Dave’s Blog

As I said yesterday, I gave a day to St. Charles Borromeo School for the use of their 8th graders in making my video. The word spread that I was coming and the kids were excited. I started with the 4 year olds and the Kindergarden. We did a lot of gross motor skills and suggested that they could have the first and second graders come down and be string buddies later to teach them some of the manipulitive things.

Worked with all the classes through 7th and had a great day. The teachers were very appreciative and Mr. Sine said he wanted me back in the fall to work with the kids again. It was a great final day for the 08-09 school year. Now into summer reading clubs and summer camps.

Dave

I went to Oklahoma City, OK to a production studio to make the new video, Sharing with String II. This is the second one for pastors, missionaries, those going on mission trips, Sunday school teachers and others looking for Evangelical based string figures.

I arrived about 11:30 and went back to see how they had the studio set up. They had risers with chairs for the 8th graders who were going to be my audience. They showed me where to stand and which cameras were on who. They were using three cameras today.

I then waited for the makeup person. She applied makeup to my face and hands. She said she couldn’t make me look much thinner though. After that we waited for the camera men to come back from lunch to do lighting checks and sound checks.

10 8th graders from Saint Charles Borromeo Catholic school were my audience. They arrived with the principal. They decided to wear street clothes because the girls uniforms were plaid and that would not have set off the string figures very well.

I gave them a little warm up and got them comfortable with the setting and with me. I wanted them to act natural and put some life in the video. They did a great job. They interacted with me and each other very freely. They are a very self confident group. Having had graduation last night might have helped.

The shooting went very well. We did not need to break or re-record anything. One of the cameras did run out of tape right at the end of the video and so we did the ending again. I thanked the kids and Mr. Sine, the principal said that he was going to take them out for ice cream since they were so good.

I am giving a day of storytelling and strings to their school for all their work. They get to share me with the rest of the students tomorrow.

Now it is up to the editor staff to put all three camera shots together into one. They will probably add some music to cover the quiet spots and Steve Garman will do some announcing at the end telling where to find more information.

I went back to makeup to have it removed and left for home. When I got to my car and sat down I found that I still had the chordless mike. I returned it and then headed for home. …I stopped for an ice cream also as a treat.

Lynna and I need to work out the cover and produce it. The studio did take some still photos of the process which I would like to put up on the web some place. It was a very good day and I feel good about the process so far.

Dave

Maureen Goldsberry, the Library Diva as she calls herself was ready for me at the Alcott Middle School. I am a tradition there to work with the 6th grade Social Studies classes.

They had chairs set up for the students and all was in readiness for me. they even found a teacher that makes coffee. Did you notice that I like my coffee? I worked 4 class periods with 2 or 3 classes. What a change from Friday.

The kids were great and really got involved. We had time to go out to get an Onion Burger for lunch. It was a nice relaxing day with the kids. I got to do some extra things with the special needs class kids. They liked that.

Dave

Randy has set up a new website for the Pakistani School. PakistaniSchool.org You can also reach it at StringElementarySchool.com We hope to have more pictures up soon. Keep checking it.

Dave

I don’t usually split my day but I did for these schools. I did about 100 3,4,5 th graders who had read so many books. That program was from 9 to 11:00. I then grabbed a lunch on the run and was at Tulakes at 12:00 for their 4,5 and 6th graders. When I finished the day I knew that I had put in a full day.

Hurried home so I could cook Bratwurst for 8 friends. They brought potato salad, tossed salad, buns and desert. We had a nice time talking and playing a couple mindless games. Just good company.

Dave

I drove up to Kellyville after school and and ate at the Three Hearts restaurand then had board conference call for a group I am part of on Tuesday in my car. I then called the host family that was putting me up for a couple of nights to meet me in the church parking lot and lead me to their home in the country. Anna and Badger were most gracious and live in an old farm house outside of town. They gave me my own end of the house.

I had breakfast in the school library of the upper elementary. It took me three tries to find it. I started at the High School then they directed me to the lower elementary. Made it to the right place and Carrie Buss, the librarian, had everything ready for me. I held my sessions in the Multipurpose room. They even brought in a coffee pot so I could have coffee and moved it to the other school on Thursday.

Lunch was from the Rib Crib…a great brisket salad. Finished up the school and then we sorted out book orders and personalized some of the books.

After school I went out to the house and made some phone calls and then went back into town for a program at the Methodist Church for the youth. We had an intimate group with some of the adults also attending to see what this was all about.

They had some veggies and chips for the visitors and fixed me some frozen mearloaf to go with it for my supper. Not exactly home cooking but it worked. Went back to the house for a nice visit about missions with Anna and Badger.

Thursday I was at the Lower Elementary and Carrie had fixed a nice breakfast casserol for the teachers and little muffins. Very good. I did say that they brought the coffee pot over so I had coffee all morning. How nice. After school I drove straight home to veg out. It was a tireing week so far.

jDave

Drove through another blinding rain story to get to Eastlake by 8:30. Busses were late and parents were lined up to drop off kids. It was a mess.

Christy Crawford the librarian at Eastlake has had me a number of times to her school. She gets the kids very excited about my visit and they are ready to overrun the library to get extra strings. We had a great time as always. \

The ladies of the caffeteria made a nice taco salad luncheon for all the teachers. What a treat. It was a chance to visit with the teachers about the uses of string in the school.

Dave

Saturday had a nice article about the Pakistani School in the Lawton Constitution. Robert Fox the reporter got everything right and did a nice job of putting it together. He mentioned the fund raising dinner that we are going to have at my church on May 31.

Had a good day at Dennis Elementary today. I have not been there since 2003 so I was new to all the kids. It was raining hard on the drive up but made it with no problem. I am so glad to have a car that I can trust to get me places.

Rachel McDaniel the librarian had arranged for me to use the counselor’s room for the day. Thanks! They even had a coffee pot set up there just for me. What service. We had 50 minutes for each grade, 1-5. This was the reading reward for those who read a certain amount of books so I did not have all the kids in the school, only most of them.

A team was installing electronic “Smart Boards” in all the rooms and so there was a lot of drilling and pounding going on. At one point they must have hit the wrong electircal circut and the fire alarm went off so we had a Fire Drill. You just go with the flow and make the best of it.

I had a nice dry drive home and went to the office. Randy has set up a new web site that can be reached through www.Pakistanischool.org or www.StringElementarySchool.org. While setting up the sites he noticed that the sign painted on the school spelled “Elementary” wrong. Glad the school is not an English Medium school.

Dave

According to tradition, I visited the third graders at Roosevelt Elementary School. They wanted to have an intimate experience so each of the classes split in half for a session. I worked with about 12 each time. It was heaven.

Many of these third graders knew some string figures that they learned from older siblings. Many were very fast at Jacob’s Ladder. Since some of them knew it I met with about 8 at the lunch time to teach them a variation of the Spider. They can then teach their classmates. Boy did they feel proud.

After school I drove to Oklahoma City to meet with Shannon Lemons, the coordinator for
Volunteer in Mission for the Oklahoma Methodist Conference. We met with Larry Hurtado who is VIM coordinator for the Evangelical Methodist Chruch of Nicaragua. He was very interested in having me bring the string ministry to Nicaragua. He thought they could work out a plan where I would reach all 15 of their churches and work with their people. Maybe in the fall or next year.

I talked with Rauf Swan, pastor in Pakistan and there were 25 children at the first day of school at the String Elementary School. More are expected each day. It is very exciting but now I am looking for individuals or churches or schools that would like to sponsor part or all of a teacher each month. That would be $80 a month.

Dave