Recently Read:
The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis
The Boy and His Horse by C.S. Lewis
To be Read soon:
Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis
Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis
The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families by Philip Gourevitch
Spiritual Reads:
The Art of Happiness by Dalai Lama
Mother Teresa: Come be my light: The Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta by Mother Teresa
Becoming Human by Jean Vanier
The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers
Molly,
ReplyDeleteI love reading your posts. Your observations are as revelatory as the experiences have to have been for you. I did want to comment on one point you made, or actually one question you posted. It was when you were talking about what it's like to teach in the classroom, and you wondered whether you were preaching from college. From my own experience, I believe any new thing you learned in college, or any new way of thinking, if it impressed you enough to become stuck in your mind is fair game to teach. In fact I believe those are the things that should be taught. It's what I did and I have to believe that's what made teaching fun. I also believe that's how our knowledge and understanding advances. As you make new discoveries, share them with those you teach. Obviously your classes are not college classes, and 11 year-olds are not 19 year-olds, but you will know or get to know how to do it. I just got through reading an article in the most recent Scientific American dealing with the difficulties of measuring the radius of the proton and was charmed to see that it referred to S1, S2 and P1 orbitals. I learned about those in high school chemistry, although I really didn't understand them at the time. It was surprising to see the old nomenclature elucidated in new ways, and I was thrilled that I remembered the terms from 50 years ago. You could teach your 11 year olds about S1, S2 and P1 orbitals today, with the new understanding, and they would be fine with that. Which is to say, it doesn't matter from what level you derive your information as long as you are excited enough to teach it. You will know how and what information to translate for them by gauging their reactions. It sounds like what you are teaching them and how you are doing it is just right. Blow them away by all means!! That's why your Jesuit wants you there. But I completely sympathize with your correcting load. One strategy I used in correcting was to correct half by hand and hand them back for correction, but xerox the other half and hand them back so you can go over them in class. When you read selections from them aloud, ask the students what they meant or how they could have written it better. That cuts down your correcting load by 50%, while still being able to go over all your papers. It also cuts their re-writes down, if you have them rewrite. Anyway, continue your good work. I love the photos. It really looks like a very comfortable city--sidewalks even! Mr. B.