Scary E-Coli Song for Halloween

Here's a song that uses the vocabulary from our food units--E-coli, recall, food poisoning--all the scary things appropriate for Halloween.  (I once went to a Halloween Party as spinach with E-coli.)  This permits the students to write mean things online like "And she makes you sing with her."  But they like this song in spite of themselves.

Words by Tina Martin to the Percy Montrose tune “My Darling Clementine”

Halloween is in October.

It’s October thirty-one.

Children go out trick-or-treating,

And they have a lot of fun.

They go walking door to door then,

They wear costumes, they wear masks.

Everybody gives them candy.

But their mother one things asks:

If you see a suspicious stranger,

Someone lurking on the street,

Run away fast; you’re in danger

If he offers you a treat.

One year children, trick or treating,

Meet a man who looks that way.

But he doesn’t do the greeting

Or offer candy, so they say:

“Do you want a little candy?

Do you want a little juice?”

            “Thanks a lot; I’m on a diet.”

“That’s a very bad excuse.

“You’re not fat, sir.  You are thin, sir.

You look like a skeleton.”

            “That’s the way I am; accept it.

            What’s been done can’t be undone.”

“We are worried.  You’re so thin, sir.

Really need to gain some weight.

And you really don’t look well, sir.”

            “Maybe someone that I ate

            Caused food poisoning,

            Had E-coli.

            But for me, it’s kind of late

            For a re-call of E-coli.

            I’m expired, beyond my date.”

“Pardon us, sir.  Are you new here?

What’s your name?   Where do you live?”

            “My name is on a stone, RIP,

            But my address I can’t give.”

“Pardon us, sir.  Please explain this.

Please, sir, tell us what you mean.”

            “My only address is a graveyard.

            I come back each Halloween.

            I must run now; you look suspicious.

            And you offered me a treat;

            My mom taught me when I was living

            To run from strangers that I’d meet.”

And here's the cake Dmitry made for ESL 142 003 yesterday.

           

My Teaching: More Push than Pull?

I'm exhausted, but I need to get the bins ready for Recology, so I'm going to push myself to do that as I pushed myself to read two (really interesting) chapters in Chew on This so I could push myself to write up some guiding questions for the students who had to be pushed to list the pros and cons (listed already in the book) of mandatory community service, which some are against because students who are pushed to do it will be indignant.

Tomorrow I hope to be refreshed and back here with photos of Dmitry's cake and the ESL 142 003 students who ate it.

A Scary Teacher

Today I had a nice talk with the student who had indicated that her only special need was a day at Great America.  She told me that she thought I was strict and she couldn't get close to me, so she wasn't going to tell me about her hearing or short-term memory loss until someone she knows in another class told her how nice I was.

Now, this is what surprises me:  I think I'm much nicer in the class where she perceived me as being strict than I am in the class where the other student perceives me as being nice.

But that just confirms what Jonathan and I have read in books like Being Wrong.  Almost everyone almost always is.  (The way I've summed that up may be not quite right, either.)

Students' Sins of Omissions

Of course, students leave their names off papers.  They also choose not to write their names in their books because it might hurt the resale values, so when they lose a book there's no way people can contact them.  But here's another sin of omission:  Not filling in the blank about special needs. 

Last Friday morning, before three more classes and a dash to get ready for Pacific Grove, where we went to scatter my mother's ashes (installment 2), a student brought me a letter from a psychological counselor at the Student Health Center, who told me that this student had short-term memory loss and really needed extra help in coping with her classes.

At the beginning of the semester, I have students fill out both an information card and an attendance card and ask them to let me know under “Remarks” of any disability or anything else I should know about.  I also ask them to write a letter of introduction.  No disability or any special concern is indicated on this student's card, and her letter-of-Introduction didn’t mention anything about her surgery, hearing loss, or anything else of special concern.  In fact, it focused on her trip to Great America.   It was only after I sent her to Early Alert that I found out from her academic counselor there about hearing loss.  

Good versus Me

I'm back from Pacific Grove, where we had beautiful weather in honor of Mom and what would have been her 92nd birthday.  I've almost caught up with my homework if not with cleaning up the piles of it.  But I have something quick to share.  I asked Tulin Good, before observing her, whether she could add me to her exclusive class web site so I could take a look at it.  She did.  But now when I go to Chrome, this is what I see:

It looks as if there's a good ESL 140, and then there's mine!

Time to go to retire...for the night, I mean.

Bumper Crop

Some websites get a lot of hits, and there's the old-fashioned drive-by kind.  But I get hits just backing out of my drive-way because I live on 19th Avenue, which Gary Kamiya describes (in Cool, Grey City of Love:  49 Views of San Francisco) as a street that couldn't be uglier.

Clubs have been a big part of my life.  The Club Toruno-Martin.  The Jo-Mama Book Club.  Now I seem to have founded the hit-of-the-Month Club.  (Because of the traffic/street involved, maybe I could call it The Hit Parade.)

I've certainly given a new meaning to bumper crop.

So how do I avoid this?  I wait for a red light so the cars slow down except when they're racing to wait.  I make sure that someone is waiting for me.  Only then do I pull out.  I know I should look in all directions before pulling out, but if I did that, I'd almost never make it out of the garage.  This way I make it out of the garage on 19th Avenue--and into Will's AutoBody Garage on 19th Avenue.

Student Response in Personal Counseling Report

My Intermediate Academic Reading and Writing students wrote a report on personal counseling at the Student Health Center after Felicia King, a counselor, came to talk at my invitation.  (I met her when I was interviewing Sunny Clark.)  The students were to summarize her talk and give a personal response, but only a few really did.  This one was the most engaging and represents a situation a lot of young immigrants have--but usually for their parents rather than a younger sibling:

I am interested in personal counseling because I am in trouble that it is homesick.  I live with my brother who is 19 years old and he can't speak English well.  He always needs my help everywhere he goes.  I am not his parent, but I have to take care of him as a parent.  I suffered from his helping because I need to do my homework or I want to hang out with my friend, but when he calls me I stop everything and I go to home for him.  I want to see a counselor and I need a therapy or I need good advice about my situation from them.  I beleive that they will give me a good advice.

Midterm Madness and The Art of Following Directions

          My very special kind of insanity reveals itself at midterm time, when I want to tell the students more than they want to hear, and like them, I'm not very good about following directions.  Like them, I like the oral tradition, where I get instructions and ask the person next to me, "What does this say?"  But I'm seriously considering having another category for my grades.  Along with oral would be aural, best exemplified by following directions.  Of course, I was spending much too much time finding and copying my notes on the leaving-a-message assignments of 50+ students, but it didn't help when they left their names off papers.  I had to send out a message to all ESL 142 003 students to find the owner of the interview with Brain Tan. (I think she mean Brian, but I might be wrong.)  Someone came through. 
       One thing I did NOT do this time is type up midterm comments to each and every student.  I did that for ESL 132, and I'm doing it for anyone in ESL 140 who contacts me.  But for the 50+ students of ESL 142, I'm just writng their midterm grade and occasionally a one-sentence comment.
          Directions to self:  Don't obsess.  Get on with other things like the new and improved essays on the verdict in the Hermansons murder case...the reports on the visitor from personal counseling...things NOT related to school like Alex Capus' Skidoo...deleting some of the 1117 unread messages in my Outlook inbox...seeing John Whitehead's Sculpture exhibit...visiting with Betsy...going to Pacific Grove with Javier to join Kathy in remembering Mom...

      Let's see how well I follow these directions.

Save the Children's Environment by Using Gift Bags instead of Gift Paper

Save the Children is sending out free Christmas wrapping paper with letters of solicitation.  Wouldn't it be better for children if we made them aware that gift bags, which are much easier to re-use again and again, are better for the environment and still create a "festive holiday package?   But I see that they have gotten rid of the slanted-eyed caricature of Asians they had on their packages last year. 

"Work Smarter, Not Harder": A hardworking Teacher's Lament

The former chancellor (the one who was found guilty of misappropriating funds but didn't have to serve jail time) that we didn't have to work harder; we had to work smarter.  I, a not-very-smart, hard-working teacher knows that he was right.  But one of the reasons I'm not smart and am, instead, very hard-working is because I'm insane and insanely interested in certain aspects of my job.  Take for example, my students messages.  I love them.  The first one is from a student who has never learned to spell saw, assignment, helpful, message, cousin, again, thanks--althought notice that help fuel does become helpful at the end.  The first two students are finally looking at a web site I've been trying to get them to look at all semester.  My brainstorm was to make looking at it the midterm test.  The third message is from a student explaining (and lamenting) her absence.

hi Tina this is xyxyx  I go by (x) from class ESL 142 section 002. I sow the assailment it was so help fuel. and it was good massage. also I sow my cosine Yxyx on the picture. she was holding the picture with 3 japan students. agene tank you its helpful.

Mrs. Martin, I think  posting the lesson plan is really a good idea, I printed btw, to make it easier for me to don't forget it. Good night and I see you tomorrow. 

Peace and love :)

  

Dear Tina

Sorry being so late to reply to you . It was so nice to get your response ! I wish I wouldn't bother you too much. It's a pity that I missed the guest speaker  Felicia King.I would like to ask some of our classmates about that. I miss you and our class! 

Have a good night ! 

XyXy

But what else was I doing between 3 and 6 this morning?  Looking up the limerick "An epicure dining at Crewe," relating so well to our unit on food habits, so that the leader in each group could read it as a dictation to other group members, looking up BART information for a cloze, and getting pictures and links to Creature Features to work on rhymes with my lowest level students.  

What I needed to be doing was getting their grade reports ready!

More later.

But I should print out this reminder of my insanity to make it easier to don't forget.

A Kind Student Assists a Tired Teacher

I should know better than to push myself when I'm tired, but that's what I did on Friday after classes.  I pushed myself to get my lesson plans written and online.  Then this morning, when I checked my e-mail, I found this very kindly worded message from one of my star students:

Dear Mrs. Tina Martin,

Here is Linh Tran, your ESL 140 student. How are you doing? I think that you have recently been very busy, haven't you? Please take time to take a break!

I'd like to let you know that you put week 11 of ESL 142 in lesson plans of ESL 140.

For ESL 140 student, we now almost finish unit 4, but your plan will jump to unit 6. You don't want unit 5, do you?

Hopefully you will have a wonderful Sunday!

Have a good night with sweet dream!

Please take care,

My best,

Sincerely,

Your student,

Linh Tran

 

I responded.

 

 Dear Linh,

Thank you so much!  I think I need you as an assistant.  After getting your message, I made changes and saw that I had made even more mistakes.  I was trying to get the lesson plans online quickly, but I was too tired to do it without making major errors.  Thanks to you, the web site will now be useful instead of confusing!

You're such a thoughtful person--really smart and really kind in the way you express yourself.  I feel blessed to have you in the class.

Have a beautiful Sunday.