Sweet Sunbeams

Yesterday I got to church and sat down in my pew and was getting ready for the meeting to begin when my twin Sunbeams came up to me and handed me a rose and said, "This is for being a nice Primary teacher." They were so cute and I just thought the flower was so pretty. It really was the sweetest thing!

I think the kids are getting used to what Primary is all about. They are doing a lot better!

I love you all!

Being grateful

Yesterday and today I attended the Utah chapter of the National Association for Multicultural Education (Utah NAME) conference. My friend Ramona was the chair of the conference. This morning they had invited a group of Native Americans to post the colors. They did it to a drum song on a really big drum played by about 8 of them. It was one of the most touching experiences I have had with the posting of the colors. I stood and cried during most of it. Then after they brought the flags down, one of the girls sang The Star-Spangled Banner. Once again, the tears just came. I was so moved by the gratitude I felt in being here and the blessings that I have. I feel that I often take my blessings for granted.

One of the sessions I attended today was about the refugee placement that is going on here in Utah. Utah is one of the sites that receive a lot of refugees. The presenter talked about how so many of these refugees have lived in refugee camps for 30 or 40 years because they escaped horrible conditions in their countries. The refugee camps had very few amenities and many of the people have been malnourished. Now the US has agreed that they can come here and receive protection. Life is very difficult for these refugees because they have lived in fear for so long, and now they have come to a new land and culture where they have so much to learn. Just listening made me feel even more grateful. We have so much and we don't even think about how much we enjoy. Even things as simple as being able to read and having clean drinking water.

In like a lion

I decided (it wasn't very hard) that March has come in like a lion. Hopefully it actually will go out like a lamb.

This last little bit has been so busy. However, I'm hoping that will change a little bit. Two of the classes that I have been co-teaching have gone out to do a practicum in the schools, so they are not at BYU during the day for the next five weeks. So that means I can hopefully write a paper for our conference in Washington DC (March 28-April 1) and write a proposal for a paper to present at the Evaluation conference in Denver next fall. So it actually won't slow down any, but hopefully I will be able to focus on my writing a little bit.

My classes are going well. I really enjoy all of them. Right now in my programming class, I am learning how to write a quiz. So that is a lot of fun. It has been interesting to me how the concepts I learned when I took programming in BASIC lo these many years ago at Adams State have come back to my memory. It has been amazing. It has just been so long ago.

In my distance education class on Monday we talked about creativity. I was excited to think about the fact that creativity doesn't necessarily mean "artsy" because I'm certainly not that. But really, it is being able to think about things in a new or different way.

I have also been thinking about the power of networking. Some of that networking is virtual, but a lot of it happens in everyday interactions. I listened to a presenter (David Wiley) talk about the benefits of networking and how to go about doing it (to listen to his presentation, go to iptso.wordpress.com) and I realized that the "pick me" syndrome that I have is really a good networking tool because I am able to work with so many people. So being a "pick me" person is not all bad. :)