Mid-Term Mania

Posted on January 26, 2015 by Lynn

The school where I teach will be immersed in sweat and tears with students taking their mid-term exams.  Sometimes I wonder who isteacher more stressed out about exam week, the students or the teachers who write and administer the exams?

I was never a fan of exams.  I suffered grievously with test stress, an anxiety about taking tests that has stayed with me even into adulthood.  I STILL have a reoccurring nightmare about being late for a final in university and not being able to find the classroom and when I finally find it, there is no doorknob for me to get into the room.  It’s awful!

I sympathize with my students who suffer from this malady.  Unfortunately I passed that “fear of tests” gene onto my two girls, although I must say they seem to have outgrown it better than I ever did.

Now I’m on the other side of the desk, so to speak, and my fear is that upon marking my student’s exams, I will discover how little they listened to me over the past half year, or how poorly I taught the subject matter, or both!  It is stressful either way.  As a teacher, I want my students to succeed…that’s my goal.  I strive for excellence in my teaching because that is what the Lord expects of me.  Am I perfect?  Absolutely not!  But I do think it a personal failure on my part if a student has not reached his or her full potential in my classroom.  I’m always thinking how I could have done better to motivate my students or better teach for their understanding.  My students may not realize how much it grieves me when they do poorly.  It means either they are struggling with the content, or my teaching is at fault or they have problem with character.  I can do something about the first two, content and teaching, but it is entirely up to the student to work on their character.

It grieves me even more when a student does not try, doesn’t care, is lazy, or they’ve “checked out” of utilizing their school experience to its fullest.  It happens.  I have students who are driven to do their very best.  I have students who may not be exceptional students academically but TRY so hard to be the very best they can be.  That is a sign of character.  Then there are students who, for lack of better words, are “taking up space” in the classroom.  They are so full of God-given potential but they refuse to put in any effort; they never hand anything in and basically have “checked out”.  As my father was known to say, “God gave them brains, but they refuse to use them.”  Those students haunt me.  How can I motivate and encourage a student like that?

Certainly each student comes to school from different circumstances that affects their learning, but “character” rises above circumstances.  I think of Hope in my creative writing class who suffered brain trauma after a tragic set of complications followed a routine tonsillectomy.  Blind and confined for now to a wheel chair, she is probably one of my top students in writing.  Talk about rising above her circumstances!  I look to her example whenever I am feeling sorry for myself and think that my life is “hard”.

So, I am praying for each of my students this next week as they take their mid-terms.  May they all know that Mrs. Dove is thinking about them and praying that they will strive to do their very best!

 

 

 

 

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Broken Resolutions

Posted on January 19, 2015 by Lynn

I was only one week into this New Year and I’d already broken all the resolutions I had promised myself that THIS year I would keep.  Actually I can’t even say I broke them…I hadn’t even STARTED on them!  Okay, I’ll come clean…I recycled the resolutions I made last year…I’ve been doing that for a few years now.  All my resolutions past, present and future have somehow always fallen by the wayside and what I planned as a year’s marathon of good intentions has me still stuck in the starting blocks…*sigh*…

But it would seem I am not alone.  Apparently 40 – 45% of American (and Canadian) adults make one or more resolutions each year.  Among the top New Year’s resolutions are resolutions about weight loss, exercise, and wanting to stop smoking.  Also popular are resolutions dealing with better money management / debt reduction.

The following shows how many of these resolutions are maintained as time goes on:
– past the first week: 75%
– past 2 weeks: 71%
– after one month: 64%
– after 6 months: 46%

I don’t know what the stats are for making a resolution and breaking it within a week…*sigh*…

One of my favorite lines comes from Lucy Maude Montgomery’s classic “Anne of Green Gables” and describes how I feel at the start of every New Year:

“Marilla, isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?”
– Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

January 1st marks the promise of better things ahead.  It is leaving the past behind and looking forward.  It is reflectively asking oneself how you can change something that will improve yourself (either mentally, physically or spiritually) for the year ahead.  It is a time to let go of unhealthy habits and grab hold of healthy ones.  The idea is that when you make a resolution, your desire is to be in a different place at the end of the year (and beyond!) than you were at the beginning of the year.

If January 1st is the day of promise, January 2nd is the day of reality.  With my resolutions broken my daily prayer begins again:

Dear Lord,

So far today, I’ve done all right. I haven’t gossiped, haven’t lost my temper, haven’t been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or over indulgent. I’m very thankful for that.

But, in a few minutes, God, I’m going to get out of bed. And from then on, I’m probably going to need a lot more help.

Amen.

While a lot of people who make New Year’s resolutions do break them, (in my case within a week…*sigh*…) research does show that making a resolution is still a very useful exercise.  People who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don’t explicitly make resolutions.  According to statistics, those who keep their resolutions for “at least two years report an average of 14 slip ups or setbacks during that time”.  These slips didn’t stop them from continuing to fulfill their resolution.  I still don’t know what the stats are for slip ups during the very first week…*sigh*…

One thing I do know is that today is a new day, “fresh with no mistakes in it” and I resolve to try to keep it that way…

…but just in case… maybe I’ll just stay in bed…

Just kidding…*sigh*…  🙂

 

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Taking Flight

Posted on January 15, 2015 by Lynn

I suppose with the last name of “Dove” there are always a lot of “bird analogies” that tend to go along with the name.  Being a “Dove”, people just naturally assume that we are a peaceful lot (an olive twig tucked safely away somewhere on our person), or they joke we live in a nest rather than in a house.  We “coo” rather than talk normally.  We fly away rather than run.  Truly I’ve heard them all.  A friend brought the whole bird analogy to a whole new low when he said, “How can you (Doves) fly like eagles, when you’re surrounded by turkeys!”  I’m sure he was jokingly maligning all doves, eagles and turkeys everywhere in one fell swoop (get it?)

Anyway, I have embraced the name I married into and now have adopted it as my own.  I have collections of  Dove figurines all around my home.  I decided to use my married name rather than use my maiden name or a pen name when I wrote and published my books, The Wounded Trilogy.  I love my last name!  I took on the name nearly 36 years ago when Charles and I were married so when you think about it I have been a “Dove” a lot longer than I was ever a “Jorgensen” (which is my maiden name).  There is a rich heritage that goes along with both the Dove and Jorgensen names but for now I’ll comment on the Doves.

My sister-in-law has been working on an ancestry search of all the Doves in the family, and she has discovered a rich history in the Dove name.  The book, “Building in the Blood – The Story of Dove Brothers of Islington 1781-1981” by David Braithwaite (Godfrey Cave Associates Limited, London, 1981), tells the story of a family of builders who, “responding to particular needs enjoyed success in boom years and depressions alike, survived two world wars and today continue their unique role in an industry both transformed and transforming.”  It is thought that my husband’s family is descended from one of these early Doves named in that book who, not surprisingly spent much of their lives building churches to God’s glory.  (It should be noted that MY husband Charles, has been involved in two church building projects since we have been married so it must be in his blood!)

My father-in-law, Charles Dixon Dove lived in Speers, Saskatchewan most of his young life.  His father (William D. Dove) came to Canada in 1907 when his parents (Benjamin D. and Anne Mary Dove) moved from Guernsey (one of the Channel Islands in England) and settled on a homestead northeast of Speers.*   We have pictures of Benjamin and Anne, antique photos in antique frames, hanging in our diningroom.  Benjamin appears to be a jovial man, with a classic moustache and a twinkle in his eye that hints of mischief.  Anne, on the other hand, is serious and a little surly looking in her picture.  My husband winks at me that he occasionally likes to go past her picture and crack a joke to see if he can get any kind of a reaction from her…he has definitely inherited Benjamin’s twinkle and mischief!  It is likely that Benjamin is related to one of those Doves mentioned in the Braithwaite book and it is no wonder that most of those Doves then and the Doves of today carry the given or middle names of William, Charles, Spencer, Edward, and/or Dixon that seem to be the most common names of boys in this Dove line.  My father in law, named Charles Dixon Dove, MY husband, Charles William Edward Dove, our nephew is named Spencer, and our son is named Brett Charles.  The given names indicate the legacy that defines us as a family and acknowledges the history behind the last name “Dove”.  *”Along the Carlton Trail – A History of Speers” Published by the Ottawa-Speers History Book Committee (p.123)

My son, Brett, shares his birthday with his great Grandfather, William D. who was born on November 22, 1894.  In God’s plan, Brett was born to be adopted into the Dove family 98 years later.  Brett carries on the Dove name and along with it he embraces the legacy and history behind the name.  Brett, has embraced the Dove name but has defined it in his own personal way as well.  God has a specific plan and purpose in mind for Brett, just like all the Dove men before him, Brett’s life is grounded in faith.

It is perhaps a parent’s greatest happiness and greatest sadness at the same time to “let go” of their children.  When it comes to my son and my two girls, bird analogies seem appropriate.  They have each taken wing and are flying high.  Too much?  I’ll let the bird analogies go… for now.

 

turtle-doves

Through skillful and godly Wisdom is a house (a life, a home, a family) built, and by understanding it is established [on a sound and good foundation], and by knowledge shall its chambers [of every area] be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.  Proverbs 24:3-4

 

 

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