Six Words You Need to Hear today

http://rachelheldevans.com/blog/six-words-you-need-to-hear-today

I apologize to Mrs Evans for copy and pasting this article. Due to the web restrictions at our school this is the only way my classes could read this content. 

Six Words You Should Hear Today

“I love to watch you play.'"

According to Rachel Macy Stafford, an author and special education teacher, those six words changed the way she related to her children.  Rather than praising or critiquing their performances at swim meets, recitals, and soccer games, she began pulling her children close, and simply whispering, “I love to watch you swim,” “I love to hear you sing,” “I love to hear your read,” “I love to watch you play.” 

Their reaction to these words, she said, was telling: 

My child's face broke into her most glorious smile -- the one that causes her eyes to scrunch up and become little slices of joy. And then she did something I didn't expect. She threw herself against me, wrapped her arms tightly around my neck, and whispered, ‘Thank you, Mama.’ And in doing so, I swear I could read her mind: The pressure's off. She loves to hear me play; that is all.

"The pressure’s off. She loves to hear me play; that is all." 

Even as someone who is not yet a mother, I see the wisdom of this approach. And as my eyes scanned the article, I thought of how desperately we adults need to hear these words too, perhaps most especially from the God who identifies as our Father and who is often compared to a Mother. 

What a relief it would be to know the pressure’s off. God delights in our living and breathing and working and praying and that delight is not something we have to earn by doing everything right. 

God just loves to watch us play. 

Too many corners of the Church have been infected with a legalistic, performance-based view of God in which God stands over our lives with crossed arms and a disappointed scowl, applauding only when we get everything just right and rendering judgment on everything we do wrong.  Some pastors seem to thrive in lording this disapproving God over their parishioners. As one pastor put it: “Some of you, God hates you. Some of you, God is sick of you. God is frustrated with you. God is wearied by you. God has suffered long enough with you. He doesn’t think you’re cute. He doesn’t think it’s funny.”  He then proceeds to explain how to win back God's favor. 

For too many Christians, God’s unmerited favor is a one-time gift that applies exclusively to eternal security. In the meantime, God’s favor has to be earned.  It has to be fought for with one flawless performance after another. The Family of God is a competitive, disciplined, performance-based family that runs on the economy of gold stars, rules and shame. God is rendered into the  classic nightmare sports parent  whose favor has to be earned, who is always, always, always disappointed in us.  

But this is not the God we encounter in Scripture or in Christ or in the Eucharist.  The God we encounter there is the God in whom we live and move and have our being, the God who rejoices over His children with signing, the God who spreads Her wings over Her children like an eagle over her chicks, the God who loved the world enough to experience all of its pain alongside of us, the God who—as Nadia Bolz-Weber puts it—“would rather die than be in the sin accounting business anymore,” the God who loves to watch us play. 

God doesn’t love us because we’ve earn it.  God loves us because we are God’s children. God created this world and everything in it—don’t you think God delights in it? Don’t you think God loves us at least as much as a good parent who delights in the activities of her children, regardless of whether they get everything right? 

This isn’t a performance-based relationship; it’s a relationship based on unconditional love and endless delight. We can breathe a deep and long sigh of relief because the pressure’s off. We’re not here to impress or perform; we’re here to revel in God’s delight. 

So hear these six words from God today: 

          I love to watch you play. 

Or perhaps: 

          I love to watch you write. 

          I love to watch you bake. 

          I love to watch you nurse. 

          I love to watch you read to your kids at night. 

          I love to watch you care for the sick. 

          I love to watch you take pictures. 

          I love to watch you study. 

          I love to watch you laugh. 

          I love to watch you seek the truth even when it’s hard. 

          I love to watch you be the church together, even when it’s imperfect. 

          I love to watch you love one another, even when it seems impossible. 

          I love to watch you eat and drink and dance and explore and worship and pray and get out of your car to move that poor little turtle out of the road…not because you do any of these things perfectly, but because you do them as my children. 

Now sink into that sigh of relief and believe this today:

      

The pressure's off. God loves to watch me play. That is all.

Lemonade Stand

Click Here For Directions

Click Here For Game

What have you learned?

Format an MLA document with an appropriate heading for my class. Write a paragraph(s) that will answer the following questions in complete sentences.

What has been your favorite computer applications assignment thus far?
What has come naturally for your gifts and skill set?
What has been the most interesting?
What have you struggled with the most (MLA, Excel, Research, etc. ?
What skills have you developed that you think you will use in the real world? How?
What compurer skills would you like to learn and/or perfect before the year is over.

When you are finished and you paper features perfect MLA formatting, please submit the file to drive.

Excel Gradebook Stage 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EA3aCAL1qs

Add a grading scale to your excel assignment.
Format Grades according to the scale below.

Excel Gradebook Lesson #1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id30wy2JmQ0

Compose a Gradebook of at least:
10 Students- Last name, First name
3 Categories- HW, Quiz, Test
At least 5 HW, 3 Quizzes, 3 Tests

Quizzes 30%
Homework 30%
Tests 40%

Remember-
All Grades should be formatted to 2 decimal places.
Names must be realistic.
Grades  MUST BE VARIOUS REALISTIC RANGES- no more than 2 students may make 100 in any given category. No more than 2 students can make the same grade in any given catagory. There should be no more than two 0's in the entire grade book.  Shoot for target final grades evenly ranging between 65 and 98.
Titles must be justified center as shown in the video.
Names must be alphabetized using the filter tool as shown in video.

Spreadsheet #2

Spreadsheet Assignment #2
Find the average temperature, High Temp, Low Temp, Average precipitation, Average Snowfall, Average Rain days, and Average dew point for Jackson, TN on weatherbase.com.

Enter the data for six months in a spreadsheet.

Create formula to find the sums and averages.

Use the Max and MIN formulas to find the the driest month
and the wettest month (use a spreadsheet function).
Use Lookup to assign a month to the number.

All data and calculations should be listed to one decimal point
accuracy (e.g. 1.4) -- use Format :: Cells... :: Number ::
Decimal places :: 1.

Be sure to label your data and your calculations so the viewer
knows what they mean.

Here is an Example

Enter your name at the bottom or top of the spreadsheet.

Personal Expenses Excel

Tracking Personal Expenses

Format according to THIS EXAMPLE
USE YOUR OWN CATEGORIES AND AMOUNTS- DO NOT COPY MY EXAMPLE!!! BE CREATIVE :)
(SHOTGUN SHELLS, MAKEUP, ETC...)

1. Using this document as an example, create a hypothetical expense sheet for your monthly expenses in the spring semester (February through May). You may have whatever
and as many expense categories as you wish (e.g. gas, groceries, etc.) but you should have at least four and they should be somewhat related to the real world.

2. Format the cells with dollar values in them (B3:F6) in
Accounting format. (Select the cells :: Format :: Cells... :: Accounting [with 2 decimal places]).

3. Calculate the average for each category for the four months.

4. Calculate the total of all expenses for each month.

5. Create a pie chart for expenses in February.

Select A1:B5. Insert :: Chart... :: Pie :: Pie.

Add labels. Double-click the pie :: Labels :: Show category name and percent.
Move and resize the chart so it looks like the example.

6. Create a column chart for Gas in all four months.
Select A1:E2. Insert :: Chart... :: Column :: Clustered Column.
Add labels. Double click one of the columns :: Labels :: Show value.
Move and resize the chart so it looks like the example.

7. Create a line graph for the total of all expenses for the four months.
Select A6:E6. Insert :: Chart... :: Line :: Line.
To get the months to appear on the X-axis: Chart :: Source
Data... :: define Category (X) axis labels (click the symbol to the right of the blank field, click B1, shift-click E1, click the symbol to the right of the blank field again, Okay).
Change the title to "Total Expenses for Spring Semester."
(Click the title to edit it.)
Delete the key on the right. (Click the key, then hit Delete.)
Add labels. Double-click one of the series :: Labels :: Show value :: Label position: Above,
Move and resize the chart so it looks like the example (put it at the top of the second page.)

Intro to Excel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L1OVkw2ZQ8

Business Earnings

Today we will create a graph for a hypothetical business.  Create a spreadsheet to graph the sales of three different services/products.

Examples- a dentist could offer cleaning, fillings, and wisdom removal. Landscape could offer mulching, mowing, and plant irrigation. A fashion boutique could offer men's clothing, women's clothing, and accessories. Use creativity.

Enter the data for at least three categories over six months. Include totals for individual months and totals for all months together.

Create a chart that illustrates your stats.

Underline, center and highlight the title with at least one empty row between the title and information.

Click here for example

Rubric

• At least three services for six months. 
• Proper formatting of centered title AND highlighting. 
• ORIGINAL TITLES and services/products. h
• Clear graph the properly illustrates all numbers except totals. 
• include name in title.
• bold all totals and use a print grid from the grid menu. 
• When finished, decorate your document with creative backgrounds and highlighting. 
• Use clear tables to make different categories stand out. 

IF YOU FINISH BEFORE THE BELL:

Experiment with movement on MIT scratch. Try to create a ping pong style paddle that a moving object can bounce off of. This is what you expected to do until the bell rings.