Days at school can be busy, or at least constant. Times to run to the bathroom balances out with the fact that there is also little time to be drinking a lot. After a large cup of tea before classes I got to the bathroom once this morning during first hour. When I got home from school today I noticed my zipper was down...
I certainly hope that the lack of giggling meant that my sweater was long enough.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Sunday, February 11, 2007
snowflakes in Boyceville
Through all these years as a student I have periodically wondered how a teacher could grade papers without comparing them to the other papers in the class. I didn't have any idea how possible this was until I read through my first set of papers (paragraphs) from the interior design class. The answers each stood as independently as the writers themselves. Attempting to compare them would be akin to comparing people's voice tones. There are standards expected - delineations in speech or grammar and answering the question, but beyond this their answers are as unique as the girls are. Their personalities,
experiences, and knowledge are revealed in what they have (or haven't) written. Even their ease in expressing themselves in writing stands as a part of who they are as people and who they are within the classroom. I realized that this inability as a student to understand how a teacher grades impartially only points to my own inability to accept that simply because a person is or is not most comfortable communicating in writing or speech that they do or do not have any less to say. It
is the fact that we each have something to say and others lives are enriched by the sharing of lives that learning to communicate effectively is essential to community. My life is richer because of the paragraphs the girls wrote - the pieces of themselves that they shared and the things they taught me.These snowflakes were captured at SnowCrystals.com.
Monday, February 05, 2007
Too Cool for School
It's like a sick day without being sick!
Schools are closed today, it's -20 degrees out there.
All this talk about housing and the needs that it fulfills has me hoping that everyone is warm enough. I've had to move May-bird out from the wall. He would shiver and his whole cage would vibrate - can't be a good thing.
Schools are closed today, it's -20 degrees out there.
All this talk about housing and the needs that it fulfills has me hoping that everyone is warm enough. I've had to move May-bird out from the wall. He would shiver and his whole cage would vibrate - can't be a good thing.
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Swallowing Kyoto
This is an ad posted in Christianity Today. I haven't pitched my tent on either side of the global warming/ human responsibility issue and I don't expect I will any time soon. I know it was just released that humans are most likely the cause of global warming - but I don't question the human contribution. There are a multitude of positive feedback mechanisms in place that are furthering carbon dioxide release into the atmosphere. (decreased albedo, increase in amount of water the air will hold (also increases greenhouse effect), carbon dioxide released from perma frost, increase in rainfall) Coupled with exponential population growth I don't see how any one could taut the theory that we can curb the carbon dioxide levels. The charts that are used to correlate the relationship between the industrial era and carbon dioxide levels also mirror the world's population. I suppose the response to this ad could be that there would be no reason to provide the world with clean drinking water if the world is going to be under water. This ad states that the answers to environmental pollution are in technological advancements. These technological advancements require wealth, which is why the United States could be a key player in addressing environmental issues. Rather than being the fat, rich nation that is the selfishly perched on the backs of the world's poor, the US has the opportunity to use its resources to attack these problems. But sadly we think we are a democratic country and if the people don't care -- policy and government won't either. 
If this is a part of a warming and cooling cycle that is natural, there is still no guarantee that this natural cycle will be a good thing for the human race. I thought it was interesting to think that an organism will often heat up (a fever is induced) to kill off a harmful bacteria. If the earth is viewed as an organism - what would be the bacteria? I don't doubt that the lump of rock that is our planet will survive this next millennium, perhaps scarred, but still in existence.
If this is a part of a warming and cooling cycle that is natural, there is still no guarantee that this natural cycle will be a good thing for the human race. I thought it was interesting to think that an organism will often heat up (a fever is induced) to kill off a harmful bacteria. If the earth is viewed as an organism - what would be the bacteria? I don't doubt that the lump of rock that is our planet will survive this next millennium, perhaps scarred, but still in existence.
Friday, February 02, 2007
Teaching as an Art Form
Aside from the headache that has persisted since 1:54 this afternoon and the stomach cramps that cropped up after supper - all is wonderful, or better. I don't think I have ever come to a Friday evening and felt that I didn't need a weekend. (Don't get me wrong - I'll take a weekend - I've got plants to water, and a headache to get rid of.) Granted, there are several factors contributing to this week; one being we had a conference on Thursday and weren't at school. This was a wonderful opportunity to find out just how difficult it is to plan for a sub. It wasn't planning the day for the sub that was the issue. It was planning the week so that the class would have the information that I wanted them to have before the sub got there. There is so much flux in the classroom that it is difficult to pinpoint where the class will be the next day. This 'flux' in my interior design class is the reason that teachers teach. The class is not only well-behaved, considerate, and polite - they actively participate in the class. The 16 member, all-female, jr/sr class are a 'dream class'. They are creative and willingly to share. My challenges have been 'keeping up' with them and making sure that we will have a topic to talk about. They willingly continue conversations after lecture or activities on housing topics. They are friendly in the halls and helpful in the classroom. I have spent enough time in classrooms (observing and subbing) to know that all of teaching is not striding atop mountaintop
experiences in classroom bliss, but it is nice to be exposed to it. This mountaintop week has also been the result of hours of prep time - both last week and each evening this week. Because of the amount of time that has been spent in discussion as well as the directions and emphases that are presented by and through the students, my class plans have changed daily. The basic structure of the week and the course remain the same, but the ways that I can teach this class are wide open. I honestly did not expect to be this impressed with the high school students. I had expected more attitude and adolescent/teen-age issues, but it's been limited. The behavior that is 'inappropriate' is not beyond comprehension and is within the boundaries of the childhood/early adulthood limits and expected (mis)behaviors.
My supervising professor observed class today and I didn't lose myself because she was observing me. It has helped that the cooperating teacher is always in the classroom and has never made me feel that she is there for reasons other than support and contribution where there is more information or anecdotes to fill in. The supportive environment makes it far easier to do well. This is, of course, true for all areas of life and was the topic of today's health class. My supervisory team (including the school administration) actively work to establish an environment that creates as little stress as possible. In the midst of a day that I thought could have been one of my most stressful, chocolate arrived. One of the ladies from my women's study stopped by with chocolate cupcakes covered in fudge. It was a delicious reminder of the blessing of the interconnectedness of our lives.
Being in the classroom is being part of a living art form. I don't feel that I could think myself a classroom 'artist'; there are too many unknowns and each student is herself a contributing work of art. But there is a 'thing of beauty' that is created in each class, made up of the people who are present and only possible in that day's composition. It is an honor and a privilege (while being a challenge) to be a part of these pictures.
I could not say that I would like to be a teacher because I love kids. I love people. I am a teacher and with that there is the opportunity to love people by teaching. No matter what job I ever have, it is as likely that teaching will be part of my life as are reading, writing, or creating other works of art. (Reading is as essential to the art of the written word as visual perception is to a painting.) Teaching is not just an occupation or a title, it is a gift. And it is a gift for which I am grateful.
The "Price" of a Gift
To trust, to be truly whole, is also to let go whatever we may consider our qualifications. There's a paradox here, and a trap for the lazy. I do not need to be "qualified" to play a Bach fugue on the piano (and playing a Bach fugue is for me an exercise in wholeness). But I cannot play that Bach fugue at all if I do not play the piano daily, if I do not practice my finger exercise. There are equivalents of finger exercises in the writing of books, the painting of portraits, the composing of a song. We do not need to be qualified; the gift is free; and yet we have to pay for it.
~Madeleine L'Engle, Walk on Water
experiences in classroom bliss, but it is nice to be exposed to it. This mountaintop week has also been the result of hours of prep time - both last week and each evening this week. Because of the amount of time that has been spent in discussion as well as the directions and emphases that are presented by and through the students, my class plans have changed daily. The basic structure of the week and the course remain the same, but the ways that I can teach this class are wide open. I honestly did not expect to be this impressed with the high school students. I had expected more attitude and adolescent/teen-age issues, but it's been limited. The behavior that is 'inappropriate' is not beyond comprehension and is within the boundaries of the childhood/early adulthood limits and expected (mis)behaviors.My supervising professor observed class today and I didn't lose myself because she was observing me. It has helped that the cooperating teacher is always in the classroom and has never made me feel that she is there for reasons other than support and contribution where there is more information or anecdotes to fill in. The supportive environment makes it far easier to do well. This is, of course, true for all areas of life and was the topic of today's health class. My supervisory team (including the school administration) actively work to establish an environment that creates as little stress as possible. In the midst of a day that I thought could have been one of my most stressful, chocolate arrived. One of the ladies from my women's study stopped by with chocolate cupcakes covered in fudge. It was a delicious reminder of the blessing of the interconnectedness of our lives.
Being in the classroom is being part of a living art form. I don't feel that I could think myself a classroom 'artist'; there are too many unknowns and each student is herself a contributing work of art. But there is a 'thing of beauty' that is created in each class, made up of the people who are present and only possible in that day's composition. It is an honor and a privilege (while being a challenge) to be a part of these pictures.
I could not say that I would like to be a teacher because I love kids. I love people. I am a teacher and with that there is the opportunity to love people by teaching. No matter what job I ever have, it is as likely that teaching will be part of my life as are reading, writing, or creating other works of art. (Reading is as essential to the art of the written word as visual perception is to a painting.) Teaching is not just an occupation or a title, it is a gift. And it is a gift for which I am grateful.
The "Price" of a Gift
To trust, to be truly whole, is also to let go whatever we may consider our qualifications. There's a paradox here, and a trap for the lazy. I do not need to be "qualified" to play a Bach fugue on the piano (and playing a Bach fugue is for me an exercise in wholeness). But I cannot play that Bach fugue at all if I do not play the piano daily, if I do not practice my finger exercise. There are equivalents of finger exercises in the writing of books, the painting of portraits, the composing of a song. We do not need to be qualified; the gift is free; and yet we have to pay for it.
~Madeleine L'Engle, Walk on Water
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