The Teacher's Almanac

In 8th grade this week we are finishing up our second Sherlock Holmes story. A few weeks ago we read The Hound of Baskerville and tomorrow we will finish The Sign of Four. I came across this article from The Gospel Coalition (which if you don't read you should-they are excellent!) and couldn't wait to incorporate it into today's class. 10 Tips on Solving Mysterious Bible Passages from Sherlock Holmes You can find the full article at the link above, but it basically gives the reader ten tips (which include quotes from Holmes) about how to dive into scripture and observe like Sherlock. Below is an example (tip # 2): 2. The kind of looking that solves mysteries. Holmes: “You have frequently seen the steps which lead up from the hall to this room.” Watson: “Hundreds of times.” Holmes: “Then how many are there?” Watson: “How many? I don’t know!” Holmes: “Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is just my point. Now, I know that the...

Tuesday was election day! A few months ago I went to our county's website and signed up to help at the polls. All it said was, "fill out this form if you'd like to help with the next election." So I did. A few weeks ago, I received a call asking if I was still interested. I said yes. Turns out, election officers are required to be there the entire time the polls are open. That's thirteen hours. They are also required to arrive an hour before and stay an extra two hours to count the votes and clean up. So in total, I was required to be there for sixteen hours.  Since signing up, I've become a full-time sub for some additional classes that I now needed to get subs for. Also, my husband had a work trip to Ohio Monday and Tuesday which meant I needed to ask my mom to spend the night Monday night and take the kids to school. Also I had a cold. Basically, everything that could go wrong went wrong. When I woke up at 4:15 Tuesday morning, I was seriou...