Monday, March 02, 2009

the redemptive gift of teaching

On Sunday I am sharing at New Covenant Fellowship for a few minutes about the redemptive gift of teaching, which I am. I may not end up sharing this(at least not all of it) on Sunday, but I'm compiling a list for the fun of it.

If you see anything on here that may just apply to me and not other teachers, let me know. If you have any quirky statements to add...please do.

you know you're a teacher if....

1-you take time to compile this list, avoiding some other task you need to do

2-you don't realize the efficient way to do something until you are 3/4 through it. but you kinda hate efficiency if it doesn't cover all ground. you want to do things RIGHT, so it's about the means, not the end.

3-you have a really weird connection with food. you're obsessed with it- cooking, eating, and sometimes even the concepts of gardening ( even if you don't garden). you are probably one of the best cooks you know, and you have a very selective palate. it's not a surprise if you've ever been a vegetarian. you might even make up words to fit your eating life style (i.e. i'm a "hospitalitarian")

4-you are very passive and could easily spend a whole day doing nothing. you often find yourself "meaning" to do a number of things.

5-while you're not the most super-relational person, you must always have some sort of connection to people. (that's why you're on facebook or texting alllll the time)

6-you have piles and piles of books sitting around everywhere. you're addicted to buying books and sometimes reading them. you probably have $70 of overdue fines to the library.but you're still very picky, and will usually drop a book after reading 1 or 2 chapters.

7-you are very skeptical to statements people present as truth. you have to do loaded amounts of research to verify anything. and then nothing ever really gets verified because you find the holes in the arguments you read. you don't see things in black and white, but there's a lot of haze (sometimes you get so obsessed with a controversial topic, that you interrupt your senior sem research paper to research the issue and then somehow find a way to integrate into your said paper)

8-you're very lengthy about everything. because you need validate statements you make. and then make a validation to validate that validation, and so forth. your speeches/talks are usually the longest out of a class of people. you even have to take steps to make smaller margins and use 11 sized fonts (vs. 12) to save paper.

9-you have probably achieved/or are achieving some level of higher ed...and will probably go further after that

10-you tend to have a very conceptual/intellectual/pr
ofessional relationship with god if you have one at all (since you doubt everything)

11-you feel a huge burden to know everything or just know enough to prove other people wrong

12-when you argue on a topic, you don't take it personally (but other people may get offended by how upfront you are... because you correct people. you have to.)

13-you internalize everything (unless you present your problems as a "lesson" to others). you ponder things over and over and over again, and let them marinate for a long time until they drive you crazy from your over analysis.

14-you're kinda slow with your ways...because things need to process over time.

15-you're very bad at maintenance. your car, your room, your everything outside of your social/professional/intellectual life often gets ignored. you're kinda messy.

16-you make jokes or ironic remarks that no one else seems to "get." you often make vague references to obscure things.

17-you'll edit this note several times.

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