Class is in session/Tests & Measurements book

First day of class here at Maranatha. I teach two classes this semester, Tests & Measurements and Instructional Media & Technology. Excellent group of students (from all appearances) and I am excited. My main goal this semester is to rewrite my notes and lectures in preparation for writing textbooks for both classes. That's pretty ambitious and I would expect that nothing concrete will be evident for a couple of years. However, the Christian college textbook is pretty wide-open. Many if not most of us here at Maranatha use secular textbooks and supplement them with our own material to integrate them with Bible principles. That's not an ideal situation.

My Tests & Measurements book will be called something like "Measurement, Assessment, Testing, and Evaluation for Christian School Teachers." Its audience will be broader than just college students in teacher education programs--I hope it will also be appealing for Christian School teachers and Christian College faculty. There are many teaching in Christian schools who had the old style, statistics-heavy tests & measurements classes, but not much about constructing valid, reliable tests and product/performance assessments. There are also many teaching in Christian Colleges who have never had any formal teacher training, and who desperately need a primer on writing good tests (at least that's what my Tests & Measurements students tell me).

So this is going to be my ongoing project for the next couple of years.

Adult Bible Fellowship

I just started a new Bible Study in my Adult Bible Fellowship class at Fellowship Baptist Church in Watertown, WI. The topic of study is The Weaknesses of Men. Actually, it's more The Weaknesses of Humanity, but the first title has a better ring to it. The first lesson was an overview of the specific Bible references that explicity refer to something as being an example. For example, Jesus said he washed the disciples' feet as an example to them; Paul exhorted Timothy to be an example to the believers in his church; etc. Then we also looked over Bible references that explicitly indicate an example that should not be followed: Jude said that the punishment of the Hebrews and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah were examples to us; Paul indicated something similar in I Corinthians 10.

We'll be studying various weaknesses of men mostly from the Old Testament. We'll be using a series of questions I developed. Here they are:

• What is the weakness being evidenced in this person’s character? (may require some sanctified speculation)
• What is the first evidence we see that the weakness is there?
• At what point do we see them taking a specific action that exposes their weakness? What action provides the most specific evidence of their weakness?
• To what sin or sins did giving in to their weakness lead?
• How did they (intentionally or unintentionally) draw others' into their sin?
• What were the immediate and long-term consequences of their sin?
• Do they give evidence of dealing with their weakness and with their sin? Do they show repentance? Do they show evidence of a change of behavior?
• How would you have advised this person to deal with their weakness before it turned into sin? Use a Bible verse to support your advice if appropriate. What first action might have headed off the entire situation?
• What situations in our own time can lead to exposure of this weakness and consequent falling into sin? What should be our first action to help avoid falling?

Those questions will guide our analysis.

The first one we looked at partially today was Adam and Eve. How would you answer those questions based on the passage: Genesis 2:15-3:7?

ihsts.com

Back a few years ago, I thought of registering a website called ihsts.com. The "ihsts" stands for "I have something to say." I thought of it as a place where people could post their thoughts on whatever topic they chose. And then along comes the whole concept of blogging. Cool! My thoughts, published to the world.

Of course, blogging can be akin to the old question, "If a tree falls in a forest, does it make a sound?" It depends, of course, on how you define sound--the air waves are definitely vibrated, but is there a receptor to sense the vibration? We don't know.

The way blogs link into the web, to be indexed, cross-indexed, and "BlogThis'd," ensures that somebody somewhere sometime will listen. At present, my blogging doesn't allow comments, but maybe someday I will have enough confidence to do so.

Just checked, I see that "ihsts.com" is not a registered domain name. Well, if you're reading this, go for it! Maybe you can turn the idea into gold.

TTFN.

Welcome to my blog!

This is my first foray into the world of blogging, so be kind to me.

I'll try to post a weekly blog.