Refiner of Silver

This is a popular story that has been around the Internet for a while.  I learned today that it is true that silver is reflective when it is ready to pour.  At the reflective stage,  the impurities have been isolated by charcoal and the silver is at the correct temperature to pour.   Although I do not know if the following story is true, it is possible. 

It is the end of the term for my students and right now I watching them take a practice exam.  There is a lot of sighing going on and you can feel the tension in the room. It is a rough process being refined.  A lot of watching on the part of the smith and some real heat on the silver. 

By the end of next week, they will reflect on all they have mastered this term.  I am not the Master Smith but I have faith that He is looking out for them.  I am praying for a mirror finish.

Here is the Internet story in case you missed it.

Malachi 3:3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.

This verse puzzled some women in a Bible Study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God. One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.

That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest except her curiosity for the process of refining silver. As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.

The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot then she thought again about the verse that says: "He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver." "Is it true that you have to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver is being refined", she asked. "Yes, not only do I sit there holding the silver I keep my eyes on it as long as it is on the furnace", answered the silversmith. He gave further explanation, "If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed".

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?" He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that's easy - when I see my image in it."

Assessable Web Based Instruction for the Color Blind

One of the most wonderful changes in the information age has been the explosion of color that is now free for use in the design of instructional materials.  Unfortunately, this has left behind an overlooked group, color blind and low vision computer users.

This problem hit home for me a few years ago when I was teaching an undergraduate computer application class, and noticed that one student could not keep up because he kept selecting the same links on the lab exercise.  He could not see the difference between visited links and unvisited links.  As I watched him work, I suspected that there might be a problem with his perception of color. He had a vision exam and  this confirmed that he had a type of red/green color blindness. This was an adult student who had not known that he had this problem until he began working with computer media.

Think about how often we use color in our media to highlight information.  In this presentation, I created images that simulate what a color blind individual sees.  The purpose was to make teachers and trainers aware of this issue.  If you work with media to communicate in an educational or training environment, you might find these images surprising. You will also find the Vischeck site highlighted  in the presentation to be very helpful in checking your media.

I have written and presented on many topics related to creating a better classroom.  Of  all of  presentations I have given, this is one of my most requested presentations.  It was also the source of one of  my most touching memories.

After I presented on this topic to a group of teachers, one woman stayed behind to speak with me after the room had cleared out.  She had a son who was color blind and this had worried her  for years.  She had sorrowed  that her son would never know the beauty of a world of color since he had a red/ green deficiency.  With tears in her eyes, she told me how relieved she was to know that this was not true; that his world was not black and white but tinted like someone wearing  sunglasses.

For this mother and all of the mothers of these children, I decided to post this presentation. It is very rare for someone to have no color vision at all.  In most cases, true black and white vision is caused by a head injury (most commonly not wearing a helmet in a motor bicycle accident). Most color blind individuals see color but  not all the colors.

I hope that this is comforting to the family members of these individuals and that teachers and parents of these students find this information useful.  This presenttation is easier to view as a full screen presentation.

Assessable Web Based Instruction for the Color Blind