Ack!

God he's driving me nuts! His answer to everything is just more worksheets and questions! If the kids don't understand the first 20 questions and are stuck on question 4, how does he think giving them 20 more on top of that will help?! Then they'll just have 36 questions undone and feel even more stupid! And for the kids that already have all 20 done perfectly, will it help them to do another 20? *sigh* Maybe I don't know enough about all this teaching, but this is *not* how I want to run the class. I recognize he's coming from old school, which is where I thrived and I don't mind doing a lot more practice problems than are typically given in the "new math" books, but if there's struggling going on, then we want to slow down, not speed up....

Anyhow, that's my little rant for today. Maybe his 31 years of experience means more than my 3 months *grin* But I'm definitely a little frustrated right now!

Beijing Cough

So after many futile attempts I have for some reason been allowed to access blogger today (I believe China censors it usually. I haven't been able to access wikipedia either since I got here.) Some news to report - I'm sick :-( Yesterday night I came down with a sore throat, cough, runny nose, headache and general soreness of the body. It sucked. And I won't like to you - being in Asia and getting the flu makes one think! But I seem to slowly be on the mend. I spent a lot of last night and today in bed and the sore throat is gone at least. The cough is pretty fearsome though - the others have recognized it as the "Beijing Cough", which they all got upon arrival as well. So now I'm trapped in my room unable to go out for food with others (because most Chinese meals involve communal eating from shared plates) spending most of my time in bed. Oh well, at least I'm getting better. Although not getting a ton of sleep. There's construction on the go here 24/7. They don't have any noise bylaws in Beijing. So the construction site nearby, whose main activity seems to be dropping steel pipes from various heights, does so right through the night. Occasionally, fireworks displays go off at 2am. Very odd.

So I'm having a few difficulties with my cooperating teacher. He's a nice man, but is very old school in terms of teaching. Complains about the "new math" (which is they way we're taught to teach at STU), dislikes the two short internships and so forth...he believes that because students did the work once but have forgotten it, they need to do it again the same way - this time they'll remember. Not because the way it was taught might not have been conducive to long-term remembering...*sigh*...oh well!

So, there you have just a quick update before I try and sleep again. Cheers!

Still posting

Hey all...while in China it's likely most of my posts will be at: stuchina.wetpaint.com, a blog set up for the whole St. Thomas education class to follow our trip over here...feel free to explore and read about other students adventures too!