‘The Big Picture’ Chapter Summaries

The Big Picture Chapter Summaries - Directions

This is a word processing activity to give students practice using the automatic Table of Contents feature available in many word processing programs. This assignment is meant to follow Table of Contents Notes.

This activity consists of a completed report plus a separate directions document. The report is simply missing the Table of Contents on the second page. Provide your students access to the electronic file, but hand out paper copies of the directions.

Downloads

• The Big Picture Chapter Summaries (DOC)
• The Big Picture Chapter Summaries – Directions (DOC)

By the way, this is a real book report. I wrote it several months back and it suited my purpose perfectly here.

Democrat or Republican: Christians and Voting

There’s an underlying assumption in political circles. That assumption is that voting Republican means voting Christian values and voting Democratic does not. That’s simply not true. I don’t think the Republicans have a retainer with God even though there are some who’d like the American people to think that.

It’s a very difficult election decision, isn’t it? We have only two real choices. A vote for a third party would be simply wasted, so what do you do? On the one hand we have Barack Obama who clearly is in favor of abortion. Abortion is most certainly wrong in God’s eyes, so we can’t vote for him. The other choice is John McCain who divorced his first wife (after he returned home from the war to find her disfigured from a disease) but God hates divorce! (Jesus’ words, not mine.) So we can’t vote for John McCain either. Logically, we can’t vote for either one because both have violated God’s will so should we not vote at all? That would mean the non-Christians would have a free-for-all and get to choose the type of government we have. That’s no good either and we’re left with our original choice: Obama or McCain?

I don’t know for certain who will become president or who would even be the best choice. I personally believe that the track record of the current Republican administration has been disastrous on a number of levels. People who think we’re better off now than 8 years ago should probably vote for John McCain. People who think we are worse off now should probably vote for Obama.

I read the following article just this past week. It better highlights some of the issues facing Christians when voting. It’s objective and well written.

What’s Wrong with the Democrats (and Republicans) and “The American Dream”

I trust everyone will pray about their vote and be an informed voter.

Binary Hopscotch

Binary Hopscotch (ft080921)

I love the FoxTrot comic strip!

The SLANT Method for Student Engagement

SLANT is an acronym for 5 common visual indicators of student engagement. The indicators are:

• Sit up
• Lean forward
• Ask questions about the topic
• Nod your head
• Track the teacher with your eyes

Generally speaking, students who exhibit even one of these 5 indicators during a lesson are engaged in the topic. This can also be generalized to any speaking situation with participants.

This sounds like a good thing to put up on the wall of my classroom.

Warren Buffett: The Rich Need to Pay More Taxes

Billionaire Tells Congress the Tax Code Is Unfair to Lower-Income Americans
ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3869458&page=1

An honest rich man! On national news, no less! Jesus talked about these kinds of people as being extremely rare in Matthew 19:23-26:

23 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. 24 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. 25 When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? 26 But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. (KJV)

Do you think you’ll ever hear about someone like this again? And regardless of your political persuasion this IS a commentary on the current political situation. It seems to me that the American people, particularly those of faith, have a very difficult decision this election.

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing” – attributed to Edward Burke