Family Scripture Reading from the Pulpit!

Today our family gave a communion meditation together and then prayed for the bread and the cup together. I am so thankful that Caroline will grow up participating in the life of the church and knowing that she is an equal member in the body of Christ! 

We left our last church and moved to this one precisely for this reason. I was especially moved by the woman who told my daughter that she looked at home behind the pulpit and maybe she would be a preacher some day. Leaving a church full of people that we loved was so incredibly difficult but I know it was the right choice for us.

Caroline teaches the class a little about gender roles in Dallas.

Take Your Daughter to a Work Day - Conference Edition!

Last week my daughter attended her third meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Social Problems. My daughter is 28 months old. Her first conference was at 4 months. She's been to other conferences as well, 5 more to be exact. So, how do I do it? What's my secret? Friends and colleagues who are willing to take her for a walk around the hotel while I give my presentation. Yep, it's that simple. One year my in laws met us at the conference and watched her so that I could conference. One year my husband came. Often it's a student who watches her and on this last trip she sat in the front row and watched Daniel Tiger on the iPad while I presented.

Being a working Mom isn't easy but I like to think that as she sees me working and doing my job that it will encourage her and help her to aspire to be anything! 

Potty Training - Not for the Faint of Heart

For the past 6 months or so we have sporadically put Caroline on the toilet in the morning and right before bath and usually she would go. Well, school finished up and she seemed more interested in using the potty so we decided to just go for it. I pinned a lot of ideas and tips on Pinterest and then set out to potty train. The pin I kept seeing the most was a variation on "potty train your toddler in 3 days" theme. So, the basic idea is to give your kid lots of juice and salty snacks and let them run around naked and put them on the potty every 30 minutes. Give lots of rewards/praise when they make it to the potty. Okay, other than the juice and candy rewards I can handle that. We put her in underwear and asked every 30 minutes. In the first half of the day we went through 10 pair of underwear. I was exhausted and she was cranky and we all just wanted to get out of the house! I could see that the intense method was not working for us. We also couldn't stay housebound for 3 solid days.

So, we decided to try our own, go at her own pace method. I broke down and bought some disposable training pants (I thought about using cloth but I didn't want to make the investment). We put her in the training pants and ask every hour if she needs to go, when she says no we leave it at that and don't push.

After about 3 weeks we started to see her stay consistently dry so we tried underwear again with much better success. We are now working on her recognizing the need to go and telling us. 

We are still using training pants during sleep but I'd guess that she'll be nap trained by the time she goes back to school in 6 weeks!

The most valuable lesson I learned from this experience is that each child is unique and you can't force a child to potty!

How I Travel with a Baby

Sleeping in the taxi on the drive from the Denver airport to our downtown hotel.

Traveling with babies and toddlers can seem daunting. The first time I tried to travel with kids was back when I was a grad student and I took my two nephews from Kansas to California to visit my parents. My sister was being treated for breast cancer so I took her 3 year old and 8 month old out to California on my own! It was trying but I just powered through and did it. I think that experience gave me a lot of confidence when it came time to take my own baby on a flight. One of the problems that I had with my nephews was that they missed their mom, well, I wouldn't have that problem with my own child!

Anyway, the other day a friend asked me some questions on Facebook about traveling with her baby and so I thought I'd share my advice here for future reference. So, let's get to the advice!

First, do you need to buy a plane ticket for your baby? No, if they are under 2 years old then they don't need there own seat. However, a carseat is the safest place for a baby to ride and it will give you a place to put the child so that you can have both of your hands free. If you decide to have the baby sit on your lap you will need to have him/her added to your ticket so that it says "plus infant" on it. You can do that at check in/bag check. When flying try to nurse or give a bottle on takeoff and landing or use a pacifier, the sucking helps the ear pressure adjust.

Second, do I need to bring a carseat on the plane? Yes, if you purchased a ticket for the baby, no if they are going to sit in your lap. The airline allows you to check a car seat and stroller for free. I prefer to check these and not lug them through security. I have a bag for both my car seat and my stroller to protect them from rough baggage handlers. 

Since I check my stroller I use a baby carrier (Ergo brand) to carry the baby through the airport. I still use it now that she's nearly 2 years old although now she walks some as long as we aren't in too big of a hurry. You can actually leave the baby strapped to you when you go through security, they will just test your hands after you go through the metal detector.

What about taxis, busses, and subways? In all of my checking and researching I have found that taxis do not require a carseat although that totally freaks me out! If you know that you'll be in a car a lot then bring the carseat. If your baby is little enough to be in a bucket/infant carseat than just bring your stroller that the carseat clips into and it will save you time. Practice installing your carseat using the seatbelt. I use a city mini stroller and have an attachment that allows virtually all carseat brands to be used with it. I love my stroller! On public transit you can have the baby on your lap or leave them in the stroller. Again, having them strapped in a carseat is always safest even without being belted in. 

What about renting a car? Yes, you can rent a car seat. When you book the car online you choose additional features and it's usually $8-10 per day. They should have it for you at the rental place ready when you get there. However, it will be a toddler seat and probably a lower end one. If your child is particular then they may not want to sleep in the rented car seat. You also never know the history of the carseat and generally they don't come installed so you have to install it. I just prefer to bring my own since checking it is free and then I know how to install it and I know the baby won't hate it!

Do I need a stroller? I like to have a stroller. A lightweight, easy to fold stroller is ideal. If you do a lot of walking it will be great. It's also nice to just have somewhere to put the baby while shopping or eating. I do a combo of baby carrier and stroller to make stairs easier. I also like being able to put all of the stuff in the bottom of the stroller, quite handy for shopping. When navigating busses and subways I put the baby in the carrier before heading down into the subway or while I'm at the bus stop and that way I can just jump on.

My last tip is to keep in mind that you'll need to go slower and may not get to see as much and that's okay. Sightseeing with a baby has to be a little more relaxed. Take lots of snacks and drinks for baby and just try to enjoy yourself! Also, remember that in a pinch you can always buy something that you may have forgotten! 

Adventures in Teaching!

This past school year I have worked to make my teaching better. I've been increasingly frustrated by a lack of rigor and an increasing number of students who do not know how to take ownership of their learning. As a new teacher 10 years ago I was thankful to have students who just listened passively and didn't ask questions. Now I want and need them to think and be engaged. I'm no longer satisfied with students "earning" a passing grade. I want students to learn, I want them to retain knowledge and even change the way that they think about the world. It's a tall order but I don't think that it's a pipe dream. So, what am I doing to make this happen?

First, I did some experiments with a flipped class. In a flipped class students do lecture/content delivery online and then actually engage the material during class. I first flipped my statistics class. I found and created a bunch of tutorial videos and some online readings an then when students come to class we work on practice problems, work on analyzing data using the computer programs, do fun activities. Overall it went well and I enjoyed the flipped structure. I'm looking forward to doing it again this fall now that I have all of the content created.

The second thing that I've been working on is something called Specs Grading. Specifications grading or Specs is a way of grading that is intended to increase rigor and decrease work load. I read through a book by Dr. Linda Nilson and listened to this podcast where she describes the system: Linda Nilson - Specs Grading. After I read through her book and listened to her speak and then got a copy of a sociology syllabus that uses specs grading from a Facebook group I knew that I was ready. I'm going to be jumping in beginning Monday in my intro to sociology course.

Here is the description that I give in my syllabus:

"Evaluation

Adult-learning theory will be used to evaluate your performance in this class. Adult-learning theory tells us that adults learn better in a safe, flexible, and challenging environment. In order to provide an optimal environment for learning you will have a choice about which grade you will pursue in this course depending on your personal learning objectives.

Each grade is associated with a set of required assignments that you must complete in order to earn that grade. All assignments except quizzes will be graded as satisfactory or unsatisfactory. I will provide clear assignment specifications with examples of satisfactory work. Only assignments completed by the deadline will count toward your final grade. Research has shown that this kind of grading system provides a safe, flexible, and more rigorous learning environment than traditional points based systems.

Grade Criteria

Following are lists of assignments and criteria required to earn a specific grade in this class. You can find the specifications for each assignment posted on Canvas. Please note that failure to satisfactorily complete any of the requirements for a particular assignment will result in a grade of “unsatisfactory” on that assignment.

A grade of A indicates complete mastery of the four learning objectives. In order to obtain complete mastery on these objectives and earn an A you will need to:

1. 1.     Have no more than 1 unexcused absence during the 3 week summer session.
2. 2.     Earn an average of 80% on all online quizzes (open book, open note, timed quizzes). You may drop 1 quiz score from the average if needed.
3. 3.     Complete 8 out of 10 of the sociology in the news assignments. You may complete additional assignments should you make an unsatisfactory grade on 1 or 2 of them.
4. 4.     Complete 8 out of 10 journal entries. You may complete additional assignments should you make an unsatisfactory grade on 1 or 2 of them.
5. 5.     Complete the movie reflection
6. 6.     Complete a mini literature review on a sociological topic that uses 3 academic, peer-reviewed, journal articles.

A grade of B indicates above average mastery of the four learning objectives. In order to obtain above average mastery on these objectives and earn a B you will need to:

1. 1.     Have no more than 1 unexcused absence during the 3 week summer session.
2. 2.     Earn an average of 80% on all online quizzes (open book, open note, timed quizzes). You may drop 1 quiz score from the average if needed.
3. 3.     Complete 7 out of 10 of the sociology in the news assignments. You may complete additional assignments should you make an unsatisfactory grade on 1 or 2 of them.
4. 4.     Complete 7 out of 10 journal entries. You may complete additional assignments should you make an unsatisfactory grade on 1 or 2 of them.
5. 5.     Complete the movie reflection

A grade of C indicates average mastery of the four learning objectives. In order to obtain average mastery on these objectives and earn a C you will need to:

1. 1.     Have no more than 2 unexcused absences during the 3 week summer session.
2. 2.     Earn an average of 70% on all online quizzes (open book, open note, timed quizzes). You may drop 1 quiz score from the average if needed.
3. 3.     Complete 5 out of 10 of the sociology in the news assignments. You may complete additional assignments should you make an unsatisfactory grade on 1 or 2 of them.
4. 4.     Complete 5 out of 10 journal entries. You may complete additional assignments should you make an unsatisfactory grade on 1 or 2 of them.

A grade of D indicates below average mastery of the four learning objectives. In order to obtain below average mastery on these objectives and earn a D you will need to:

• 1.     Have no more than 3 unexcused absences during the 3 week summer session.
• 2.     Earn an average of 70% on all online quizzes (open book, open note, timed quizzes). You may drop 1 quiz score from the average if needed.
• 3.     Complete 2 out of 10 of the sociology in the news assignments. You may complete additional assignments should you make an unsatisfactory grade on 1 or 2 of them.
• 4.     Complete 2 out of 10 journal entries. You may complete additional assignments should you make an unsatisfactory grade on 1 or 2 of them.

A grade of F indicates that you did not meet any of the learning objectives for the course. Failure to meet the requirements for a D will earn an F in the course."

I'll update on the progress of the course once the three weeks are over. 

Merry Christmas!

It was a wonderful holiday season spent with family and friends. We are renewed and ready for a new year! 

We are so thankful for the birth of Christ and the salvation that his life, death, and resurrection has brought us. May we continue to grow in faith and love in the coming new year.

Thankful!

We spent Thanksgiving in Kansas which meant a long drive. It's been awhile since we've driven that far and I am proud to say that all three of us did really well. We enjoyed our time visiting my aunt and uncle while my husband worked. Here are some things I'm thankful for:

A loving husband!

A beautiful little girl who is healthy, happy, and full of feisty spirit!

Family all over the country who always make us feel at home when we visit.

A church family where we feel loved and are able to grow in our faith.