It hasn’t been a really exciting week, but a good week. My classes and project are going pretty well, although slower than I would like. I really enjoy teaching the Educational Psychology class for the most part and spend many hours planning and teaching. I assigned a fairly large assignment on assessment that was due on Friday, and it’s so interesting to see the differences among students in how they approach and value school. Thursday I arranged a meeting with a student that I was concerned about. She pretty much hadn’t cracked the textbook in spite of the weekly reading assignments for the past three weeks, and when I asked about the assessment assignment, she hadn’t done a thing for it and just told me she didn’t understand it. I spent almost an hour re-explaining what we had gone over in class (that she had missed) and walking her through it so she would feel capable of doing the assignment.
In contrast I talked to another one of my students after class on Friday who is a native Brazilian and still struggles with the language. She was on the verge of tears for most of our conversation as she explained how difficult the assignment was for her and how many hours she had spent trying to do it “just right.” I suggested a couple of ways she could improve it before she turned it in later that day and I’m sure spent a lot more time trying to implement what I said. I have two other native Spanish speakers as well and my heart just goes out to them in their struggles to do well in school and in taking tests, and yet they seem to be some of the most conscientious students.
Friday afternoon I was reminded of an important lesson. I walked to the library after class. On the way home from the library, I passed the McKay Building and remembered that I had left my jacket there this morning in the graduate lab. It was so hot though, so I decided I could get by without it for the weekend. Well, as I was mostly past the building I thought about it again, but again I rationally pushed the thought aside. I was so hot and tired by the time I arrived home and as I walked up the stairs, I reached for my apartment keys in my backpack. They weren’t there. It was then that I realized I had left them in my jacket pocket which was now still up on campus. As I walked all the way back up to campus and back again I was clearly reminded that I need to listen to the promptings of the spirit and that even though I may not know why at the time that I’m being prompted, I still need to listen for the blessing and benefit not only of others, but also for myself.
Friday night Jason and I picked up some dinner at Costa Vida and drove up to the look out point of Squaw Peak. We enjoyed eating dinner while overlooking the valley and then walked along the trails for a little bit until the sun set. It was so gorgeous, definitely one of the benefits of living so close to the mountains! Unfortunately our camera batteries were dead and we didn’t get a single picture.
Saturday I went to a great enrichment (now called a RS meeting ☺ ) on provident living. We had great classes on managing money and saving money on food and decorating. Later that afternoon we babysat a 9 mo. old baby while his parents went to the football game. I tried cutting Jason’s hair while we watched the BYU football game and tried to keep the 9 mo. old out of the cut hair. It was kind of funny.
Jason took our bikes in to get fixed and tried to get some homework done on Saturday. I don’t know how much he managed to get done, but he’ll have a busy week this next week. Fortunately, we did manage to play a few games of Lost Cities in which I have been the champion in recent history. ☺
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