Critical Thinking in a New Room, Better Diet
The new High School building was finally ready and the sixth grade was invited to move in on Tuesday (Thursday and Friday are weekend here). The new class structure includes six student work teams (Tigers, Crazy Boys - after the Wright Brothers, Angel Kitty Power, Why (because), the Af Backups and the Jungle Boys). Each team has a large toshak in front of their seats. (Asians enjoy sitting on the floor much more than westerners and toshaks are the traditional cushions that accommodate floor sitting). The huge concrete beam just off center in the room was transformed into a paper tree. Each team owns a wire branch, to which a green paper leaf (with the student and book name written upon it) gets stapled every time they turn in a mini book report. Leaves are sprouting everywhere; kids are taking books to lunch. It's fall on the outside and spring on the inside of the new room. There are no windows on the south side of the building, which will become a problem since we are a Northern Hemisphere classroom with cold winters. The kids know all about the ecliptic line, the building engineers apparently do not. On one side wall each student (and I) has an area to display writing. On the opposite wall, the class made a 15 foot long representation of the earth's crust sitting on top of the mantle, and the five things that have been observed to happen when the plates on the crust move.
Oh, yeah, the science materials came in and the kids were given the chance pick which unit we started on, since they had been tortured so about the earth being in the middle of the solar system. We have just felt the severe earthquake centered in Pakistan (many of the children were raised there during the Taliban years and so have friends and family in peril as winter approaches) and interest is high for the section on plate tectonics. So now, they have to put up with the book dating things one way and the teacher dating things a different way. There is general agreement about what the evidence, to date, is, but disagreement on how to interpret the evidence (did the dirty shoes mean the man ran on the mountains or that he used to leave his shoes out overnight?). The way critical thought has been bound up in the science curriculum was accidental this year. Next year I plan on doing this on purpose. Following the curriculum in reading, we're on a story about a couple of bicycle repairmen who, a century ago, decided to disregard everything that was "known" and published about aerodynamics (they had studied it, but couldn't make a flyer based on it); they used their own wind tunnel to discover how air really flows in order to make a flying machine (you have heard of the Wright Brothers?).
Just got back to Dari speaking and reading when sickness came upon me. (Well, I drank some of the local tap water on purpose to get my immune system used to it.) Didn't miss any work time, but stopped reading Dari in the after hours. Even skipped a running workout - the most serious effect of sickness I've had to endure here (thank Dad for all the good health). After recovery, I decided I needed to start eating better. So much of the food that "normal" people eat has problems. Red meats are over used as source of protein, or if chicken, tuna, or eggs are featured, mayonaise is often mixed in. The all too common practice of removing the grain from all grain sources is as prevalent here as in the US (leaving neither fiber nor protein). Many nationals in the capitol also have a terrible diet, due to the bread, which they call "nan". In the farmlands they have good bread (whole grain "nan"), but the stuff they eat here has had the grain removed (they import the enriched wheat into the cities), and as this is their staple, well, they often aren't getting anything but fiberless calories with "enrichment". The World Health Organization should speak up on issues like this. We hired a cook for the teachers, but I've started doing more of my own cooking.
Oh, yeah, the science materials came in and the kids were given the chance pick which unit we started on, since they had been tortured so about the earth being in the middle of the solar system. We have just felt the severe earthquake centered in Pakistan (many of the children were raised there during the Taliban years and so have friends and family in peril as winter approaches) and interest is high for the section on plate tectonics. So now, they have to put up with the book dating things one way and the teacher dating things a different way. There is general agreement about what the evidence, to date, is, but disagreement on how to interpret the evidence (did the dirty shoes mean the man ran on the mountains or that he used to leave his shoes out overnight?). The way critical thought has been bound up in the science curriculum was accidental this year. Next year I plan on doing this on purpose. Following the curriculum in reading, we're on a story about a couple of bicycle repairmen who, a century ago, decided to disregard everything that was "known" and published about aerodynamics (they had studied it, but couldn't make a flyer based on it); they used their own wind tunnel to discover how air really flows in order to make a flying machine (you have heard of the Wright Brothers?).
Just got back to Dari speaking and reading when sickness came upon me. (Well, I drank some of the local tap water on purpose to get my immune system used to it.) Didn't miss any work time, but stopped reading Dari in the after hours. Even skipped a running workout - the most serious effect of sickness I've had to endure here (thank Dad for all the good health). After recovery, I decided I needed to start eating better. So much of the food that "normal" people eat has problems. Red meats are over used as source of protein, or if chicken, tuna, or eggs are featured, mayonaise is often mixed in. The all too common practice of removing the grain from all grain sources is as prevalent here as in the US (leaving neither fiber nor protein). Many nationals in the capitol also have a terrible diet, due to the bread, which they call "nan". In the farmlands they have good bread (whole grain "nan"), but the stuff they eat here has had the grain removed (they import the enriched wheat into the cities), and as this is their staple, well, they often aren't getting anything but fiberless calories with "enrichment". The World Health Organization should speak up on issues like this. We hired a cook for the teachers, but I've started doing more of my own cooking.
posted by Terry at
8:36 PM
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