Brain Tai Chi

Every morning before school starts, I have a question on the board that my 3-4th graders must answer (in 5 5-star sentences). This Brain Tai Chi activity is the exit ticket to recess. Over the semester I have gathered my favorite ones and here they are...

If you could change one thing about Mr. Ricke, what would it be and why?

I want Mr. Ricke don’t drink to much coffey, because coffy will hert your tooth. I want you one day just haf coffy of a cup. In coffey If you brush you tooth very well you can drink coffey. I wish you can don’t drink to more coffey. And I wish you drink more water. (David)

I want to change Mr. Ricke’s hair. In now, Mr. ricke’s hair is short. I like Mr. Ricke’s long hair. I’m very like his hair. It’s very yellow, like gold. (Joseph)

I think I want to hange one is put water on his fire! He Also a good teacher, best in word! but some time I’m not obey you. So I want you not be anghr! (Sam)

I think we can let Mr. Ricke to get rid of the scareness of rats. Because if Mr. Ricke’s home have rats; who will kill them? I think this is the best way. When you see rats, don’t go crazy. Just calm down and take something that can kill the rat. You may cleanup the rats body after you kill them. (Andy P.)

What are some names you don’t want to name your future children? Why?

I think have many many many God’s name can not want to my children. first Lord, scond God. third Immanuel. fourth Messiah. fifth Redeemer. And many God name. (Mary)

I don’t want to name my children like this, Ham, Mazy, Lazy. Because they are a bit silly. But I think this name is funny. (Andy P.)

What promises has God made to you?

I don’t know what has God promises for me. Mabe is I will be die in 2100 year or I will be with him at 2030 year. I don’t mabe is a will be a famas man or I will be a poor man. I don’t. But I know when I in die I will be with in Haven. (Andy L.)

What does Christmas mean to you?

Christmas mean to me is we have a saver! Christmas is Jesus born. He come to this world to save us the sin. Because us Jesus will be on the cross. A pirfict life to save us sin. God told Jesus come, He come and take us out of Satan. (Joseph)

Cristmas mean to me that the Savior has come.  Cristmas means sins will be forgiven soon. Cristmas means that Jesus Crist is on earth. Cristmas means that we should sing praises. Cristmas means that we should celebrate! (Alison)

That mean that day Jesus was born. In that day the engel was sing to the littel Jesus. Jesus born and he gave us a gift, he bay back with a perfikt LIFE. So that day called chrisstmas. That does Christmas mean to you. (David)

What noise do you think a fox makes? Why don’t we know for sure?

I thinks the noise of a fox will be very crazy. Like the noise, “woooooooooo….!” But I don’t sure, because first, I did not any fox in my life. Second, God is wonderful, he make fox a wonderful noise. So, we can’t sure fox’s noise. (Andy L.)

What is God’s purpose for you right now?

I think the God give me purpose now is make me to Rising Eagle school, and make me belive in he, I think is a big purpose! Is so cool! No someone bigger than it! And Also is my famrite purpose! And I what belive in God every time! (Sam)

What is your favorite day of the week? Why?

Well, Friday, of course. Friday is perfect for me. because Jesus taked our sins away on Friday. I love to be free from sins. Jesus saved us from going to hell. (Alison)

Why is evolution wrong?

Because god make any thing. There’s no evolution. The scientist are wrong. If there have evolution And where is the animal come from, where is donosau cam from? Are they jump out? (Joseph)

If you could change one thing about our school, what would it be and why?

"If I could change one thing about our school I will had the school be invisible for every. Because if the plece [police] cane, he can't see where is our school. So, our school will be safe and be working for every. And more and more stende [students] will cane." 

Mandarin with Mijia

Here are some memorable characters and phrases I've learned this semester and would like to share with you...

美国纸老虎:  American paper tiger. This is a Anti-American 
propaganda made during the Korean War. 

纸老虎
zhi lao hu
paper tiger:  someone with a loud bark but no bite

铁公鸡
tie gong ji
iron rooster:  stingy miser

老狐狸
lao hu li
old fox:  crafty scoundrel

地头蛇
di tou she
snake head:  villain, bully

老黄牛
lao huang niu
old yellow ox:  honest, conscientious one

千里马
qian li ma
a horse that covers 1,000 kilometers in a day:  a person with amazing abilities and endurance

昵称
ni cheng
sweet call:  nickname

闯
chuang
The meaning is "charge, rush" and the character has a horse inside a gate.

锻炼
duan lian
The meaning is "excercise, toughen" and the characters have the radicals (the building blocks of each character) "steel" and "fire."

你的话带刺儿。
ni de hua dai ce'er
"Your words are thorny." This is an extremely powerful sentence that expresses hurt and offense.

讽刺
feng ci
chanting thorn:  ridicule, mock

吹牛
chui niu
blow cow:  boast (I have no clue...)

胆怯
dan qie
cowardly gallbladder:  Chinese assosiciate gallbladder 胆 with guts and courage. The 怯 chracter is made up of the radical for "heart" and on the right, "go." A heart on the run...

壮胆
zhuang dan
robust gallbladder:  boost one's courage

臭大姐
chou da jie
stinky big sister:  ladybug

无花果
wu hua guo
flowerless fruit:  fig

蜂鸟
feng niao
bee bird:  hummingbird

蔫儿屁
nian'r pi
shriveled fart:  silent but deadly

爆米花儿
bao mi hua'r
explosive rice flower:  popcorn

风琴
feng qin
wind piano:  organ

撕心裂肺
si xin lie fei
rip heart, crack lung:  unbearable pain

酒鬼
jiu gui
alcohol devil:  alcoholic

路盲
lu mang
road blind:  someone with no sense of direction

球挑花儿
qiu tiao hua'r
pursue the pear blossom:  a single dude looking for a girlfriend

嘴甜心苦
zui tian xin ku
mouth sweet, heart bitter:  when you don't mean what you say

委婉
wei wan
These two characters together mean, "a roundabout, indirect way." What I find interesting about it is that both characters have the character 女 (nu:  woman) inside. It reminds of a zitty and nervous high school boy (named Micah Ricke) wanting to ask a girl to the dance, but didn't really have the courage to spit out the words necessary.

Profassinal Wolfs

I love the Packers. But, China couldn't care less about the NFL.

Over my three and a half years here, I've seen roughly a grand total of maybe four entire games. This doesn't sadden me. I've saved a lot of time and emotional diarrhea. But there's something electrifying about watching a game live and I did that this morning.


Tom, Ben and I slept over at Scrivers and woke up at 5:00am turned on the computer, revved up the projector and watched the game on the big screen while sipping coffee.

Phil and I had to leave at halftime to get to school by 7:30, but at school I put the game on the whiteboard for the kids to watch. Every morning I have them do a morning journal activity that I call:  脑子太极 - naozi taiji - brain tai chi. This morning's prompt was, "Please describe football in five sentences."

Here are their unedited responses.

"I think foot ball is a little dangerous. Because they are letting eachothers down. And I think there rules are messy. cause I can't remember. That's what I'm thinking." (Truman)

"football is a dangest game. Awlays some people are ill, some can't walk, the football people must tall and starger than other people. They can 撞 [zhuang - collide] than can stra........  in this game you are a man's man! are you rigde to be a Football man" (Sam) 

"I have a word for football that is, 'CRAZY!!!' I gave that word is because it is super crazy when it's playing. And I don't know why they are poshing each others? I do not want to play football, if I play maby I will be died when I finish the rase." (Andy L.)

"Those people are like wild people. When they start the game, they came down the moutatin like wolfs. But when they cach the ball, they looks profassinal. I don't know thy the people was in chrage of the football was unhappy." (Andy P.) 

I love seeing the Chinese perspective of this "crazy" sport.

Boxed Brother

When you are wrinkled and confined to a rocking chair what will you remember about the life you  lived?

Here’s a list of things of five things I won’t remember…

1. How much money I made throughout my life
2. What brand of shoes I wore to my 7^th grade basketball tournament
3. My cumulative GPA from high school
4. Boyle’s Law
5. The score of Super Bowl XVIII

Here’s a list of five things I will remember…

1. Pooping my pants in a taxi in Vietnam
2. Tasting Lord’s Supper for the first time
3. Forgetting the opening line of our play in 8^th grade (and whispering a cuss under my breath
   into the mic)
4. Looking at Kayla Laurila’s sepia-toned picture for the first time
5. Carrying my newborn brother Noah to the car 

What’s the difference? The “Won’t List” is data and the “Will List” is moments.

Data is important, but it’s not memorable.

Data is necessary, but it rarely makes you cry tears of joy.

People make moments memorable. The only thing we can take into the Kingdom of God are the People of God – those memory makers we meet along the trek of life.

This weekend I made a memory with some amazing people to add to the “Will List.”

I wanted to surprise my sister before Christmas. I haven’t seen her all semester and really missed her. Hannah lives in Hangzhou and I live in Beijing. Hangzhou is 794 miles south of Beijing, comparable to Milwaukee and Oklahoma City. I hopped on a bullet train to Shanghai, met up with my friend Dan Tyrell and then snuck into Hangzhou under the cover of smog. Tony Bartels met us in the train station. Hannah Schmiege met us at the subway stop. The operation was underway. I could feel my heart pounding. I was nervous Sissy would see me walking on the street or see her on a bus. I felt like a bank robber in a John Wayne movie returning to the town that he had pillaged.

Schmiege had found a me-sized box during the week and fetched it from the basement of their apartment. Sissy was on the sixth floor. We were whispering. Man, I felt so alive!

I crawled in the box and put my head between my knees. It was quite the squeeze. Then they taped me closed and taped an old postage address on the top to make it seem legit. Schmiege and her friend Catherine called Sissy’s phone while Tony and Dan scrambled behind a parked car to catch the memory on video.

Sissy didn’t answer her phone.

Then they tried the doorbell. But it was broken, so Catherine had to hike six flights of stairs and get her. Meanwhile I’m in a box taped shut crumpled up trying to impersonate a piece of origami, breathing my own breath (which was not delightful) and feeling claustrophobia set in. I was taking short rapid breaths because of the insane nerves and also because I was just recycling my own CO2. Which was giving me déjà vu of the time I ran out of oxygen while scuba diving in the Philippines last year. Totally I was in the box for about seven minutes.

Finally I hear a loud Wisconsinite voice coming down the stairs. The moment had arrived!

“Hannah the mailman dropped this off for you.”

“It’s probably a block of anthrax.”

She kicks the box with her big boot

“That’s a big block of anthrax.”

“What is it? It could be a body!”

Schmiege hands her a scissors.

“I don’t like this…”

She starts cutting the tape and then sees my head of hair, but doesn’t know it’s me.

“AAAAHHHHHH! AHHHHHHHHH!” she screams as she recoils in fear.

Then I poke my head through the opening in the box, and her screams of terror morph into tears of joy.

Check out the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ffr-BJJHK64

Even though my joints will rust and my hairline will continue its speedy retreat, this memory will not!