my blindness
Now I'm breathing in and breathing out
I'm alive again