Happy Days in Random Chatter 10

[Dragon Lady]

I am currently the Stake Primary President in a very active, fast-growing stake. I am in charge of running stake baptisms every month. This month we have 20 baptisms (which is very much a record high. Our biggest prior to this since I was put in in May was 12. And that had us scrambling.) And my entire presidency (except me) will be out of town. And we share the building (and thus the font) with another stake currently. And we have the same baptism day. So we'll be doing two sessions of 10 kids each and having to get out of the building before the other stake comes in. Which is a big session by itself. I'm… a little overwhelmed. And a little stressed. I know it will all work out and I already know who I will be requesting help from. But it's still going to be a little insane. Pray for me.

[vorpal blade]

Wow! That really is a lot of baptism for one day. I'll pray for you.

I'm a little surprised it is not a member of the High Council who is in charge. I don't think we ever had the Stake Primary President in charge. But, if you wanted a job done right by someone who really cared it made sense to put a sister in charge of it. No offense to the brethren, it is just that the brethren would tend to emphasize efficiency rather than a once in a lifetime experience for each and every child.

[Dragon Lady]

Our high councilman comes and helps run it. So does our stake presidency member over Primary. They do the priesthood stuff (presiding, making sure there are witnesses, talking to the kids and the person baptizing them beforehand, making sure no pictures are taken during the ceremony, etc.) But we deal with making sure who is actually getting baptized when, doing the fittings, giving a tour of the font, making sure kids bring extra underwear, etc. We find a ward to conduct, we do spotlights on the children, we make sure everything gets set up the morning of, make sure the kids get dressed on time, etc., we make them a special plaque with their picture on it (so take their picture that morning), and run a movie in the chapel (Mormon Messages), while other wards are getting baptized. To name a few things.

[Giovanni Schwartz]

For Katya.

[Portia]

I know we've talked about various MOOCs on here. I'm going to take this one on pharmacy. It starts tomorrow.

[Portia]

Wondered what was actually in my YouTube Favorites list. It's not half bad.

[mic0]

I just explained the pledge of allegiance to Mr. Mico. He couldn't believe that we really said it every day in school. He doesn't recall ever doing it when he was in an American high school for a month. But we really did it every day! And the Texas pledge! 'MERICA!

[Emiliana]

I just explained the pledge of allegiance to Mr. Mico. He couldn't believe that we really said it every day in school. He doesn't recall ever doing it when he was in an American high school for a month. But we really did it every day! And the Texas pledge! 'MERICA!

Bahahaha. That became law in Texas when I was about 16 and it really pissed me off. I stopped saying the pledge out of protest after that, and haven't said it since.

[Giovanni Schwartz]

We didn't do the PoA after elementary school...

[mic0]

Really? Like nobody did it? Like it wasn't a required part of the day? We had a part of the day that was for school announcements and during that time the pledge was said (no one was forced to say it, but it was expected).

[Emiliana]

I've just realized that I'm still thankful for organized religion. Marx and I just spent a long time on the phone with the minister at his parents' church, and he's going to see about getting Marx's parents help with some stuff that we can't manage from 1500 miles away.

[Giovanni Schwartz]

Really? Like nobody did it? Like it wasn't a required part of the day? We had a part of the day that was for school announcements and during that time the pledge was said (no one was forced to say it, but it was expected).

It was no longer required.

[vorpal blade]

Really? Like nobody did it? Like it wasn't a required part of the day? We had a part of the day that was for school announcements and during that time the pledge was said (no one was forced to say it, but it was expected).

The pledge of allegiance was part of our school day, every day in school. Also school prayer.

[Tally M.]

I could use hugs. Hugs are cool.

[Dragon Lady]

[hugs!!!]

[Whistler]

awww *virtual hugs

[Emiliana]

I need hugs. You need hugs. We all need hugs. Hugs all around.

[Katya]

For Katya.

I'm guilty of at least a couple of those, but I'm working on it!

[wryness]

I am planning on giving my students a little spiel about technology use tomorrow (specifically social media), and I found this study. I had the students read the article about Rebecca Sedwick that someone linked to from here (was that Katya? Thanks to whoever it was), and I'm going to try to help them understand how they are sort of being conditioned to believe that they can't survive without technology.

But that study--ARGH! The scariest statistic for me is the percentage of teens who say that they would rather TEXT their friends than spend time with them in person. 33%! ARGH! I don't think I've said "argh" enough yet. ARGH!

Now I'm thinking about Fahrenheit 451 and scriptures that say "the love of many shall wax cold" and a lot of other things. But ARGH! ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!

(That was probably enough "arghs" for now.)

[thatonemom]

wryness you'll have to tell us how it went with your students. I've seen a few things floating around the interwebs about the downsides of social media. Even a study that found a correlation with time spent on social media and depression. (which of course I can't find right now). Interesting stuff. I was just thinking yesterday that I should cut down on all that myself, mostly because I was getting upset about stupid online things that don't actually matter.