Sofia's Report on Care-giving

I know that I have weather in my brain--sunny sometimes, clear, cloudy, overcast--so I guess it shouldn't surprise me that my classes have weather too--weather than doesn't always match mine.  But I felt the overcast in ESL 142 today.  They didn't perk up until after our chapter test.  Then on my way to the bungalows, a lot of former students greeted me with smiles that looked like they were really happy to see me (Me?), and one former student even said, "Good to see you."  Of course students greet me from time to time, but this was different--as if they were particularly happy to see me, as if they particularly liked me, and that surprised me.

But...what I really came here to report on is the caregiver report one student gave.  I invited her to do this when she told me she'd been absent for training.  I thinking sharing what students do out of class could be really useful and itneresting.  So...she gets $16 an hour taking care of a woman who's 97-years-old.  She provides companionship, light housekeeping (the kitchen, dishes), helps her change clothes, take a bath, gives her medicine.  The biggest problem is that the woman uses a walker in the house but needs to use a cane when hse goes out, and she hates the cane.  My students, who come from cultures where no one is brought in because the family is all involved, asked "Is she single?"  She has a so in Oklahoma, and her husband died a few years ago.  On Wed & thursday, she takes care of her from 1:00 PM to 1:00 AM, and on Saturday from 8:00 to 8:00. But there's one day when she's there 24 hours!

YouTube Wasn't There When I Started Teaching in 1970

YouTube wasn't there when I started teaching in 1970.  In fact, I was in Tonga, and electricity and running water weren't there either, at least not in my hut.  The school had maybe a lightbulb dangling from the ceiling.  I can't quite remember.  But most of our light was daylight. I taught songs to my students a very different way.

But today,  our only problem was that we were locked out of the building.  (I called Buildings and Grounds, and it had been reported and was about to be taken care of.)  I showed my students a new version of "The Impossible Dream," which I'd planned to give them in copies so they could annotate, something they won't do in their books because of the resale loss.  But all my copies had disappeared except for the overhead transparency, which I used to introduce both the original (so they'd know the melody for the changed words and also to use for certain vocabulary and the concept of the im/un/in  prefix as a no) and the re-write.  One of the students in the class knew who Don Quixote was, and the students seemed fairly interested in the original and amused by the changed lyrics.  Since I hadn't been able to give them copies, I created a pdf file and put both versions online.  I wanted to include a version they could watch on YouTube, so I Googled "The Impossible Dream" and got a very touching 8-minute segment of the movie. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfHnzYEHAow

It brought back such good memories because this was one of the two plays my father took us to in NYC in 1969, a year after he and my mother separated and right before I went to Molokai for Peace Corps training for my two years in Tonga.  This was the perfect play for Daddy's idealism.  He was always after the Quest!

Class Will Continue

I got a message from our coordinator that the class I've been subbing for this semester will not be among those cancelled, and that means that this final semester of my 40+ years of teaching (30 in this district) will be slightly lighter because a 3-unit course will replace the 6-unit course that was under enrolled.  We are a bit concerned that we're going through the city assuring the students, "City College is open and accredited," and the next word is, "Your class is cancelled."

Now She Knows: An Attentive Student Draws a Conclusion

I got a really nice message from one of my brightest students today. 

Hi Ms. Martin,

I personally appreciate that you answered our questions so detailed. After I finished reading  your essay, I can feel that you love and enjoy teaching. You said you plan to retire. Is it true? You look so young. Or maybe because you are happy and always have big smile in your face. That way can keep you look younger.

During the past two weeks school, I learned a lot from your class. I am more clear of the grammar structure. For example, before I didn't understand why most of the letters from my work used passive voice. Now I know because you want to avoid mentioning the agent.

Thank you and have a nice weekend.

Yes, a very observant student!  I gave them the example of corrupt business people and politicians saying "Mistakes were made." She's already applied this!

Update on an Inspirational Grammar Song

          Our first unit in the high intermediate academic ESL class is on the news, so of course we read about man who was texting in a movie theatre who was shot and killed by the retired police office.  Maybe a few days ago I posted something about how that might make the students, coming in to a new semester, think twice before texting.  The grammar point that's taught in the first unit is the passive voice, so I've resurrected an old grammar song and updated it:

From the news the impression we’ve got:

If we text in this class, we’ll be shot.

Beware of all guns.  For Bufano

All guns were turned in, were they not?

I also want them to learn about Bufano's "St. Francis of the Guns," which they see every day without knowing that it was made (so legend goes) with all the guns that were turned in after the assassination of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King.  

An Inspirational Grammar Song

By Tina Martin (with her apologies)

To the tune of  “The Impossible Dream”

To learn grammar like passive voice

We must  (We are given no choice)

Apply all our brain power to verb forms..

To this, we are raising our voice.

To right each grammatical wrong

In form, tense, and number and song.

TO BE plus the PAST PERFECT VERB FORM.

Our English is strengthened to strong.

This is our quest, to master this tongue

Where English is spoken, read, written, or sung.

To fight against odds,

To improve, do our best,

So our level is raised like the scores on each test.

And we know, if we’ll only be true to this glorious quest

That our English will be seen as quite good, and we finally can rest.

And our world will be bettered by this:

By the passive which finally was used

            By students whose last ounce of courage

            Took them far from just being confused!

Update for January 2014

It’s said music is a relief.

It’s said music lifts us from grief.

We know music’s said to relieve us.

We know that’s been said, let’s be brief….

From the news the impression we’ve got:

If we text in this class, we’ll be shot.

Beware of all guns.  For Bufano

All guns were turned in, were they not?

And it’s said our world’s better for this:

By the passive which finally is used

            By students who didn’t like grammar

            Who were less bruised by it than amused. 

Wrong

Well, I guess I'm like the weather forecast--wrong!  Yesterday's class was very good and engaged, and the student I feared would not return was there with his note card and self-introduction, which we got videotaped and on YouTube.  In fact, yesterday was just the kind of day that would illustrate "A Day in the Life of a Teacher" at its best.  But more about that later.

Making a Prediction

Yesterday when I was responding to papers, I was being honest.  Yes, I praised the students for what they did well, but I also let them know what they needed to do better, and I gave some low grades.  This morning I thought about the commercial aspect of being a teacher--the need to please and win your customers over.  Maybe that's why some tests put out by the publishers of textbooks--not NorthStar!--are so easy.  They want the students to get high grades so they'll be happy with the textbook and convinced they're learning.

I was startled by the strips of paper students turned in for their self-evaluations of the videotaped (and put on YouTube, no less) of their self-evaluation.  I told them they could turn them in the next class period if they didn't have them ready because I don't want students doing their homework in class.  But they "rose to the occasion" and scribbled something on paper they obviously shared because I got bits and pieces of the paper.

I'm speaking of the class in question--the one that was under-enrolled when I took it on (as a substitute with the possibility of being assigned the hours if it wasn't cancelled).  They don't have their books.  They apparently don't have binder paper.  They probably have a lot of doubts about whether the class will continue.

I'm sorry that I didn't give a better class last Friday.  A student who had been out a week for surgery had returned, and I could have worked more closely with him when he was doing the pair work that they slacked off (in contrast to the other class, which really did it in a meaningful way).  He was supposed to e-mail me to get more information and help, but he didn't, and I predict that he won't be back today.  If he's not back today, I doubt that the class will continue.

But before it's cancelled, I would really like to communicate some simple messages to the students.  I predict that I will.

Giving Dinner Guests a Bottle of Wine as Apologetic Gesture

I noticed my lunch guests, who told me they didn't drink wine in the early afternoon and had turned down a glass of  La Crema Chardonnay I'd chilled for them, sort of playing with the food I served them, pushing  around the pieces of sweet potato on their plate the way that children do, as if hoping it will dissolve and disappear without their having to actually swallow any of it.  It occurred to me that my variation on the Nigerian Stew--an addition of kale instead of the ochre called for in the Moosebook Cookbook--was a deviation that only I found tasty.  These are kind friends who know how insecure I am as a cook, so I'm sure they were doing their best to eat it.  But at the end of our very enjoyable lunch (enjoyable because the conversation was lively and fun), I gave them the unopened bottle of Chardonnay.  It seemed fitting that just as guests bring a bottle of wine to thank the hostess, a bad cook should give the departing guests a bottle of wine by way of apology.

ESL Students Self-Descriptions

Because I'm now going through papers and dealing with a set in which the students describe themselves for a guessing-who-this-is game, I'll quote some descriptions before recycling them.

"I got a black hair.  I borned in 1990.  I have white shoes, but it looks dirty."
"I don't wearing glasses."
"I am one of the students come from China in this class."
"My hair shaved to the skin.  I am very atrractive.  (attractive spelled with two rs instead of two ts)  I am always wear casual cloths."

Some students specified the number of their eyes and ears:

"I have tow big brown eyes.  I have two small ears."

They also indicated the number of their shoes or hairs:

"I have a pink shoe."
"I got a black straight hair."


"My height is not too short but not high."
 "I am not tall.  It's 5 feet."

"I have around face."
"I have black eyes, and I am beetle-browed."
"I look a little fat.  I am sleepy."

Even though the assignment was to describe themselves physically, one wrote, "In class I am not very often talk to someones."

Incompetence Continued

How refeshing that I'm referring to my incompetence in cooking rather than in teaching.

Javier, Jeanne, Ken and I had a wonderful, very animated conversation, and why not?  Our mouths were not full.  I noticed Jeanne doing what kids do, pushing the food around on her plate, as if trying to make it dissolve and disappear.  The funny things is that I love the dish they didn't like.  I must remember to do them the kindness of not inviting them over to eat here.  We can take them out.  But if I ever do invite them over again, I'll make lasagne, not my variation on Nigerian stew.

Now back to an article I really want to write before I got back to campus tomorrow.

Here's the rough draft:

Test question from College Oral Communication 2:   If you want to participate in a class discussion, you should . . .

         a. listen carefully, looking down at the floor, and raise your hand

       b. look directly at the person talking and politely interrupt

       c. speak as loudly as possible and give your opinion

       d. wait until everyone is quiet and then speak

The correct answer is to look directly at the person talking and politely interrupt!  I wondered what gave the author, Ann Roemer, this idea, so I Googled it and found Deborah Tannen saying the same thing.  A woman who disagreed with her interrupted her to say so! 

                We all have cherished assumptions, but now that people can effectively gather data on what we actually do rather than our theories of what we do, we have new insights challenging our assumptions or speculations.  One assumption that many students—talkative or quiet-- make is that the people who are contributing the most to discussions are the students who talk the most.  I’ve referred more than one student to the best-selling book Quiet:  The Power of the Introvert in a World that Can’t Stop Talking.  Imagine me, so representative of the world that can’t stop talking, championing those who can!

      As I come to the end of a career teaching on four continents, I'm grateful that there are still surprises right here at home, and Ann Roemer's College Oral Communication provided me with a couple.  The second surprise was in her scale on group participation.  On the scale of one to ten, passive is 1 and aggressive is ten, so the best rating is 5, which is assertive. 

Hiroko Saito  Teachers’ practices and students’ preferences in feedback (and not just feedback but on methodology)

What Students Ask

The score for the 49ers-Seattle game is 17-20, and there are only 5 more minutes, so I turn to the questions students ask.  The first two or three were not as good as the ones m cancelled class asked, but here's what the Italian student wants to know:

Are you an art lover?
Which one is your favorite museum in Spain?
Can we kow the titel of your text?  (???)  Spelled title that way.  I don't know what text means.

A South Korea student wants to know "Would you be a friend with your student?  How do you protect the student's self-esteem?  What kind of relationship do you have with your student?"

(That singular student  reminds me of what Javier says his friend Timmerman used to say.  "My student didn't show up tonight.")    How would you teach a shy student like me?

A Thai student asks, "What was your dream when you were a teenager?  How many countries in Asia have you ever taught there?  How many kind of vehicles can you drive or ride?  What will you do in the next 10 years.  



Uh-oh.  Now it's 17 to 23.

To be continued...but I think the game is over!

A Day in the Life of a Teacher at CCSF

This was the first school day in my teaching life that I didn't have an 8:10 class!  I made the most of the free time and even prepared an annotation exercise for the SLO's, which are written in language clearly not chosen to communicate clearly with the students.  I also finished their noun clause test asking them to state three things they found out about their partner, using three noun clauses. 

          I found out that Tony has worked at the Ritz Carlton for eleven years, that ..., and that...."

But I had trepidation about pulling out of the garage at a later hour--for fear that it would be more difficult.  It was about the same--difficult but not more.  Someone on 19th Avenue who had to slow down for the red light saw me begging from the driveway ("let me out!  Let me out!"  said the wee little woman) and stopped before blocking me.  I blew kissed to the drivers and to God.

I got student volunteers to use my iPhone to videotape each student in my two listening and speaking classes, and after I got home today, I went through the tedious process of forwarding each student to YouTube.  But since I'm "subbing" for the under-enrolled class, I don't have access to the students' e-mail addresses, so I can't send the link to them.  I have sent the link to the 10:10 class, though.

I got a whole lot of books from my office on the sixth floor out to the parking lot and into the trunk of my car so I can take them to the book sale for CLAD this coming Tuesday.

I returned to our Insight share-page after our coordinator said it was up again with access for us.  But it's only now that I was able to get a temporary password, zjL*J#U7Gb, which I assure you I changed!

This morning I contacted Ann Roemer, the author of College Oral Communication, which I like so much. I shared with her what's been going on with the ordering of her books, and she says she's going to look into it again.

I also heard from a teacher who has the disabled student I worked with (along with his counselor in DSPS and some of his former teachers) last semester.

I did a follow up, too, on a student I'd been concerned about in previous semesters.  

I had a brief and pleasant exchange with Nanette Asimov, who feels about the print newspaper the way I do.  (I had contacted her about some student success stories--specifically those of former students in the Culinary Arts Program).  

Tomorrow I'll get the new lesson plans online.  I hope to accomplish less this semester.  I was a better teacher before I had so much experience, and I am a better teacher when I accomplish less.
 

Florida Response to Texting

I heard about a teacher who forbad texting in class, so when he saw some activity around the area of a student's lap, he said, "Joe, I hope you're just jacking off because if you're texting, you're in deep trouble."

For the past three days, the Florida response to texting has been in the news:  A retired policeman shot and killed a man who was texting in a movie theatre.  This is part of the Stand Your Ground that got Zimmerman off when he killed Trayvon Martin.

Cancelled Class, The Death of Print Books, Culinary Art Successes

Today I ran off my answers to the questions my ESL 140 High Intermediate ESL students wrote.  I also wrote the lesson plan on the board in case there would be time for a lesson before Erin came in to cancel the class.  But she came in around 8:15 to tell them that the class would be cancelled and to give them options and add stickers.  I think John, the one who graduated from Galileo High School and said he wanted to continue with me, will be in my Tuesday/Thursday class, as will my student from Belarus and the student from Mexico who just added.  I also got a message from the South Korean student who's studying aeronomics at the airport.

I let them go and used the time to make copies of the speaking listening book for another class because the policy of the book store is to order only half of the order we place because they think the students will go on Amazon, and the publishing houses are suffering too much to make it easy to return the books not sold.  Tonight my tenant, who studies at SFSU, came up to see whether we could get faster DSL and share the cost, and he said one reason he needs faster is that he can't download books from here.  That's what I was talking to a colleague about in the parking lot as I was leaving today at 1:00:  The students will be downloading all their books and reading them on their tablets.  If I weren't retiring, I'd have to change my way of thinking.

This evening I had responses from both the Vietnamese transgender student who studies Culinary Arts and the Chinese student who started in the program after graduating from SFSU.  I contacted Nanette Asimov about them as well as about Henry, a former student who was working at the Olympic Club the last time I ate their with Robert, our host for View and Chew. 

One more "item" in a day in the life of a City College teacher was my response from 'Ana in Tonga.  I'd contacted her to wish her a happy new year and express concern about the cyclone that hit an outer island.
She wrote back tomorrow (even my message had the date January 16) and told me that "people there are slowly recovering from the shock of finding themselves losing everything. Our schools there are badly affected and we are trying to find ways and means of starting the school year with no classrooms, no resources and no staff houses and children who are without shelter or clothes! But we are confident God will provide!"  I also got a response from Jim, who was a Peace Corps Volunteer on an island close to the one so ravaged.

I'm too tired to do any more lesson preparation now, but I want to think of some way to keep the students engaged and interacting for the three hour class tomorrow!

Miss America Self-Introduction Serves a Purpose for ESL Students

If you go 1 minute and 50 seconds into this, you'll see the Miss America self-introductions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiOYJ38kQYE

They're to show the students how short a self-introduction can be.  For example, Miss Colorado says, "Colorado means red, but I'm tickled pink to be here.  I'm ....Miss Colorado." 

This provides comic relief.

Their own self-introduction can be as long as a minute, giving their name, the country they're from, something that's unique about them, and their favorite fable.

Oh, joy!

My First Session with the Academic ESL Class Not Under-enrolled

Today I met for the first time with ESL 140 Academic Reading and Writing Tuesday Thursday class that isn't under-enrolled.  It meets for almost three hours, from 8:10 until 11:00. (We have 50-minute hours, so we'll take one break of 10 minutes, and then we can get out at 10:50.)

The students come from Algeria, China, Ecuador, Italy, Peru, The Philippines, Russia, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Vietnam. 

I let them introduce themselves to the whole class by name and country of origin close to the beginning of class, and they exchanged names and contact information with two others.  After we went over the "fancy" language in the SLOs (not designed to be clear to students--maybe a bit pretentious) and did the filling out of green information form and class attendance cards, I dictated four sentences from their the first unit of their textbook, which is on the media.  "When a dog bites a man, that isn't news.  But when a man bites a dog, that's news."  They worked in groups to compare their dictations and discuss the meaning of the sentences.

Their homework is to buy the book, get 8 1/2" x 11" binder paper, finish a 5-paragraph composition about themselves, read my professional bio, and write 5-10 questions to find out what I didn't include. 

No Books! No Books? Books!

Here's the way the exchange went on the subject of books.  (I'm deleting some names just in case.)

From: 1325txt2 [mailto:1325txt2@follett.com]
Sent: Monday, January 13, 2014 10:49 AM
To: tmartin@ccsf.edu
Subject: ESL 142: title is out of print

Hello Professor Martin,

Unfortunately, “College Oral Communication 2 (w/CD)” by Byrd , is now out of print and no longer available from the publisher.  We could only get 7 copies of the text for your ESL 142 Spring section.  Please let us know if you want to use a different title.

Thanks and Happy New Year!

...
Team Lead

J.B.

 

From: Tina Martin [mailto:tina_martin@sbcglobal.net]
Sent: Monday, January 13, 2014 3:27 PM
To: 1325txt2
Subject: RE: ESL 142: title is out of print

Dear J.,

Thank you for letting me know.  I was surprised when the students told me today that the book isn’t available!  Why didn’t the publishers let you know sooner?  I think we in the ESL Department placed our book orders in October 2013!  I just found out from the author, Ann Roemer, that after the original publisher, Houghton Mifflin, sold their College ESL division to Heinle Cengage, Heinle Cengaage filed for bankruptcy.

It now looks as if I’ll teach a second section of ESL 142, and I’d really like to use that book for both classes because it’s the best speaking-listening book I’ve ever seen for this level.   Can you order them from Amazon.com?

I hope this will be a happy new year!  Best wishes to you!

                Tina Martin

From: 1325txt2 [mailto:1325txt2@follett.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2014 1:47 PM
To: Tina Martin
Subject: RE: ESL 142: title is out of print

Hello again Professor Martin,

We were able to place an order of “College Oral Communication 2 (w/CD)” over the phone.  When we would place an order online, Cengage’s automated service would email us back saying that the title was out  of print and no longer available.  I’m so sorry for any inconvenience this has caused.

Jermaine

Thank you for letting me know this good news.  I’ll tell my students.  Do you know when they’ll arrive?

                Tina