My yoke is easy and my burden is light

As I went to turn my light off, I saw Jesus looking at me from his crucifix, and his mother as well, with a soft smile, from a pastel portrait detail of an image known as Guadalupe.  I keep them by my light switch for a reason.
I gave a second glance this evening.  They were telling me something, so I stopped to listen briefly and kiss them goodnight.  "Be at peace.  Do not worry," she, and her son, said with smile more generous than her usual.

About sleep, she meant.  I have been going to bed late for a couple weeks now, and getting used to that pre-6am rise, and I am the most inglorious unrested person I have ever met.  I am working on it.  But, and I don't know if you can relate, when I get more and more behind on sleep, especially if I have significant responsibilities that require my being well-rested for adequate performance, such as teaching, my stress increases, my concentration decreases, and, in anxiety, nothing happens in the end about the sleep while my professional life seems to fall into a heap.

Classroom Management

Aaah!!!!  By now, we’ve all felt it.  In its more severe form, it sounds something like, "I thought I could teach . . . but maybe I was wrong!" or, if another more experienced adult is in the room, a quick glance screams, "HELP!"

Fortunately, Judy (our internship sight professor and rock), CLC (Collaborative Learning Community) discussion, and some other informants come to the rescue.  And some of the things we talked about over the summer that were real nice in theory.  Now, the trick of putting it all into action.

My Clinical Teacher put it well. "They're good kids, but if they're talking, it gets in the way of instruction." Our class suffers from a light version of the problem, but my CT nailed it. Classroom management is an essential prerequisite of effective instruction.

Gifted and Talented

From the data neurobiology is providing, it is evident that nearly all children are born with very complex and unique brain structures. Although each child is different, they all seem to have extraordinary potential. I believe that, if given the opportunity to develop optimally, most children could perform at the level we now call gifted, and it probably would be more natural for them to do so. (Gargiulo, p. 539)

What on earth!?  We’re anti-tracking.  We’re anti-label.  And rightly so, in order not to track students into less than they could be, to know that they are first a person, and not a label.  Then why do we call some “gifted and talented?” You better believe I know exactly who they are calling gifted and talented, and if it’s not me, I have received a very clear message about my abilities, and my in-ablities.