I love learning, and I love reading. I can’t get enough of books at the moment. I’m reading Philip Yancey’s book on Prayer, which is really encouraging my prayer life. Instead of making me feel guilty for not praying enough, or for not seeing enough answers to prayer, I’ve realised I’m normal, and have my own style of prayer which suits me and benefits my relationship with God. He doesn’t give easy answers to the difficult questions we normally ask about prayer, but I’m now comfortable with not having answers to the questions.
There are many other books I want to pick up off my shelf and re-read, mainly youth ministry ones. I want to re-read contemplative youth ministry, but a friend has my copy at the moment. I’m hoping that over the summer I’ll have lots of time to read. Tiredness seems to be the one thing that gets in the way of my reading (after my work of course!). And then there’s my study!
I’ve just completed my last assignment of the academic year, but I won’t stop studying! I’ve got a lot of reading to catch up on and I want to make a start on the next assignment due in September. It’s all about what is socially useful. I have to do something which I think is socially useful and then write 2000 words on why I think this is so and what I have learnt! The question of what is socially useful is a really intersting one, and the more I think about it, the more unsure I get about what I should do! I think I want to ask the question ‘can one person do something that is socially useful?’ Of course what matters is how you define ’socially useful’. I could pick up some litter around my local community which would benefit the few people who live near me, but is that the same as socially useful?
I could go on and on, but I’ll save it for now. I have a study day on Friday where I am looking forward to discussing this for a good hour! But if you have any thoughts on what is socially useful or what I could do, I’d love to hear them! (It can’t be work related, so no youthwork!)
I love to learn! June 22, 2007
the decorating bug June 16, 2007
We spent Monday – Thursday this week decorating our ‘not our home’ house. Every room has now been painted, the master bedroom has a new carpet and all the other carpets have been cleaned. It looks great, and we’re a bit jealous of the tenants who will move in next weekend. Never have we lived in such a fresh looking house! And so we have caught the decorating bug. We know that if we really want to, we can decorate one whole room in one whole day (providing one coat only paint is used!) So this week, we are decorating our dining room. We decided on the colour scheme ages ago when we bought a shelf for the room. Now we’re actually getting around to putting it into action. Hubby and I are having different days off this week, so he’ll be taking the furniture out and starting the preparation on Monday, and I’ll be painting and finishing off on Tuesday! In just two days we will have a stylish dining room, which will easily be the best room in the house – perhaps motivating us to do even more rooms!
But right now I have an assignment to finish off!
I went for a run! June 8, 2007
I don’t like running. I hated it at school, and I was never any good at it. Hubby has been wanting to go for a run recently, and he won’t go for one by himself. Yesterday I was stressed (no real reason, just the mood I was in) so I came back from a meeting and said to him ‘we’re going for a run’. He was surprised. So was I! We’ve only ever been for a run once before and that was a bit of a disaster. At least this time he had low expectations of my ability to run fast or far! I actually managed ok, and ran off most of my stress and frustration. The bath I had when I got back also helped! I was calm for the rest of the day, even if a little snappy occasionally.
Will I go for a run again? Maybe, but I still prefer my exercise videos.
back to normal June 2, 2007
Life seems back to normal, after a restful day yesterday I’m back on top of things. I really enjoyed doing nothing yesterday morning and catching up with my old school friend. I did some work in the evening, but with all the hours I did Thursday, I didn’t have a lot to do to make my hours up!
Today it took me two hours to clean the bathroom and kitchen (but I hadn’t done it for far too long!) I’ve done lots of work, worked my way through the massive ironing pile and now it’s time to study. The next assignment is due June 21st, but I’ve given myself a deadline of June 10th, due to the weeks holiday we’re having (more decorating on the ‘not our home’ house ) the week before the deadline.
My assignment is all about assessing young people. The first part is reviewing current assessment tools, and then the second part I have to write my own. For my own I’m thinking of assessing ‘distance travelled’ by a young person. The hope being that I can assess and record the development and change in the young people I work with over a period of months. This would probably be done either through a questionnaire or interview.
Do you have any assessment tools that you use with young people?
