Thoughts on children and teaching

Comments by niece #1 while she was watching stations of the cross on EWTN with my mom:
"Jesus has boo boos."
"Mama Mary is crying."
"Jesus is sleeping."
"Jesus is going up going up."

And then my mom was reading more from the bible.
"Adam and Eve yai yai (naughty)."
"Joseph waa waa (crying)."
"Joseph have a lot of food. Bread."
"Joseph share food with them [his father and brothers]."

Last night after I picked up my mom at the airport we headed over to Millbrae to meet KK and her husband. She picked Cafe Salina (650-692-2662) from the various Chinese restaurants that were there. Not a bad choice! I ordered congee because I had a craving for it, partly because of the cold. It was good, though I don't think it was as good as the congee at Congee Queen. (But still better than anything in the South Bay. Why can't we get decent Cantonese chefs down here? There may be some at the more expensive restaurants...)

Versus is a waste of time. Good thing I was correcting homework and doing other things while it was playing. It is also good that I didn't spend money on the dvd.

I was thinking yesterday... how many of the 5th and 6th graders I taught 12 years ago are now moms? Or became moms while they were in their teens? And have their literacy skills improved since 6th grade?

The daughter of one of the teachers at the school must be in college already.

If I were 7 and had me as a sub, what would I think of a sick teacher constantly shouting at some of the students? Perhaps it cannot be helped--is there another way to maintain discipline? I had to move some of the students around, and separated 3 boys from the rest of the class. One of them is really annoying--he has this smirk on his face constantly, especially after I've told him to sit down or I've put a check by his name.

Undoubtedly having less students means I can give more 1-on-1 instruction to the students and adjust according to their weaknesses and help them improve in those areas. Is there a more effective way to help 20 students gain the necessary skills in grammar, math, reading, and writing?

Do they really need to learn how to be original at this stage? Or would it be better to have them copy grammatically correct sentences? What sort of approach would a school having adopted the trivium take with respect to writing and grammar?

Teaching shouldn't be about the money, but can be difficult to motivate one's self to follow through on one's concern for a student's progress, especially if he is busy trying to get students to stop being a distraction or nuisance to others, not when the daily pay is barely above $100.


From Sandro Magister:
Cardinal Kasper's Ecumenism: Truth Above All

The complete text of the address delivered at the consistory by the president of the pontifical council for Christian unity. Good progress with the Orthodox, bad with the mainline Protestants, so-so with the "evangelicals" and Pentecostals. And meanwhile, with the Muslims...