A Kind Student Assists a Tired TEacher

Getting Our Anti-Terrorist Chancellor to Send the ACCJC to Take Away Guantanamo's Accreditation and Close It

I commented to a witty friend that they probably hired a chancellor who specializes in anti-terrorism because we teachers are regarded as terrorists so he can send us to Guantanamo.  She said, "Imagine if that lost its accreditation."  That got me to thinking that the anti-terrorist chancellor could send the ACCJC to Guantanamo to revoke the accreditation it never did have and close it down.

My Disabilities Revisited and Extended

Another disability I have is in the area of organization, something I value and work hard at.  I care.  (I mean the organization, not the disability.)  I want to be organized.  I put things in folders and label them.  I make lists, sort through and arrange.  And then, in a manner of minutes, I undo all that I've done.  A good example was yesterday, when I stopped an exercise we were going over before we finished it to show the students the astonishing overhead projector (new in 1963) they were going to be using and to give them their midterm grades.  I'd organized them all in a folder, ready to give back.  But as they waited with baited (?) breath, I floundered.  Where were those papers.  I didn't even have to look at her to know that Iryna would be looking at me and judging me an incompetent, bungling fool.  I must say that, while I am not incompetent, there's no doubt about my being a bungling fool.

Character Defect: Being More Interested in MY Learning

It's 4:10 in the morning, and I've been up since 1:00 AM being interested, something I so often am--so much more often than I am interesting.  In fact, I see that one of my character defects is that while I'm interested in my students' learning, I'm more interested in my own learning.  So this morning I was fascinated as I read a Mexican student's run on sentences about his interview on forbidden food as he shared what he knew about bees as a delicacy: 

I have had eaten insect that in the mayan language is called EK and I explained to her at this way, during a certain time of the year when honey bees goes crazy instead to produce honey they reproduce lazy bees out of the panel they like to create hive on thetrees and they feed those larvae with honey the hive get bigger more than a basketball ball and because my grand father used to said that the bee larvae is a very good source of protein we have to eat it, so to take the hive down we create a lot of smoke near by for the bees to fly away it has to be taken down during full moon why?  it remain a secret.  Just like the Mayan use to prepared, we toasted the larvae on top of the comal (where tortillas are cooked) with fire, ones is toasted, we chopped cilantro, red onion, red radishes, some lemon juice, salt and pepper mixed and on top of a tortilla rolled into a taco, it was so delicious crunchy and just like the finest meat in the world.

This was with an interviewee who had accepted his request for an intervew "right the way" and who, "been from the Hawaiian Island" knew about the fusion of Polynesian, Hawaiian, American, Japanese, Filipino, Chinese, korean, Portuguese and Puerto Rican influences.

Another student conducted her interview while giving her interviewee a manicure-pedicure.   Another went to her interviewee in Reno by way of Skype.  Walking for wellness....etc.

So even though I have an observation report to write up and three classes of midterm grades to calculate (which involves transferring notes on their phone message assignment to the proper form for two of those classes--52 people--and still more entries in Easy Grade Pro), I am here sharing something that interests me more than midterm grades.  Yet, I turned down an invitation from a friend whose partner couldn't go to a Jorge Dexler concert because I am house-bound and determined to finish this midterm madness.

But ow the question is this:  Where is the clipboard?  I have a clipboard so that even I can't manage to bury important papers, bt I managed to bury the clipboard.

My Disability: Being a Drudge

          A few days ago I commented that I should have on our information form for students "What's YOUR disability?"  because I think we all have at least one.  One of mine is being a drudge.  I am disabled by drudgery.  Just this afternoon when I was looking at all the configurations I had for my Intermediate Speaking and Listening students--notes on their assigned phone messages, a chart of how well they understood a follow up question on their interview reports, Easy (Hah!) Grade Pro's calculations for their quizzes, written work, etc.--I thought about how much I'd like to be brain-abled instead of brain-addled--to be able to quickly and efficiently spin off a midterm evaluation.  But, alas...

Play That Song! No, Don't!

This is just to say that my ESL 132 students, who did a unit on music and brought back recommended songs from their interviews, are not all in harmony when it comes to singing my praises.  I have to count, but I'd say that at least as many said they didn't like the songs as those who said they did.   Overall, the evaluations were positive, but the music aspect hit a discordant chord.  "Maybe we could have some interesting songs," one student said.  So much for the carefully researched (by them) recommendations!

Editing Out Myself

I'm using most parts of a test on adjective (relative) clauses I created last semester--but not the creative part!

Fill in the missing relative pronouns in the following poem.    The first has been done for you.

These are the SLOs we dream about

In dreams where the  learning of students turns out

To be in the room ____________ we sit three days,

Days ________ we study and learn some new ways

To succeed with the teacher ________ class we are in,

__________ teaches us poems about what might have been

And teaches the students _____________ study the best,

____________ do all our homework and pass every test

And all love the college ____________we all attend,

It’s the place __________ we study (at least we pretend).

It’s called City College.

I'm afraid that my tendency to deviate from a tried-and-true path is more confusing than enjoyable or elucidating.