Students and Stairs

 Oh! so many stairs! Everyday I walk 12 flights, each flight has 10 steps, of stairs to my classroom. It makes for a long trudge up to work each time I go to my classroom, but I am thankful for the chance to exercise a little extra before sitting down for hours at a time for lesson planning.

As I start into my third week of teaching, I look forward to more great days of learning and instruction! Last Friday I tried something new with my students. I rearranged the desks into a discussion circle and then had my students toss a tennis ball back and forth to each other. When each student was passed the tennis ball he/she had to share the observation or question he/she had done for class homework. I did this activity in multiple classes, but it worked best with one of my sections of 8th grade. We were analyzing a war poem by Wilfred Owen and they brought up some excellent observations--some that I had not even thought of. It was different taking a back seat in the learning and letting the students direct the discussion, but it also accomplished what I wanted--creating critical thinkers. While this should be a goal of teaching anywhere, critical thinking and generating discussion in general can be hard to do in an Asian culture. Culturally my students are very concerned with getting answers right, passing exams, and getting into good universities. I know that there is nothing necessarily wrong with this attitude and drive, but it makes it difficult to generate discussion where students feel that they can share their ideas without being shamed for having the wrong answer. It is a hard balance to find between getting students to share their ideas while also correcting them where they are mistaken. It is something that I must constantly be aware of in my teaching.

Things to lift up to the Father:

• Health: I am noticing a sore throat and there are some other things going on. Please pray that I would regain optimum health and that I would remain healthy for the coming months.
• Spiritual: I would remain strong and rooted in God's presence.
• Cultural: I would remember cultural actions and be culturally mindful towards my students.