China's Crude Oil Inventories -- About 80 Days' Supply -- About 800 Million Bbls -- September 24, 2019

From twitter:

**************************************

Montessori Kindergarten

Unposed / candid:

See first comment regarding photo above.

This is the Montessori method in one photo.

The footprint / size of the classroom is a standard-size classroom. There are probably 12 students in this class. Sophia, at age 5, is the oldest. Most are three and four years old. This teacher has no aides. That means the other students, three and four years old, are engaged in activities on their own and are not interfering with others. The teacher takes a specific project to each student and tells them the task, and then leaves them to figure it out on their own. She then moves to the next student, and eventually gets back to Sophia to see what progress has been made.

Often they work in pairs or small groups for more difficult tasks so they can help each other out.

It is expected that if a younger child is having difficulty that an older child will help that child out.

They do a lot of pattern recognition stuff so I assume that's what is going on above. They try to use reading, numbers, arithmetic, counting, etc, across all tasks. A lot of time is spent on common household chores: measuring liquid and flour, for example, for cooking/baking in the kitchen. They learn a lot about cleaning up -- note how neat that room is above. Sophia has learned to put everything away when she is done with a task.

The teacher used masking tape to designate this portion of the classroom for certain activities. I don't know what. Perhaps, it is for boundaries to keep the younger children from coming in and bothering the older children. I don't know. But I can guarantee you there is a reason for that huge circular boundary.

In this particular case, the teacher is a middle-age woman from India. Her English is superb but very highly accented. I would imagine many of us here in Texas have a little trouble relating to her, but the children love her. She is absolutely amazing. It took me a few weeks to warm up to her but she has exceeded all my expectations.