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Rethinking My Definition of Rest
I was recently listening to an episode of the Educational Renaissance podcast titled “Desirable Difficulties.” The three educators who host the podcast often discuss how modern research and Charlotte Mason’s methods of education fit in with the classical model of education. They also cover a range of topics relating to education, from accredation to habit training. In this episode, they focus on challenging students in order to help them learn. At one point, they discuss how students’ energy levels wax and wane during a typical class period. I’ve noticed this in both my Music and Chemistry classes; Chemistry moreso because I teach it during the first period of the day…
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Bill and Margie On the Open Road
School started about a month ago, and I can’t believe I haven’t posted since before then. I’ve been doing a lot of writing, but haven’t had a free moment yet to collect my writing and publish it here. I hope that now that the school year is underway, I’ll be able to start posting regularly again. This year I’m doing something new at school. I started a Story Club, inspired by Anne Shirley, which meets Friday afternoons during the school day. Each week I give the students a writing prompt, and then the following week we give each other feedback and talk about a writing-related topic. The students can write…
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An Ode to High School Study Hall: “Quiet”
Quiet, all is quiet,Except for the turning of pages,We sit and study quietlyFrom the halls of the knowledge of ages. Cars drone past outside,The heat from the furnace hums,A pencil scratches then stops,Feet tap the floor like drums. Students with heads in handsLook up from their quiet reprieve,Like a herd of bustling cattleThey close their books, pack up, and leave.
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Let All the Nations Praise the Lord {New Music Monday}
Our spring program at school is coming up in a little less than a month. The students have been learning and practicing their songs since late in January. They did such an excellent job for the Christmas program that we’ve been working on some fun extra things as well. The theme of the program is “Let All the Nations Praise the Lord.” Here’s a summary of what my students will be performing for the spring program this year. Dona Nobis Pachem We’re beginning the program with “Dona Nobis Pachem,” a lovely canon, or round, meaning “grant us peace.” This song fits the theme of the program because it’s written in…
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Strawberry Cake and Cultivating a Biblical Worldview
Imagine you are making your friend a birthday cake. Your friend happens to love strawberries, so you decide that you are going to make her the most strawberry strawberry cake you can imagine. You go to the grocery store and buy strawberries to decorate the top of the cake, strawberry jelly to put between the cake layers, and strawberry extract to flavor the frosting and the cake. You even buy strawberry ice cream so you can offer your friend strawberry cake a la mode. Strawberry, strawberry, and more strawberry. Now, imagine that instead of making cake layers that taste like strawberry, you make chocolate cake layers instead. Chocolate is your…