Odd day today. The whole school (at least among the teachers) is a bit somber because the mother of a grade 2 student died in an accident a few days ago. She was dropping her kid off in the morning. He saw his friend across the street waving to him and just he ran without looking for traffic first. The mother jumped out of her vehicle and pushed her son out of the way just in time to save him from an oncoming car. It hit her instead.
What a tragedy. That poor child. But it's also, in my mind, an example of the best in humanity.
Look both ways, people.
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On the lighter side, I taught a science lesson on the difference between living and non-living things to the grade 2 students out of the english immersion text. The text (meant for grade 2) defines living things as things which grow, reproduce, and die. Their homework is to write a single english sentence explaining why fire is non-living.
This problem goes back to ancient Greece, and it's an interesting case of how to do very elementary philosophy, and how people go wrong miscategorizing things and using false metphors. Fire grows, fire reproduces, and fire dies. Heck it even breathes oxygen and consumes fuel like living things. I told them to ask their parents, their teachers, and use any resource they like to make the best possible single-sentence answer. I'm hoping to post them tomorrow or the next day up here on the blog.
What a tragedy. That poor child. But it's also, in my mind, an example of the best in humanity.
Look both ways, people.
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On the lighter side, I taught a science lesson on the difference between living and non-living things to the grade 2 students out of the english immersion text. The text (meant for grade 2) defines living things as things which grow, reproduce, and die. Their homework is to write a single english sentence explaining why fire is non-living.
This problem goes back to ancient Greece, and it's an interesting case of how to do very elementary philosophy, and how people go wrong miscategorizing things and using false metphors. Fire grows, fire reproduces, and fire dies. Heck it even breathes oxygen and consumes fuel like living things. I told them to ask their parents, their teachers, and use any resource they like to make the best possible single-sentence answer. I'm hoping to post them tomorrow or the next day up here on the blog.
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