Aziza and a Super-Charged Valentine's Day

We traveled to Geary, a distance not far
To eat at Aziza, a Michelin star.

I wrote a story for Javier's Valentine card, and just before turning off the computer to welcome him (flowers as always, a "Te Amo" ballloon and a "Todo Cambio desde el primer dia dn que te conoci" card), I got saw an e-mail message form Will Maynez saying that Masha Zakheim, who'd been suffering from ill-lhealth (ill health?) for some time, had died February 12.  So I've spent the past hour  thinking and writing about her.  The saying is "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans," but in this case, death is what happened.  Since Javier and I were celebrating Valentine's Day early (the only day around VD that we could get reservations at Aziza), I planned to spend today checking items off my To Do List:

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.

But after getting back from the Y I got the jittery feeling I get when I have a big block of times and start wanting to go in all directions.

The only thing I've done this morning is pay tribute to Masha Zakheim.

But I'll be back later with pictures of Aziza.  Too bad I couldn't capture the look of Javier as we listened to the description of each delicacy on the Tasting Menu.  I think we looked the way my students look when they politely, attentively pretend they understand.

A Beautiful Packet from a Former Student Who Still Loves English

Here's the essay a former student (from 1988, non-credit at John Adams) wrote in an anthology she and other English students put together for the 30th anniversary of FME.  (I don't know what FME stands for.)

FME and I

Yoshiko Iwamoto

            It was one muggy afternoon in July, 1990.

            I was in the dining room of my son's special school.  We mothers took turns helping the handicapped students have lunch. After finishing my duties, Ms. Motoko Emoto, who was one of the mothers, came up to me and said, "I am studying English at the Chiba Chuo Community Center every Friday.  Why don't you come and join us?"  I had come back from San Francisco in 1988 and had been thinking about studying English again.  But I had been busy and hadn't found any classes.  I had read the newspaper and had written letters in English but I felt I needed someone to talk to in English.  Motoko's proposal sounded nice to me.

            I joined the FME class in September.  The teacher was George, who came from Los Angeles and was married to a Japanese woman.  At that time studying English was so popular that FME was always full of members.  I had a good time studying English after a two year break.  Soon FME became a part of my life.

            Meanwhile, my two sons were growing up and approaching their adolescence.  One day I accompanied my 12 year old handicapped son on his field trip.  When we entered the museum. my son's face turned pale and suddenly he began to slap other students on the head.  Usually he was calm and cheerful, so everyone around him was shocked and tried to stop him.  His teacher was so upset that she slapped him on the cheek too.  Somehow he calmed down but it was the beginning of a nightmare for our family.  From that day he became very unstable, violent and refused to go to school.  He also developed insomnia.  His bad condition continued for a long time.

            Taking care of him demanded a lot of me.  I was almost burnt out.  But fortunately I could keep attending FME class because my husband stayed home on Friday morning.  As he worked for a university, he had more free time on his hands than people working for a company.  He took care of our son while I was in class.  In FME class I was released from my burden of daily life for a while.  Sometimes I talked about my problems in English in class and surprisingly I found myself feeling better and it was easier than talking in Japanese.

            Also I remember that I talked about our "Father & Son Story" in class.  My older son had a fight with his father when he was 17 years old.  From then he ignored his father for almost a year. He talked to me but not to his father.  As soon as my husband came home, he would go to his room with his meal.  But on his 18th birthday he said to me abruptly, "I am an adult from now on."  And to our surprise, he poured beer into his father's glass.   Then he began to speak to his father as if nothing had happened.  This is one of the happiest memories of my life.

            For me, FME has been not only an ESL circle, but also a door to the world.  Once a week I left my stress behind and enjoyed my own time.

            Because I am always called by my family name here in Japan, being called by my first name in class makes me feel independent.

            Time flies and I have been here for 22 years.  I have been taught by 8 teachers and have studied with so many students.  I am thankful that I have learned a lot from them all.

            My older son got married two years ago and the younger one became stable.  Now both of them are living their own lives.  Recently I asked myself, "What if it had not been for FME?"  Maybe I could not have survived.

Messages and Moods

I had wonderful energy and a very up feeling most of the weekend and did things that I'd had on my to-do list for quite a while.  But this afternoon, it was as if something punctured my balloon (bad for the environment) and without any apparent reason, I came down.  It didn't help that the James Dean 1952 version of East of Eden was melodramtic (such a score and so loudly played, as if the audience couldn't figure out for themselves that this was a dramatic moment, and every moment was a dramatic moment).  I read a couple more essay tests.  I also read about the Beatles' 50th--the same year we graduated.  What was I doing on February 9, 1964?  Wasn't there an Executive Council party?  Weren't we talking about it--maybe that we were going to watch it Sunday night?  I also glanced again at the 6th Extinction, which we humans are bringing upon ourselves, in a review of Elizabeth Kolbert's ook that headed "Not long for this world."  Then I went to bed with East of Eden (which I'm listening to again) and woke up after 11:00 PM in time to check for more messages from my high intermediate speaking and listening students, all of whom are assigned to call and leave me a message before midnight tonight.  I'm sure there will be someone who calls at 11:59.  Other notable message:  From Tracy Burt and someone else in response to teachers who didn't like the lack of anonymity in the feedback form for Flex Day.  Now it's time to clean up.

What's in the News

You always begin the day with two hours of reading that may very well not be related to what your students hav written.  Your favorite reading is the morning paper, which is delivered to your flower bed on your step garden by 4:00 AM.  the Datebook has a spread on a beautiful dancer, teacher now (like everybody else) memoirist, Janet Sassoon, but there's also a Robert Hurwitt review of a play, Gidion's Knot, in Berkeley about an "enigmatic" teacher and her parent-teacher conference with Gideon's mother, who's come to find out why her son has been suspended from fifth grade.  A popular Japaneses composer admits that he didn't write the pieces he's credited as writing and he's not really deaf.  (Mamoru Samurgagochi).Martin Luter King's sons want to sell their father's Bible and Nobel Peace Prcie to a private party, and his daughter things it should be in the public domain but doesn't have power over the estte.  People in charget of nuclear missile launches are cheating on their qualifying exams. A storm has left thousands in the dark in Harrisburg.  South Korea is one of the few countries that allow the farming of bears to extract bile for the traditional medicine, and the beas are sufering as is the business.  GI Joe will be 50 years old this December--just in time for Christmas.  Mick La Salle says that unlike the rule that a story has to show change in the protagonist, the move "Gloria" "is not really about change, but about the courage and the emotional discipline reuqired in order to tsay the same.  Leah Garchik, who was out of the country when Pete Seeger died, paid him tribute today.  She and her husband took their kids to Stern Grove to hear him sing.

You still clip, so you have infoo about the beached whales , 25 of whom died because they form close-knit pods that won't leave a sick whale behind.  The NSA has a mission to educate children on the importance of spying--the benefits of the NSA.  "In the world of diplomacy, knowing what your enemy is planning helps you to plrepare," the turlte says.  "But it is also important that your enemies do not know wha tyou hve planned...."  There's a "How Can I Work for the N.S.A.' section o the site--the NSA's CrytoKids website...
Texas wouldnt' let a brain-dead woman be disconnected because she was 2 months pregnant and they wanted to keep her plugged in until her baby could be delivered through a C-section.  I still can't get over the 17-year-old killed by her 14-year-old brother because he thought she'd bleached his clothes.  She had a 3-year-old daughter and worked at McDoald's so she was "just your typical kid."

You love the headline on susrveillance:  "U.S. seeks ways to prevent prying into NSA's spying."  SF leads the nation on the minimum wage.  Seniors go out to eat more than Millennials, and poulty and potatoes are still the two most common dinner foods.  Millennials are more likely to adopt special diet, like gluten-fee or vegan.  Forty-five percent have done so compares with 24 % of the Baby Boomers.  Traffic at quick-service restaurants is on the rise, accounting for 78P of restaurant experiences.

It was Saturday a wek ago that Mick La Salle wrote about MGM turning 90!  

The Cognitive Dissonance and Selective Deficit Disorder in the Budget at CCSF

            Reading David Sirota's article on cognitive dissonance and selective deficit disorder ( February 7, 2014, page A14), I couldn't help thinking of our beloved City College of San Francisco, where faculty have faced a big cut in salaries but where the pay scales of certain administrative jobs were to receive a 19.3% boost.  Sirota spoke of the stress that's supposed to come to those who hold oxymoronic views, pleading poverty as they slash retiree benefits and food stamp programs but whose "selective deficit disorder" enables them to subsidize the special interests of corporations.  He ends by saying that modern politics is not really a battle between Democrats and Republicans but one between those with lots of money and those with comparatively less.  This segued into Nanette Asimov's article about the three recently hired vice chancellors at CCSF who are being paid 10 to 13 percent more than the salaries posted for their jobs.  Faculty and other administrators are being paid 4 percent below what they were paid in 2007 and 2009, respectively.    Is the hidden aspect of the vice-chancellors’ salaries a sign that those making budgetary decisions are aware of their own selective deficit disorder?

On the "Lost Souls List" of Columbia High School 50th Anniversary Committee

Never mind that I've been in touch with the person who's hosting the committee of planners for the CHS 50th Reunion, and she provided my address.  Yesterday I got their February, pre-reunion mailing addressed to Tina Martin and including the "Lost Souls List" with Noelie Jean Martin listed among the females not located.    They didn't know me as Noelie, and I guess that whoever is compiling the list isn't looking in the yearbook that gives both our real names and nicknames.

I could feel a song coming on, and here it is, to the tune of "Tonight, Tonight," from West Side Story.


Lost Soul, Lost Soul!

Lost soul!  Lost soul!  I’m  on the list “Lost Souls”

I soul-ful-ly mourn losing my soul.

My name’s to blame.

My name is not the same

As the one at  my birth long ago.

I tired of always being the weird one,

My “noelie” revered one.

(My rhymes are on a roll.)

So Tina came

To save me from the shame.

Just the same

Bells toll.

Today, most people call me Tina

That doesn’t really mean a

Lot—that I’m not still strange.

But people pounce

And no one can pronounce

Noelie.

Name change!

Lost soul!  Lost soul!

I'm seeking my lost soul.

What Lost and Found 

Will bring it around?

Oh careless me!

I sold my soul.  Could be.

What will I do when I'm Heaven bound?

Don’t tell a single soul I lost it.

Don’t know just where I tossed it.

How can I bare my soul

If it’s not there.

Where can I get a spare?

A lost soul!

Lost soul!

Early Morning Hours Seeing How Students Express What They Are Supposed To Have Learned

In less than an hour, I'll leave for the Y, where I'll do strength and conditioning exercises before leaving for a full day on campus for Flex.  But I finally got something on tardiness off to the ESLetter--unsolicted:

     

I'm attaching something from Berkeley Rep about late seating.  I use it with my ESL students to impress upon them the importance of not being disruptive when they arrive late.  It seems to be an unfamiliar concept.  I'm glad we're understanding of our students' complicated lives, but I don't think we should be (pardon the psychobabble word) enablers in the sense of reinforcing bad habits.  Could you include this in an ESLetter? 

Using Tardiness to Teach Courtesy and Kindness

      Google “late seating policy for college classrooms” and you’ll get about 74,300,000 results in 0.61 seconds because late students are a major concern.  See this link, for example:

http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/profdev/profdev088.shtml

      This is what Berkeley Rep prints on its tickets:

“Plan to arrive early.  All shows start on time, and there is no late seating.  Unfortunately, latecomers should expect to watch the show on a video monitor.”

      I know that our classrooms do not constitute a "show."  We all know we should be "a guide on the side, not a sage on the stage."  If students have to be late, I don't want to banish them to another room, as Berkeley Rep does, but why can't they sit in the row by the door?  That way they will be less disruptive, and teachers can see who missed handouts and who should be marked tardy instead of absent.  

      Can students be taught that it’s courteous not to walk in front of other people when they come in late? Can they be taught to wait to get back the work that has already been returned to other students instead of demanding it on the spot?

      When City College had a visiting scholar from Mexico to talk on the Diego Rivera Mural, a teacher greeted a late arriving student by chatting with him and catching up on what he had been doing.  Later our visiting scholar complained about this.  He felt that the teacher was disruptive, compounding the problem of the student's late arrival.  I agree.  We want to be welcoming and understanding.  But we need to communicate the idea that courtesy in the classroom isn't about a bunch of rules; it's about kindness and optimal learning, which thoughtful rules can foster. 

      I put my students in groups and give them a picture from Berkeley Rep with these instructions:

       

     

*******************************************************************************

      PLEASE DO NOT WRITE ON THIS COPY.  Write on your student work sheet.

What is the message that Berkeley Rep (a theatre company) gives about being on time?

What  happens to people who are late to Berkeley Rep?

How does this connect with the classroom and our policy for latecomers?

      Coming soon:  What to do about students leaving the classroom during class.

   I also want to submit something about the heart-wrenching students, the ones who have learning disabilities or are otherwise disabled to the extent that we can't say "Never give up" and have to say "Give THIS up" and find another place for them to succeed.  The question is "Where?"

But...what I first did this morning, after arising at 1:00 AM and reading about less sex (can we say less sexual activisim?) for students at Redwood High School in Marin and CVC's decision to stop selling cigarettes.  I started reading the students' responses to an essay test about several different reading passages:  One from NorthStar about Richard Jewell, SLOs (the Student Learning Outcomes that have become so prominently promoted and studied, Manuscript Rules, and the policy for making up tests.  (You can tell what a great  entertainer I must be in the classroom.)  The students usually concern themselves only with their grades, but I think of my feedback to each of them as a private tutorial, a one-to-one conference.  They just aren't there.  Still, On one I've indicated for her to studeh 1.  the simple past tense.  2 the passive voice  3.  manuscript rules, 4.  verb forms, and 5.  English spelling.  Here's a sample:

Richard Jewell was a security guard at the Olimpic Stadium of Atlanta.  In 1996 the stadium has been under attack by the explosion of a bomb that killed 1 person and ingured 100.  Mr. Jewell was onored to be call a hero at the beginning because he has been helpfull with the resque operation.  After that the FBI had point some suspect on him, and his life was been ruined by the media attention.  When Richard has been accused, his story has become a ppular enterttainment for the news business.  Mr. Jewell's family was contantly spy by reporters that had arranged a camp in front of  his home, and watched his moves.  Richard Jewell passt away by natural couse, but nobody ever apology with him or his family for what has been done to his privat life.  When in 2007 a seriall bomber confess his crime, and has been captuered by the police, Mr. Jewell was relased from the accuse but doesn't changed the damage that he already live.

I've commented, "Your understanding is better than your English usage."  But as I type it up it looks better and better to me.