wiggolation

This is just weird.

My blog sucks ass. I just had to say that.

Anyway, Second Language Acquisition looks like it'll be one of the more interesting classes. We had our first meeting tonight and it went fine. I have had the prof who's teaching it a few times now so he's pretty sound and even funny, though not in the sense that he makes funny jokes, more like he says stuff off the top of his head which is weird, funny.

Otherwise I am bored to death at work as I'm just proctoring the Regents. I'd much rather be teaching ESL than walking around the room staring at scantrons and writing "Time Now:" on the board every half hour. Boring as hell, though necessary I know....

I did manage to come up with three PowerPoint presentations which I am going to use during the first two sessions of the new semester, which begins on Monday. I decided to give the old PowerPoints a try to get across my intro to ESL, the course syllabus, and a model for a PP that the students will do, which is basically a biography slideshow. Seemed like a good idea about lunch time anyway. Fortunately we have a fancy projector that I can hook up my notebook to and show PP slides....

Now that the English Regents are over, I'll be grading all day tomorrow and, probably, Thursday too. Friday looks to be a day for getting my room ready. I bought some posters and a broom for my room. Will this get me a Teacher of the Year?

Sports Illustrated Dude of the Year:

That last posting got messed up and blogger won't let me fix it, strangely enough. Anyway, I wanted to post this: Teacher of the year. (I could do without the military plug, however.) Yeah, I know, it's CNN. But this education and technology special is decent and has given me a few ideas.

Teacher of the year posted by me  # 22:01

Got a links page started. Doing something like this makes you look twice at what makes a good Web page. Does it have lasting value? As a resource does it continue to provide good info or insight?

Anyway I got started on one of the books for Second Lang Acquisition, which I hope will clear up some things. There are so many studies to consider and so many arguments about effective practices in language teaching.

It's actually snowing outside. What the ****?

Spent the day getting textbooks for my grad classes and posters to "decorate" my high school room: one's on writing, one's on capitalization, one's on punctuation. Also read the intro article to Discourse Analysis. Basic stuff but a helpful review.

Otherwise I "updated" my homepage out of sheer boredom. I need to come up with more ideas for content to put on my pages. I'd like to compile a links page because I've got so many of them, mainly to ESL and rhetoric and lit sites, that I'd like to consolidate. Anyway, I updated my studies page on which I have listed many of my previous courses. In doing so I was able to do a quick review of what I've learned and also focus on my present areas of study. It's good to go back and look at what you've done, in school, in life. I am relatively happy with the courses I've taken. Now I want to move toward a more concentrated focus in my professional practices and specialization. I think I'm going to focus my research a lot more closely on language teaching/learning and technology. I'd like to look explore ESL in webbed learning environments. ESL students learn twice as much when they practice their English with the help of computers and the Internet, but at the same time I think this area of language instruction is still in an early stage of development. While I feel you can't beat the classroom experience for language learning (unless, of course, you can immerse yourself in a culture where the target language is used), I do think that by combining language learning and computer technology students can actually kill two birds with one stone--they can improve their English and computer skills.

Otherwise what's up with that virus that slowed down the Net today? I think I noticed it when I was online earlier. That's messed up that someone can do such damage and that those who use the Net seem so vulnerable.

Greg and Dara are again hosting a football bash tomorrow for the third week in a row. Go Raiders!

The semester is officially over. Feels good too. Regents are next week and I've done all I can to prep the kiddies. Am eager to get the second semester started as I have new plans and ideas for a better time the next round. I have to write it all out and get my syllabus together but I am going to do my best to synthesize all the feedback and other info I've been gathering.

Otherwise the freekin' cold continues to bother me and my face, though it's a lot warmer today at 35 and sunny, a lot warmer than the recent sub-10 temps.

Speaking of warmer weather, I have been trying to find a warm, sunny place to vacation in February when I get a week-long break from it all. Problem is I haven't been to the sunnier, more tropical countries down south and can't decide where to go. Each place looks warmer and cleaner than the last. Another problem is that all the great bargains offered have tons of stipulations, so many that by the time you plug in your dates of travel and what not you're paying five times what they advertise. So it goes. That's my new motto by the way. Kinda Bekett-like, eh?

Finished Vico's autobio and Schaeffer's book on Vico and sensus communis and relativism. I think Vico is worth studying more thoroughly. Schaeffer’s obviously quite the expert on his writing and philosophy. Vico's own writings are sometimes lacking in grace, surprisingly, but it's hard to say for sure as I can't read him in the Italian.

Ended up dropping my methods class as it's over-enrolled. That's me: always volunteering. Actually, I was happy to do it. I think I'll get more out of a methods course next year. Instead I'm now enrolled in Discourse Analysis. I was surfing the Web on this subject and found, among other things, this:

"Some discourse analysts consider the larger discourse context in order to understand how it affects the meaning of the sentence. For example, Charles Fillmore points out that two sentences taken together as a single discourse can have meanings different from each one taken separately. To illustrate, he asks you to imagine two independent signs at a swimming pool: "Please use the toilet, not the pool," says one. The other announces, "Pool for members only." If you regard each sign independently, they seem quite reasonable. But taking them together as a single discourse makes you go back and revise your interpretation of the first sentence after you've read the second" (found here).

Along with Second Language Acquisition this should be another busy term. But it should be easier than this past one as I'm better acclimated to the Big Apple and its folk.

Columbia has started again. Ugh. And I was just getting used to teaching all by its own. Man, life seemed a great deal easier without graduate school to come home to. On the bright side: there are really cool people in my classes, interesting ideas being exchanged, and I suppose I am becoming a better professional because of it all. In spite of all the shit I hear about it and all the shit I sometimes say about it I have to admit I think Columbia is an excellent school and that I am in a great, progressive program. I will change my mind about this tomorrow when I have to go from teaching in Queens to doing research at the College but I will appreciate the whole thing in the end. Otherwise I was happy to get my grammar final from last term tonight and find a much better grade on it than I'd hoped to have gotten.

Grades are due tomorrow so I have a long night ahead of me and it's already going on 9:00. See, I'm already cursing grad school?

One of the better Irish lit Web resources I've come across.

Just won tickets on the radio!! Two tix to see Medesky, Martin & Wood at TONIC:



I NEVER call in to win tix but I just happened to try and I won. Took four tries but I got in. The funny thing is I NEVER listen to the station that was giving them away--Q104, a classic rock station here in NYC, the band's hometown.

From the Net:
As the only jazz band to be accepted by the neo-hippies of the HORDE '90s, Medeski, Martin & Wood pulled off the strange coup of being embraced by rock and jazz audiences, who both loved their endless improvisations. They managed to walk the fine line dividing between the two camps, as their funkified soul-jazz was self-referential and cerebral, not earthy and instinctual. That's part of the reason why some soul-jazz diehards didn't embrace MMW -- the ingredients may be there, but it just didn't taste like a real Jimmy Smith record. Perhaps conscious of this, MMW makes no excuses about their heritage on their fifth album, Combustication. Perhaps because it is their first effort for a real jazz label (Blue Note), Combustication happens to be their most adventurous effort yet. Ironically, it's because the group embraces alt-rock and hip-hop conventions like turntable scratching. That ultimately turns out to be just window-dressing, however -- beneath it all, MMW's music remains essentially the same, but the handful of curve balls makes Combustication worth close listening for those already on their side.
--Authored by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

The shot of the moon is for my new friend in Transylvania who emailed me after coming across my blog. Go figure.

The previewing discussions and first half of the film went off well. All seemed really into Robin Williams and his dead poets. Tomorrow we finish watching the rest of it and move on to writing on Thursday and Friday. Then the bloody Regents, finally. I got my schedule but haven't looked at it. I hope I am responsible for proctoring the English exam only as I'd be free on Wed., Thurs., and Friday to plan for the following week, which is the beginning of the spring semester. Otherwise I had to do battle today to get registered for one of my classes at Columbia. The touch-tone and online registration systems don't seem to want to talk to each other. So I had to redo my registration a few times. At least I got into the classes I needed, which is more than I can say for some of my friends. I'll be taking Second Language Acquisition and K-12 Methods with the same two profs I had last semester. While they are good profs it would be nice if our department weren't so small, just so I could get some more variety. So it goes.

With a new semester comes new changes. So far things look good, more or less. If I could just chisel out a syllabus for the new semester!

Finals are graded and yet there remains a large stack of student work to get through. At least we teachers are off today.

The Count at work:

Hang 'em High with Clint and a young Dennis Hopper as a "plumb loco" prophet/criminal. One of Clint's better westerns. There. How's that for a film review?

I got the following in an email from my teaching mentor:

Remember when our grandparents, great-grandparents, and such stated that they only had an 8th grade education? Well, check this out. Could any of us have passed the 8th grade in 1895?

This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina, KS, USA. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, KS, and reprinted by the Salina Journal.

8th Grade Final Exam: Salina, KS -1895
********************************
Grammar (Time, one hour)

1. Give nine rules for the use of Capital Letters.
2. Name the Parts of Speech and define those that have no modifications.
3. Define Verse, Stanza and Paragraph.
4. What are the Principal Parts of a verb? Give Principal Parts of lie, lay and run.
5. Define Case, Illustrate each Case.
6. What is Punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of Punctuation.
7 - 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.

*****************************************
Arithmetic (Time, 1.25 hours)

1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
2. A wagon box is 2 ft. Deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. Wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?
3. If a load of wheat weighs 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1050 lbs. for tare?
4. District No. 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
5. Find cost of 6720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton.
6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at $20 per meter?
8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance around which is 640 rods?
10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt.

********************************************
U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes)

1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided.
2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus.
3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
4. Show the territorial growth of the United States.
5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas.
6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?
8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865.

**********************************************
Orthography (Time, one hour)

1. What is meant by the following: Alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication?
2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
3. What are the following, and give examples of each: Trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals?
4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u.'
5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two exceptions under each rule.
6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis, mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup.
8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.
9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.

********************************************
Geography (Time, one hour)

1. What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas?
3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
4. Describe the mountains of North America.
5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco.
6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S..
7. Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each.
8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?
9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth.

**********************************************
Also notice that the exam took six hours to complete. Gives the saying "he only had an 8th grade education" a whole new meaning, doesn't it?

At age 5 success is not peeing in your pants

At age 10 success is having friends

At age 16 success is having your driver's license

At age 20 success is having sex

At age 35 success is having money

At age 50 success is having money

At age 65 success is having sex

At age 70 success is having your driver's license

At age 75 success is having friends

At age 80 success is not peeing in your pants

More on Bush and his administration's mistakes, as if a thinking person would need more. Even more here by some of the best writers and thinkers alive. The common argument is clear: the US believes it has just cause to do whatever it thinks is just. Bush and his supporters have all the answers to all the questions. That should stink of lies to anybody and we should know better. You've got to wonder if Bush and his buddies even realize the possible consequences of their stupid plans.

Final went off well though I have graded only a random sample so far, all of which except one was passing. The students thought it was a good test. By that I understood that it was fair. When those are graded (and a stack of other things) I'll have the grades done for the semester and be offically done with my first semester in the NYC system. Yay. Who. Hoo. Go team. I thought it'd be a little more dramatic. Well, the night is young and the PC gang just rang from The Parlour, one of many Irish pubs here, requesting I help them celebrate....

The coldest night of the year so far is upon us: a cool ten degrees and I got blocks to go before I drink, blocks to go before I drink. Hello three-day weekend. How are you?

Me ole stompin' ground: Usti nad Labem ("the mouth of the Elbe [river]"), Czech Republic:



Whoever published the photo touched it up quite a bit by adding color to the regular industrial sooty black 'n' gray that is natural to this area. OK, that's mean. There are nice things about my old roost, and the Ustians are really lovely people. Their beer is pretty tasty too.

This article might make you wanna think twice about letting go of your old machine.... Which reminds me: I just sold my desktop. I think I got everytihng off it though. Had to reinstall the OS. Hope that did it?!

Brian's recent postings made me laugh out loud. Thanks bro! Funny shit. Especially about the E-bay debacle. Good to know you've good taste in music too... I also think you will not regret the college thing....

As for me teaching is grooving along fairly well. I just finished writing the final for the little monsters. I've tons of grading to do over the weekend but next week and the week after will be a breeze. Monday is MLK day and I've a great little plan for it to do on Tuesday which I'm incorporating into Regents prep. I ordered Dead Poets Society and Breaking Away, two movies I'm doing with my ESL classes. Making unit plans for these flicks will be fun I think.

Interesting article about white teachers leaving black schools. I have to agree that "some of the blame rests on unversity education schools." Mine is guilty of this, based on the courses I've completed.

I have been invited to join a group to protest in D.C. against Bush and his warmongering buddies but I can't make it unfortunately.

How fitting is the old tune "War" today?

What life has taught me
I would like to share with
Those who want to learn...



Until the philosophy which hold one race
Superior and another inferior
Is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned
Everywhere is war, me say war

That until there are no longer first class
And second class citizens of any nation
Until the colour of a man's skin
Is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes
Me say war


That until the basic human rights are equally
Guaranteed to all, without regard to race
Dis a war

That until that day
The dream of lasting peace, world citizenship
Rule of international morality
Will remain in but a fleeting illusion
To be persued, but never attained
Now everywhere is war, war

And until the ignoble and unhappy regimes
that hold our brothers in Angola, in Mozambique,
South Africa sub-human bondage
Have been toppled, utterly destroyed
Well, everywhere is war, me say war

War in the east, war in the west
War up north, war down south
War, war, rumours of war

And until that day, the African continent
Will not know peace, we Africans will fight
We find it necessary and we know we shall win
As we are confident in the victory

Of good over evil, good over evil, good over evil
Good over evil, good over evil, good over evil

My first class is really moving along great. They are really coming along. They may not be working as hard as they could but they are doing well I think. I think they are feeling good because they finished the novel. Our discussion on theme today, though short, was productive considering that talking about literary terms like theme and symbolism often usually leaves them staggered and nonplussed, not to mention frustrated. Yet they will be tested on so-called higher order questions such as theme and I am supposed to get them to figure these things out. The trick in ESL is that you don’t know if the students are having difficulty with the idea or concept of “theme” or the language. You might say the two are inseparable but I don’t think that in ESL that that is true necessarily. For example, they understand that one of the themes in our novel is death or dying but they have difficulty explaining why it’s a theme or that death and dying are themes. Some have had very good education in their native language but obviously some haven’t. Anyway, I think many of the students are getting what they are supposed to get and are making some progress. It’s a relief in a way as I thought we were going to have to go back and drudge through plot summary after plot summary and physical character descriptions and really boring but digestible details, things that get old fast. With discussion about character motivation and underlying meaning of the story things are, unsurprisingly, more interesting.

Of course there has to be a counterpoint to this good news. One of the students came into my homeroom to tell me he was dropping out to take the GED. I of course feel upset because he was one of the brightest, most polite kids in the class. He was an excellent artist and surprised everybody when we worked on some skits for the acting instructor with some great improv acting. Actually what makes me mad is that I heard from one of his friends that this kid actually spends crazy hours playing video games at a local computer gaming hangout. There the kids, mainly Asian, play video games that last for hours and all the while they smoke cigarettes and stay all night. And I was feeling bad for the kids who looked like hell in class, thinking they were beat from working after school!! We Pieces can be so gullible. Well, part of me wants to say “Good for them; they don’t deserve a good education if they are going to waste it.” But I'm not long a cynic. Another part of me feels bad they don’t continue, that they didn’t stick it out to the end. I actually tried to convince them on several occasions that they ought to come to class, do their work, graduate, and get on with their lives. I am learning, though, that there probably is always going to be a group of students you cannot help no matter what you do. This is sad. I find it pretty difficult to imagine that one could start out one's adult life without a basic education. You have not even learned basic communication skills before college. How do you convince kids they really do need to graduate and, more importantly, learn the fundamentals? I’m starting to sound like a teacher or something.

I’m going to show Dead Poets Society next week as part of the “week in between” finals and the Regents. It’ll be a nice break for them I think as it’s a great film. It’ll also allow us another opportunity to discuss aspects of artistic works. I’m going to write up a brief lesson plan on the film but one they don’t have to work too hard on.

Some Vico quotes:

"Men first feel necessity, then look for utility, next attend to comfort, still later amuse themselves with pleasure, thence grow dissolute in luxury, and finally go mad and waste their substance."



"It is true that men themselves made this world of nations ... but this world without doubt has issued from a mind often diverse, at times quite contrary, and always superior to the particular ends that men had proposed to themselves."

"Common sense is judgment without reflection, shared by an entire class, an entire nation, or the entire human race."

"The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things."

"The nature of peoples is first crude, then severe, then benign, then delicate, finally dissolute."

I hope the news about Pete Townshend is just overreaction on the police's part. He's one of my faves. The recent photo of him on CNN looks eerily like one that was taken for Empty Glass, the album he made after drying out. Pete! Tell me it isn't true! I certainly doubt that he is into child porn in the first place. And I believe that he did do it for research for his childhood autobio.

Good news from Chicago tonight: Tom asked Susan to marry him and she said yes. Congrats to my friend Tom and cousin Susan!

Today we finished our novel. Woo hoo! It took ages but we did it. We’ll be reviewing now for the next two days and then hitting the Regents pretty hard.

Attended a big staff meeting about our school’s upcoming change from an alternative program to an alternative high school. We will now be able to grant diplomas to the students and graduate them for that matter. We’ll need to change a few things before we become an alternative high school though. We have to have a gym, for instance. How they’re going to do this I don’t know. There is no room for a gym that I can see, although a few of the teachers pointed out that we have an unused attic that could possibly be used as a gym. It would have to be renovated though, and with a budget deficit the city isn’t likely to give us the money. I suggested there be frisbee class in the parking lot. Someone actually suggested that the cafeteria be used as a gym, but I can’t imagine the smell of that room after a few weeks. Maybe I could get a big bike ride going? I suppose it wouldn’t be possible because of the serious security and safety issues and what not inherent in bike riding. If there weren’t so many damn cars with motorcentric, ignorant drivers on the road….

My adopted task these days remains the same: to come up with a good syllabus for the new term starting in February. I think I’m going to make a packet of stuff for each week to give to the students. Each packet will cover the literature we’re reading and some handouts on grammar and writing and that kind of thing. The idea seems good to me. It’ll help me keep students’ work in order as it’ll all be stapled and I could number the packets by week. This is sounding like a good idea actually. And if I get packets together for the first few weeks I could really lessen the load on my planning during the term and get down to perfecting my actual in class practices, actually focusing on the classroom dynamics, class discussions, and the like. By doing this I will also be freeing up time to gather peripheral material to supplement the lessons with stuff I find as I go along. Another benefit would be for the students who are absent: they would know exactly what they needed to do each week. If someone is absent from class on Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday—not an unrealistic example—they will be able to do the work at home and turn it in on Friday. I could grade the activities for each section of the packets after each school day and give an overall grade for the week/packet. I suppose I’ll have to decide whether to make the students leave the packets in class or take them home and be responsible for their safekeeping. This creates problems either way. If they are made to keep the work in class then they possibly won’t have it at home to complete on days they are absent; if they take it home then many are probably going to leave the work incomplete anyway and, worse, “lose” it and ask for new packets, which just won’t be available. I think I’ll be asking them to keep the work in the classroom. It’s probably the overall best plan, though not without its said disadvantages. The more I think about doing this packet thing week by week the more I like the idea. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before. One of the other benefits to doing this is that I’d end up with a nice foundation for teaching secondary school ESL on which I could build in future semesters. I could easily incorporate the NY state standards and guidelines for language arts into each packet. I could consolidate all the exercises and activities and materials that I pick and choose from various textbooks and the Internet and other places. I actually used this system before but that was when we did The Graduate. That was when I was having such big problems with some of the students' behavior that I turned the class around by being very strict with them, making them read and write and read and write and read and write, which they hated more than anything. It worked though and they soon buckled down and tamed themselves. And yet they write better now too?! Further, although there is poor attendance in that second group of the day, we have very good lessons now. Well, I am going to try to get this big plan going.

Interesting stuff about doing away with standardized tests.

I actually watched football games this weekend. Hadn't done that in a long time, probably since my older brothers watched it at home while we were all growing up. Both New York teams are now out of the running for Super Bowl rings. All this means for me is a week of dealing with pissed off New Yorkers. Maybe it's a good time to dust off the old headphones?

This weekend has been the single most unproductive weekend for me since I started things here in New York. Which is OK since the students are doing a lot of mock Regents exams and I just walk them through the format of the test and give them writing and listening exercises for practice. Piece of cake compared to the regular planning involved. Regents aside, we are going to finish The Red Pony this week if it kills us, so I have to write a few plans for later in the week, not to mention a mini final on the book for Friday. The following week is going to be a bit weird as this semester will have ended and the new one will not have yet begun. I suppose I'll do more exam prep with them and review what we did during the semester. I just know attendance will suck though. I don't know why the admin shortened the marking period by a week. Seems pretty dumb. They haven't given a reason for the change. Reminds me of how they gave me a music class to teach next semester without talking to me about it. I don't actually mind teaching music but why wasn't I asked? Besides, what the hell do I know about music? "OK, class. I'm going to play seven hours of Massive Attack B-sides. You're going to listen to the music and chill. When we're done I want you to write a paper on why this band kicks ass. Any questions? Good." Seriously, I suppose I could come up with ideas for things to do, e.g., have the students bring in music they listen to for the whole class to hear and discuss, have students do research on their favorite musicians, have them write about how the music appeals to them, etc., etc. I have a modest CD collection too of classical, hip-hop, rock, pop, hippie, industrial, and reggae. Should be interesting to plan this one.

In hindsight I suppose I have been more productive than I seem to think. This afternoon I met with the ESL instructor I replaced. We had brunch at Fred's over on Amsterdam. She told me a lot about what she did with the students last year. We had a productive chat about teaching at the school and in the city in general. I walked away with some good advice and tips I think. She now teaches in Long Island, where she got another ESL gig, though one that pays more. She was in the same program at Columbia as I'm in so we have a very similar background. Of course that means she was in the Peace Corps too (in the Philipines).

Yes, the week should be rather good since everyone is trying to learn as much as possible to pass the big exam. For me it'll be especially good as it's followed by a three-day weekend. Although I don't think I'm going anywhere I am looking forward to exploring more of NYC and working on the syllabus for next semester.

Gregg and Dara and Risa are just too much on the dance floor. They needed to boogie and so I took them to 420, which they really liked.

Otherwise very sad to report Italian pro Denis Zanette has passed away at 32 of a heart attack. He did great in the 2001 edition of the Tour of Flanders, one of the biggest races there is and one that almost every pro wishes he could win. He'll be missed. RIP.

I probably shouldn’t be in a good mood but I am. I am very confident in my first group. They have better attendance than the second and are much more serious and involved too. Conventional wisdom says that the beginning groups come to class more often and are better behaved and more serious about school because they are new to the country, that is, once they get used to things here they get lazy. I certainly hope they prove the cynics wrong. Anyway, we did Regents prep work and they liked it, though I say liked it to mean they did not really like it but found it useful and a the type of thing they need to do. As for the second group there were only four students. A fifth came late and in bad humor; when I asked why he said he lost a hundred bucks that he had come to school with. He was going to buy some new clothes.

I just had to talk about the sudden drop in attendance and so I asked those present what the deal was. The responses were varied. One student said she just can’t make herself come to school and can’t make herself concentrate when she does come. She said she doesn’t get along with her father and that it causes her stress and makes it so that she can’t sleep at night. When I asked her about her lack of concentration she was speechless. I asked her if she’d ever seen anyone about a possible learning disability and she said no. I’m going to have her talk to the school counselor. Another student said he doesn’t come to class because he just can’t make it through a whole day of school. My class starts just after noon and goes to half past one. Well, what are you going to do when you get a job and you have to work from 8 to 5? No response. It felt like a silly question that your parents might have asked you but it just came out. Another student said he had no interest in reading books with no pictures (!!). All I could say was that a good author paints a picture with words for you and they actually bought it.

The next big thing going on at school is the Regents exam in English, which takes place January 27—28. Many have asked that I signed them up to sit for the exam but I know that many are not ready for it. Perhaps in the summer they’ll be ready, but they all want to take it and pass it ASAP. I tell them that they have to be better prepared to pass such a challenging examination of their English but they don’t seem to care about that, or they don’t seem to know what I’m talking about, or they don’t want to pass up the chance to get out of school at the earliest possible opportunity.

Otherwise the game plan for the new term is in the works. I am in the preliminary stages of gathering materials and sorting through several hundred possible activities, books on ESL, Web sites, and so forth. Coming up with curricula for five different class is such good fun though that I hardly notice the time go by. Except when I wake up at four in the morning with all my clothes and the lights on....

Columbia University by night:



Our school trip to the Women's Project Theatre in Manhattan. These are some of my ESL students reading their monologues for professional directors and actors.

I can’t really be happy about much today in spite of two really good lessons because I learned that some of the students in my class will be dropping out of school. I hear that some are going to do the GED in lieu of a high school diploma; others are just dropping out of the program. Further, and this is rather coincidental, there is a list going round to all the ESL and English teachers that names students who may be discharged from the program, i.e., the school. All are absent way too often and most don’t do any work and don’t participate. I had the unpleasant task of adding students to the list. It pained me to add some but relieved me to add others. For there are those for whom school is a joke--and they don’t belong in our program, which tries to accommodate the neediest but also the most serious of all those students who don’t graduate from regular high schools. Then there are those my heart aches a little for. Yes, call me sentimental. This group of students is characterized by good behavior and good participation but also poor attendance and what they call difficult lives outside schools. For them I feel bad. They have the stuff to graduate and even go to college but for whatever reason cannot discipline themselves to get the current job done. They will probably not be able to go another school as they are pretty much at the end at this school. That is, they are already at an alternative school and cannot go back to a regular high school because of their age mainly. Remember, most of my students are about twenty years old. Some have been in the program four semesters (or two years). On the bright side those who are being asked to leave, so to speak, may find they have new urgency in life to complete their secondary education. They can go study for the GED, which is, depending on the person, a poor substitute for a HS diploma, or work in the trades I guess. That’s what the alternative is for many, according to the other teachers. I won’t even see some of them off as they are being notified immediately. So it goes in the big system of NYC.

In other news one of my students was telling me about his month in prison. He was in Rikers in NY for assault and battery. He told how he was minding his own business in a convenience store when some dude bumped into him. They guy apparently asked for an apology! A fight ensued and my student managed to come out the victor, leaving by the check out a beaten punk. Unfortunately though the clerk took down my student’s license plate number and the victor ended up in a line and was finally identified. He said he got beat up in prison several times in fewer than thirty days. He told how the section of the prison he sojourned was divided into neat little cells of gangs. He ended up in the wrong one, as if he had a choice, and got into trouble for just being there. No, he was not in a gang; he just had bad luck, so he says. On the plus side he said he was so scared in the big house that he would never get into trouble again lest he ended up back in it. Besides, he now has something else on his mind: his girlfriend is pregnant. He told me this week that it’s going to be a boy. He’s eighteen.

I can’t imagine myself at thirty with a little Danny around the house let alone eighteen!! I sometimes find myself sitting in class, staring at these kids. We have such very different backgrounds. I find their own stories more interesting than the stories we read in class. On good days when the literature invokes good feelings in them I find myself listening to their tales which to them seem unimportant of course. I suppose it’s all about perspective.

Got my camera back form the gracious hosts of the NYE bash:



Dave and Zhara:



David et moi: partners in crime:



Allen, mixing with the ladies:



Noah, ladies' man 2003:



Where else but the kitchen:



Peace Corps Fellows be the craziest:



Don't know who they are but they were having fun:

O my. Bottle Rocket got a 7.5 out of 10 at imdb.com. People! I gave it a 4 but my vote was refused as I haven't signed up at the site. Doh! Whatever. Such a dumb movie.

OK, another week ahead. Got grading to finish still but should have everything back to students tomorrow. Then there will be an exam to give and grade and some minor assignments and that will be it for the term. I wanted to give another book report but there is no time since attendance has been poor and the school has made the marking period shorter by a week. So it goes. Testing will be going on at the end of the month and then the new term starts. I have a plan to do a novel though I have to narrow it down to one from about five. I think The Red Pony, though a rather simple, cute tale of a boy growing up on a ranch, has been good for the students. Well, there is still about a third of the book to go for us, but those who have read it (!!) seem to have liked it. I'd like to do August Wilson's play Fences which I think is excellently written. It is certainly above and beyond The Red Pony in language and content but can extend the basic premise of both works, which has to do with relationships and growing pains. It's been a while since I read Wilson's Pulitzer winning play though. It'd be good for an ESL class though, as the actual reading aloud will make for livelier classes. The narrative chunks in novels can put people to sleep sometimes.

Finally saw The Right Stuff. Really cool though I felt the end was a little wanting. I was moved by some scenes and was engaged throughout the film, but the end left something to be desired. Sam Shepard, what a stud: great writer, good actor. I remember seeing his True West performed at NIU. I though that was a very good play. I'll have to see the TV version with Bruce Willis. How can I get the TV version though??

Otherwise was out for a ride in the park. Very cold (I think my legs were quite frozen by the time I got home) but a liberating workout nonetheless. If I could get home before it gets dark and go out for a spin everyday that would be great.

I'm off to drip as I can't stay cooped up in my little flat any longer. Really, I just go for the java....

Today, Friday, was good at the start: got to school a little earlier than normal, about 7:50, and took care of some photocopying, email, lesson planning, and preparing the video. In the first of my double periods there were ten students and they seemed to tolerate the film OK. Some even laughed along a little. Most watched it but a few were sleeping. In the last three periods there were no students at all. There I sat with no students and the movie and my lesson all ready. How pathetic! I could rant about the lack of job satisfaction this week but what could would it do. I’ll just keep my fingers crossed for next week. Looking over the students grades for this third marking period is depressing as many are failing my classes. There are, off the top of my head, about a third of the students who are passing. I know that the same is true for some of the other teachers I know here so I don’t think my lessons are too hard or anything beyond the potential of the students. At TC they tell us to keep our standards high anyway. I try to. But some days I can get anything going in my classes and so I resort to spoon feeding the students. I sometimes wonder if I should just concentrate more on language, that is, on grammar and sentences and mechanics and such, as opposed to doing some of that and a lot of discussion and group work and reflective writing and short paragraph writing. Aside from what we do though I know from talking to the students that the reason most of the failing students are failing has more to do with their poor attendance and lack of effort and motivation to pass and get on with life. What to do? I ask myself. I know I have tried to encourage them and even motivate them and I shall continue to do so but I am afraid there is only so much I can do. I find myself wondering what it would be like to teach in a “normal” school in which most of the students show up most of the time and do most of the work most of the time. I should not compare my school with others but I can’t help it sometimes. I see myself in another classroom engaged in discussions with engaged students about language, literature, film, discussion, and so forth. But this is what I am supposed to be doing with my students. Instead I walk to class wondering if any students will show up. I suppose that I am overreacting to the poor attendance of the past two days. But the attendance is rather wanting most times anyway. I have to remember that there have been many good classroom discussions and experiences in addition to the slow, dragging days.

I am not overlooking the whole cross-cultural side of the matter either: I know many of the students here have a lot of issues at home and in this, their new country. I know all the problems people have living away from their native land, learning a new language, and dealing with all the other stuff. It’s totally hard to do. Very hard. Probably the hardest thing one can do. I've done it. I don’t despair completely though and I still hope that many will eventually graduate with a high school diploma. But there are many, many problems that have to be resolved for this to happen. And when there are students absent for days at a time regularly I have to ask myself how they can make it to the next phase of their lives successfully, that is, go on and get decent jobs and contribute to society. At the same time I think I have honed my teaching skills and approaches to classroom methods and management well enough to feel that I am at least doing what I can to provide willing students an opportunity to succeed. I have much to learn—always will—but I know that in the main I am on the right track in my practices. Observers tell me this and I know this from observing others and reading all the books and talking to all the profs and other experts. So what’s the magic word? I get restless knowing that many of the students are missing out on a good education and a diploma that can serve them well later in life.

Well, this rambling’s got to end. I am left thinking now about planning the next semester, which begins in February. I think I will definitely incorporate a lot more language-based activities, such as cloze exercises, vocabulary notebooks, short readings, listening activities, and grammar practice, among other things. I have been using these things in my present teaching practices but will be using them a lot more in the future. That is to say I will be doing less with class discussion and less with higher order activities that require interpretation. The students, in the main, are not ready for such work. The foundation has to be laid first I guess. The irony is that I was told to do novels and essay writing with these students but most are not ready for these things. I look back over the semester and realize I was oscillating between concentrating on writing simple sentences and parts of speech and reading a novel and discussing basic literary terms such as plot and conflict. I need to meld these two major groups of activities together if I am going to improve the learning experience in the next term.

There is such a big, critical part of teaching high school that you don't learn anywhere save in class itself.

In any event I just watched The Third Man. Pretty good film but not as good as I expected it to be. It was missing something. What I don't know. It reminded me of Casablanca with its expatriates and corruption. Vienna looks cool in post-WWII black and white though. It's definitely worth seeing. I'll probably watch it again before I return it.

Today, the first day back from Xmas break, was difficult in part because only five students showed up in the first lesson and one in the second and none in the third. I went ahead with a writing assignment that asked students to look back at 2002 and write about it in a short composition. I gave them a handout with topic sentence starters for each paragraph as they need much help writing paragraphs. One student had a hard time writing and got out a few sentences. The rest got out a good three or four short paragraphs. We discussed what they wrote and they seemed to like that at least a little bit. So few students though! At the end of the lessons I asked the students to write three things they did in 2002 with one of the things being false. They liked this more and they got to speak and joke a little.

Up late surfing the Web for lots of stuff, mainly about teaching ESL and English and using film in language classes. I ended up at my alma mater's English department page looking at what all the professors are doing these days. My own studies here don't start for a while yet, thank heavens. Teaching at the college level may be in my future. Who knows? But for now I'm quite OK with secondary school. I figure if I can make a good decision about teaching at the secondary level in a year and a half when my program finishes. There are of course advantages and disadvantages to teaching at each level, the main ones being that at the secondary level there are young minds budding like flowers in a chaotic world, while at university you can probably become quite the expert in your subject, be it rhetoric or cooking potatoes.

Otherwise I think 13 Conversations about One Thing is a pretty good film. Its narrative reminded me of Magnolia the way it moved almost seamlessly from one character to another. I finally got the DVD and sound set up perfectly so that during the film I every once in a while jump at noises coming from behind, thinking someone is in my kitchen holding a big knife.

Spent New Year's Eve at a gorgeous flat on the upper east side. Friends of Orla were great hosts. Went with Dave, Zara, Noah, and Allen and met a lot of new people. Orla was dressed up and the perfect social butterfly.

New Year's Day has just been ugly: rainy and cold and I'm hanging a little. Slept most of the day then watched The Red Pony with Dave. I'll be showing it tomorrow and Friday and comparing it to the book in class. There are not supposed full classes these next two days and I'm with the students when they say it's dumb to have school these two days between the winter break and next week.

Otherwise I am watching more movies these days, break or no break. Thanks to diggerblue for the inspiration.