The final day of network training wrapped up at lunch time today and I'm left with a lot of time to reflect on the wonderful experiences of the training. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to learn valuable teaching and classroom tasks with these many wonderful people and I'm left wondering how I will implement everything to be sure my classroom is highly effective (I'm sure this is trademarked by Covey or somebody) every day.

Wednesday Evening was spent in Lincoln Square with my friend Adrianna, one of many people I've shared time with online but never off (until now). We had a delicious meal with tasty drinks at Bad Dog Tavern and were able to enjoy the nice Chicago evening on the patio with the city lights, the sleazy Christmas-style patio lights, and somebody's beautiful mutt of a dog. Five hours later I made it back to Loyola's campus, filled with food, drink and fantastic conversation.

Thursday morning turned out to be rather administrative, with training on how to find existing Cristo Rey Network resources for teachers. The interaction between teachers network wide is great, but the fact that we can contextualize it after this week's training solidifies the quality of the educators in the network (in my mind). Educators new and old working together to ensure that we "Transform Urban America One Student at a Time" inspires me to keep doing this work.

Also in the inspiration category is my (now former) district manager from Starbucks. She and I talked about me leaving the company today and I've never been so encouraged about quitting a job. She thanked me for the hard work and congratulated me on the full-time opportunity at Detroit Cristo Rey while also commenting that "the partners at the store are truly going to miss your presence at the store." A humbling comment from a good boss.

Found in a classroom building at Loyola University

Finally today wrapped up with a few hours of downtime with many of my new Chicagoland friends. A bunch of 20-somethings committed to social justice, working in a Jesuit school for low-income students and living together in community for two years. It reminds me of some dear people that I already miss....Dave, Megan, Hannah, and John (who will be back next year!)...we went to a local coffee house just blocks from Loyola's campus and laughed for hours. It was great to bond with them around such important affinities and make plans to hang out as often as possible.

It's exciting to bring back such a wealth of information (and stories!) to my classroom and students. Hopefully the energy and enthusiasm of the training will make a huge impact on the learning environment, the school and, most importantly the lives of our teachers and students.

You'll notice at this point that the day blogs seem to be based on the liturgical hours calendar. It starts in the evening and goes until the current afternoon. Weird.

Tuesday wrapped up with a great cup of coffee at Stella's around the corner from the Loyola University dormitory building that is currently serving as home base. I shared a cup with the Detroit fan mentioned in yesterday's blog post and we talked about all of the opportunity and excitement that is available in my favorite city (and place of residence). Good coffee and good conversation are basically fundamental elements of my life and the opportunity to have that more than once while here in Chicago is great. It makes me wish I worked directly for the Cristo Rey Network and had to commute here a few times a year (don't read too much into that, I love working at Detroit Cristo Rey!)

Today's lessons were a continuation on the discussion on classroom management as well as collaboration in our curriculum groups. The technology group here is small but it has given us the chance to develop our own approaches and be allies. Seeing all of these Cristo Rey educators together reinforces in each of us the importance of the CRN mission:

"Transforming Urban America One Student at a Time."

As a bit of a veteran Cristo Rey staffer in this group, some of the network information is very familiar with me. The repetition is fine but it is sometimes easy to check out for a bit which, quite frankly, helps me sympathize with the plight of my students. But two sections today stood out for me.

After lunch we were given the opportunity to interview six students from the three Chicago area network schools. Ingrid, a rising junior from St. Martin de Porres High School (Cristo Rey Network) in Waukegan, told us that "Our teachers aren't just teachers, they are everything." When asked about her future plans, she told us "I think I want to be a teacher. My teachers have shown me that you can be a teacher and really care." What an inspirational thought for those of us in the room.

Finally, for those of you who have been reading this blog for a while, you all know TWLOHA is of significant importance to me. I have seen it make a positive impact in the lives of some of my own students and bring a few people back from the brink. How encouraging, then, to see Ingrid wearing a TWLOHA bracelet. According to the teacher that helped facilitate her being with us today, "she's very proud of her collection." I'm proud of her too. That is me with the double-bracelets, her with the blue text on black band.

"You're from Detroit? I LOVE Detroit! I was just there and I can't wait to go back!" Those words were uttered by a Loyola University student who is responsible for the dorm building we're housed in, sending me into a state of shock and awe (not to be confused with GWB Iraq military policy). It turns out the student stayed in Corktown and visited "the best French restaurant in the Midwest" (yes, Le Petit Zinc, it was you!) and actually visited our neighborhood often. He and some potential business partners are drawing up plans for businesses when they finish school. And to think that I met him because I walked down to the lobby in search of an iron.

Yesterday evening was spent at Goose Island Brew pub with Margaret and Patrick. As a fan of big cities and beer, it is always nice to catch the true local flavor from residents. The food and brews were delicious and it was great to hang out with them.

Day two of training was spent tackling all things classroom management. Using Marzano's A Handbook for Classroom Management that Works we explored ways to incorporate rules, procedures and our own school handbook into our daily classroom behaviors. Talk about refreshing information! For those scoring at home, mark another one in the "things I wish I'd heard before I started teaching" category (for baseball fans, it's like a 6-4-3 double play when your starter is pitching in the 8th inning with a one-run lead).

I was asked a whole series of questions today about our school handbook, how we handle discipline, etc. It was a weird discussion and it did not make sense until the questioner asked me how long I have been the Dean of Students at our school. Apparently my name being Dean was the confusing part...

The most important part for me is the ability to build relationships with other educators within the Cristo Rey Network. It isn't that often that we have that opportunity to view things on the national scale and seeing passionate teachers from many cities and walks of life is a real bright spot. Claire, a new teacher at Christ the King Jesuit College Preparatory School here in Chicago, and I constructed this image of a life with, and without, Learning Goals in the classroom.

Pauline metaphor + graduation + weather = step aside Picasso

More to come tomorrow, especially after I grab a coffee with the above-quoted Loyola student this evening.

------------------------------------------------------

While you're on the internet, also check out this great Detroit News piece on the The Detroit City Futbol League. You'll like it. 

I'm catching my breath after an incredible first day of meetings, sessions, and college cafeteria food before heading to catch some city life. Let's reflect.

Sunday I took the train from Detroit to Chicago where I am staying in a dorm on the campus of Loyola University. It's surreal being back on a full-fledged university campus complete with cafeteria food, tons of obnoxious kids (middle school camps?) and great conversations. Also, stackable beds. If I had a dorm mate I'd insist on stacking the beds for nostalgia and childish humour, but I have a roomy two-bedroom dorm all to myself. The first order of business was setting the air conditioner to a comfortable 62 degrees Fahrenheit (or 16.66 Celsius for my friends in every other country in the world).

I'm the only representative of Detroit Cristo Rey High School for this training and let's face it, I've taught a total of three sections of sophomore technology ever in my life, so I am clearly a veteran educator. While you mull over the brilliance of this statement, let me point out that technology has not been on the network conversation much of yet so, in a weird way, I have the opportunity to shape the role of academic technology throughout the Cristo Rey Network. Thankfully there are a few new faculty who will be teaching technology in our schools but all of them are new and have little existing curriculum so we're all, in a way, in the same boat (but I'm the captain, of course, and T-Pain is on the boat too).

Today's highlights included a session with the president of the Cristo Rey Network that was interrupted by a fire alarm. After the session I was able to chat with him about web standards and profiles for the schools network-wide and it looks like a conversation will continue further out of that. Likewise a group of us discussed the importance of nutrition in low SES (socioeconomic status), urban schools and are serious about pushing that discussion to top priority in the Network.

We spent a few hours wrestling with the great information in Ruby Payne's A Framework for Understanding Poverty and have plenty more to discuss the rest of the week. Payne's book provides a plethora of resources for understanding the unique situations each of our students represent and will serve to be a key resource for me going forward at DCRHS.

Most importantly were the conversations about curriculum management, lesson planning and classroom environments. It turns out that my liberal arts education did not prepare me to be a high school teacher so the fact that the Network provides these resources to us is a huge blessing.

As should be no surprise, I have morphed into the conference IT support specialist, fixing laptops, projectors and even texting a Cristo Rey school president from the moderator's cell phone so he could arrive at the right location. All that in one day!

Tonight I'm off to visit Goose Island with Margaret and Patrick. That is all that I know.

Reporting from Chicago...

There are times in our lives when we have the opportunity to reflect on the past and appreciate the people, places and events that have impacted us the most. Usually these opportunities hit us as milestones in our lives like weddings, births, reunions and death. Most of the time our reflecting is on things from long ago (see, for example, today's TIME Magazine Detroit blog on memories of Bob-Lo island: http://detroit.blogs.time.com/2010/06/29/unfiltered-jennifer-blevins-on-...). "What could have beens" and "what should have beens" serve to stump our own growth and often cast the present and future into a negative light. The importance of music and place mixes in with the lives that move in and out of our own narratives and in many cases we don't have the chance to sit down and see how we've impacted each other. Thankfully I've had that chance.

Over the past year, I've been blessed to share cheers, tears, fears, and beers with some incredible people. Especially focusing on my dear friend Megan. A volunteer who spent a year of her life living in Corktown and working at Cristo Rey, my life has been impacted in ways innumerable by her friendship. Riding together to work each day, sharing in the struggles of working with teenagers in school.

In a bittersweet way, knowing that this year is coming to a close and we won't be at the school together next year, I share her reflections on the year (from her blog) and then my own. 

Megan's words

"Lastly, a very special thank you to "my bestie", Dean. I honestly am not sure if I would have made it through the months of February-April without Dean. He saw me at my worst, when I was stressed out about my future and weighed down from work...but that did not stop him from being the most amazing, understanding, compassionate, giving, loving person around. Dean, you are an incredible person. You amaze me every single day with your dedication to the city of Detroit, the students and school, your faith, etc. I know that no matter where this road takes me, you will always be one of my best friends, and for that I am extremely grateful. I will miss our car rides and computer lab dance parties, but most of all I will miss our conversations. Thank you times a million. Because I knew you, I have been changed for good. I mean every word of that."

My own thoughts:

I'm not sure when Megan and I went from friends to besties, but there was a point this winter when it became obvious to me that she has had a great impact on my life. Megan is one of the most patient and honest people I have ever met, and how she lives our faith makes me proud that she impacts so many lives every day. Megan listened to all of my vents on the ride to work, introduced me to a lot of incredible music and musicians, and gave me well more than 100 free car rides.

Megan, you are one of the most beautiful souls I have ever met. You made yourself available to students, to faculty, to neighbors and friends every day, constantly giving and pouring out of yourself despite the emotion and energy required. Regularly I saw you near emotional and physical exhaustion, yet you continued to push on because you knew you were needed. You made people like Mandisa, Melinda, Kelly, and Jordin real to me and taught me to enjoy ridiculous pop music and dance it out. I'm rather heartbroken that I won't get to see you continue to minister and love the students of Cristo Rey each day, but I cannot wait to see what the next chapter of your life brings. I know that you'll go far, girl and I'm glad to be a part of our life. You've changed my life in a million ways and I'll never, never take that for granted. Thank you, I love you, and I'm so freaking proud of all that you will do.

Mission and evangelism have long been stalwarts for the Western church. For centuries, American churches have supported missionaries in Third-World countries, celebrating stories of conversions and touting the great work for the Gospel those missionaries accomplished. Oftentimes these one-sided give --> give --> receive relationships are models as "successful" evangelism.

In response to this and other perceptions about mission and friendship, Christopher Heuertz and Christine Pohl collaborated to produce Friendship at the Margins, the latest in the Resources for Reconciliation Series from Duke and IVP. Rather than approach the standard view of mission and dissect it, they start the discussion by posing a series of questions:

• "What does reconciliation look like when you love Jesus and want the best for people who are caught in situations of terrible evil, need or despair?"
• "How would our lives and our ministries be different if our understandings of love emphasized friendship?"
• "What difference does it make for mission, discipleship and the church when friendship with people who are poor is a central dimensions of our lives? What is the impact on those with whom we minister? How are we changed?"

This work tackles one of the most standard characteristics of the Protestant church and turns it on its head. Heurtz and Pohl examine the realities of friendship and mission, even asking if the disciples and their desertion of Jesus during his arrest would be deemed a failure by today's church metrics. They emphasize as well the difficulty of this type of Christian lifestyle, observing how they have been forced into touch moral quandaries with their friends and neighbors. All this to further emphasize their strongly-held believe that a life lived to glorify and serve Christ cannot be fully modeled without this radical approach to friendship.

In his memoir, Stanley Hauerwas writes that he tries "to live a life I hope is unintelligible if the God we Christians worship does not exist." Throughout Friendship at the Margins, we feel Heuertz and Pohl calling us into this same reality. To live lives seeking radical, passionate friendship can only make sense if Christ walked among us, died for us, and rose again to save us.

This short work serves as a strong reminder to all of us in the church. Evangelism and mission are not simply actions that can be tracked by sales techniques and "numbers saved" metrics. They are not simply a series of buzz words, catch phrases, bracelets and presentations designed with mass-market appeal.

"If we use words and get words in response, sometimes we think we have done mission or evangelism. Ministry among poor and vulnerable people reminds us that words are rarely enough - what each of us needs is to know that we are loved by Jesus, beloved by God. Everything else flows from that. IN situations of injustice or despair, words alone are particularly insufficient. People need to be loved and valued by others. They need to see what love looks like." [pp 10-11]

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Intervarsity Press to read and post a review on my site. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Todd Hunter latest book Giving Church Another Chance gives us a brief look at the Aaronic blessing of Numbers 6 that should be the direction for our daily actions and motivations. Bishop Hunter's responses are rich but brief. Taking the opportunity to expound upon them should help us practice them to the fullness of what lies at the core of the Benediction. For the next several blog posts, we will look at one of the six clauses, Hunter's response and the depth and practice of that part of the blessing. We looked at the first clause last week and the second yesterday.

"The Lord make His Face to Shine Upon You"

Bishop Hunter's explanation: "May you sense the favor of your Creator God, that he is pleased with you."

Talking About It

I think the reality here is that this parallels with the favor of our parents, except on a significantly grander scale. Consider how proud we are of the work that we create, whether it be Lego or Playdoh as children to projects in school, all the way to theses, dissertations and work accomplishments. Creating is an incredible source of pride for humans. We are often please with our own handiwork.

Expanding that to God, imagine the joy and pleasure He must feel looking down on Creation (our own messing-up of it notwithstanding). And sensing that he is pleased with You and I as individual parts within that Creation should, at the very least, strike us with awe.

Practicing It

As reflections of Christ, we too must reflect the Creator God and his favor onto our neighbors. This doesn't mean, of course, wholesale acceptance of behavior (we're not expected to applaud murderers, for example) but that God does love us and made a sacrifice for all of us. We're no better/worse than the persons next to us. We're expected to reflect the Glory of God in what we do, and part of his character is the joy he takes in his creation. Do we do the same?

Todd Hunter latest book Giving Church Another Chance gives us a brief look at the Aaronic blessing of Numbers 6 that should be the direction for our daily actions and motivations. Bishop Hunter's responses are rich but brief. Taking the opportunity to expound upon them should help us practice them to the fullness of what lies at the core of the Benediction. For the next several blog posts, we will look at one of the six clauses, Hunter's response and the depth and practice of that part of the blessing. We looked at the first clause last week.

"and Keep You."

Bishop Hunter's explanation: "May you know the goodness of God in action, may he guard you, watch over you and protect you."

Talking About It

Goodness and protection are two motifs we can all get behind. To wish this upon someone seems a bit like a no-brainer. In Christianity it is believed that God is a good God that "for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28) The imperative clause being, of course, "for those who love God."

Practicing It

Like the first clause, this is easy to practice toward our friends but much more difficult (if not impossible!) to practice on our own toward our adversaries. This definitely requires some divine assistance, praying for protection and goodness to be showered on the persecutors, the exploiters and the cheats and the liars. But that is how we must repractice this in our lives. Live a life that reflects the goodness of God to all men and women, that we all might know peace.

This is a series-style response to Bishop Todd Hunter's latest book Giving Church Another Chance, which I reviewed here and reflected upon via narrative on Wednesday.

Todd Hunter gives us a brief look at the Aaronic blessing of Numbers 6 that should be the direction for our daily actions and motivations. Bishop Hunter's responses are rich but brief. Taking the opportunity to expound upon them should help us practice them to the fullness of what lies at the core of the Benediction. For the next several blog posts, we will look at one of the six clauses, Hunter's response and the depth and practice of that part of the blessing.

"The Lord bless you."

Bishop Hunter's explanation: "May he give you favor and cause you to prosper richly in every good spiritual gift there is in Christ Jesus."

Talking About It

Like the prayer of Jabez fad from earlier this decade (last decade?), there are surely prosperity gospel types who insist that the blessing is tied to worldly wealth. Asking for the Lord's blessing is often equated with financial wealth or career successes, and for many the greatest blessings are directly tied to the American dream, living a certain lifestyle, or the perfect retirement.

Fortunately for us, this Aaronic blessing is not so short-sighted. Prospering in Christ Jesus has nothing to do with material things, as Bishop Hunter reflects in the passage above. Looking deeply into this phrase of the blessing, we see a foreshadowing of St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. In it he calls us to "pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts" (chapter 14) and in the following chapter, he reflects upon the material vs. the spiritual:

"I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable."

If flesh cannot inherit the kingdom of God, it makes sense that our things cannot inherit the kingdom of God as well. The Aaronic blessing does not deviate as a precursor to St. Paul and will stand on this as well.

Practicing It

Any wedding attendees will have read (or at least heard) 1 Corinthians 13 and will recall this phrase:

"So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

I'd say, simply put, that we should practice these three things to those we encounter, especially those we stand in opposition to in whatever aspects of our lives. The biggest takeaway, I think, in practicing this phrase of the Aaronic blessing is the live the example of Christ's words in Matthew 5:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, [8] what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Bishop Todd Hunter's new book Giving Church Another Chance includes a chapter on the Benediction of the Christian worship service. Yesterday I posted a short review of the book; today I want to share a story and focus on the passage of Scripture Hunter dissects in this chapter.

For starters, Hunter points out the backward attitude we tend to bring toward the Benediction, viewing it as the end of a public worship service (and thus our escape clause) instead of an opportunity for "the blessing [to go] out the door with us." Hunter sees a real need here for us to reorient our lives as blessings, not simply as evangelists or prophets, apostles or teachers. Dorothy Day, the founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, serves as a posthumous guide for Hunter during this discussion, reflecting the joy of living a life outwardly blessing others.

This chapter resonated with me in part because of Hunter's exploration of the Aaronic Blessing found in Numbers 6. That blessing has been used in tens of thousands of church services around the globe, but for me it is tied to a person and a moment from several years ago.

In my teenage years, my best friend was in ways my complete opposite. Her goals, my interests, they never really meshed, yet we still found enough commonality to spend hours each week on our parents' cordless phones. We encouraged one another, made each other laugh, and tried to set each other up on dates as we got older. And of course, we had the obligatory "if we're both single at 30, we'll buy such-and-such-a-house and get married" plan all set up, realizing of course that 30 is a lifetime away when you are 15 years old.

This backdrop was really just a small part of a friendship built in prayer, laughter and love. We knew each others' faults, our greatest strengths, we prayed for one another and held each other responsible for being better at living the image of God.

One spring, as the school year was quickly winding down and we knew camps and programs would prevent us from chatting for a while, she took a moment to write a Scripture reference inside the cover of my Bible. That Bible, Duct tape cover and all, is long gone by this day, but the power of my first Benediction has remained for a decade after the fact. I have only seen her once since that day (and our meet up was 5 years ago) but still the invocation of Aaron's Blessing speaks God's power to me in a way I cannot always explain. Hunter explains God's intentions for us that lie in the blessing:

• May he give you favor and cause you to prosper richly in every good spiritual gift there is in Christ Jesus.
• May you know the goodness of God in action, may he guard you, watch over you and protect you.
• May you sense the favor of your Creator God, that he is please with you.
• May you be aware of God's forgiveness, compassion and mercy.
• May you see in Jesus' face you much pleasure God takes in you and how very much God loves you and accepts you right where you are.
• May you have shalom - the fullness of well-being. May you experience the sum of all the good God intends for his people; may you be at rest and centered in Christ Jesus, who is our Lord.