I love this song! If you can keep up with the Bible verses, it totally amplifies the effect of the song's lyrics ten times over. I guess that's just the Word of God at work!
Happy (almost) Birthday
11 years ago
November 21, 2009
High Street High
If you're like me, you absolutely LOVE hymns for a million reasons -- their familiarity, the lyrics that always ring true, the chords when, on those rare occasions, you actually have four parts being sung -- but you find that some get plenty of playtime while others are left out in the cold...or that it is difficult to get someone enthused with hymns when they haven't grown up with them...or that hymns are mostly left to church services and seldom played as background music at home.
If any of this rings true, then you're going to love High Street Hymns. This group is a band out of Charlottesville, VA (yes, now you know the connection...), and they have wonderful new song arrangements and melodies that use the timeless lyrics of hymns. I am so excited to have found them and can't wait for them to produce much more music in the future.
You can preview a bunch of their music on myspace, but, trust me, their CD is well worth the price!
And this is where all the hard work happens:
If any of this rings true, then you're going to love High Street Hymns. This group is a band out of Charlottesville, VA (yes, now you know the connection...), and they have wonderful new song arrangements and melodies that use the timeless lyrics of hymns. I am so excited to have found them and can't wait for them to produce much more music in the future.
You can preview a bunch of their music on myspace, but, trust me, their CD is well worth the price!
And this is where all the hard work happens:
November 3, 2009
Exam Time!
So the past three or so weeks have been filled with lots and LOTS of testing in my classes. This week, I am finally giving the last installment of tests to my Sexta (6.1) classes, which really means they won't be finished until after next week's make-up sessions. After this last group's exams are complete, all 19 classes will have their first exam under their belts. WOOHOO! Giving exams, I have noted, is probably one of the most difficult parts of my job, second only to learning all 300 students' names. Here is a selection of reasons why:
- I have to spend a lot more time marking (aka grading) the exams (aka tests).
- I have to make very subjective decisions about which answers and sentences are "mostly" correct and therefore deserving of full points, and which are too incorrect to merit full points.
- I have to mark written tests when my classes are conversation-based.
- I have to had to learn to decipher dozens of student's handwriting. (Along the way, I have neared mastery of the way Czech's write letters t, z, g, h, and several others.
- During group exams, I have to not only watch to be sure students understand directions and do not cheat, but I also must listen for each student's oral contributions to his/her group in order to award equally-as-important speaking marks.
- I must have a sliding scale for speaking marks in order to accomodate classes with different speaking abilities.
- I must remember some minor, sometimes ambiguous marking decisions over a number of weeks, as different student groups of students (who are now on different schedules due to holidays and days off school) take their exams at different times.
Now that the last groups are finishing this first round of exams, it is nerve-wracking to think the first groups will be again taking exams in just a few short weeks. My hope, though, is that as time goes on, reading different penmanships will grow easier, my marking speed will increase, and I will gain more confidence in my ability to fairly and consistently mark exams across my classes.
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Now playing: Barenaked Ladies - Easy
via FoxyTunes
- I have to spend a lot more time marking (aka grading) the exams (aka tests).
- I have to make very subjective decisions about which answers and sentences are "mostly" correct and therefore deserving of full points, and which are too incorrect to merit full points.
- I have to mark written tests when my classes are conversation-based.
- I have to had to learn to decipher dozens of student's handwriting. (Along the way, I have neared mastery of the way Czech's write letters t, z, g, h, and several others.
- During group exams, I have to not only watch to be sure students understand directions and do not cheat, but I also must listen for each student's oral contributions to his/her group in order to award equally-as-important speaking marks.
- I must have a sliding scale for speaking marks in order to accomodate classes with different speaking abilities.
- I must remember some minor, sometimes ambiguous marking decisions over a number of weeks, as different student groups of students (who are now on different schedules due to holidays and days off school) take their exams at different times.
Now that the last groups are finishing this first round of exams, it is nerve-wracking to think the first groups will be again taking exams in just a few short weeks. My hope, though, is that as time goes on, reading different penmanships will grow easier, my marking speed will increase, and I will gain more confidence in my ability to fairly and consistently mark exams across my classes.
----------------
Now playing: Barenaked Ladies - Easy
via FoxyTunes
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