Foam Rollers versus Brush

When I saw the headline  "Foam rollers beneficial, if painful" in the Health Section of the SF Chronicle, my first thougth was, "No, the foam rollers aren't painful.  It's the brush rollers that hurt."

I soon figured out what they were talking about, but it's been years and years--not since high school?--that I slept on brush or any other kind of rollers.

Also in the news:  "America's middle clas no longer world's richest."

"Las Vegas' splash in peril as lake dries."  (Lake Mead)

Enthusiasm as Padding for Work Not Done

Yesterday's presentations were worst than I'd anticipated.  (I have to remember Pat Anesi's advice that we put things in positive terms:  Yesterday's presentations needed to be a lot better.  See?  The focus is on better!)  I noticed that in my ESL 142 002 class, where the students focus on computer games on their smartphones before class and on something other than the class during class, a couple of students expressed great enthusiasm for the people who helped them with their surveys--the ones for which they clearly forged signatures--and I was reminded of how I used this tactic as a student.  If I hadn't read the book, I wrote about how extraordinary it was and how much it meant to me to be learning about the South Seas at the same time I was enjoying it so much!  (That would be Treasure Island, I think.)  What teacher couldn't be grateful for such appreciation for literature, such engagement.

I'll be back for more on today's much better lesson with my much better ESL 140 students.

Faking It on Speaking Practice Opportunities

Am I going to say the same thing my teachers told us back in the days when we were cheating?  "You're only hurting yourself."  Yes, I guess I am.  I've given the ESL 142 speaking and listening students several opportunities to interview people in English, and looking over the "signatures" on the tallies handed in, I'm not very hopeful that they've taken their opportunities.  To be continued...since today is the day their presentations on their surveys are given in groups.

Also, since I said that Wednesday was the deadline for giving me any graphics they wanted me to put on overhead transparencies (yes, OHs are still in use; I went through the ordeal of using Power Point, and there was too much to lug from one building to the next and too much dependence on color).  So last night 8 beautiful graphics came in from Sophia.

As I say....to be continued...

Of Mine and Men

In a year celebrating the  75^th anniversary of John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath and following the year Oxford declared “Selfie” the word of the year, I thought it was telling that the name of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men was changed to Of Mine and Men in an Associated Press release (used in the SF Chronicle on Friday, April 25) about its star James Franco’s defense of his selfie in bed with a woman!

The Crowning Achievement of My Career

Professional Development Day was a clean up day, and I had my own mission:  the filthy toilet that's looked like this for the past 20 years:

I figured that it had just calcified or whatever, and there was no way they could get it clean.  Day after day after day it looked like that.

Today I went in with my own Comet (instead of the gentler on the environment Bon Ami) and toilet brush and scrubbed for an hour and a half.

Shakespeare around the World and Guns Everywhere in Georgia

          Carol of our now-defunct Shakespeare reading group reminded me that it was Shakespeare's birthday Wednesday, and I see in yesterday's paper that to celebrate the Bard's 450tth birthday Hamlet will be taken around the globe (after being performed at the Globe Theatre) or as they put it "to every country on earth."  This brings up the question of just how many countries there are on earth.   The United Nations has 193 member states, and the London Olympics has 204 teams.

          Also in the news is Georgia, where I have family and friends I love.  The governor, whose name really is Nathan Deal and who has an A-rating with the National Rifle Association, has just signed the popularly-called  "Guns Everywhere" bill so Georgians so inclined will be able to tote their guns to school and to church and of course to bars.  I hope those I love will be safe from those inclined!

CCSF Outreach in the Community I Love

CCSF is a community I love too, of course, but the outreach we're doing to get the word out that we have summer and fall classes gets me off campus and onto the streets.  This afternoon it took me to the streets (avenues) of the Outer Sunset, where I saw surveyors from the Public Works Department and a former student as I took around class schedules, flyers, and a poster that went up in P & R Beauty Salon, where a former student moved away from the man whose hair he was cutting to greet me.  (I thought I recognized him as a student who was in the Culinary Arts Program--the one I saw at the Olympic Club a few months ago--but this student told me he's been cutting hair for at least 10 years.

A Challenging Student Report on the Diego Rivera Mural of Pan American Unity

I have a great deal of respect for my students, whose English has progressed much more than my Chinese (I've never had a lesson) and my Arabic (I had a few lessons back in the mid 1970s.)  But sometimes their writing shows just how challenging writing in English can be, and I feel challenged as the one who needs to help them learn to express what they mean effectively and somewhat correctly.  Here's an example of what I mean:


A visiting of the Diego Rivera Mural in the City College of San Francisco was been at April 10, 2014 with our classmates and the teacher Martin.  What we utilized a hour of the class.  Crossing to the Diego Rivera theatre there is next to the Creative Arts building. First attraction was a symbolic relief that appeared a big head of the human of some cultures characteristics.  It is in front of the theatre.  The Mural has painted for seventeen years of preparing by Diego Rivera experienced of his life to create that mural contained a rich meaning of the histories.  Diego Rivera was painted directly on each piece in San Francisco for four months around in 1940 and then refixed after.  He used flat technic dimensional whit full of the colors appearing comparison.  Also he used a composition of the mirror to compare strongly and put the opposition elements of the comparison.  For example, the strongest comparison is on the meddle of the mural there are two guys very different feature.  One guy held an axe to working his big rock, step by step showing the traditional culture.  Other guy waved a bummer that was building the mechanical culture.  It merged two countries cultures and developed harmoniously.  The mural is 22” high and 74” weigh when the people had refixed in the location of today because it was separate.  Several pieces of mural was not configured at the same time because Diego Rivera had not long time in San Francisco, he went back Mexico and continued his art studio.  Diego Rivera’s mean idea was shaving the historic stories for the next generations to know what happening was.  The people may read the mural to know the past and read to the future.

Senior Trip 1963 DC and NYC

Today, from the time I got home (with new and even more hideous glasses) at 11:30 until now--almost 6:30 PM--I've worked continuously on collages to send to the CHS 50th Anniversary.  Here's a relic from the past, but since it isn't crystal clear in its 50-year-old mimeographed form, I'm typing up the itinerary and adding my diary additions later.

COLUMBIA HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR TRIP

JUNE 2-8, 1963

FIRST DAY--SUNDAY--June 2nd

2:00 P.M. report to Gervais Street Statioin with picnic supper.

SECOND DAY--MONDAY--June 3rd

See Arlington National Cemetery, The Marine Memorial, Alexandria, Virginia, Mount Vernon, U.S. Capitol, Supreme Court, Library of Congress, Senate and House Chambers, Washington National Cathedral and Zoo.  After supper we go to the Glen-Echo Amusement park (Cost of Admission and bus transportation included--rides cost extra.  WE WILL SLEEP AT CARLYLE HOTEL, CAPITAL PLAZA, NORTH CAPITAL AT E. STREET, telephone, Executive 3-7670.

THIRD DAY--TUESDAY--June 4th

Tour Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, Washington Monument, FBI (at 12:15), Archives Building, Smithsonian Institute, Museum of Natural History.  After supper we leave for New York where we will be staying in the PARAMOUNT HOTEL,235 WEST 46TH STREET, NEW YORK 36, N.Y., Telephone is Circle 65500.  (We will visit the White House, too.)

FOURTH DAY--THURSDAY--June 5th

Leave hotel at 9 A.M. for bus tour of Manhattan Island.  At 2:30 we have a lectured tour of the United Nationns Building.  After dinner we will go to Radio City Music Hall.

FIFTH DAY--THURSDAY--June 6th

Be ready to leave otel at 9:00 am.m. for a cruise around Manhattan Island.  We pass within a stone's throw of the Statue of Liberty--So bring your camera.  Afternoon is open for shopping.  After dinner we shall see the Boradway Play, Mr. President.''

SIXTH DAY--FRIDAY--June 7th

Sleep late or shop early.  Afternoon activities are not schedules at this time.  Leave by bus after dinner for Washington.

SEVENTH DAY--SATURDAY--June 8th

Breakfast in Diner.  Arrive on the Palmland in Columbia at 11:30 A.M.

IMPORTANT:  Leave one copy of this itinerary with your parents in case you are needed for any emergency.

My diary:  June 2, 1963  We played "You Don't Say."
June 3:  Arrived in Washington 3:30 AM--Museums--lots of rain--In the evening we  saw "Take Her, She's Mine." 

June 4:  Went touring.  Jefferson Memorial, Capitol, White House, etc.  In evening we headed for N.Y. and affived at 11:15.  I love N.Y.!

June 5:  Went on tour of N.Y.  Saw Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine.  Saw Spencers Moutain at Radio City Music Hall.

June 6:  Boat cruise in morning.  Sheila made quite an impression on our guide.  In evening we went to Mama Leone's--beautifl painints, violins, everthing!  Saw Mr. President in evening.  I bought a cigarette lighter.

June 7:  We had today to do more or less as we chose.  We went to the Empire State Building and then to Macy's.  We left N.y. at 6:00. 

June 8:  Got home at 11:45.

Students' Insights on How a CEO of Jack in the Box Handled a Bacteria Burger Crisis

Today the students showed no recollection of anything we've done in Unit 4 of College Oral Communication 2.  They didn't seem to remember the four categories of corporate responsibility (economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic) that they'd worked on a whole class period or anything about the case of the bacteria burgers that sent people to the hospital in Washington, Idaho and Nevada back in 1993.  But they surprised me in a positive way.  After learning (again) that 28,000 pounds of beef were recalled from Jack in the Box, one student wanted to know what they did with it.

"That's a good question," I said.  "I really don't know."
"Because if they recall a car, they can repair it.  But that's a lot of beef."
"They'll send it to Ukraine," said a Ukrainian student. 

In the second class, when I said that the CEO of Jack in the Box had paid the hospital bills, one student said, "Yes, he had to.  Or they would...." Then she asked for the word she wanted, which I knew was sue.
"What about the time they missed from their job and their family?" another student asked.  "How do they pay for that?"

Very bright responses!  These made up for the totally blank expression they gave me when I began the "review," which seemed to be totally new material.

Insights on Teacher Review from 1999

I was looking for something someone from my 1964 high school graduating class wrote way back then on federal financing of elections so that the rich didn't dominate politics.  I didn't find that, but something I keyed in to search brought up a 1999 document that contained this, which I submitted when the ESLetter asked for our thoughts on the then-new online teacher review:

Teacher Talk: Tina Martin

As someone who’s been described as both “Excellent!  Wonderful teacher!” and “Mean, incompetent” on teacherreview.com, I have mixed feelings, as clearly our students do.  The on-line reviews would be easy to dismiss because of course they’re not scientific or a true cross section.  However, when I look at the teachers who have glowing reviews, I usually agree.    Still, there are some strange inconsistencies in other areas.  For example, when I taught ESL 71, I saw how teachers were (or were not) responding to papers.  I was horrified to see that a teacher whose feedback was very detailed, diplomatic, and useful (clearly showing teacher perceptiveness and concern)  was given the same mediocre rating as a teacher who offered virtually no feedback.  Were the teachers being judged on “lectures” in a writing class?  Were they being rated on the basis of how undemanding they were?

Another thing that was disconcerting to me was that the student who gave me a scathing review did so in Fall of 1998 for a course I hadn’t taught since Fall of 1995.  (I’m not saying that I stopped being mean and incompetent after that, of course.)  The same semester that punch-in-the-stomach assessment of me in my life work came into public view, two honor students recommended me as the best teacher they’d had in their college career in another venue, that Who’s Who in American Educators publishing ploy--not really more legitimate than teacherreview, but still showing how varied student responses can be. 

Basically, I think that we do more harm than good in trying to censor.  Students, not knowing whose opinions they’re reading (if they’re reading the reviews), probably depend upon recommendations from students or teachers whose opinions they trust—or just choose their classes by what fits their schedules.  We may be making too much of this. Teacherreview has taught me humility—maybe a little bit more of it than I wanted to learn.   I don’t think it’s made me a better or worse teacher.  I’m still mean, incompetent, excellent and wonderful.

The Story of Three Checkout Stands

I'll start at the end:  I didn't buy the copy of the Globe with Evil Camilla (trying to take over the throne while Kate, William and child were 10,000 miles away), Doris Day  (breaking down  on her 90th birthday; more cynical people than me would suggest that someone had finally robbed her of her virginity), and Debbie Reynolds (as an advice columnis).  I was able to overcome my sense of shame, but then I saw the price--more than $5.00, so I just took a picture and left it on the rack. In smaller print was the revelation that the missing Malaysian airplane was going to be used as a bomb for a US Navy base.  They had a map to prove it.

That was the third checkout stand.

The second checkout stand was at Big 5, where I went after I checked for my left-behind gloves in the Y's Lost and Found.  The ones I found at the Y had a cross on them, and I didn't think mine did.  But when I got to Big 5, I saw that they did, so I told the person at the check out stand and went back to the Y to claim the others as mine.

Tcabbage-grapefruit one from the Slanted Door, where he told me he'd eaten a couple of time.  He asked me if I wanted to try for the raffle, so I put down the recipes and put my name and phone number on the raffle ticket.  Then I left, but in the parking lot the nice woman behind me came running after me to say that I'd left behind the papers, and the cashier wouldn't let her take them to me.  I thought that was so sweet of her to run after me, and I thought it was sweet of him for being so protective of my recipes--unless he wanted to keep them for himself.  (Tina, you are more evil than Camilla!)

Once home with the claimed gloves, I noticed another pair in the back seat of my car!  They have the cross, but they really are mine, so I guess they others aren't.  Stop thief!

I bought flowers because I put the last two bouquets Javier brought me in the compost bin on Wednesday night, and all I have now over the "Cherish the Moment" plate that Tomi gave me (before the poison pen letter) is the prone (no longer elated-inflated) "Te Amo" balloon Javier brought me on Valentine's Day.  It declares its love lying down.  I suggested that Javier BART in and meet me at the Embarcadero tomorrow, so he won't be bringing flowers.

I didn't get the dry erase markers because I remembered that two Office Depots--the one at Serramonte and the one on Geary--have closed.  I'll get one from Duplicating/Supplies on Monday.  In the meantime I'll try to find a place close to home where they sell them.

And now I'm going to write up the highlights of my students' reports on their group's interviews on "the green thing."

What's in the News besides Another Pedestrian Hit

Sadly, another pedestrian--this time a three-year-old child-- has been hit.  But that hadn't yet happened when I wrote TO BE CONTINUED this morning. 

The good news is that I heard from 'Ana, who wrote a very warm response to my e-message and said the picture I sent of her sisters made her feel almost as if her sisters were alive again.

The headline today was "Feinstein aids farms over fish," which is the politically expedient thing to do, but as a Chronicle editorial points out, she's going against very carefully planned out allotments. 

District works make less than minimum pay--$9.37/hr.  The city's mandatory minimul wage is 10.87. 

There's a cybersecurity bug.

Searchers are optimistic pings will lead to the missing plane.

The US propaganda ploy that Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont was complaining about were drft messages produced for a twitter-like service in Cuba secretly funded by teh U.s. government.  They did promulgate political content, and the U.s. government went to great lengths to conceal its involvement.  One draft messages was:  54% of Americans think Michael Jackson is alive and 86% of Cubans think Fidel Castro is dead.  Another called Castro the "coma-andante." 

"analysis finds some doctors get millions from Medicare" reveals that one Florida pphthalmologist Salomon Melgen) who's good friends withSen. Robert Menendez of NJ, got $20.8 million.  High drug costs!

On Debra J. Saunders page, there's  an open Forum piece on General Motors the "Automaker (that) has betrayed everyone. 

Then you come to the 1/3 page graphic 'Did you know?"  As a Chronicle print subscribe, you already have access to our ontent across all digital devices including SFCHronicle.com on your desktop and smartphone, plus the daily e-edition and Chronicle app fo iPad.

There's a poliical cartoon by Joel Pett/Lexington Herald-Leder shoing "PING"S --FROM OVER-FISHING, DUMPING, POLLUTION, DEAD ZONES, MERCURY, SPECIES EXINCTION, SHAR FINNING, AND WHALING." 

Jose Manuel Martinez has confessed to 40 slaying in a career as a contract killer.  He worked as an enforcer for a drug cartel. 

Also in the news are a singing surgeon and 1st =graders coding for stickers, jelly beans, and M&M's. 

In LA country school desks are blocing the street i a new protest against neglect of pooer schools. 

I heard about the bigger tenant payouts at the Y and almost fell off the treatdmill.  It will $44,832 that landlords pay instead of $5,200 if they want to use the Ellis Act to remove renters from units. 

The ban on using killer-whales at SeaWorld wasn'tn't passesd, as I was telling Terry at the Y ysterdya. Instead of voting, they'll study it for a year.  The Animal Welfare Institute sponsored the bill.


Better news:  Jenny wrote from China!  She told me what she liked about A Marriage Act.

Squalor and the Meaning of LIfe

Being free to live in squalor is one of the perks and one of the dangers of living alone.  I have, unfortunately, a high tolerance for squalor, so even when I intend to clean it up, my true interests draw me like a magnet.  This morning for example, I went online to find news of my beloved 'Ana Taufe'ulungaki, who is supposed to be retiring this year.  She started teaching in 1970 in the same village I started teaching in Tonga.  I found out that she had taken leave for a month on medical grounds, and I know a little bit about her medical concerns, so I'm worried.  If they had the word "enshalah" in Tongan, that's what she would be saying:  God willing, she'll make it to retirement.  I had no response from a photo I sent her a couple of days ago--a photo with two of her sisters, both deceased.  Then I saw that a good friend had contacted our department head to say that I was having a gathering for a colleague who died last week, and she gave the time.  But I'm NOT having this gathering.  I mistakenly posted it on Facebook, a tool I'd better not use so freely.  So I sent an e-mail to correct that misunderstanding.  I started the sample report for my ESL 142 students but interupted that to e-mail a friend who was planning a small gathering for the retirement of another member of our birthday group and me.  I felt I needed to make a comment on Joan Collins' glamour at 81, too.  Then I went back to bed before rising again and reading the fascinating newspaper.  TO BE CONTINUED.
I also submitted my online forms for the brain health registry as well as sending messages to Jim Canning (moving after 34 years), Jerry (about 42^nd St. Moon and Archie being killed of), Ron and Camilla Bixler, Linda and to the brain health registry.  

I did virtually nothing about the squalor, and now it's time for me to check e-mail from my students and get to campus.