Teaching, Living, and Learning: Journal: 1/01/06

Sunday, January 01, 2006

Journal: 1/01/06

I’ve had a quiet weekend – not much New Year’s celebrating, but a lot of much needed peace and quiet. The week in St. Louis was wonderful but exhausting (non-stop fun is always tiring, I guess), and I have appreciated, during these last two days, the silence and calm of my small apartment and the empty school. I’ve watched a little football, read some spiritual articles, and messed around in my classroom to get things in order for the coming week. Matty left early Saturday morning for 14 days in Guatemala with his girl friend. He has worked diligently for 12 months to earn his Masters in Teaching (with straight A’s), and some time off is a proper prize. Since he and Stacey haven’t seen each other in 18 months, I’m sure their reunion will be a momentous one for them. Right now, it’s 6:41 p.m., my apartment is cozy with burning candles, a close game is on TV, and I’m settling in for a comfortable night.

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I found this quote (below) in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. She's describing Fanny Price's home at Mansfield, but the words exactly remind me of the atmosphere I try to maintain in my classroom:
" ... no sounds of contention, no raised voice, no abrupt bursts, no tread of violence, was ever heard; all proceeded in a regular course of cheerful orderliness; everybody had their due importance; everybody's feelings were consulted."

...........

The following quote is from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. I would like my classroom to be like Dr. Strong's school:

"Dr. Strong's was an excellent school...It was very gravely and decorously ordered, and on a sound system; with an appeal, in everything, to the honor and good faith of the [students], and an avowed intention to rely on their possession of these qualities unless they proved themselves unworthy of it, which worked wonders. We all felt that we had a share in the management of the place, and in sustaining its character and dignity."

If I replaced "agent" with "teacher", this passage from a short story might, I hope, describe me in my classroom:
"The agent spent his days in following what seemed to many observers to be only a dull routine, but all his steadiness of purpose, all his simple intentness, all his gifts of strategy and powers of foresight, and of turning an interruption into an opportunity, were brought to bear upon this dull routine with a keen pleasure."
-- from "The Gray Mills of Farley" by Sarah Orne Jewett