Sunday School

Last week my class was very silly and unfocused and we did not finish the lesson on James 3. No one was trouble enough to send out, but when you get 12 "slightly unfocused and silly" kids, you get a lot of distractions. In the end, I gave them homework to finish the lesson.

This week...
1 student did an excellent job.
1 student did an acceptable (barely) job.
4 students were told to complete the work properly (they did what they though was the bare minimum to get by and what I thought wasn't good enough). They finished it at the beginning of class.
1 student forgot his work at home; his mom assured me that he had done it so I let him into class but told him to bring it next week.

1 student was off sick (although his grandparents assured me that he did the work).
1 student was away for Easter (we'll see next week if he did it).
2 students were somewhat ill so their parents kept them in the adult Sunday School so they didn't disrupt my class (I'm not sure how that worked for the adult class, although at least there they can sit away from everyone else). One of those girls showed me her homework, and it was done well. I didn't get a chance to talk with the other girl.

2 parents checked with me about how class went this week. They assured me that they had spoken with their children about the need for obedience and respect in class. One of them told me that they also talked about why we have Sunday School and how the teachers weren't there just because we have nothing better to do. She also told me that they pray for the class regularly.
1 parent give the impression that I was making too big a deal of her son forgetting the work, but that may have been some regular Sunday rush and business coming through.

This week they were more settled and listened better. I actually had them do most of the work. I paired them of and had them complete a worksheet on James 4 (giving them the relevant verses for each question). They did pretty well, although most of the pairs were students working alone and forgetting to help/discuss with their partner until I reminded them (frequently)! One of them worked alone (there were 7 students). They also had to be reminded to read the passage to find the answers, and even then found a couple of them challenging, mostly because they didn't read.
Seriously, check out this one: what is sin, according to James 4:17? This gave some of them trouble. Of course, a couple of them were getting confused because when they looked back at the Bible, they forgot to make sure they were still looking at chapter 4.  I had one pair tell me that the passage had nothing to do with the question until I showed them that they were in chapter 5. One student answered the above question based on 5:17 and his answer made no sense. Obviously thinking was not his strong point today!

Overall, though, they did a good job. I really like teaching them and I like watching them learn. One week I will have to email the parents about how good they are so they don't come to dread messages from me!

What I'm Reading

I'm on a break from school, so I'm reading for myself right now. I'm in the middle of a couple books (because only reading one book at a time is no fun).

First: Adventures in Steiner Education by Brien Masters. It's subtitled "An Introduction to the Waldorf Approach." I've had a couple parents ask me about the Waldorf schools, so I thought I'd look into it a bit. Despite the claim on the back ("Spicing the text with many personal stories and anecdotes") it's mostly theory. I find that most of the theory has a mix of good and bad; Steiner had a mystical, evolutionary view of human development (including the theory that very young children could remember where they were before they were born). At the same time, he understands that children have different stages of development and addresses them. And he didn't believe in teaching them to read too early. From the best I can figure, Waldorf is intended to be a holistic approach to learning, and in the end the children are as educated as anyone in the public school system, and they may have learned to think a bit more than their peers.

Second: The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I just finished the first book last night and I loved every moment of it.  Tolkien was a master writer. I'm sort of sad that I didn't read them years ago (as a child I viewed them as "boy books" because my brother read them; as a co-worker pointed out, they also lack many female characters so they don't naturally appeal to younger female readers). At the same time, I'm glad that there are such truly perfect stories still waiting for me to read. Granted, I had to go back almost 60 years to find good writing.

That's about it. There are a couple things for Bible studies and I have another missionary biography ready to read as well. Next week I have to start school work again and most of my reading will be deeper stuff. For now I'm going to stick to fantasy primarily.

Christian Cliches

I laughed. The prayer one...I know some people who pray just like that! Anyway, enjoy!

Educational Films

One day I stumbled upon "Education and Social Guidance Film" from the 1940s and 50s. Sometimes they make me laugh because they are very dated. Still, some of them should be used today (with maybe some updated clothes and such).

This one I think everyone should watch:





 And this one is really needed today:




Enjoy!

Lately

I've been dealing with a stupid cold this week. It got pretty nasty, and I almost took yesterday off. In the end, though, I knew that if I called in sick I would tell myself that I was needed at work so I didn't bother (the problem with being in charge is that there's no one to cover for me and I know it). I'm off today and I've been sitting (and lying) on the couch, mostly watching movies and sometimes dozing. I'm beginning to feel a bit more human and have decided that it isn't the plague (hey, it was on of the options when I entered my symptoms into Web MD or some such thing). I had given one of the bosses fair warning that I might call in sick tomorrow, and things are mostly set up so that I can. I don't think I will though; a day of rest (starting with 12 hours of sleep) has helped. And if I don't go in tomorrow, there will be more work next week. With the way we set things up (with someone else coming in to teach so my teacher can help with the tests), it should be a relatively stress free day.

Happily enough, I didn't have any school work to deal with this week. I start the next classes next weekend, and there will be enough reading and writing to keep me busy.

There were a pile of things I wanted to do during the 2 weeks without school. Being sick was not on the list, and it pretty much too precedence over everything else. Maybe next week will be productive.

I was giving a receptive vocabulary test to a student, and when I explained it he said, "Oh, like a post-concussion test. We do those at school." Maybe school are getting too violent.

To wrap up, a bit of entertainment:

I Know, I Know!

It's been a while since I wrote. I was busy with school and now I'm tired of writing! I'll get back on track very soon, I promise!

For now, go check out baby sister's new blog: Life As I Know It. Granted, she only has one post so far, but she plans to write more!