Team "We Grade Your Papers" won its first match tonight 2-1. It was awesome! I forgot how much I love running around on ice in sneakers with a stick with a hard rubber triangle attached to the end of it chasing a squishy ball the size of a grapefruit trying to hit it between two traffic cones placed roughly four feet apart. (Welcome to Broomball!)
A note on our team name: We're a team made up entirely of graduate students, which is somewhat unusual in intramurals because most doctoral / graduate students are usually too busy writing papers to do things like intramurals. However, we like a little bit of fun (or exercise, or excuses to put off doing papers) in our lives. We primarily play against undergraduates, and some of them are actually students of our team-members. (Most grad students TA - although I don't have to as an MDiv). Needless to say, it's great to threaten them with F's if they beat us. We wear red shirts to remind them of the color of the ink we will use to write that big F on their papers.
A little intimdation goes a long way.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Godincidence? Daydreaming Part II...
So I just checked my email and was reading through Vatican news (courtesy of ZENIT) which I get in my mailbox every day. Guess what I found?
Culture and Religion: Together for EducationBenedict XVI Speaks of Paul VI as Teacher
BRESCIA, Italy, NOV. 8, 2009 (Zenit.org).- There should be complete harmony between the cultural and religious dimensions of education, so that young people are truly prepared to meet modernity, says Benedict XVI.
The Pope affirmed this connection when he inaugurated today the new premises of the Paul VI Institute. The Holy Father was visiting Brescia, the birthplace of Paul VI, for a one-day apostolic visit.
“We live in times in which a real ‘educational crisis’ is evident,” he said, observing that "it is necessary to transmit to future generations something valid, solid rules for comportment, to indicate lofty objectives toward which one should decisively order one’s life."
"The demand for an education capable of meeting the expectations of young people grows," the Pontiff observed, "an education that is first of all witness and, for the Christian educator, witness of faith.”
(to read whole article visit: http://www.zenit.org/article-27489?l=english )
Seems like quite an appropriate article!
Culture and Religion: Together for EducationBenedict XVI Speaks of Paul VI as Teacher
BRESCIA, Italy, NOV. 8, 2009 (Zenit.org).- There should be complete harmony between the cultural and religious dimensions of education, so that young people are truly prepared to meet modernity, says Benedict XVI.
The Pope affirmed this connection when he inaugurated today the new premises of the Paul VI Institute. The Holy Father was visiting Brescia, the birthplace of Paul VI, for a one-day apostolic visit.
“We live in times in which a real ‘educational crisis’ is evident,” he said, observing that "it is necessary to transmit to future generations something valid, solid rules for comportment, to indicate lofty objectives toward which one should decisively order one’s life."
"The demand for an education capable of meeting the expectations of young people grows," the Pontiff observed, "an education that is first of all witness and, for the Christian educator, witness of faith.”
(to read whole article visit: http://www.zenit.org/article-27489?l=english )
Seems like quite an appropriate article!
Babysitting FUN!
So I babysat my classmate's kids yesterday (3 girls, ages 5, 8, and 10) and it was such a blast! We watched The Grinch, then had dinner, then they danced around the living room while I played an Irish jig on the piano I learned way back when, then, we watched another movie (Totoro - Japanese movie -really cute! Not sure I spelled that right!), followed by a game of Scrabble Junior - Dora The Explorer Version; then read three books to the littlest one and put her to bed. Then I stayed up and played this cool puzzle game with other two and got them to bed just shortly before their parents came home!
It was lots of fun - I'm so glad that my friend has invited me into her family! More and more I realize how much of a GREAT mother she is, and how beautiful her family is. They have me over for dinner at least a few times a semester, and I genuinely like spending time in a family environment / playing with her super-fun kids.
On previous visits, I've done Origami with the girls - (butterflies, frogs, cranes, etc.). Here's what I'd like to do for fun next time I go (I thought about doing this this time, but I didn't have a chance to get to the store to get the supplies!)
Clay Critters
http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/crafts-by-material/clay-crafts/clay-critters-709050/
It was lots of fun - I'm so glad that my friend has invited me into her family! More and more I realize how much of a GREAT mother she is, and how beautiful her family is. They have me over for dinner at least a few times a semester, and I genuinely like spending time in a family environment / playing with her super-fun kids.
On previous visits, I've done Origami with the girls - (butterflies, frogs, cranes, etc.). Here's what I'd like to do for fun next time I go (I thought about doing this this time, but I didn't have a chance to get to the store to get the supplies!)
Clay Critters
http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/crafts-by-material/clay-crafts/clay-critters-709050/
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Daydreaming again...
So I think I may have just discovered the topic for my Synthesis Seminar (Senior Thesis for MDiv, basically):
I'm very intrigued by different ideas about education. Here are a few things I've read about / or have heard about that immediately come to mind:
* Rod Dreher's treatment of Education in Crunchy Cons (one chapter gives a rather convincing pro-homeschooling argument)
* Maria Montessori & Sofia Cavaletti's educational philosophies
* The Educational Philosophy of St. John Bosco
* Unschooling Movement -
* Steve Kellmeyer: Destined to Fail: Catholic Education in America (this I heard about through a friend's blog. I haven't actually read the book yet, but the premise of it is quite provocative).
* Vatican Documents on catechesis / education
Though I do not have an education degree (Recently, I've thought about applying to ACE (Alliance for Catholic Education - 2 year education program at ND) or its New England equivalent, Providence Alliance for Catholic Teachers (PACT) through Providence College when I finish the MDiv), lately I've been thinking more and more about becoming a teacher. Most of this comes out of the day dreaming that I've been doing lately - or rather, prayerful reflection on where God is calling me in life. Thinking about teaching gets me really excited!
Actually, this "daydreaming" that I've been engaging in got me thinking back to what really led me to go to FUS and into studying theology / catechetics in the first place. It dawned on me that there were two precipating experiences that really gave me a desire to pursue this program of studies: 1) my own experience of the Steubenville Conferences as a place of dynamic evangelization and catechesis coupled with 2) the experience of my own religious education experience (religious ed in Catholic school, followed by 2 years of CCD) which, to put it charitably, left much to be desired, particularly regarding the CCD part. (Looking back, my Catholic school experience had been quite good, though it lacked the evangelistic and conversional dynamic so evident in my experiences at the Steubenville conferences, etc.)
Furthermore, I distinctly remember my 9th Grade CCD teacher asking us to write down any suggestions we had to make our religious ed experience better, and I wrote a whole 3 page letter with all kinds of ideas and suggestions. In fact, I was the only person to respond to this request!
A frustration of mine has been what I perceive to be the religious education culture of my home diocese. My dream would be to develop some sort of program for religious education and to work for the renewal religious education (catechesis & Catholic school religious ed). More on this in another post, perhaps. =)
Anyway, so as I consider teaching, I'm trying to formulate and articulate my own "educational philosophy" and let's just say that there are many different different voices that are weighing in on the conversation for me. More and more I feel myself being pulled to reject the popular model of education which in many ways seems to depersonalize education, making it into a factory-like process through which we push our children expecting that having done their time in the system they'll emerge "finished products." In many ways, our modern educational system is failing our young people.
At the same time, while I appreciate the more freedom that approaches like homeschooling, or more radically, unschooling provide, I don't want to go to the opposite extreme of presuming that having a set curriculum is a bad thing. After all, we need a common language in order to be able to navigate the world around us! (Conventional homeschooling does not to go this extreme - but unschooling, does). Ultimately, it seems that the task of constructing an adequate educational philosophy is allowing these different voices to weigh in and add their insights, and that the task for the educator is to create an educational method and philosophy which hold all their insights in tension, keeping a balance between extremes.
Could this be my life's project?
I'm very intrigued by different ideas about education. Here are a few things I've read about / or have heard about that immediately come to mind:
* Rod Dreher's treatment of Education in Crunchy Cons (one chapter gives a rather convincing pro-homeschooling argument)
* Maria Montessori & Sofia Cavaletti's educational philosophies
* The Educational Philosophy of St. John Bosco
* Unschooling Movement -
* Steve Kellmeyer: Destined to Fail: Catholic Education in America (this I heard about through a friend's blog. I haven't actually read the book yet, but the premise of it is quite provocative).
* Vatican Documents on catechesis / education
Though I do not have an education degree (Recently, I've thought about applying to ACE (Alliance for Catholic Education - 2 year education program at ND) or its New England equivalent, Providence Alliance for Catholic Teachers (PACT) through Providence College when I finish the MDiv), lately I've been thinking more and more about becoming a teacher. Most of this comes out of the day dreaming that I've been doing lately - or rather, prayerful reflection on where God is calling me in life. Thinking about teaching gets me really excited!
Actually, this "daydreaming" that I've been engaging in got me thinking back to what really led me to go to FUS and into studying theology / catechetics in the first place. It dawned on me that there were two precipating experiences that really gave me a desire to pursue this program of studies: 1) my own experience of the Steubenville Conferences as a place of dynamic evangelization and catechesis coupled with 2) the experience of my own religious education experience (religious ed in Catholic school, followed by 2 years of CCD) which, to put it charitably, left much to be desired, particularly regarding the CCD part. (Looking back, my Catholic school experience had been quite good, though it lacked the evangelistic and conversional dynamic so evident in my experiences at the Steubenville conferences, etc.)
Furthermore, I distinctly remember my 9th Grade CCD teacher asking us to write down any suggestions we had to make our religious ed experience better, and I wrote a whole 3 page letter with all kinds of ideas and suggestions. In fact, I was the only person to respond to this request!
A frustration of mine has been what I perceive to be the religious education culture of my home diocese. My dream would be to develop some sort of program for religious education and to work for the renewal religious education (catechesis & Catholic school religious ed). More on this in another post, perhaps. =)
Anyway, so as I consider teaching, I'm trying to formulate and articulate my own "educational philosophy" and let's just say that there are many different different voices that are weighing in on the conversation for me. More and more I feel myself being pulled to reject the popular model of education which in many ways seems to depersonalize education, making it into a factory-like process through which we push our children expecting that having done their time in the system they'll emerge "finished products." In many ways, our modern educational system is failing our young people.
At the same time, while I appreciate the more freedom that approaches like homeschooling, or more radically, unschooling provide, I don't want to go to the opposite extreme of presuming that having a set curriculum is a bad thing. After all, we need a common language in order to be able to navigate the world around us! (Conventional homeschooling does not to go this extreme - but unschooling, does). Ultimately, it seems that the task of constructing an adequate educational philosophy is allowing these different voices to weigh in and add their insights, and that the task for the educator is to create an educational method and philosophy which hold all their insights in tension, keeping a balance between extremes.
Could this be my life's project?
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