white space

here in the Singapore education system the creators of the curriculum have created something called 'white space'. supposedly it's free time in the curriculum for teachers to spend time with the kids, prepare fun activities/ carry out said fun activities (which take up huge amounts of time). it's particularly useful for science teachers who have tons of experiments to carry out but only have about 6 periods a week (i.e. 3 hours) -about half the amount of time that teachers have with the kids for math/ english.

i think on the whole teachers need this white space - not just in the curriculum so that we can 'do more stuff with the kids' but real free time to properly plan and think about the things we care about. just read an article recently that says to 'take all the vacations you can' cos it's when you're fully rested and your mind drifts back to work that you start to want to learn and try to find ways to improve your productivity. tell me about it man... i haven't the time to think beyond what i would be doing in the next hour.

anyhow today on the way home i was feeling quite pleased with myself cos i created some artificial 'white space' for myself. i put down that red pen and ignored the pile of marking that was beckoning... and just left.

so here i am blogging about what i was thinking about on the way home

- i really should know the rationale behind everything that i do in school - but i don't actually know (my poor kids... if i don't know the rationale, how do they find purpose in what they're doing?)


- it's not sufficient to plan your time such that everything fits beautifully, your schedule is within your comfort zone where you know you can do well in everything you agree to do.
that's probably self effort - effort that demands minute control over everything such that everything can turn out in a perfect manner akin to one's expectations. (i must say at this point that this is something that i tend to do and get stressed out over cos i find that i "can't cope" with my own standards)

trusting God's grace on the other hand is to know that none of this can be done in the first place without  Christ in you. for if God doesn't bless your work then all is in vain. commitment-wise... 'commit your works to the Lord' - know your limits, don't overcommit your time, but trust God that He will cause you to surpass your wildest dreams of success. He will bless the works of your hands (even when you're rushing and never feel that it's good enough... haha i'm speaking to myself here)


- i need to do my marking... i wonder if i balance everything i need to mark/ plan in a single stack on the floor if it would end up taller than my table. maybe i should try it tomorrow. hahaha.



ok back to work, and time for a run =)