Well, just while we're getting set up, let me say thank you Sharon for your very kind introduction and for your invitation to participate in this webinar. I'm very pleased that and there may be interest on your side of the country in the work that we've been doing. So I am presenting this webinar as part of the Centre on Standards and Assessment Implementation, one of the federally funded content centres that was funded in the last competition. And this is, I suppose, the renamed Assessment and Accountability Comprehensive Centre. And it was the Assessment and Accountability Comprehensive Centre that we actually did the work under. And so I feel a little schizophrenic now. I'm presenting this with my new hat on with work that we did under the previous content centre. So my purpose today, John, if you can change the slide please. The purpose today is I wanted you to first of all get a sense of what we developed in terms of our online formative assessment programme, why we did it and some idea about the content and structure of the programme. We also have had a chance to implement this in a pilot and indeed prior to it becoming online we were able to implement some of the content face to face. And we have some lessons learned from our implementations and also I wanted to share with you some potential models of implementation that other states have tried. So that's what I'm going to try and focus on today in the session. Next slide. So in terms of the overview, here's the agenda. I want to give you some background to the programme just briefly so at least you know where it came from. An overview of what the programme consists of. And then I'll be showing you a sample of one of the modules, just a few slides of one of the modules so you'll get a sense of the content and its organisation. And then we'll talk about supporting implementation, some of the lessons learned and some of the models that have been tried in different states around the country. I put chat box in discussion because I would encourage you as I've left some spots for questions and comments. But if you have questions that come up throughout the presentation please feel free to put them in the chat box and post them and I want to make this as interactive as possible. Next slide. So as mentioned to you, this professional development was developed in a collaboration between the Assessment and Accountability Comprehensive Centre, which no longer exists, and the North Central Comprehensive Centre at MacKrell. And it was supported by the federal government and as such everything we produced is absolutely free to anybody who wants to use it. So there's no charge at all for using these materials. Next slide please. And so as I said any work that we do going forward will be done under the Centre on Standards and Assessment Implementation, the new content centre. Next slide. Some background. How did this program come about? Well, several years ago the AACC and the NCC worked with the state of Iowa to develop a statewide implementation for formative assessment. These folks were very keen. They'd been a member of the Formative Assessment Scass Rack from the beginning. Iowa was very keen to have a statewide implementation. We had a lot of support from the department. So a collaboration between the AACC, the North Central Comprehensive Centre, and the Iowa Department of Education. And so we developed the content and tried out the content of much of what you'll see today. When we actually came to put it online we were invited by the Department of Education. And so we developed the content and tried out the content of much of what you'll see today. And online we revised it quite a bit based on lessons we'd learned through our face-to-face implementation. So this lasted about two years, I would say. One of the goals of the project was to ensure that everything that we put forward in relation to formative assessment as a process or a set of practices was research based. We didn't want to sort of beat people over the head with research content, but we wanted to make sure that everything that we presented was grounded in the literature on formative assessment or learning theory and so on. And so once we developed our content collaboration we then piloted it with the Northwest Comprehensive Centre. So they actually did an online pilot with some of their folks at the State Department and some of their professional development leads to the State. And they gave us very helpful feedback. It was pretty brutal feedback in the beginning, but you know, it's all good feedback. You learn from your mistakes and we improved and certainly I want to acknowledge Claire Gates and the Comprehensive Centre for their sterling work and the State of Washington for helping us with refinements on this work. We were extremely grateful. So let me now, with that background, next slide please, John, go into telling you something about the program itself. I'm not quite sure why we can't see all the slide, but I'll just assume that it's a kind of closed procedure where you can fill in the letters for yourself. So in terms of the purpose of the program we have two core objectives in this. Next slide please, John. The first objective was to help increase teacher's knowledge about the process of formative assessment. What formative assessment actually entails in classroom practice? So we wanted to increase the knowledge base and then we also wanted to provide a support mechanism for teachers to implement this process effectively in their classrooms. And these were our primary goals, to increase knowledge and to increase skills. And the general view we have taken in this formative assessment module is one, as I said, that comes from the research, that formative assessment is not a specific test but rather a set of practices which have been shown when implemented effectively can improve student achievement. Next slide please, John. So the orientation of the program is that formative assessment is a process used by teachers and by students. We're very clear, as the literature is clear and many other countries in their implementation are very clear that it's not just something teachers do, students are equal stakeholders in the process. It's the means to provide ongoing feedback to both students and teachers while learning is occurring. It's not something that happens after the event and it's integrated into daily teaching and learning. So this is the view that we've taken in this program which corresponds very much to what formative assessment skills, views as effective formative assessment, what the literature suggests and the implementation of many countries around the world. So we do not see it as a particular test or instrument. You'll never hear anything in this module, this program about formative assessments. We don't see it as something to provide a score. We want to make sure that people are getting substantive insights into student thinking. It's not something that happens periodically as an interim assessment. It's something that is ongoing and embedded into the instructional process and certainly it's not something that teachers do. We regard the students as equal stakeholders in this. Next slide, John. Now we use this framework that I developed a few years ago as the glue, really, if you like, for the whole program. And this funds every single module and basically each module addresses one of the dimensions or two of the dimensions of this feedback loop we see as formative assessment in practice in the classroom. So, for example, we have modules on learning progressions, learning goals, criteria of success, on eliciting evidence, on providing feedback, on the classroom culture, on peer and self-assessment, which you can't quite see here, but that will be down on the bottom right. So this is the glue. And we come back to this at the beginning of each module so that participants can see, oh, yes, I see what element of the process we're on right now and where we're going next and where we came from. So we really try and keep this as the framework for our sessions. Next slide, please. Margaret, I'll add that when I played with the presentation format layout, I was able to change the whole slide so if people are not able to see the entire slide, maybe try the presentation view and again, that button on the bottom right hand side. Okay, thank you, John. So let me tell you about some features of the program now. Our goal in putting it online was to maximize the flexibility for its use. So we didn't see it as a one-size-fits implementation. We wanted to have consistent formative assessment content, but the implementation of these modules could be flexible. We didn't make it content specific, but we feel and certainly that's the feedback we've had that it's adaptable to specific content areas and across grade levels. So for example, in Washington they had a group of math people together and they were able to add content to it that was focused more on mathematics, still keeping the general idea of formative assessment, but some of the examples they built out in terms of the content. And we see it as adaptable across many different levels of the system, so that it could be used within the school, it could be a district, some people have uses on a regional basis, and I'm going to tell you an example of using it at a state level. So the whole idea was that we provide this content that how it got implemented was really up to those folks who were doing the implementation and wanting to learn. One of the things that I think got cut off here that we did make a significant part of the program was teacher learning communities. We have in each of the modules, in addition to content and activities, we've also provided work that can be done in the intervening period between one module and another for TLCs to engage in. Next slide, please. We thought this was important to do because the teacher learning communities, and I can't really see the quote here, but I will share it with you, that what a lot of certainly William and Thompson 2006, some of the work they've done and the work that's gone on subsequently with people like Caroline Wiley and Christine Lyon from ETS, they have been finding that teacher learning communities focused on formative assessment appear to show the greatest potential for improving teaching practice and student achievement. So the idea here is, and we think this is maximally beneficial, is if people are using content of these modules in whatever format that works for them and then engaging in teacher learning communities with the activities that we provide for the communities and of course anything else we want to add, that seems to be one successful avenue to implementation in the classroom. Next slide, please. And just quickly, to help us or remind us, this is from Christine Lyon and Caroline Wiley who've done quite a lot of work on teacher learning communities, and they talk about this model of learn, practice, reflect, revise. And so that's what we're seeing as our modules supporting the learning and then we suggest ways to practice formative assessment and then the learning communities give them an opportunity to reflect and revise. And we have found that teachers get to a deeper understanding of formative assessment and also teacher learning community provides support for different levels of understanding of education. So we've made that quite a significant component of our modules and certainly feel that that's integral to the work of implementation. So let me now move to some specifics in relation to the program overview. Next slide, please. Next slide, please, John. So these are the modules that we have. We have seven in total. We have an introductory module. And this is for people who are basically going to be implementing the program, be the leaders if you like of the program. It gives an overview and ideas about implementation, how to go about using the modules and the content of the program. And we have quite a lot about TLCs in there as well and the advantages of using TLCs and how to set up effective TLCs. And then the modules go through all the dimensions of the cycle, the feedback loop that I showed. All guests have been muted. You can unmute your line by pressing star six. So have I been muted? Can you still hear me? Oh, you're good, you're good. So we have a general overview and then the subsequent models are going to specific details about those elements of formative assessment I showed you in the feedback loop. The modules are quite extensive. And again, they are divided into specific lessons so that implementers or even if a group of teachers is doing it for themselves in a school, they can decide how long they want to spend on the content, take what they want from it, try implementation and then come back. So it's very flexible in that sense. In terms of supporting materials, next slide, John. Each module has three components. There's an extensive facilitator's guide. It is very extensive where we give some research background to the topic. We give notes for pre-planning, for planning during, and for implementation advice and then intercession advice, what you might be wanting to do in between lessons or modules. The PowerPoint presentation is provided as a self-managed Adobe Captivate with a voice script as well as a PowerPoint. So you can either use the PowerPoint presentation, just play it, it has the presentation, it has the voice-overs, or you can stop, you can discuss. It's very flexible as that, but there is a voice script. And then there are lots of handouts which comprise activities, information articles. We give articles for further reading if people want to engage in that during the modules. Next slide, please, John. And so you can use the voice-to-derby Captivate presentation or you can mute it if you want to and communicate the content as a facilitator. The script of the PowerPoint is available. And what we've included in terms of our learning structures are we have a lot of turn and talk where people are able to process or make sense of what they're learning about. Those are your turn where we ask people to engage in activities around the content. We have a Consolidate Your Learning, and that means towards the end of each section of the module that you're able to really do something to help you make sure that you've understood what it is that you're trying to learn about. And then the final thing is to try it out, and that's usually at the end of the module to take back into or into the schools to try it out in the context of the teacher learning community. So let me just stop here now. If you can go to the next slide, John. And if people have any questions or comments at this point, the next thing I'm going to do is show you some excerpts from one of the modules so you'll have a better idea of how all this content that I've talked about actually plays out. But I'll just pause for a second and give anybody a chance to answer any questions. Okay. And I've muted all the participant lines.  They may ask you to press star six again to mute it back. Or you can ask questions in the chat box. Well, I'm not saying any questions. So let's move on now. And what I'm going to do is to show you an excerpt from one module. And these aren't in particular sequence. I just excerpted them just to give you a flavor of how what I've talked about looks like in the actual module. Next slide, please, John. So this is module four where we focus on eliciting and interpreting evidence. And if you recall, that's one of the dimensions or elements of the feedback loop that you saw earlier. And I'm sorry you can't see this full slide, at least I can't, so hopefully most of you can. Next slide, please, John. Excuse me. So, oh, I can't see any of this at all. Okay. Well... Margaret, on the bottom, there's a little icon that looks like a little face, and this is pick a layout. If you pick presentation, you might be able to see the entire slide. Okay. There are three types. There's gallery view, speaker view, and presentation view. Yeah, I pressed and can't see. Okay. Well, never mind. Not to worry. Sorry about that. No, I just got completely lost. Okay. Well, I'll just keep on talking. And hopefully you can all see the slides. So, on this slide then, this is slide 20, John, that we should be on. Module has a number of lessons, and we open the module, and every module has the same format, where we identify what the content of the lessons are. And in the introduction, we give what the main messages of the lessons are, because learning goals and success criteria are integral to formative assessment. We also provide learning goals and success criteria for each of the modules. And as you can see here, there are five lessons in this particular module. So people have a sense, logging on exactly what they get to see. Next slide, please, John. In the next slide, you can see the main messages for each lesson. So, for example, lesson one, the main messages, the use of carefully planned tasks, questions, and observations can provide teachers with evidence of student learning during a learning sequence. So each of these main messages is posted. And in the facilitator's guide, we give a lot more information about the main messages and what facilitators need to bear in mind as they go through the module in helping shape the main messages as the content develops. On the next slide, you'll see, as I mentioned, that we have learning goals for each module. And here we want teachers to or participants to understand why it's important to elicit evidence and understand the criteria for quality evidence. We think this is important. Quality evidence is important in any assessment, and it's just as important in formative assessment. So I won't spend time going through all of these. John, if you go to the next slide, then we can see the success criteria. Now, these are for the participants to guide themselves through the module. And so at the end of it, they're supposed to be able to explain why, when, and how strategies can be used to elicit evidence of student learning. And at the end of each module, we want to model good formative assessment practice. So at the end of each module, we spend some time asking participants to reflect and to rate themselves with respect to the success criteria and then give them suggestions if they feel they haven't met the criteria of how they can develop further. Next slide, please, John. Here again you have the feedback loop, the next one, John, which I said it grounds all the content. And here we've highlighted the specific areas of the feedback loop that are addressed in this content in this particular module. Next slide, please, John. So this one, your turn. We normally try and give them an activity that's going to elicit some prior knowledge. And we think this is important for the presenter, for the facilitator, even for them to get a sense of what they already know about the topic. So in this one, we're asking them, what do you already know about the idea of eliciting evidence? And we do this in each module so that we start by listing some prior knowledge, which of course is what we want to model, effective pedagogy, and we know the importance of connecting new learning to prior learning. So we want to make sure that that's included. Next slide. And then once we've gone through these various introductory aspects, then we begin on the content. And as I said, we focus on research-based content, although we don't necessarily call that out in the slides, but it's certainly there in the facilitator's guide. And we've also added a reading list in the facilitator's guide of all the work that we have used to come up with our content. So if people are interested, they can go and have a look at that and read more, read the actual sources that we take our work from. So next slide, please, John. So in this slide, we're really talking about a notion that Fred Erickson in the beautiful paper, I wish I'd written the paper in about 2007, talked about taking stock, that formative assessment is about taking stock of learning as it is developing. And so we spend a bit of time talking about this idea of taking stock, that you don't let learning progress a long time before you take stock of where students are with respect to where you want them to be. Next slide, John. And then we also focus on this notion of getting inside students' heads. And I think this is particularly saying in the context of the Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards, we know that the Common Core is supporting or encouraging teachers to develop higher levels of thinking among students and deeper learning among their students. And so if we want students to be engaged in deep learning and being able to think critically and deeply about their learning, as they are learning, we need to get inside their heads. And so we talk about the importance of substantive insight. Laurie Shevitt has a wonderful paper where she talks about, you know, we don't need scores, we need substantive insights into students thinking. And this whole module is focused on how teachers can externalize students' thinking in a variety of ways through evidence collection so that they are able to get some insights into how students are thinking about this deep content to support them towards success. So that's very much a focus of this module. Next slide. We take a lot from knowing what students know and I think this is an important quote. This is one of the foundational works that we draw from from the content for this program. And what the committee said, that good formative assessment requires radical changes in the way students are encouraged to express their ideas. So a lot of this module is focused on how teachers can help children express ideas in ways in which that gives them insights into thinking. Next slide. And finally, in terms of some of the research that we address, this one from black and colleagues, Paul Black and colleagues, I don't quite know what's happened to the image. There is an image of the book, Assessment for Learning, which I'm sure you're all familiar with. And what they talk about is more effort has to be spent in framing questions that are worth asking. And so, as you well know, a lot of formative assessment is premised on teachers' effective questioning and probing of student thinking. So we spend quite a bit of time in this module talking about questions and helping teachers think about how to develop good questions that are going to get at student thinking and then to give them the insights they need so they can keep learning moving forward and develop that deep understanding among all students. So next slide, John. And then, you know, after we've done some content and we have a turn and talk and here in this one, we are asking them to think about questions that are worth asking, meaning ones that require some thinking and not necessarily a yes or no answer or what I call the guess what's in the teacher's head answer. You know, what am I thinking and therefore everybody has to try and guess. And then we, so once you give them an opportunity for activities, then we get into the idea of there's no single way to collect evidence. Again, I'm not quite sure what's happened to the image here. But we spend a lot of time talking about how the evidence they gather must be aligned with the learning goals and success criteria. There's no single way to get evidence. There's lots and lots of ways, but as with any assessment, it has to be aligned with the goal. So if you're assessing state standards, they've got to be aligned with the standard. Similarly, informative assessment at the micro fine-grain size of the classroom, then evidence has got to be aligned with the actual learning goal that's the focus of the lesson and the success criteria. The indicators of progress, what are those demonstrations of understanding. And it may not come as a surprise to you folks, but I have to tell you that over the years that I've been doing this work, it is astonishing to me how hard it is for teachers to come up with the learning goals and the success criteria. They typically want to go straight to what the students are going to do in the lesson. And it's very hard for them to think about well, why are they doing this? What are they actually going to learn as a result of it? See, John said it's very difficult. And then when you ask them, well, okay, so if students are learning this, what are the indicators? What are those performances that you're going to be looking for in what they're... I really like what Patrick Griffin always says in terms of what students say, do, make, or write. What are you going to be looking for that's going to tell you and equally importantly tell them that learning is progressing or it isn't. And there's something that needs to be done about it. So one of the modules is purely focused on learning goals and success criteria. And this one now is talking about aligning evidence. So if one of your success criteria is that students are going to be able to explain a particular concept, then they better have an explanation task. So we really spend a lot of time on this evidence quality here. And I'll just go to the next two slides quickly because time's moving on. So when we talk about evidence gathering, we talk about the importance of planning, planning ahead. It's not something that's just serendipitous in the classroom. It's actually planned along with instruction, the kinds of questions and discussions, the observational specific tasks that students are going to engage in so that you will have the evidence as a teacher that you need. Next slide, John. And of course that's not to say that teachers can't get evidence on the fly or things don't happen spontaneously. But it can only be used effectively as evidence if teachers know what the criteria are that they're looking for and suddenly they see it in a way that they haven't anticipated it. So we really stress the importance of planning. So just go quickly through these next slides, John. I'm going to race through them. So the importance of formative assessment, making a decision, whether it's to carry on with the planned lesson or to make adjustments instructionally or to provide feedback. Next slide. And then we give them an opportunity to generate possible strategies for eliciting evidence. And we develop this idea in terms of your term. This is one of the activities that they would actually do in the session. And then they have a next slide, a consolidate your learning activity. One of the handouts and they're really building their knowledge here and they continue to meet with their TLC after the module to think about ways in which they can collect and use evidence. So and then finally, the try it out is when they take it away with them, they select one of the strategies, how they're going to use it and share your experience. And one of the things that we did learn from our pilot with Washington State and the NWCC is that teachers want to try things out immediately. So we've built a lot of time into the modules for trying things out. I'm a little leery about just trying out a whole load of different things, which is why I think trying it out in the context of the TLC is really important because they can keep coming back to it, revising it, and so eventually it does become part of their independent practice. And so that's just a quick ride through the content of one of the modules and excerpts of one of the content, some of the content in lesson one. So let me pause there again and see if anybody has questions or comments. Things aren't clear at the moment. I know I'm packing a lot of information into a fairly short space of time, but that's the nature of the beast here. So I will stop talking for a second and see if there's any questions or comments. And again, you can use the chat window, or if you'd like to press star six, you can unmute your own line and ask questions. Let me move on now then because I want to end really with some ideas for supporting implementation. So if you're thinking, well, we've got these materials, they're pretty flexible. I could use them in a number of different configurations. Then how might I do that? So the final section of this webinar is intended to help you think about that. So next slide, John. It's pretty clear from everybody who's been involved in formative assessment, effective formative assessment. Unfortunately, some people still think that formative assessment is about giving more frequent mini-tests. But anyway, effective formative assessment really does require a change in practice. For some teachers, it's going to be a big, big change. For those of the standard deliver mode, it's a big, big change. For others, it may not be quite so much. It may be a bit more planful than perhaps they have been. But I'm pretty certain that for all teachers, there will be some change. And for some, it's a big paradigm shift. So one of the things that we think is important in considering this module is to think about ways in which this can become a cell for people. Next slide, John. And so we know that it does support effective teaching and learning. I mean, there's a literature in that, and there's a lot of anecdotal experiential evidence from those of us who've been working in this field for a long time and have seen how it can change teacher practice for the better. It also is focused on the individual students, unlike other forms of data which get aggregated. This is very much at the individual student level meeting individual students where they are. I certainly think, and that's what we found through talking to states and thinking about these modules, it definitely supports other key initiatives. For example, response to intervention is very much part of the response to intervention where we pay close attention to all children's learning, some children then needing more attention than others, and so it goes on. And certainly we see the formative assessment as being a critical aspect to the implementation of the CCSS and the Next Generation Science. And that's certainly something that the states that I've involved with through the formative assessment state collaborative are focusing on this year, formative assessment through the Common Core. And the educational effectiveness, in fact some states have included formative assessment in one way or another in their teacher evaluation because they regard it as essential practice to being an effective educator. Next slide please. So one of the things that we have found, or a number of things rather that we have found, is the lessons learned. And these are several aspects of our implementation starting with Iowa several years ago that we've seen are important. First of all, sustained leadership. This isn't going to happen unless there's leadership to support the modules, to support professional development and the leaders at the local level who are committed to supporting this. It's just not going to happen. Similarly, this idea of commitment to change. If people think, and I do underscore this, because if anybody who's on this webinar right now is interested in this, then I think the interest has got to be not for quick fix, but for a longer-term commitment. Because as I mentioned earlier, we're talking about changing teacher practice and that can take time. And it requires ongoing professional development, which is why we put together these modules with the TLC component to it so that there will be support for ongoing professional development. It's going to need time. People need to commit time to this, but we wanted to make the program as flexible as possible so that we could be responsive to people's time constraints. They do need resources, so we've provided these resources, which we think are useful. In other implementations, we've realized that access to experts is important, to have the content knowledge, and so we've put a lot of expert knowledge into this content. And peer coaching is an important aspect of implementing new practices, and so the idea of the TLCs has become very prominent, as I mentioned earlier. So let me just conclude now with a few examples of some implementation at different levels. So this was a state implementation. It was the state decided that the schools and school improvement were going to engage with formative assessment for two years, and so these modules were used as part of that process, the content of these modules. The idea was that school teams would come together three times a year for two days, and this was when this module content, it wasn't used in an online format, but it was used, the content was used as it is. There would be two days, three times a year of this content, and then in the intervening periods, there would be school level coaching. There were coaches assigned to these school teams and webinars with experts, because we wanted to make sure that it was access to experts and also the kind of school level coaching that was important. We see the TLC now that was included in this particular program as a proxy for the kind of school level coaching if external school coaches aren't available. And this was pretty successful. Some people saw it as a great opportunity to change practice. Other people, as you would get in any mandated professional development, were less inclined, but in general, I think it was very successful and the content really made sense to the people who were in the face-to-face meetings. In the next one, this was another state in combination with a comprehensive center, and this was a multi-year project. This state actually started with their own folks building capacity at the department level. They didn't want anybody who was out in the field from the department talking about formative assessment in a way that wasn't consistent across the board. And so they spent some time building their own capacity. Then they were able to embed it into state initiatives. For example, in this state, there was a very long-standing initiative in math, and the math people spent a lot of time incorporating what they'd been learning into the math professional development initiatives. A further development in this state was that the regional centers, I'm sure you will have them, they're called different things in different states, they were involved in building capacity of the certain personnel in the regional centers so that they could provide the ongoing support of this content into the schools in their regions. So it was really starting with the state, then getting embedded into state-wide initiatives, which personally I think is a terrific way to do it, then building the capacity of regional centers so they could use this content at the local level, at the regional level to support districts and schools who really wanted to make a commitment to doing this work. Next slide, John. And then the next one was the state, again, the same content, some of it was online at this point, and they had a one-year implementation that was collaboratively engaged in planning and implementing this with the math PD providers across the state. And this was mainly led by the comprehensive center but the state did participate and they used the content of these modules, some of it was online by that point. So different ways of using it, you know, that's perfectly possible with this and the leadership of the school decided this is going to be a two-year long or a year-long initiative and we're going to use these materials. So it can really be used from the school level right to the state level as we saw with one state supporting the department then into state initiatives down to the regional centers. So as I said in the beginning it's intended to be flexible, we feel that the content is solid with respect to the research that it's grounded in and we sincerely hope that you think it's useful and might take the opportunity to use it at some point in your regions. So with that I'm going to stop again and maybe there are some comments, questions, ideas of anybody's got any ideas bubbling up, we'd love to hear them. And I'm going to use all the lines hopefully correctly. All guests have been unmuted. So if you'd like to ask a question either you can use chat but of course if you'd like to speak on the phone just tell us who you are so Margaret knows when she's talking. John, can you hear me? Yes. Okay, this is Kathleen from Virginia. I know we're working on formative assistance but is there a way that we can look at all of the modules? Yeah, John, I know we're going to be meeting to talk about this but this seems like compared to Rick Stegen's work and we've looked at that as well. We tried that a few years ago with PLCs and it didn't work well. Of course I think that was prior to more web-based and online kind of programming and I'm thinking how we lay this out will depend on and I think you went back a slide if you could a couple of slides. We'll go back one more. I think it was this one right here. And so the webinars with experts if we... I'm thinking through this but see the experts as being very important because I don't know how else to get this to a school level. I'm not sure if they have the capacity to get there on their own. So in this particular state I know this was a two-year project how did those webinars play into to the overall... what did they do four times a year? Well, I can tell you because I ran them four times a year. We basically... I basically use my formative assessment to decide what the content of the webinar should be based on the face-to-face institutes. You know, I could see what they were struggling with or I could see they needed more help in certain areas. So that was one way the content was developed. The second way was that I asked them to bring ideas and things they'd been doing and showcase them. So we'd have maybe three or four people talking about what they'd been doing some of the challenges and then it was used as a... almost like a PLC where we're all talking about what will be a good way forward here. I think the access to experts is important and as I say part of why we wanted to build strong content is that we wanted to get that expert knowledge into the content and I think it is advantageous if you can have some expertise that's supporting the ongoing implementation as well. I'll say, Katherine, I'm glad you asked that question because as you know, we are going to come to Richmond to share these modules. People in other content centers as well as SEAs are welcome to come see that introductory session. The idea was to give people more information on the material because as you see, so much information in these modules and then in the different region states could work with their comprehensive centers as to a model they'd like to develop so let's say Virginia would like to develop this and we had actually planned on maybe developing that online community with you and then you could decide who the experts are, how many times they would need different kinds of activities go ahead, Katherine.  I was going to say simply because funding is in everybody's mind right now but because funding is limited, getting Margaret all the way up to the East Coast and have a special occasion so we want to make sure that other people who might be kind of close to the region would be able to attend. And John, if they can't attend I might be able to arrange to have it streaming video. Okay, great. Do you know what the date is? We've already scheduled this date. Right, Friday, November 22nd. Okay, what I will do if we schedule that date I will check to see if I can and if it's Friday it's probably possible. I'll check, okay? Okay, and for our fellow comprehensive center staff that are online, please feel free to contact me or Margaret or our coordinator Kim Cook for attending that day if you'd like to do that as well. We'd love to have you. We'd love to have you. Yeah, beautiful place. And then Margaret and Nancy Grigdon ask how do we access resources if they can't attend that day? Is there a process they go through to contact you? Yes, if people want to contact me I can send them a link in the password in the description. Great, and I'm going to before I show Margaret's email addressing to come back to that I do want to do a very quick commercial for a webinar going on tomorrow on a formal assessment as well from one of the other content centers if you have not registered you can go to their website and register there. But if you do need Margaret's contact information there's her email address and she's very quick to respond. I want to know if there are any other questions either on the chat or on the phone. John, I will check and I think you probably made that point with Shelly in Virginia, Shelly Levin Rider. Yes. Okay, I will check with Shelly and see if we can make sure that it can be we might be able to live stream it which would be good because then if they want to join they can, okay? Great, awesome, thank you. And again this webinar and this idea of focusing on formal assessment the idea that several states in the Appalachian region that is served by the ARC were interested in this concept of formal assessment so we're trying to leverage those funds, leverage Margaret's limited time just trying to reach as many states as possible and we're willing to share that work with our other companies and centers and of course other states who they work with. So at this time I have three o'clock you do have Margaret's email address you want to follow up if you would like in that Friday, November 22nd state please feel free to contact me or you can simply reply to Kim Cook who sent out all the information for today's webinar I'd like to thank Margaret once again I know there's so much information you do such a good job getting through it and if you are like Margaret and you were not able to manipulate the slides or see the slides in a way that was beneficial to you we are testing the system you will receive an evaluation link and it would be helpful if you would tell me about the operating system and what browser you are using and I can give that feedback for our technology team. So thank you everybody for joining us today and I will be in touch with the follow-up email and questionnaire and thanks again Margaret. Thank you everybody thanks a lot John, bye bye. Bye.


Thank you for joining us. Thank you for joining us. Can those on the line hear me? Thanks for joining once again. The volume is very low. Is it still low? All right. Yeah. Cool. Thank you. Please bear with me. I have a little bit of a sore throat. Okay. Let's continue. Sorry about the delay and start. Technical difficulties. Okay. We'll start with chapter 13. The local church where we ended with chapter 12 in the previous class. The bride. We looked at three different facets of the church last class. Let's continue where we left off. We'll start with chapter 13. The local church, a house of prayer and worship. Okay. So you would have heard me say this time and time again from this is one recurring theme in the Bible that God keeps saying from Genesis to Revelation. What is that? You've heard me say this many times from praise and worship class. Okay. There's one recurring theme. Okay. God loves people. He chases them. Okay. From Genesis to Revelation, there's been many different ways. He says the one thing. But most of the books, he literally says something. Time and time again we see him saying in the Bible, I will be your God. Thank you for finishing that. I will be your God. You will be my people. I will be your God. You will be my people. And there are times where he says, you will be my people and I will be your God. That is the recurring theme of the Bible and all the different books that you see from Genesis to Revelation. Sixty-six different books across time. Thousands of years. That is a recurring theme. The heart of God is that he wants to have a people the way among whom he can dwell. That's it. That's the heart of God. He wants to find a people that he can dwell among them. Okay. That is a recurring theme of God. And so we see, you know, Genesis chapter three verse eight, Adam and Eve sinned. They hid themselves from the presence of God. It says, isn't it? Genesis chapter three verse eight. That's what it says. They hid the very important word. There is H-I-D hid simply because simply means that because of sin, they separated. They were separated from the presence of God. Yes. That's what the basic definition of sin. If anyone asks you is separation from his presence. And the separation from his presence simply means death. Okay. Now what happens when our spirit separated from our physical body? The physical body just drops dead. Isn't it? That's death. Isn't it? Why? Because the spirit has been separated from what it was supposed to be connected to. Right. And so similarly, God walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the garden. They were with them. They had fellowship. They had communion. And that's what we were. Romans chapter three verse 23. It says, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Your God's glory, glory of God. That means there is a mark. Have you played the dark game? I mean you get these magnetic ones. Right. So whoever throws closer, the highest points and all right. So that's, there's a mark. Another bow and arrow archery. They call it the bull's eye. Right. That's the mark. So the far further away you are from the mark or the bull's eye. That means you are short. You're falling short of that mark. Is it our mark was the glory of God. Our mark was the glory of God. We were designed in with the intention to dwell in his glory. But what sin did we, it separated us. Right. And it's a very painful thing. That means in other words, we were dead in our sins. Efficiency says we were dead in our transgressions in our sins. In other words, we were separated from his presence. That would, but God's heart was always, has always been that he will have a people that among whom he will dwell, among whom he will fellowship and have a communion with. So the fall happened and 2500 years later, God threw Moses instructs to build a sanctuary. Right. Sorry. Again, I keep sounding very redundant, but 2500 years, nobody felt the need to go after his presence. Think of everything that has happened in 2500 years from Genesis chapter three to Exodus 25. The story of Noah and his sons and then Jacob, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and, and Leah and Rachel. Let's throw them into the mix. Joseph, Tamar and Judah. You know, all of this thing has happened is the Lord has happened in the 2500 years and you time and time again, you see that there were visitations of God. His hand was on him. Right. God visited. He would Christophany or theophany is a theological word is the manifestation of God. Okay. Christophany is a pre incarnate manifestation of Christ. Christophany. It simply means it's a pre incarnate manifestation of Christ. That's what's Christophany is. Okay. So there's another word in parallel synonym to that is theophany. It simply means a manifestation of God. Okay. So when he manifested himself to Abraham, you know, and so we see that Christophany happening in Joshua chapter five when he appears to Joshua as the captain of the Lord's armies. He says, isn't it? So that's Christophany. So that we see time and time again. There was a lot of visitations of God, but there was no dwelling place. There was no place like the Garden of Eden. We're not talking about the tabernacle. So we will talk a little bit, but not going to dwell too much about it. But the reason I'm saying all of this is come to Exodus chapter 19. Exodus chapter 19 is a very crucial chapter, which again, we get to read about the heart of God in the book of Exodus itself. There's a lot of things that's happening in Exodus. As soon as you think of Exodus, you only think of one thing. People coming out of Egypt, bondage, you know, and then, you know, Red Sea being parted, all of that. You don't even think about all the other plagues or other miracles. People coming out of Egypt, Red Sea parted story over. But let's see from Exodus 19 verse three to six in the notes it says, and Moses went up to God and the Lord called to him from the mountain saying, thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel. You have seen what I did to the Egyptians. So God is telling Moses to tell the people of Israel. You have seen. That means people have seen, right? They saw what God did to Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles wings and brought you to myself. Okay, it's a very important word there. I didn't bring you out for the sake of bringing you out.  I brought you out to myself. In other words, what is he saying? Okay, let's just continue reading. Now therefore, why is it therefore? If you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel. Okay, so see how beautiful it is from verse five. He says, I'm bringing you out to myself. That means I'm setting you apart to myself. And so therefore, if you obey me, if you keep, if you obey my voice, keep my commandments, then you will be a special treasure to me above all people. Another translation. This is NKJV, I think, but other translations are also very nice in terms. It says that among all the other people of the earth, although the whole earth is mine, among all the other nations, you will be my treasured possession. And then verse six. And so you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Very important to note that God's original desire, intention was for the whole nation of Israel to be priests. Not only the tribe of Levites, isn't it? It is until in Exodus chapter 32 verse six where they've built a golden calf. They've sinned when Moses was up in the mountains for 40 days, 40 nights. And then he comes down and he throws the tablets and you know major scene happens and Moses in a very dramatic and a very cinematic way he stands up and says, who's on the Lord's side? Shall come this side, you know? And that's in, I think Exodus 32 6. And then it says only the Levites ran to the other side. And so that was like the beginning of the tribe of Levites being the, you know, getting into the role of priesthood. But God's original desire was what? That the whole nation of Israel, that means all 12 tribes of Israel to be the priesthood. Are you guys with me? So what was not achieved in the Old Testament? Jesus through his blood and his sacrifice and what he paid has made us royal priests. And it is with that revelation that Peter writes in 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 5, you also a living stones are being built up a spiritual house, the house of God or the local church. A holy priesthood. It's not just talking about an individual. When God spoke about, you know, the holy nation and a priesthood in Exodus 19, he was talking as a collective, isn't it? That's the same thing here is that you and I, we are called to be this priesthood. We come under the priesthood. Yeah. And so I just started studying on the priesthood, the importance of it, and why we are all called to be a royal priesthood. But we're not going to go deep into that because we don't have, you might end up just talking only about that. So as a holy priesthood, we are called to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. So that last ending of that verse is very important. We are called to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through whom? Through Jesus. So anything that is any sacrifice that is done outside of Jesus Christ is false worship. Simple as that. Anything that is outside of Jesus that is not done through him in and through him is false worship. Are you with me? Are you with me? Right? So it is through Jesus Christ. Why? Because he is the one, he is the ultimate sacrifice. Hebrews chapter 9 and verse, Hebrews chapter 9 and chapter 10 says, Jesus once and for all, not through the blood of goat and calves, but through by his own blood entered the Holy of Holies. It's amazing what he did. Jesus was not only the offering, he was also the offerer. He was not just the sacrifice, but he was also the high priest. You're right, Prince. You're right. You're right, you're right. Are you with me? Right? So only Jesus can do that. But you see the heart of God here, isn't it? That you and I are called to be priests. Ladies too. Okay, so some of the responsibilities of priests. This is a wonderful chapter. Let's see. Okay, Leviticus chapter 6 verse 12 and 13. One of the responsibilities of a priest was to keep the fire going. Okay, Leviticus chapter 6 verse 12 and 13. It says, this is again the instruction. How many of your favorite book is Leviticus? Exactly. My favorite book is Leviticus. Sometimes we get excited about reading the whole Bible and we start saying, okay, I'm going to read the whole Bible. I'm going to start from Genesis. Genesis and Exodus. Okay, yeah. And then Leviticus. All right. Okay. What's happening now? As if that was not enough. Numbers. All right. Yeah. A lot of zeros there. This one had so many signs. That one had so many signs. What exactly is happening? You know, one of the most funniest things about the book of Numbers? It's original name in the Hebrew. It's a bar mit bar. It means in the wilderness. That's what it literally means. How in the wilderness became numbers? I have no idea. Yeah. So anyways, so God is instructing that one of the responsibilities of a priest is to keep the fire burning. Okay. But it is the Lord's responsibility to send the fire. You see that in Leviticus chapter 9 verse 24, the first fire came from heaven. Then yeah. So God sends the fire. God will pour out his spirit on all flesh. Whose responsibility it is to keep the fire going? Yeah. Not just us. Not just the pastor's responsibility. Say amen. Amen. Okay. They have one pastor in the room, I guess. What, guys? Are you with me? Right. So there's this wonderful book by Leonard or Leonard Ravenhill called Why Revival Tarries. It's a beautiful book. You should read that if you can. Okay. So God is very clearly instructing Moses. Okay. You set up the tabernacle, prepare the altar, everything. And I will send the fire. Your job is to keep the fire burning. Morning and evening, morning and evening, morning and evening. Okay. So fire falls on the sacrifice. We provide the sacrifice and God provides his fire. Romans chapter 12 verse 1. What does it say? Therefore I beseech you, brethren, offer yourselves up as as a living sacrifice. Right? So what Paul is saying is that, I mean, again, it's just a wonderful verse. I beseech you. That means it's a fancy word of saying I'm begging you. Paul, in whom today's day and age, like I said, historians consider that he had at least 20 PhDs. Paul is saying that therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, why by the mercies of God? Because the first 11 chapters of the book of Romans is only talking about the mercy of God. And then he's given a huge 11 chapter introduction of the mercies of God, and then he finally talks about the mercies of God. Offer yourself, because of his mercy, because of his mercy, which I've explained to you in these 11 chapters, offer yourself up as living sacrifices. Right? But you see in the priesthood, we are priests, isn't it? Now priests had to build an altar. They had to provide the sacrifice. Then the fire came. So what Paul is saying, in other words, what God is saying through Paul is that it's not enough that you just, now in the new covenant, it's not enough that you just build your altar. You also have to be on the altar that you build. By doing that, because you're also, you know, performing the duties of a priesthood. That's the main though. Okay. That's one responsibility, perpetual fire. All right. Next one, the holy incense. You guys doing all right? Okay. Great. Yes. So you're not only, we're not just called now in the new covenant to just build the altar, because in the old covenant, what happened is they built the altar. Someone else gave the offering. Right. And by the time the offering is actually laid on the altar, it's dead. But now we are priesthood. We have the responsibilities to build the altar and offer yourself up as living sacrifices. To live a life. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Sure. I see you understood that. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There should be a sacrifice. Yes. If there's no sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice sacrifice. Yeah.  See, there's again parallel from say second time in chapter six, defining chapter, what happens? David goes to bring the Ark of the Covenant for the first time to Jerusalem. Right. First time what he does, miserably, right? They place the Ark of the Covenant on the bullock cart. Who's supposed to carry the Ark of the Covenant? Levi's. Who are human beings? Isn't it? Yes or no. So humans were supposed to carry the presence of God. Not something else. You and I were designed to carry his presence. That is why Joel says that he will pour out his spirit on all bullock carts. Understood. So that means we are the sacrifice.  Say, Lord, fill me. Fill me with your fire. You see, all those prayers are birthed from there. Fill me with your fire. What is that? Fall down. Elijah in 1 Kings chapter 18, he dug a deep thing and then he filled it with water and then he built an altar and then the sacrifice. So there was a lot of preparation that went into that unless the fire came down with me, right? Okay. Let's move on. Another responsibility that the priesthood performed was one of the pieces of furniture in the holy place, not the holy of holies. In the holy place, there were three pieces of furniture. What are they? So as you enter the holy place to your right, there will be 12 loaves of bread that would be kept. That symbolized the 12 tribes of Israel. On the left was the golden lamp stand, right? With seven lamps burning. They had to make sure that fire was burning continuously as well. Okay.  And it would be in the, and it would have the design of almond trees and branches in it. So that symbolized almond. Yeah. It's a white almond tree. Okay. History.  And then the clothes, another piece of furniture near the veil in the holy place was the altar of incense. Okay. And so that incense. Okay. Actually, let's just read this. Actually it's 30 verse 34 to 38. It says, and the Lord said to Moses, take sweet spices, stakte, and onyksha, and galbenum, and pure frankincense with these sweet spices. There shall be equal amounts of each. What's happening is God is giving ingredients. The actual recipe of what needs to go into making this holy incense. He just didn't say, okay, you know, all these spices that are available in your region because you're in the Mediterranean region, you know, you'll have all these wonderful spices. Just use any of those. Whatever you want. No. He's giving, you know, detail. Okay. One teaspoon of this, one teaspoon of that, you know, in equal portions. That's what he's saying, isn't it? Verse 35. You shall make of these an incense, a compound according to the art of the perfumer salted pure and holy. It gets more interesting. And you shall beat some of its very fine and put some of it before the testimony in the tabernacle of meeting. Where I will meet with you. It shall be most holy to you. What shall be that incense? Why? Holy again is what guys? The root meaning? Set apart. That means cut. Set apart. Again, we have to be very careful when we're using those words. Set apart. Because we tend to, any words that we tend to overuse it, we become too familiar with it. And when we become over familiar with it, what happens? It loses its significance. Like John 3.16, God's all of the world, there is only God inside, there is all of the world, you know. But the weight and the significance of that verse saved mankind, showed us who the Father is. Isn't it? I've just deviated a little bit, but in English, we think, okay, for God's all of the world. Like, you know, SMS text. Message language. One S with some 10,000 O's. I love you so much.  But in the Greek, in the language that it was written, it simply says, God loved the world, so he gave a son. One displacement of the word. It changes the whole meaning of it. And so when we say, set apart, set apart, set apart, you have to be so careful. It's like you take something special that belongs to you, and you set it apart. In a simple example, I have a lot of friends, you know, if they like something that's on their plate, you know, you'll always have something on your plate that you like. Yeah, like your favorite. There are two kinds of people. One who will eat that first, or the other who will keep that favorite and the most to the last. What are they doing? They're setting that apart. Right?  You set it apart. You don't use it for anything else. We will all have that one shirt. You will only wear it for that wedding. It's like, this is the wedding shirt. No matter which wedding I go, how many times I go, this shirt is set apart until the Lord provides me with another. I think only boys can relate to that, but yeah. Okay. So you get the idea of it, isn't it? So God is saying, this incense is to be set apart. Why? He's very serious about it in the next verse. He's saying, but as for the incense, which you shall make, you shall not make any for yourself according to its composition. It shall be holy to you, holy to you, holy for the Lord. Set apart for the Lord.  A different version of set apart from his people. Are you with me? Right? No, holy incense. We see that in Revelation 8 verse 4, there was a bowl of incense. It goes on to say, which were the prayers of the saints. Revelation 8 verse 4, maybe we'll read it a little later. But it simply represented intercession. Another responsibility and the duty of a priest is to constantly offer a prayer, continually pray, or pray without seizing. Okay? The duty of a priesthood is, I'm not going to say it's easy or simple. It can be challenging, but it's wonderful.  To be the God's priest. The priest was a bridge, was a representative of between heaven and earth, like a mediator. Jesus is our high priest, the Hebrew says. He's right now interceding for us. We recently did a prayer, a series on prayer. Following Jesus in prayer Pastor Ashish did that. And he talks about how Jesus is the high priest. And he's still interceding for us. And so one of the duties of a priest is to constantly offer a prayer. Isn't it? We are in the chapter, if you've forgotten. The house of God shall be a house of prayer and worship, right? And so anything that we do unto him shall be separated and kept as holy. Are you all with me? Yes, following? Okay, so fast forward from Exodus and about a thousand years later approximately this is a person called David who comes into the picture, shepherd boy. We see that he's first being introduced in Exodus, sorry, first Samuel chapter 6, 16 I think. 16 I think. And so where God rejects Saul as the king. And it's very interesting that God tells Samuel that I have chosen a man after my own heart. God says, I have chosen for me a man after my own heart while David was still a boy.  Only God, you know, can look into us and see that there's a king in us in each one of us and call out the destiny that he has in place for us. For everybody else, he was just the youngest, useless, worthless, maybe a brat, a shepherd boy sent away to just take care of the sheep, not regarded, not liked by his brothers. But God tells, okay, I have chosen for me a man after my own heart and he will lead his people. Why did David, why was David able to kill a goliath in public? Because he could kill a lion and a bear in private. So when we learn to conquer our bears and our lions in private, he will use you to kill a goliath in public where everybody can see. Once you build a lifestyle of prayer and worship in the secret place, see, David was a shepherd boy, isn't it? Now in their culture, a shepherd, if he took a flock and went away, he's all by himself for at least, I'm saying, minimum of 12 hours, he's gone into the wilderness, 8 hours, 12 hours, it could go on, sometimes they'll be all night during the rough seasons when there is no green pastures, they'll have to go far away. So what does he do when he is all by himself? He's taking care of the flock, yes. He has his guitar, harp, he's just worshiping, writing songs, killing a lion and a bear like it's a puppy, you know.  David says, like, Lord, when a bear or when a lion attacked me, I held the lion by its beard. That's what the Bible says. Now how close do you have to be a whole lion by its beard? Arms distance. And so David, to say the least, he was very passionate about everything that he did in life. He was very passionate and I don't really like the word passion because it can be very deceiving, but then when you get to the root of it, everything that he did, he was very expressive, he was very passionate about it. And so fast, long story, I'm making the long story longer. So David comes into the scene, he's anointed by Samuel in Exodus, I keep saying Exodus, Samuel chapter 16, but it is not until say 13 or 14 years that David goes through this period of wilderness where Saul is chasing him, he's trying to be, you know, he's it's just incredible story.  David is even rejected by his enemy. Now you know you're having a very bad day when your own enemy wants to reject you.   David had a very rough life from the time he was anointed by Samuel to the time he actually got the throne. That's about 13, 14 years. He was molded and when he came to power, when he finally got the throne, one of the first thing that he does is he brings the Ark back. He pitches a tent, which is later known as the Tabernacle of David. Upon a hill he pitched it and the people that were set the administrative with the administrative responsibilities were incredible. 4,000 gatekeepers I'm trying to wrap my head. See, I've thought about this chapter and I and every time I say this, it stumps me. It absolutely stumps me. I'm like Lord, just give me a vision of how it would have looked like. 4,000 gatekeepers so he organized, he administered a way of worship where it was never seen before in Israel. What David was, what we will call in this day and age as say a trailblazer is someone who sets the trend. If David had a brand it would be a brand called Presence. Are you with me? So 24, 7 worship that happened which he initiated it went on for any idea how many years? 33 years. Just remember these, it's yeah, it's not a history exam or anything, but then it's very important because 33 years same duration of the life of Jesus. Right? So what he did was so powerful that kings who came after him followed in what is known as the Davidic Order of worship. Davidic Order of worship, yeah. We will learn in depth from 1st Chronicles chapter 25 next year when we do worship ministry. Wait y'all are in second years, right? Okay. But yeah, what he said was absolutely you know, beautiful. There was order and what he did. He just didn't say, okay, he chose the Levites. Among the Levites he has Gerethan, He-Man and Asaph.  They have rostered, right? They were rostered accordingly. And so there was systems in place. It was not like, okay, we pitch the tent now, okay, let's do whatever you want to do. Pretty much like what we try to do in this day and age, isn't it? We have roster. We have systems. Okay, today you will lead worship. Tomorrow you will lead worship. Today, you know, these people will be a band, etc, etc. So that went on for 33 years. And yeah, 1st Chronicles 25 is a wonderful, wonderful chapter which we will again learn. And so we see that the Davidic Order of worship was followed by his son Solomon, which later became the temple, right? The temple that Solomon builds is a prominent beautiful temple, which was again destroyed later by the Babylonians. The first temple was destroyed by the Babylonians and Israel has been taken into exile for 70 odd years. That's where the story of Nehemiah, Israel and Daniel takes place, right? So his son followed the Davidic Order of worship. Another king who came after that called Jehoshaphat, Joash, Hezekiah, Josiah.  As if that was not enough, about 200 odd years later where Ezra and Nehemiah come into the picture. Ezra and Nehemiah doesn't happen immediately after the life of, you know, Josiah. There's a 200 years gap there. 200 years later, they're still following the Davidic Order of worship. Come on. I leave APC as a worship pastor role and I go away somewhere, they'll forget what I set up for one week. We're just talking about this as to how incredible it must have been to impact generations. Our God is a God of generations, isn't it? People always knew him as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It symbolized generations. Anytime God blesses it would be for the generations to come. There's so many examples in the Bible about that. He's the God of generations. He's not just concerned about you. He's concerned about the lineage that comes out of you. And the devil knows that.  One, yes, he's afraid of what you can do. And then he's afraid of everything what your lineage can do to his kingdom. Are you with me, right? You guys following? Okay. I hope you realize what you carry is very powerful and what God has called you for is very powerful. It's not just to play church.  This is right worship. Why are you worshiping like that? You should worship like that. You think Jesus died for that so that we can play church so that you and I can have a dress code? We've reduced what Jesus has done to all those things. We've reduced the responsibility, the objective, the purpose and the destiny of a church to all these small trivial things when we are called to impact generations. You're following, right? Okay. So again, 100 years later, 250 years later, Amos prophesies God is saying on that day Amos chapter 9 verse 11 to 13 we all know this scripture. We've at least heard of it. Amos chapter 9 verse 11 to 13 it says on that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David which has fallen down. Now we only remember the first half of that line. On that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David. Stop. We think there's a full stop after that. I will raise up the tabernacle of David. Why? Because which has fallen down and we see that James later on in the book of Acts he quotes from Amos. Now let's just read that scripture just a little bit and repair its damages. I will raise up its ruins and rebuild as in the days of old that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the Gentiles who are called by my name. Then they may possess the remnant of Edom. Edom represented the Philistines. Edom were the Gentiles. And you see when Goliath is introduced later on it says Goliath that Edomite. Most of the times in the Bible when the character or a very important or a significant character is introduced for the first time it will usually say that person is from. It's like saying Prince the Josephite from the Christite. So why is that saying over there that they may possess the remnant possessed that means take over take charge being control of Edom and all the Gentiles who are called by my name says the Lord who does this thing. Behold the days are coming says the Lord when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the trader of grapes him who sows see the mountains shall drip with sweet wine and all the hills shall flow with it. That verse is the consequential thing of what happens when God overtakes when he is rebuilding the tabernacle of praise and worship. Are you all with me all okay? Nikhil it's fine okay. So we see that verse being quoted again in Acts chapter 15 verse 16 and 17 it says after this little James quoting okay from Amos after this I will return and rebuild the tabernacle of David which has fallen down I will rebuild its ruins and I will set it up so that the rest of the mankind may seek the Lord even all the Gentiles who are called by my name the Lord who does all these things. So the church which is called to be the house of prayer and worship is to be a place where it's a blessing to all the nations it's very simple isn't it we're not just called to cater to the Christian community yeah that's what a house of prayer and worship does okay let's want to take a break now and then we can continue maybe with this quite a bit of verses that we need to cover so let's pause here and I will resume the next session okay thank you


So my talk is about packaging the Osmo Comp stack for OpenSUSE. So creating RPM packages for RPM-based distribution. So my OpenSUSE, everybody has its own favorite distribution, minus OpenSUSE, and OpenSUSE had some great tools and great infrastructure in place, like the OBS. I will talk about later about this, OpenQA and Kiwi. It actually comes in two flavors. There's LEAP, which is the current stable and regular release. And there is a tumbleweed, which is a rolling release model. Then what does this talk about? The OpenBuild service, the OBS, which packages are currently available on OBS from the Osmo Comp stack and which challenges I encountered during my work. Why packaging at all? Because your developers and your users usually or often are not developers, and they do not want to work with source code, compiling stuff, and have often no clue about Linux systems. They just want to use the applications. And we all like to get super-installed or young install and packages for distributions make it more easy for your users to consume your applications. So OpenBuild system, formerly known as the OpenSUSE build system, is a build system that was written by SUSE employees for the internal build structure building the whole SUSE distribution. And what can it do for you? It can generate packages. You just need to write some spec files in case of RPM or if you have an RPM-based distribution, you have to feed it some DSC and control and rule files. And it supports multiple distributions and multiple architectures. And each package that you build there is a build in a clean change route environment, and it only has the dependencies installed that are absolutely necessary. And after successful building, it also takes care of publishing the packages in a consistent way in public-available repositories. OBS is also free software and licensed under the GPL. You can install it on your laptop or your own infrastructure, but most users just use the most popular OBS instance that's hosted by SUSE, and you can reach it via build.openSUSE.org. OBS has several user interfaces. One is the web UI, and it's great to have a quick overview of your projects and packages, but it's not really powerful. So most work you probably would do with the OSC command line client, and this OSC command line client works like a source control system like SVN or Git if you're familiar with it. And it also supports local builds for testing your stuff before you're submitted it back to the OBS server. So how does it look like? This is the web UI after your login. Here, can you see some project? In this case, it's the Osmo-com nightly project where every day a bunch of Osmo-com packages are checked in and built there for currently the Debian and Ubuntu distributions. It supports multiple architectures, and you can see if the last run has succeeded or failed or if there are any problems. If you dig deeper and look at the package level, you can see what files are in there. And in this case, this is the Osmo native package. You can see it's currently only packaged for Debian, at least for CIS repository. You have the Debian DSC file and some sources. And when it was checked in, who checked it in? And yeah, it's this. The web UI also provides you with a nice monitoring interfaces, so you have a matrix with the build result over all your packages. So like I said, it's modeled after some SVN or Git-like tools, so you can easily do some check out of some files, add and remove, and so on. Here's a more complete example where I check out the Osmo P-CAP, then I change to the directory, then I run some magic service. I talk in a bit about that, and I then created a test file, edited it via OSD, add and remove, and then committed it back to the build server. So this magic service you've seen here is one of those scripts that you can use to validate or generate or modify your sources. And you can run these services locally in your working check out copy or even directly on the OBS server. So as an example, you can look at the picture where I also took Osmo P-CAP. And besides the source code and, in this case, a spec file for generating the RPM stuff, there's also a service file. And within the service file, you can specify services like the TAR-SCM service, which allows you to check out code from source code repository. The major ones are all supported. And you just have to specify the source code repository URL diversion format.  And if you want to automatically create entries in the change log file from the version control, then there's another service you can change them up together that's compressed, downloaded source code to a tarbol, in this case, except compressed. And it also can set the diversion that you get from the tarbol, and in this case, the git revision. And you can set it in your spec file or in your DSC file. In case you have never seen an RPM spec file, this is how it looks like. It's not really complicated. I don't know if anybody is familiar with packaging for any distribution at all. You have an header. You have to give it a name, a version, a summary. Then where are your sources? What do you need to build the package? So you have to define all your build requires, description in the preparation section, your extracted tarbol. All the stuff that's prefix with a percentage sign are macros and replaced with some magic from RPM. You can look up that on the internet. There's plenty of information out there. And then you have a build section and install section. I also run the checks that are provided. And then you will specify the files that you want to be a part of the package. So which OsmoCom packages are currently available on OBS? Since some time, I think Kara started these package feeds. Packages for Debian and Ubuntu are available. There are two repositories. The first one is the OsmoCom network, OsmoCom latest repository, which holds all the latest tech releases of all OsmoCom cellular infrastructure software, or CNI. And the nightly feed contains the same packages, but that are the daily checked out master versions. So what's actually within the Susie distribution? There are already some common libraries from the OsmoCom project available thanks to various community contributors that have done that in the past, like LibOsmoNet, LibOsmoABS, SCCP, LibOsmoCore, of course, and so on. Then to that, I added some stuff, all stuff that I ever played with in the OsmoCom world, and packaged this in some way up in one of my home repositories. And this includes more or less all the cellular software, the client and the network side, several branches of the OsmoCom BB and a proper tool chain to build this OsmoCom BB firmware stuff. I also packaged more or less all OsmoCom SDR packages. I prepared a wiki page. It's not online yet. I have to decide or to discuss this with Harald Werder to put this in. But it's here that it's more or less modeled off. I took the page from segit.osmocom.org, and I linked all my packages that are available for Debian or for Open Susie on OBS and made links to them. And here, can you see what packages are available? I even once packaged all the stuff from Holger. I think not. More or less all that's worse packaging in some way. OK, back to my slides. And what else I did last year, I created two package feeds that are modeled after the Debian and the Bundu nightly and latest feeds. And those are also available for Susie, the current leap, the upcoming leap version for less the current and the last versions, and of course also for tumbleweed and several architectures. The daily packages are currently triggered from a cron shop from my personal machine. So this should be moved somewhere to the OsmoCom infrastructure. Yeah. So what are some challenges I encountered? Yeah, OBS is nice, and it supports multiple distributions. But if you have packages for Debian and RPM-based distributions, you will have to write your stuff multiple times. And if you want to provide your users a better experience, this should definitely be in sync. Because if you do not have this in sync, you are probably getting sooner or later complaints from your users that some things are not working the way it should or the way it's written in the manuals. And yeah, I listed some items that I think that are most important. These are package names, package descriptions, how you split up packages into sub-packages, compile time options. This is not so easy. And also the used sources. The used sources is also problematic because of multiple branches that may be out there. So as long as you're only packaging the master branches, this is no problem. But if you want more, then for all the distributions, like in this example, libdbi is not available in all the, or even in current, less distributions. It's less as the enterprise distribution from Susie. And it only contains 6,000 packages or so. OpenSusie has 16,000 packages. So they want to focus on the stuff they can support. In this case, when it's not available, you have to package it also up to have it ready as build dependency for the packages that need it. So another thing is if you are building or utilizing build.openSusie.org, normally it's only allowed to package up free software. So in case of, for example, GAPK, there are problematic codecs included, sir. I think normally they are downloaded from the internet and not part of the source code. I patched that. So it's part of my package to have it available on OBS because you cannot download things during the build. And you have to think about it if it's not more or better to move this package out of this repository away from build.openSusie.org and move it to another instance of OBS that maybe run by yourself or it's hosted by another host like Pacman. It's another popular OBS instance. And they are not so restricted about what's allowed there and whatnot. Another thing is how to deal with platform optimizations. Not everybody, not every user out there have advanced CPU instructions in one of their systems. And for example, in OpenSusie, you should maximally use SSE 4.1 and not the latest optimizations. Yeah. Like Folk or something like this, that would be perfect. And it's already supported by Libos Makor with RB decoder and by Osmo Turiks if I remember correctly. So feel free to use it. OK, perfect. Thanks. I think that in Osmo Turiks it's done at compile time, but I'm not sure I would need to check. But OK, yeah. By the way, there is a lib library from Google to detect CPU features at runtime. So we can also start to use it. It's probably called CPU features, yeah. OK, sounds like a good idea. So another thing when you're utilizing the build.openSusie.org or OBS Instance is that you have no download statistics. I'm not sure if it's really important for you to know how many users are out there using your software, but sometimes it may be interesting or not. Well, I think in the day of Docker files and other containers that download packages all the time from repositories, it's not really any indication whatsoever at all. Yeah, that's true. Let's assume we would look at the download statistics of our Debian packages. I'm sure our Titan tests are the primary downloader, because every time we build any of the containers for any of the programs, we download the packages from the nightly feed. So OK. So if you want to join the packaging effort, feel free to read up more. Yeah, and that's more or less to show you. My question is, why not merge? Or what's your thought about merging your non-Debian, non-Yubuntu spec file-based package feeds and the Debian-Yubuntu ones that we have? Good idea. And we should do this. It will take some time to do it in the right way. These source services could help, because there are source services that could extract a spec file from a Git. So the spec file does not have to be separately maintained in OBS. You can just extract it from Git. And as you've seen, you can set the diversion in the DSC. And the spec file with OBS services, it's a good idea. I just have to find some time to do this in a proper way. What I'm missing, basically, is when I'm working with OBS, I would like to have a really simple way how I can rebuild everything. So yes, I know there's local build. But for Osmo-com, usually we can't just local build one package, which has seven, six dependencies. How do you rebuild or debug issues if OBS can't build something? What we have right now that it can't build Osmo-MGW on non-64-bit architectures. And I have some scripts, but do you have a better or do you have a simple solution for such problems? No. OK. Thank you. OK, then thank you.


To Z more is one think tech Hawaii you can find all my commentaries in Seymour's world episodes on the think tech Hawaii website I welcome your comments by email text or phone You can also reach me at Seymour dot Kazimersky at gmail.com or 808 551 32 22 as This is our last show of the year. I have to thank Jay Carol Zuri Nick Ian and all the other staff here at think tech Hawaii for making Seymour's world possible I also need to thank my family Especially Sue who is not only the best wife in the world But also my editor who takes complete credit for all the good shows and no credit for the bad ones I have to thank my children Aaron and Alana who put up with my crazy lifestyle all year And of course, I must thank my musicians and performers who volunteer tirelessly for our make-em-smile program at the hospitals And to all of you in our audience. Thank you for watching It is amazing But Seymour's world is now viewed in 27 countries around the world and the comments I get from so many of you need some recognition as well I especially need to thank the young people like 94 year young Jeanette in England 89 year old Fanny in Calgary who tells it like it is and her comments range from Seymour That was an excellent show or that was the worst show I have ever seen and There's 89 year old Phil Whitney who always redistributes my shows to his own personal mailing list Chris in Japan Sherry near and Peter in Hong Kong Hubert in Bangkok Mark and Dan in Chiang Mai Ernst in Austria Kitty in Montreal Catherine in Vancouver Philippe in Argentina Eduardo in Peru Peter in Capestown Alex in Australia Leor and Avila in Israel and so on and on and on I Especially want to thank Seven year old Christina Who said her dad makes her watch my show every single time I? Can't thank everyone, but you know who you are okay, so today's commentary is focus on what's good not what's wrong as 2016 comes to a close and 2017 is upon us I want to share the insight and experience I've gained as I've tried to embrace an attitude of celebration in my life You know the press is focused on 90% negative news and as most of us only watch read or listen to sound bites We tend to develop a negative attitude Yet when we see a good story of a soldier being reunited with his daughter We all smile we cry and we feel compassion for the goodness that becomes part of our life Both personally and professionally. I hope that we recognize and celebrate what's good not what's wrong Leading us to happier more productive lives Celebrating what's good Enables us to recognize the options and opportunities Before us while helping to unleash our energy and our creativities That's true where whether we are trying to come up with an innovative way to promote our company's product Figure out how to better coach our kids soccer team or is in my work? Help kids see the light at the end of the tunnel Although it may appear paradoxical Celebrating what's good also allows us to harness the energy we need to fix what's wrong with the world Or at least our corners of it Celebrating what's good with the world does not mean pretending there aren't things that are wrong Without a doubt many situations desperately need improvement However, we are more prepared to tackle these tasks when we can also keep in mind the many things that are good with the world When we recognize the good We're implicitly acknowledging that solutions exist for many of the challenges before us However, making a conscious effort to celebrate what's good can help all of us become more effective at whatever it is We're doing with our lives as employees and managers as friends and family members and as members of our communities We can enjoy professional and personal lives that are more passionate creative and rewarding Even when other support us life itself throws us challenges time and money are often in short supply We may have to contend with health problems Friends and colleagues may disagree with our plans However, when we wholeheartedly commit to a goal We can ultimately find it We find it not because some higher being has magically reorganized the world to fit our wishes But because we're more likely to strive for the results we desire Even in the face of naysayers and obstacles So my friends whether you are going to make resolutions or not for twenty six seventeen Remember focus on what's good not what's wrong And I promise you a contentment that is a lot better than worrying about things you cannot change For me, I have a lot to look forward to I have a grand a new granddaughter isabella Thanks to ashley my daughter-in-law who I am sure will allow me to spoil her I want to continue to fight my cancer I want to play tennis thinking I am 40 and golf like I could be just like rory mackleroy one day I want to continue my work at make him smile and help all of our foster kids and kids hurt too I want to continue to lecture at schools and universities on the holocaust and mentor as many young Entrepreneurs who need help in their careers My consulting business continues to feed our family and thank heaven. We are all healthy For you, I hope you decide to do whatever suits you for 2017 Whether it's taking it easy or living outside of your comfort zone If you can try something new get some new friends try a new activity. It's really exhilarating It's exciting and it will keep you smiling I think next year we're going to start 2017 with an episode called I love you just the way you are. I hope you look forward to it I wish you all a happy and peaceful new year Filled with the confidence that you could do anything you want as long as you will do whatever it takes to make it happen My name is Seymour Kazimersky. We are watching a commentary of Seymour's world You can find all my commentaries and Seymour's world episodes on the think tech hawaii website I welcome your comments by email text or phone. Thank you again for a wonderful 2016 Aloha