"An Important News" from a Sweet Student Reporting on CCSF

          It would embarrass me to quote this sweet student on what she said in her personal letter about me as a teacher and a person because it was so glowing.  (I can add that it's not hard for me to find things that aren't glowing to be embarrassed about.)  But I can copy her summary of a news report for a unit we're doing on sensationalist reporting.  Here it is.

          Some news I was overheard from my classmate was the CCSF would be close.  A journalist wrote an article in the newspaper about CCSF closing because a money matter, and the article looks like everything is true, so student felt anxious.  However, after we received the message of Tina--my ESL 140's teacher--on July 12, 2013, in which she assured us that CCSF is definitely still open, it will not closs at least two more semesters and our education at CCSF is not change and she advised us should be continue studies to help CCSF in this difficult matter.  Absolutely, this is the real situation.  We got it and we understand that what do we we do?  Conclusively, we would like to say thank you so much to Tina who gave us an assuredness to continue our education at CCSF.  

English as a Singing Language "Because You Loved Me"

Today after going over our academic vocabulary and the practice with the syllable-stress pattern ("There are two syllables, and the first one gets the stress") and after their going into pairs to give each other different sentences of the dictation on music, I used my iPad with the new (and very, very small) speaker for the first time to "do" (as we teachers put it) the song "Because You Loved Me."  Luz had told us in her one-sentence introduction that her favorite music was pop music such as Celine Dion's "Because You Loved Me," so after introducing them to my favorite genre of music (show tunes), I presented that.  When I asked what it was about, Zilia said with total confidence, "She's thankful to her mother."  I encouraged the class to consider that as one interpretation--the part about her mother.  Certainly it was an expression of thankfulness.  Then Zilia offered to sing it, which she did a capella and beautifully.  It was hard to ask her to stop.  Later Luz sang it, and after we'd all gone over the words (including "baby" as direct address, someone diminishing the likelihood of its being the mother  one who made the difference), I asked Luz and Zilia to come up and lead us all in singing it.  That was a very nice way to end the class, and now I know I made the right decision when I decided to get the speaker last night after 8:00 at Radio Shack.

 They were really helpful and friendly and helped me hear and reject a speaker with static in favor of one on sale for less that did not distort. 

So as we say in our show tune songs "Thank you for the music!"

(And later I'll give you other favorite songs and an update on the four new students I have, bringing the class to something like 28 or 29.  (Twenty-five is the maximum, when times are better.)

Bay Bridge Closure

I've just sent out the following message (variations on it) to the students in all my classes:

Dear Students,

The Bay Bridge closes tonight at 8:00 PM, as we mentioned in class.  The new East Span is scheduled to open on Tuesday, September 3 at 5: a.m.  

BART will be providing extra service between tonight and next Tuesday morning.  Here's a website for more information:  http://www.511.org/   

The San Rafael Bridge and the San Mateo Bridge will also be open, but people are encouraged to use BART if possible.

See you tomorrow.

Tina

 

I just had to report this little bit of history.  

 

Today was also the day I interviewed Minh-hoa Ta for the ESLetter.  I'll share that here when I get it written up.  I am very admiring not only of what she has accomplished--getting 2 BA degrees at UC Berkeley in 4 years, then her MA and PhD immediately afterwards and now being Dean of Instruction at CCSF--but also the fact that she went to high school in Albany at the age of 15 while delivering newspapers with her sister in the early morning hours and working at a fast-food place from 3:30 to 6:30 every day and all day 10:00-6:00 on weekends.  

 

 

Not Only Michael Fox

Yesterday an older student came in to my class with very well-organized papers, which he shook as he showed me.  I guessed that he had Parkinson's Disease, and today that was confirmed when he came to my office with a document about Parkinson's and a series of papers that showed more than what he had highlighted yesterday.  (I told him I admired him for continuing to go to school and that I understood Parkinson is a hard thing to deal with.  I pointed to Michael Fox's name and commented on how much I liked him.  But of course he can't really be a role model--just an indication that wonderful people get Parkinson's.  Yesterday, I saw that he'd successfully completed ESL 130 and ESL 132, so he seemed eligible for my class.  But today I saw that he'd failed ESL 142 and ESL 140 twice, so he had to petition to repeat.  I wrote a note to Greg so this student could see him at 10:00, when I'd already be teaching another class.  Later, I got an e-message from another teacher saying he needed more students because his numbers were down, and my numbers looked secure, so he'd appreciate it my sending him this student, whom he named.  (I don't know how he knew the student was trying to add, but I know he was had failed the student in ESL 140.)    I really have referred students to other teachers when I've known they needed them.  But I hope we never get into anything like "the skin trade."

Homework for an ESL Teacher

I've finally started responding, student-by-student, to the letters the students wrote on August 18.  I also responded to our ESL Coordinator about a student who has stronger skills than most in my ESL 140 class but failed 130 last year because he had to have an operation on a tumor in his nose.  He told me he had placed in ESL 140 but didn't like his teacher, and since three wasn't another ESL 140 section open, he took an ESL 130 class.  I listened to 25 more phone messages (assigned), and then I created more permanent groups for my ESL 142 sections--speaking and listening.

Still to do:

Grade the note cards used by ESL 132.  I give them 50 points just for putting notes in note form instead of creating note cards like a written report, but there are still those who write a report.  This time it's the professional soccer player.

Tomorrow morning I need to run off the BINGO game we'll play to review what we learned from the one-minute self-introductions.  Then I'll meet with a student who just added two of my classes today--an older student who seems to have something like Parkinson's.  He seems bright, and he came very well-prepared in the sense of having the papers to show his eligibility. 

I've got to remember my iPad with all the examples of genres of music!

I have about 14 more letters to respond to.

I need to transfer my notes on their telelphone messages from my notebook to note cards I had them create today.

I need to  listen to the last of the phone messages that were due no later than 6:00 PM tonight.  There are those who call at 5:55, and there are those who call at 9:30 PM or even the next day. 

I need to correct the very simple tests I gave on Noun Clauses.  All they had to do was circle the noun clauses in sentences I gave them, but most had no clue.  But Linh B. Tran knows!  So do Haley, Emily, and Karine.  Four out of 21!

After I finish responding to their letters, I want to work on the piece I'm writing about helping students in distress. 

Lessons for and from My Students at CCSF

I've just written two wonderful retired teachers, and it occurs to me that I should share here what I was telling them. 
          First, the traffic report:    It took me less than 45 minutes to get to my sister’s house in Oakland and 1 hour and 35 minutes to get back.  I saw the sign indicating a game in Candlestick Park.
          Now, the lessons I've prepared.

  In ESL 132, as I mentioned yesterday, I got types of music including classical, rock, jazz, and country, with the country being “Lyin, Cheatin’, Woman-Chasing, Honky Tonkin Whiskey Drinking You.”  In my ESL 140 High Intermediate Academic ESL class we’re doing a unit on sensationalism in the news, and of course on the topic, I’ve brought up CCSF in the news, but today on my way to my sister’s in Oakland, I stopped by Safeway to buy her some sunflowers and pick up an issue of The Enquirer.  Since I was feeling a bit embarrassed, I told the cashier, “I’m doing a unit on sensationalism in the news with my students.  Is this the worst you’ve got?”

She pointed to the picture of Faith Hill and her lyin, cheatin, woman-chasing husband on the front and said, “She had an affair with him when he was married to another woman, and now she’s complaining because another woman’s having an affair with him now that he’s married to her.” 

                In my ESL 142 Speaking and Listening class the students have given their Miss America type 30-second self-introduction (“Colorado means red, but I’m tickled pink to be here.  I’m Miss Colorado!”), only in addition to telling where they were from, they told us something unique about themselves.  They sometimes pronounced unique eunuch in spite of our practices, but that can be unique, too.  They also named their favorite fable, which is the focus of the first unit in our College Oral Communication book.

I've also gotten lessons, instruction, and inspiration from them.  

                I’m eventually going to respond to my ESL 140 students’ very warm and charming letters. On the topic of keeping a diary, I told them about a friend's annual gift of a year-end letter to her children.   One of the students wrote that people in his family put things into writing, too, and he loved his grandmother so much that after her death—when he was so far away from China in San Francisco—he wrote a letter to his grandmother so his dad could put it on her grave.  I hadn’t heard of that literary substitute for (or addition to) floral arrangements, but I think it’s wonderful, and now the letters can be California grown (not from Colombia)!

 I may have mentioned earlier that I unintentionally left out  my childhood, and instead I mentioned the death of Javier’s son-in-law, my ex-husband, Jonathan’s father, my father and my mother, so  I got a lot of comments on death.  “As we know that human just have only one way to go to the end of our lives that is death, sooner or later, all of us will face to face with it.  So, please don’t more worry and sad any more, please let them go!  For us who are still here on earth to pray for souls of them being in heaven.” 

There was one comment on CCSF:  “I watched TV news about CCSF will lost the accredited.  I worry about school will close.”

Then too they made me fully aware of the age difference.  (There are now workshops on “generational awareness” because people aren’t retiring as new workers young enough to be their grandchildren are coming in.)  One student wrote, “I was born that year when you have been teaching at City College.  How coincidence!”

               As I was telling Karen,  May all your coincidences be good ones!

              

              

 

CCSF News

Of course yesterday, when there were two big pieces about CCSF in San Francisco Chronicle following a full day of listserve messages on Thursday, I was focusing on the Power of Music.  But it's not too late to cite these articles.  The front page one "City sues to block college's closure" by Nanette Asimov reports on what the listserves were buzzing about (besides the design on the parking hangtags), City Attorney Dennis Herrera's suit against that ACCJC.  Herrera says "The commission acted improperly to withdraw accreditation from City Collee for having embraced a different vision" over the state's effors to downsize colleges.  He also faulted them for conflicts of interst and an "improper evaluation process."  There was also an editorial "Off target" showing a photo of Herrera making the announcement and basically saying that the lawsuit was an example of the approach "losing argument, change the subject."  The most egregious fault the Chronicle found was fiscal.  It called for "an overhaul of City College's ramshackle operations."

Meanwhile the faculty was helping Karen Saginor word our mission statement. 

And may I suggest one additional word:

“In the pursuit of their educational goals, students will learn critical thinking and information competency; effective communication skills; cultural, social, environmental, civic,  and global awareness; and personal and career development skills."  

Thanks-

Darlene

Darlene F. Alioto, Chair
Social Sciences Department and
President Department Chairperson Council (DCC)
City College of San Francisco
50 Phelan Ave., SF, CA 94112
415-239-3330   dalioto@ccsf.edu

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From: owner-eff@cloud.ccsf.cc.ca.us <owner-eff@cloud.ccsf.cc.ca.us> on behalf of Carol H Reitan <creitan@ccsf.edu>
Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2013 6:08 PM
To: Karen Saginor; eff
Subject: EFF: RE: Please Read -- impact through quick actions

May I suggest the addition of one little word to Karen's excellent language - global

“In the pursuit of their educational goals, students will learn critical thinking and information competency; effective communication skills; cultural, social, environmental,  and global awareness; and personal and career development skills." 

Carol H. Reitan, Ph.D.
Chair, Foreign Languages Department
City College of San Francisco
50 Phelan Avenue, Box A-5
San Francisco, CA 94112

---

From: owner-faculty@cloud.ccsf.cc.ca.us <owner-faculty@cloud.ccsf.cc.ca.us> on behalf of Karen Saginor <ksaginor@ccsf.edu>
Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2013 3:09 PM
To: faculty
Subject: Faculty: Please Read -- impact through quick actions

Dear Colleagues,

Please do two things that will have very real impact and take very little time.

1) Please respond to the Mission/Vision statement survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RH3C8Z5  with the request that our Mission statement be changed to add this sentence in Question 3:

“In the pursuit of their educational goals, students will learn critical thinking and information competency; effective communication skills; cultural, social, and environmental awareness; and personal and career development skills."  - Rationale: this reflection of our Institutional SLOs will help CCSF be student-centered and more focused on student learning.

There is a very short turn-around time for this survey.

2) Please sign the Faculty Statement of Support for Maintaining CCSF's Accreditation. http://tinyurl.com/n87pqsj and on Academic Senate home page.

These two quick actions have impact if almost everyone does them – that includes you!

 


Then there's this:

Dan Hayes and George Rush of the CCSF PE & Dance Department and is provided for signature to the faculty of City College of San Francisco -- August, 2013.

* Required

Top of Form

We, as members of the faculty of City College of San Francisco, are gravely concerned about the future and long-term viability of our College. At the same time the education and career goals of our students are of the utmost importance to us and we are fully committed to their academic success. Accordingly, we support the College in its effort to meet or exceed the standards required to maintain its accreditation as mandated for all Community and Junior Colleges. 

Dan Hayes and George Rush of the CCSF PE & Dance Department and is provided for signature to the faculty of City College of San Francisco -- August, 2013.

* Required

Top of Form

We, as members of the faculty of City College of San Francisco, are gravely concerned about the future and long-term viability of our College. At the same time the education and career goals of our students are of the utmost importance to us and we are fully committed to their academic success. Accordingly, we support the College in its effort to meet or exceed the standards required to maintain its accreditation as mandated for all Community and Junior Colleges.