Academics

Brock = Blessing

MBBC — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 17:03:21 GMT

From Nate Huffstutler: The semester I began teaching at Maranatha, my daughter Anna was born the Monday before the first day of classes. As you can imagine, it was an extremely stressful first week. About two weeks into the semester, two-week-old Anna had to be taken to the emergency room and admitted into the hospital with an extremely high fever with no clear cause. For the next week or so, doctors were trying to figure out what was wrong with Anna, and my wife and I basically lived at the hospital. Somehow, while all this was going on, I was able to continue teaching Comp 1 and Comp 2.

A few days later, while Anna was still in the hospital, I got back to my office after finishing my last class, and I had a voice mail from my wife, in tears, telling me that she and Anna were about to be taken by ambulance to University of Wisconsin Childrens Hospital in Madison. Anna was going to have surgery. Realizing that I was not going to be able to be on campus the next day, I let Dr. Brock's office know and drove to the hospital in Madison.

The next morning, there in Madison, while my wife and I waited anxiously in a tiny hospital room for the surgeons to come take Anna into surgery, the door opened, and in walked Dr. John Brock, who had driven all the way to downtown Madison from Watertown on a busy midweek morning. Dr. Brock stayed with us for a while, told us that he was praying for us, and was a great encouragement. As a result, we went through the events of that day knowing that the Lord was with us and people were praying for us. We're thankful to this day for Dr. Brock's servant-hearted leadership.

Favorite Person: Randy Midcalf

MBBC — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 21:25:09 GMT

I remember sitting in my first class, English Masterpieces I, with Mr. Midcalf thinking to myself, "Wow! If this guy can make literature fun, I can too!" After taking the class that semester, I changed my major to English Education and loved every second of it. Throughout my 4 years of college, I can honestly say Mr. Midcalf cared for his students in class and out of class. We always knew we would learn exactly what we needed to learn and that we'd be prepared to teach that material to our students someday. Mr. Midcalf was always, always, always prepared and knew his material. He would even re-read the material we were assigned that he'd taught for years just to make sure he'd be ready to teach us! Every class was so much fun and I always looked forward to the classes he taught (especially because he let me bring in chocolate cake!). I am so thankful for the impact he had on my life and for the training he gave me. When I graduated, I knew I was ready to teach, and it was all possible because Mr. Midcalf took an interest in his students and prepared me the best he knew how and with his whole heart.

--Heather

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Favorite Person: Mrs. Hershberger

MBBC — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 17:54:02 GMT

Being one of the only guys in the elementary education program, I was frequently in a class of all girls who daily demonstrated incredible creativity. In an attempt to compensate in my uphill endeavors, I figured that if I could get Mrs. Hershberger to laugh during my mini-lessons then I'd have a better chance of a higher score on the lessons. I'm not sure if my logic worked, but I did enjoy one particular opportunity to test my logic. In teaching ratios in our mathematics methodology class, we did a hands-on activity where each student was assigned a ratio to find. Mrs. Hershberger's ratio was to find the number of steps to the back stairwell of Old Main. Consequently, she had to climb the entire stairwell to count the steps. She was a trooper and returned to class with a grin on her face. She handled the task with grace, and she did reward my creativity with positive comments and marks. I have much appreciation for Mrs. Hershberger and her faithfulness. She has been an inspiration and gave me the preparation that I needed to succeed in the classroom and administration.

--Daniel

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Favorite Person: Dr. Weeks

MBBC — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 17:53:47 GMT

I remember him running at ballgames waving the pep stick, getting everyone to yell. I loved his song leading in chapel with his very stiff movements & coming completely off the floor. And in chapel as special events neared,he always encouraged everyone to have a date. He was quite meek sounding until he wanted to wake up a sleeping student in Baptist History; then he was suddenly able to yell the next word of his sentence quite loudly!

--Pam

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Favorite Person: William Licht

MBBC — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 17:46:17 GMT

When I was in my history of CIV class, two girls were in the hallway disrupting the class by having these random bursts of laughter every few minutes. After several cycles of this, Mr. Licht got the whole class to burst out laughing really loudly, exceeding the laughter of these girls. After several rounds of this, the girls caught on, making them laugh even more. It was so funny, this was way back in my freshman year, and it still cracks me up when I think about it!

--Amanda

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