The Strength of Yielding

I never did give a recap of the Spring Semester. Overall...I give it a 3 out of 5. Plenty of room for improvement, but I have definitely made strides since the Fall term. (Student comments affirm both of these conclusions.) My class evaluation scores were low...probably the lowest that the department chair has ever seen, especially the score given for the lousy 1st edition books that I used (both < 1 out of 5).

As think back to the beginning of my teaching experience, I wonder how hard my colleagues had to keep from laughing when I told them that I felt a teaching & communications course and TA experiences (mainly just grading) prepared me for my first full-time experience. When you have the full responsibility, it is rough. I want to make soooo many changes this coming year (yes, I signed the contract to stick around), but I have been constantly advised to only make incremental or only one change each year. This wisdom is tough to follow. I think I see so many specific areas that I can improve, so I want to do it all now, therefore things can improve rapidly. But I do trust the council I have received and have also "seen" the research to back it up.

One of the books I hope to get to this summer is Good to Great. The summary for one of the last chapters talks about how great organizations make incremental improvements, not sudden sweeping changes. Applying this to the classroom, I also want to restrain myself to a couple of basic changes and maybe one fundamental change in each class. As of today, I would like to only change my lecture structure for one class. I believe that God is showing me a weekly lecture structure of the following for Fluids:

Monday - Introductory lecture of topic(s) for the week. Motivation is given at this time along with theory. HW is assigned and is due Friday.

Wednesday - This day's structure is a little unclear, but would present the material in a different manner than Monday's. Questions on HW would be addressed.

Friday - HW due. Interactive, whole class (or group) work on one or two open-ended/design based problems with a review of progress at the end of class.

What I see occurring is that the different learning styles of each student can be catered to and there are obvious points of evaluation of student understanding. I have all my lectures from last year, so mostly what I'll be doing is repackaging, rather than creating.

My Adv. Thermo. lecture will not not change much accept for (hopefully?) a tour of a local gas turbine. The labs will be reduced to about four and groups of students will build labs for use in the future (to replace the faulty labs).

The Senior Sem. organization of guest lectures is being altered, assuming the presenters (mostly outside contributors) can make the dates I have tentatively assigned. I am still not thrilled with the integration of the faith/ethics portion of the course, but I not going to worry about it much this year.

In other things, I am working on writing a research article for a reviewed journal. This work is the most difficult thing for me right now. Thankfully, I recently found a wonderful paper on how to write a journal article, but the process is still mentally daunting to me. I guess I never felt attached to the research. It is difficult for me to move on and feel motivated work on the paper, which I would like to finish/submit for review by the end of the summer.

Jesus clearly wanted me and my family to be here. I didn't want to come until the "peace of God" that I heard of finally became my experience through the interview, house-hunting, and moving processes. Since God brought me here, he knows the requirements for tenure (good teaching, a pattern of research, and active service). And I know he knows that I don't like and don't feel I am any good at research. I have told him this several times :-). Therefore, I trust that he will show me what to research and give me a passion for it.

Now the "passion for it" is a curious thing. I believe that God guides us into things that will bring him the greatest glory, but I also believe, when we are in the place he wants us, we will have the greatest passion/joy. So, I am excited for what research topic he wants me to pursue, but because of my past experience, I am timid and concerned that I don't have the ability to do it! But from the people that God seemed to choose in the Bible to do his work (i.e., Gideon, Peter, Jonah, etc.), my weaknesses allows God to show himself strong!

This last thought leads me to a wonderful series of talks by Otto Koning called "The Pineapple Story Series" that was given to Luann and I a couple of years ago at Christmas. A key principle that Otto continually hits on is that "...the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him" 2 Chron. 16:9 (NKJV). God wants himself to be glorified, thus if we are strong enough to feel that we somehow did it on our own, God won't get the maximum glory. So, he works with less than the minimum, i.e., Gideon and 300 solders with jars, torches, and ram's horns beat an army with "to many to count" without even touching them. Otto tells of his own personal stories of God showing himself strong while a missionary to the cannibals and headhunters of New Guinea.

Another key point that Otto addresses is that of yielding his rights to God. Ultimately, we are managers of God's stuff and if we recognize this and be sure to give "our" stuff to God on a daily basis, God does and will take good care of his property. These rights include our family members as well as our material possessions. In his main story, Otto tells of his struggle to completely surrender his rights to the pineapples from his garden. The natives were continually stealing them (as well as other items from his house) until he gave them to God and stopped worrying about God's stuff. (For a while he would remind God that "Hey, they're stealing your pineapples!") When the natives found out he had given his garden with the pineapples away to someone else, they wanted to know who (for fear that it was a witch doctor or a big head hunter!) When Otto told them that he had given them to God, they told him to get the garden back! They told Otto that since he gave the garden to God, whenever someone would steal a pineapple, something would happen to that person or his/her family (e.g., sickness, hut burned down, etc.). But since Otto was feeling much better (he had been on tranquilizers) and he knew that God wanted it, he wouldn't take the garden back. Now Otto can't get away from pineapples!

So this long post has helped me put a few things together, but it does leave me with a question. God clearly wants to show himself strong in my life and in my teaching. And he wants me to yield my life, my family, and my stuff to him. All this makes sense, but will take discipline to practice on a daily basis. The question I am left with is this...how do I yield my teaching to God? Clearly, I have to play a role. I need to lecture/interact with my students in some way, as Otto had to maintain/weed his garden, even though he kept losing pineapples day after day. Is the answer as simple as...teach the best I can/know how and let God do the rest?