A World Cup for English?

Yesterday a wonderful always-in-class student from Belaruz who's a professional soccer player and coach told me he would have to leave 10 minutes early from our three-hour class because he had to be in the soccer field in San Mateo.  "But English is as important to me as soccer," he said.

I was awe-stricken and said, "Do you suppose we could have a World Cup for English?"

Nichols and May and Parents in Syria to Interview

Today after they got back the incredibly difficult NorthStar reading test and took a test on the StoryCorps, I gave them back their writing and used some of the time for a workshop, helping them one to one and letting them share what they'd written.  Then, since we've talked about interviewing someone for StoryCorps and have read and listened to two mother-daughter pairs, I added some levity with the mother-son dialogue Nichols and May did back in the 1960s.  The students of 2014 thought they were funny too!  It's the one that begins like this:

Mother and Son

S:  Hello?

M:  Hello, Arthur?  This is your mother.  Do you remember me?

S:  Mom!  Hi!  I was just going to call you.  You know, I had my hand on the phone…

M:  Arthur, you were supposed to call me last Friday.

S:  I just didn’t have a second.

M:  You didn’t have a second?  Arthur, I sat by that phone all day Friday.  All day Friday night.  And all day Saturday.  And all day Sunday.  Your father said to me, “Phyllis, eat something.  You’ll faint.”  I said, “No, Harry.  No.  I don’t want my mouth to be full when my son calls me.”  You never called. 

S:  Mother, I was sending up Vanguard.  I didn’t have a second.

M:  Well, it’s always something, isn’t it.  You know, Arthur, I’m sure that all the other scientists there have mothers.  And I’m sure that they all find time after their breakfast or before their count off

S:  Down

M:  …to pick up a phone and call their mothers.

It was the dialogue my student from Nepal gave me between him and his mother that inspired me to dig this out.  

 Now I'm catching on the too much homework my students have given me with their one statement on who(m) they'd like to interview.  Here's what my Syrian student writes;

I would like to interview my  parents.  They still in Syria until now.  Even though I can see them on the Skype from time to time, it's too hard to connect to them.  I would like to know more about their life how is going, after the situation is getting bad.  I am woundering how they can get their daily requirments.  Specially most of jobs were stopped there.  I need to know how they are sleeping under the bomb sound.

I'd like to know too!

Ukraine Fugitive President, The Ellis Act, SEL (Social-emotional Learning)...What's in the News

Isn't it nice that our representatives are trying to get a taste of what it's like to be poor?   Jackie Speier spent a nithg in a homeless shelter (and shared sleeping quarters and meals with a married couple who have full-time jobs--she as a Safewa cher, him as an employee of Office Max--who were saving up to make a depost on an apartment.  Mark Leno tried to live on food stamps.  Neel Kashkari spent days picking strawberries in a Central California field.

SF wants to improve, not remove, illegal units.

Schools are incorporating social-emotional learning into the curriculum.

The Dalai Lama has advised the Silicon Valley 1% to incorporate ethics and compassion into business life--without causing an eye roll.

A twelve-year old got out of her dad's SUV to pose for a picture with her first date, and the SUV rolled over her, killing her.  Dad was intoxicated and didn't realize the brake wasn't on. 

Uganda has passed a strict antigay law

But now it's time for me to go to the Y. 

How the World Has Changed: I Can Get Nichols and May as a Single!

My students have given me too much homework.  Instead of writing one sentence to tell me who(m) they had in mind to do a StoryCorps interview with, they wrote up their fake interview, and one of them--a charming guy from Nepal--wrote (or perhaps downloaded) a phone conversation with his mother.  That reminded me of the Nichols and May mother-and-son telephone conversation that I've always loved--so much that I've recited it to Jonathan and translated it into Spanish and French.  I decided to use it in ESL 140 as part of our StoryCorps unit (and on overcoming obstacles).  At the same time I was moving from the recliner in the living room to my computer in the study to order The Last Innocent Year:  america in 1964 by Jon Margolis because I'd just noticed that that book was used for the DVD I ws watching on 1964, our year of graduation at CHS.  I've already written lyrics about the changes since then--to the tune of "The Days of Wine and Roses."

The days we are remembering

Nineteen sixty-four

We walked out the door

Of a school that didn’t have the Internet.

The faces that we met

Were really there before.

Facebook was not a buzz word.

We liked people then

With a ballpoint pen

In a yearbook that they couldn’t soon delete

In sentences complete

We didn’t even tweet.

(Now the part that came to me this morning)

Nostalgia is a danger

If we hold too fast

On things that cannot last,

So let’s celebrate the changes we have seen

And figure out together

What they mean.

And that reminds me that I'd better get something off to the CHS 50th Anniversary committee before it's too late to share the past 50 years!

In the meantime, I'll report on the fascinating news items--but separately.  I've just printed out the Mother and Son dialogue from Nichols and May.  I had it on a document from 1999.

Students' Expression of Interest--or Lack Of

This is a typical case:

Dear Tina:
 
      I have chose the interview a native speaker of English. She is my ESL  140's classmater, but I forget her name and I don't know what is her E-mail.  Can I  tell you about her information for Wednesday? I will E-mail you.
 
 
  Your student:XXYYYYYY
 Esl  142  sec 002

Students often down know their teachers' names, which shows a lack of interest on the part of the student who has probably been told and on the part of the teacher, who hasn't asked them to follow manuscript rules, which include their writing the teacher's name after their class and section.

But I'm really sharing this because I like the word classmater.  There's a teacher, and then there are classmaters.
-er is a common ending for people-nouns.

On the subject of students' interests, one of my students said she wanted to go into the StoryCorps booth to see what it is like, and another said he'd like to go there to interview his wife.

And now back to my e-messages.  

Choosing the "disability by hands" of Ky Ngoc Nguyen instead of Their Own Obstacles

Just a quick note before I get back to the papers.

This is the assignment I gave my students:

Writing a Good Paragraph

Write a paragraph about A, B, C or D. 

A  What obstacle have you faced?  How did you overcome it? B  What obstacle are you facing now?  What steps are you taking to overcome it? C  Write about an obstacle someone you know has face and what that person did to overcome it. D  Write about an obstacle someone you know is facing now and what steps the person is taking to overcome it.

Write your name on this sheet.  You can use it for your rough draft or for brainstorming.

Follow manuscript rules.

Do not copy the question. 

Identify the person and problem in your first sentence.

Then describe the steps.

Make it interesting!  Give good details!

Write a concluding sentence that will leave a strong impression.  

Notice how I failed to catch the "has face" instead of "has faced."

A couple of the students thought "someone you know" meant "someone you know about" and wrote about someone they've never met.  That's how Ky Ngoc Nguyen came up.  (Another student wrote about a young girl who was hit by a man attempting suicide who jumped out of a window and landed on her.)

"...Ky Ngoc Nguyen who disability by hands.  He came down with fever when he was 21 years old.  His hand could not work anymore, even just simple thing....(eventually) he learn how to write by his foot and he was success...He achieved a lot of exam about writting, perfect writting...He said 'His dream come true'.

The reason I held off on the lesson plans is that I see things in their papers that require lessons.

I need to communicate to the students the difference between the CLAD and the classroom, which is like the difference between doing finger exercises on the piano and really performing pieces--or composing pieces.  The classroom is English applied.  

In my head I'm saying, "Here we can take the writing you're doing and work on what YOU are trying to express."  But I think they prefer the CLAD, which makes things simpler by isolating one grammar point from another.  

Front Page on the Hope CCSF Gives People and My Students' Sweet Messages

Having played too much this weekend (in French, Spanish, and English), I'm finishing my homework early this morning, and that includes getting lessons online.  While I was at it, I checked for messages from my students and found such sweet and funny ones. A student I complimented on his acting ability (he made the dialogue on interrupting convincing) and advised on what he needed to do to be 100% successful in writing an e-mail message wrote "Thank you for your preciously advice Miss Tina I greatly appreciate your kindness."  Another answered my question about the identity of the adorable baby in the picture attached to his e-mail, and he told me that was him on his 100th day.  "I was cuter then, wasn't I?" he asks.  (I told him that my son, just to be funny, put a picture of a horse's head on his profile for Facebook, but now that it's the Year of the Horse that seems appropriate.)

One very earnest student told me she's attended the Story Corps but there had been just a conference, not a story interview.  She wanted to know whether she should still write a report.  I'd like to reward her for going, but since I see the result of grading students on their efforts instead of on their skills, I asked her to write a report on what she saw and heard there.  Then I'll grade her report.  I hope it's good!

I'll be back to tell about Nanette Asimov's front-page feature profiling 5 students who have been given new hope by courses at CCSF.  I also like it when students give us hope, as my students sometimes do!

StoryCorps' New West Coast Headquarters at the Public Library

http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/new-recording-site-dedicated-for-storycorps-at-main-library/Content?oid=2710347

Classes went pretty well on Friday.  I'd invited a guest speaker to class--Felicia King a Personal Counselor at the Student Health Center--and sent the students in my speaking-listening classes a message telling them she'd be coming and asking that they make a special effort to be on time.  I got to class early to give two make-up tests.  One of the students--someone who's a caregiver for a 98-year-old woman and whose grandfather recently had a heart attack--was absent again, but the other student I came early to help came in late and, unlike the other late arrivals (there were four) did not sit close to the door but crossed in front of the speaker and sat in her usual seat.  It's time to get out the Berkeley Rep advisory about No Late-Comers Seated. 

After class I went to the downtown public library because I'd heard that Story Corps had its new West Coast headquarter there and there'd been an event in the morning.  My students in the academic ESL reading and writing class had read two write-ups of the interviews as printed in Listening Is an Act of Love, so I wanted to find out more for them as well as for Jonathan and me.  (Mom had already reached the stage of being afraid to go out when I found out about it.)

But first I wanted to hand-deliver the copy of The Marriage Act I'd written notes in because Beth and I had talked earlier about sharing it, and she couldn't get together with me on Friday after all because of a doctor's appointment that her care-give had just called her about.  I went to the Civic Center Campus, where I used to sub from time to time and one evening even had a class.  IT was so quiet.  The office was locked, as so was the teachers room.  Maybe they have too many people just walking in off the street.  Two people were in the library upstairs, but it was so quiet.  I called Beth a couple of times on my cell phone, and then I went into a classroom that was open, and the person there told me that Beth had come in earlier and then left for her doctor's appointment.  So I left the book with this teacher, who said she'd put it in Beth's box, and lef the very quiet building.

Friday we had some very good news about our college--that we won't be getting pink slips.  (I'm giving myself the pink slip by retiring.)  Also there was a good article by Nanette Asimov on students showing how CCSF has helped them fulfill their dreams.

A Good Class Session (in Contrast to Last Tuesday's not-so-good)

Just as my brain has fair and foul weather, so do my class sessions.  Tuesdays left me feeling scattered and incompetent--out in the rain and taking them with me.  Today's class session was sunny and bright.  Things just flowed.

To avoid wasting time, I asked them to read the Korean-American mother-daughter dialogue (from StoryCorps) in pairs while I gave back papers, which takes a span of time and distance in such a big class and with so much homework (because we meet three hours at a time).  Then I had Phi and Natalia read it aloud.  After that, while I gave back the Scantrons from a 10-point reading test, I asked them to let their partner read the report they'd written on their partner after interviewing their partner on Tuesday.  (Sometimes those reported on say, "No, I didn't say that!")  We then went over the reading test so it could be a lesson and not just an assessment.  (They learned the word yearn for, which is what Frank McCourt and his brothers did for a better life.  I see that there's something in today's Chronicle about yearning for a piece of the old bridge span.  That should enable me to complicate the lesson this coming Tuesday.) 

We then went over the exercise in NorthStart on a good paragraph on overcoming an obstacle, and I drew it to their attention that the book often directs the students to discuss or work with a partner.  Then, after a ten minute break, I gave them 50 minutes to write one really good, vivid paragraph.  We'll see what they came up with.

We did an error correction exercise on gerunds and infinitives--an exercise I've had for years and didn't want to waste this, my final semester, which they worked on in pairs and then wrote on the board.  We finished with their reading aloud the beautiful, poignant essay that Yoshiko, my former student wrote for the 30th anniversary of the FME, the English circle she belongs to in Tokyo.  (I think I posted her essay here a few days ago.)

I've sent my speaking and listening class students a message about the guest speaker we'll have from the Personal Counseling part of the Student Health Center, and I plan to send my reading and writing students something in today's paper about the StoryCorps, which will open its West Coast headquarters at the SF Main Library this Friday!

Now I have more homework to do, and I want to wish West a happy birthday!

Back to School

I loved the four-day weekend that ended at midnight, and I'll be back with pictures and words to illustrate.  But before I get back to my homework, here's the list I made at the beginning, when I was panicky because of being able to make decisions:

Clean the kitchen nook without resorting to throwing all the piles of papers un-inspected in a storage box.
Have my 2013 collage laminated at long last.
Get a lamp to replace the one that toppled over in the living room.
Send my students the link for the YouTube videos of their performing polite interruptions.
Plan the lessons for next week and get them online.
Get a copy of The Marriage Act to Vilma and Bill along with Valentine greetings.
Let Janet F. know that The Marriage Act, which she wanted to get on Audible, was recorded at the end of January and finished the first week of February but  is not yet available on Audible.
Get my feedback on their phone messages and e-mail messages back to my listening and speaking students.
Get a Valentine's Message to Jenny.
Get tax stuff ready to drop off at H&R Block.
Fill out the Flex Day form.
Respond to Columbia High School's mailing listing Noelie Jean Martin among the Lost Souls.


The kitchen nook looks great, and even though I did resort to the storage box, that's not where ALL the piles went.

I had the collage laminated at long last.

I got a lamp to replace the one that toppled over, and Javier was able to get the lampshade on it.

I sent my students the link for the YouTube videos of them politely interrupting.

I planned and got the lesson online.

I hand-delivered The Marriage Act to Bill and Vilma, and we had tea, talk, and tango music. 

I let Janet know.

I got the feedback on phone messages written up.

Got a Valentine message to Jenny along with the MGM poem.

Didn't get the tax stuff, Flex Day credits, or CHS items done.

And of course I've added to the list:  Early Alert for my students who need help.

Linda and I had a discussion of The Marriage Act that lasted 1 hour and 15 minutes--by phone.  I told her that if anyone could get phone-phobic me to enjoy a phone call, she would be the one.  That's really how my 4-day weekend ended--on the phone.  But in addition to enjoying Linda, I had good hours with Javier, lunch with Jerry and Maxine, the visit I mentioned with Bill and Vilma, lunch with Suzy and Kathy,

Lunch Chez Panisse, Dinner Aziza

To the tune of “I Left My Heart in San Francisco”

Lunch Chez Panisse, dinner Aziza.

We’ve eaten well (and paid !) this year.

But of the dishes that we ate

The ones I highest rate

Are those we had with you

at your barbecue.

Great veggies cooked a la parilla.

Soup, salad  produce from your yard.

Then Orfa’s ratatouille dish

Was all that we could wish

Great to see quinoa too

And Doug, Orfa, you.

The pictures show our greatest pleasure

Good food that’s shared with friends like you.

Our meals together rival the four stars.

(Super  and toilet bowls do too!)