Category: advice and tips

I heard this story from NPR a while back, I meant to share it with my daughter’s teacher, did not do it as the New Town incident happened on that day. This is again discussed this morning at Hope Montessori morning presentation. I gave it some thought on this topic from time to time. I think it’s not east vs. west thing, also we need to consider the “brain freeze” when we put a person who usually is shy about public speaking to the blackboard, explain something to the class.

The most important lesson is, we (both teachers and parents) should encourage “good efforts”. I recall I had a very difficult class in Rolla, and from what I heard, the professor could give some not so good scores in the end. I tried my best, basically take the notes, spend a lot time working on homework problems, sometimes barely get it done before the class starts (I recall we meets 2 or 3 times a week). I did not do well in some of the early tests (3 tests before the final), in one test I did especially poor as I misread the problem as I was trying to finish all the problems in a short time. I explained it to the professor. He obviously understood it. As the semester concludes to my surprise he gave me “A” on the course. I think he gave it mostly because he thought I tried my best.

A lot of good points.

We congrats/celebrate with kids (did something, e.g., potty training), we don’t “reward” them (Sarah).

The “grit” (persistence) is very important, recent research found American kids are more tend to give up (Susie). Also, toddlers (community) do not have watch, the teachers give toddlers plenty of time to make mistakes and learn. When she saw the infant feed her/himself, or pour milk, she know they are going to succeed in life. The library incident example (toddler want to touch the phone, the mom said if he does, she won’t bring him to library again, the librarian said she will fine him for $100). The lesson: be honest when we communicate with kids. Sarah: the kids knew the first 9 times (parents said) does not count. A parent learned from Mishra (no need to repeat, just remind we already said it).

Sarah: we make mistakes, just be honest and say sorry to kids (e.g., we shout at kids).

Another parent: the “salad” video (hope kids video, maybe put Serenity’s video on iPad so that we can watch more often).

Sarah also mentioned as the older toddler gets more leadership role and feel more confident in the class, it’s also a good preparation for her/him to go pre-school (that self-confidence will help them do well in the new environment).

Did not get much sleep last night, as I had to go to airport to pick up my in-laws at 2 am. This morning, after drop off my daughter and I was trying to change lane to get to Panera Bread, the car behind me was not happy, and honked. I honked in revenge. Not good. Later on at Panera I gave up better nice to a few older people as good well gesture.

This evening when I was picking up my daughter, I waved at the car waited for me in parking lot. My wife asked “do you know the person?” I replied I don’t. But it’s good to behave good in Hope community, because I feel we are like a family. But outside Hope, my feeling was different 🙂

(Update 01-23-13) This morning I talked to my daughter school director about this.  He is older and wiser (like my uncle). We talked various topics from teaching kids to the new town incident, and yesterday’s incident. His thought was some people will do anything for fame (name recognition). I agree. The best way is probably just ignore those people, while get prepared by ourselves. Pray a bit for us and for them. Don’t lose cool.

(Original 01-22-13) It was quite eventual day today, as the place I worked has some protest, and at one point, the fire alarm went off (turned out to be false alarm, trigged by the saw cutting the chain of protesters). To be honest, I had a lot emotions today, from the initial surprise, to excitement (as some protesters doing some singing and chanting downstairs), to angry (why did they invade my work place, and disrupt my work, my co-workers and all the other tenants’ work), to more angry as I saw pregnant woman also had to came out in this cold due to false alarm. By the way, she took it better than me as she joked she could use the ambulance on the site if she delivers. I talked to my wife and one of my daughter’s teacher about this (as I was picking up Serenity after work).

Now as I read a bit more on protesters’ background, and our daughter Serenity goes to bed, I do the normal prayer, I think forgiving is the right approach. I was very much blessed with my parents, my siblings and my relatives, friends, teachers, co-workers in my upbringing, from growing up in a rural village in Ningbo (Zhejiang, southeast China), attending Zhenhai Middle School (a top high school in Zhejiang province and in China), doing the farm work while in summer, and seeing the rapid opening and development of China (esp. costal) in 1980s and 1990s. I also was very fortunate attending Huazhong University of Science and Technology, a leading engineering school in China, then University of Missouri at Rolla (a leading engineering school here). Again the people I met in both places are just amazing.