I finished my course work the week before Thanksgiving. And may I just say "I LOVE HAVING MY TIME MY OWN."
I slept for about a week but I like getting up early and read; it is my quiet time to study. I still have some "How to get ready for your first day of teaching" type of books to read, which I am enjoying, but for the most part I get all of December to myself. Ok, not really. -I still have the kids' home school, and classes/clubs to take care of which takes most of the time. But there is that hour or two in the morning that I can learn what I want to learn.
So since you are dying to know what I have been reading up on, I will tell you.
A little about Hashimotos, Celiac, and autoimmune diseases. Yes, I know; not terribly exciting, but hey - I haven't really spent the time reading up on it like I should. So I did a bit of that, but then funner things came along, so my health is being neglected again.
We bought three beehives. I have wanted bees for I don't know how long. I have this nostalgic memory of visiting our adopted grandparents - neighbors during their honey harvest. Oh, it smelled so good and tasted fabulous. I became a honey snob. The store stuff just doesn't cut it. I have been attending the Skagit Valley Beekeepers monthly meeting pretty regularly for the last year. I have a mentor, she is great. She is an odd cookie and seems to wonder why she hasn't scared me away yet, but I like her. I was able to buy these hives from a man who has been organically beekeeping for at least 50 years. He is retiring and moving to the other side of the state. I will be sad; he is a treasure of knowledge. So I have hives and bees, but nothing else. I am a beekeeper with no other equipment. Well I do have a suit, but that won't get me too far. So I have been going over my plans and what I need to acquire over the next 2-3 months or so. Fun stuff!
But it gets even better.
Well, I have been reading those prepare-to-be-a-good-teacher books. At the same time I have been going over the new LDS youth curriculum Come Follow Me. I am thrilled to pieces about this new direction and focus that the church is putting on its teaching of the youth.
I have believed and said for sometime that there is no real difference between teaching the gospel and teaching any other subject. Truth it truth and all things are spiritual to the Lord. So every subject should be able to be taught with the spirit, even spelling :-). I want to better learn how the Savior taught, not just so that I can be a better gospel teacher or mother/teacher, but to be a better "classroom" teacher. Come Follow Me can do that for me. I decided to go back over Teaching, No Greater Call with a focus of practical classroom application, and ya know what? Those prepare-to-be-a-good-teacher books have nothing over the Teaching Resources at LDS.org. Nothing!
This is the biggy:
Several years ago I was introduced to the concept of the Greek vs. Hebrew Educational Methods. I found it interesting but never dug deeper. Over the past week, a huge desire to better understand those differences has driven my study. It was slow going at first, not much came up. But I am starting to get some real insight into Greek thought, how that thought influenced the early church in the first few centuries, and how it permeates Western education and cultural thought. I am amazed at the stark differences between these two worldviews. If I better understand Hebrew thought processes, I will be better able to understand not just the scriptures, but how Christ taught and how to better use the resources at LDS.org. I believe it will allow me to be a better classroom teacher.
You were expecting something exciting, weren't you? Well sorry to disappoint you (not really), You knew I was a nerd, right? Well if you didn't, you know it now. I am so excited with this I have been giddy all day. I am on a study/learning high. I like studying worldviews anyway; however why anyone would be so ecstatically excited about learning about ways of learning does not make sense to me, so why would it make sense to you ;-) yet it does bring be so much joy.
I don't think I can adequately summarize it all for you. It is still knew and I am still processing it and I have only touched the surface. The
Greek focus on knowing, Hebrew on doing.
One of the most fundamental differences between the Western, Hellenistic mind and the Hebrew mind is found in the area of knowing vs. doing. Says Barrett, "The distinction…arises from the difference between doing and knowing. The Hebrew is concerned with practice, the Greek with knowledge. Right conduct is the ultimate concern of the Hebrew, right thinking that of the Greek. Duty and strictness of conscience are the paramount things in life for the Hebrew; for the Greek, the spontaneous and luminous play of the intelligence. The Hebrew thus extols the moral virtues as the substance and meaning of life; the Greek subordinates them to the intellectual virtues…the contrast is between practice and theory, between the moral man and the theoretical or intellectual man."
No wonder there is so much confusion. Another really good article I found was
My Big Fat Greek Mindset.
As a bonus I found a new curriculum to glean from. The
Heart of Wisdom has a lot of information of Hebrew vs Greek education. The author has blended a Biblical focus, Hebrew thought, Unit studies, Charlotte Mason methods, 4mat methods, and Principle Approach in making a home school curriculum. In my mind this equates to excited discovery. I like to see how people put stuff together and apply it. -Have for years.
I hope all this curriculum perusing actually leads to a point someday; whether that point be my own LDS private school or something else.
