Friday was awesome. I observed a 9th grade History and English class. They were having a socratic discussion over Plato's Apology and I. was. impressed. The majority of the class was actively participating and they had very intelligent and well thought out opinions. It was the same group of students in the English class as well. (The school does a socratic style of teaching and completely combines their social studies with English.) They started acting a little more like normal 9th graders during this half. I observed not only the teacher's teaching methods, but how she handled behavioral problems with some of the students, which was super interesting. Classroom management is crucial to effective teaching. It's kind of overwhelming when I think of everything that goes into teaching and that one day I'll be in charge of my own classroom. But seeing it play out live in action is pretty helpful. Also seeing her present information to her students and being able to point out the different aspects of her lessons plans (after having learned about some of them in class this past week) was cool! We get to go back to the same school all next week. This first week, I honestly want to just observe a variety of different teachers and see their all their different methods. So hopefully that gets to happen. I guess we'll see!

Here's a picture of the guy himself: Karl G. Maeser.

Just in case anyone doesn't know who he is, he was an prominent Utah educator and president of Brigham Young University for 16 years. What I personally know him best for is his incredible integrity. Most BYU students are familiar with his quote on honor (we see it every time we walk into the testing center) and I think it's worth sharing:

 "I have been asked what I mean by 'word of honor.' I will tell you. Place me behind prison walls--walls of stone ever so high, ever so thick, reaching ever so far into the ground--there is a possibility that in some way or another I may escape; but stand me on the floor and draw a chalk line around me and have me give my word of honor never to cross it. Can I get out of the circle? No. Never! I'd die first!"

Cool, huh. It's definitely a concept that the world could use a reminder of.

Anyway, I will definitely be updating my experiences at Karl G. Maeser Preparatory Academy as I continue to go throughout the rest of next week. 



Now for the work out update. Yesterday, I did 50 minutes of cardio. I know, 10 minutes less than I should have. But it was hard. Especially since I was on a treadmill the whole time...it was raining most of the day. Treadmills can be convenient sometimes. But personally, anything past 30 minutes on a treadmill is way too long. I'd rather be outside. It's so much better. My cheat day ended up being yesterday. I had a get together with some old roommates and we brought cookies and cakes and cinnamon roles and the whole shabang. It was great. :) But now its time to get back on track for next week. Here's to another week of getting back in shape. Just gotta take it one day at time.