"All I want is to feel this way
To be this close, to feel the saaaaame. All I want is to feel this way, the evening speaks, I feel this waaaaay."
Toad the Wet Sprocket came on my Sirius satellite radio today on the Coffeehouse channel. It was a wonderful distraction from the ONE HOUR I spent in traffic on the way home from training today. I stayed late at training to finish the first part of a practicum and figured I would miss all the traffic. But there was a multi-car accident on the 267 Toll Road that had me rolling along for an hour chillin' to the Coffeehouse channel, my guilty pleasure channel (which I won't admit here... just ask me and you'll see why, the DC traffic channel, Raw Dog--dirty comedians like George Carlin, and the Laugh channel which featured Jeff Foxworthy and Steve Martin.) Sirius is wonderful and if you are thinking about getting satellite radio, go with them.
As for training today, it was just invigorating. We spent most of the day practicing the practical life works and I just really felt like I was in my zone. My imaginary child's name is Joseph and he is a wonderful child. You all should meet him. (Yes, it's weird. I am the only person who named my imaginary child.) BUT, in my defense, I was more tired today than the others. I didn't go to bed any later last night than usual, but maybe Ben wore me out.
Like I wrote earlier, we had practicum. This meant that we pantomimed giving a lesson to our imaginary children. Joseph. The lesson I chose from the hat was "Cutting on the Line." Of course it was the only work I hadn't practiced and gone over 800 times. But, no worries, I just took a deep breath and channeled Donna, as I have been doing for all of training. The indoctrination worked; I cannot escape it. (This is not a bad thing.) Aaaanyway, cutting on the line is a work that teaches the child how to cut on a line, duh. The first work a child masters in scissors is just cutting a plain strip of paper with no lines. The work I chose has vertical lines on the strip of paper that the child cuts with one stroke. That means that the strip is the appropriate width for the child to cut with one snip. That is a "control of error" (one of our follow-up quiz questions.) The Montessori mantra should be "Control the environment" (or so says Donna...gee, you are coming up a lot here, Donna...). So that means that the adult in the environment tries to ensure that the child will be have optimal success in his attempts. In the cutting work, the controls of error are rounded-tip scissors, a strip of paper that is cut thin enough for one snip, lines on the paper, child-sized scissors, etc. We were then asked the indirect purposes of the work. In this case, hand/eye coordination, concentration, independence (well, those are really in all the works...) Some of the works have indirect purposes like preparation for sewing or reverence for beauty, patience, manners, etc. Everything in the Montessori classroom has a purpose and is set up to ensure success for the child. Just brilliant.
I am spending this weekend in Fairlington and hope to go see An Inconvenient Truth this weekend. I will have to round up some NOVA peeps for this one.
Next week we start learning about the language work. So pretty soon I can teach you all how to read.
Okay Austin is snoring so that means is is really zonked out and it must be time for me to sleep. There's nothing like spooning with a yellow lab. (Almost as good as spooning with a certain 18 month old!)
Toad the Wet Sprocket came on my Sirius satellite radio today on the Coffeehouse channel. It was a wonderful distraction from the ONE HOUR I spent in traffic on the way home from training today. I stayed late at training to finish the first part of a practicum and figured I would miss all the traffic. But there was a multi-car accident on the 267 Toll Road that had me rolling along for an hour chillin' to the Coffeehouse channel, my guilty pleasure channel (which I won't admit here... just ask me and you'll see why, the DC traffic channel, Raw Dog--dirty comedians like George Carlin, and the Laugh channel which featured Jeff Foxworthy and Steve Martin.) Sirius is wonderful and if you are thinking about getting satellite radio, go with them.
As for training today, it was just invigorating. We spent most of the day practicing the practical life works and I just really felt like I was in my zone. My imaginary child's name is Joseph and he is a wonderful child. You all should meet him. (Yes, it's weird. I am the only person who named my imaginary child.) BUT, in my defense, I was more tired today than the others. I didn't go to bed any later last night than usual, but maybe Ben wore me out.
Like I wrote earlier, we had practicum. This meant that we pantomimed giving a lesson to our imaginary children. Joseph. The lesson I chose from the hat was "Cutting on the Line." Of course it was the only work I hadn't practiced and gone over 800 times. But, no worries, I just took a deep breath and channeled Donna, as I have been doing for all of training. The indoctrination worked; I cannot escape it. (This is not a bad thing.) Aaaanyway, cutting on the line is a work that teaches the child how to cut on a line, duh. The first work a child masters in scissors is just cutting a plain strip of paper with no lines. The work I chose has vertical lines on the strip of paper that the child cuts with one stroke. That means that the strip is the appropriate width for the child to cut with one snip. That is a "control of error" (one of our follow-up quiz questions.) The Montessori mantra should be "Control the environment" (or so says Donna...gee, you are coming up a lot here, Donna...). So that means that the adult in the environment tries to ensure that the child will be have optimal success in his attempts. In the cutting work, the controls of error are rounded-tip scissors, a strip of paper that is cut thin enough for one snip, lines on the paper, child-sized scissors, etc. We were then asked the indirect purposes of the work. In this case, hand/eye coordination, concentration, independence (well, those are really in all the works...) Some of the works have indirect purposes like preparation for sewing or reverence for beauty, patience, manners, etc. Everything in the Montessori classroom has a purpose and is set up to ensure success for the child. Just brilliant.
I am spending this weekend in Fairlington and hope to go see An Inconvenient Truth this weekend. I will have to round up some NOVA peeps for this one.
Next week we start learning about the language work. So pretty soon I can teach you all how to read.
Okay Austin is snoring so that means is is really zonked out and it must be time for me to sleep. There's nothing like spooning with a yellow lab. (Almost as good as spooning with a certain 18 month old!)
posted by i.d.a. at
6/30/2006
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