wiggolation

This bad weather is getting really old. Really. The only thing nice about it is that I enjoy riding in the rain. The throngs clear out of Central Park as if the plague had come or something. Leaves nice wide open paths for the dirt- and sand-clad cyclists who act as sponges for both the rain and dirt. Yes, sand. It's on the inside loop of the park, on the inside runners' track. Nice for runners, bad for bicycles.

Will be purchasing a DVD today. First in a while:


By the way, what's there in Timmy's pants?

Meanwhile there are only ten days of teaching left. Then Regents. Then a road trip to Miami. Then summer class at TC. Then another trip in August. Then possibly a new school to teach at.

...and again we say thanks to all the crazy Italians who entertained, thrilled, and shocked us over the last three weeks. It's been fun, as usual. Nice one Simoni.

Took at trip out to Tarrytown, just about a half hour by train from Manhattan. Nice, quiet little town where some friends live. Had a bbq in between the periods of rain.

The workshop was a bit disappointing as it was overenrolled and computers had to be shared for half the weekend. And we basically spent the whole weekend developing a lesson plan to be published online through a program called WebQuest. It's actually a fine idea and a nice tool for teaching, but I did not need a weekend workshop to teach me how to use it. Most of us seemed to feel the same way. I expected a lot more discussion and hands-on practice with computer technology and language learning. That didn't happen. The instructor was really pleasant though. And I will be using WebQuest in my teaching. I just think there should have been a course description! My lesson was pretty simple: it introduces students to blogging and gets them started writing online. Nothing creative--more of a resource type of lesson I guess.

Otherwise, what lousy weather!!

Good ESL resources: Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab and eslGold

Learning the History of CALL

Random thoughts as the spring TC semester is now finished. Signed up today for a weekend workshop on CALL – Computer Assisted Language Learning – that will take place May 23-25. Otherwise I don’t return to TC for regular class till July 8 for two summer courses, Phonetics and Phonology and Intro to Learning Disabilities. That all seems like ages away though. And what an easy life it now seems without TC classes. I think I could be a lot better teacher if all I did was teach—there’s so much more time now, I’ve so much energy, lower stress levels, etc., etc. Although the theory helps give a way to organize and explain notions about teaching and methods and so forth.

….

There’s a student in my morning ESL class. She enrolled in the class late in the semester and has been absent more than she’s been in school. She’s from the Ivory Coast. She’s got a sick brother she has to take care of. He’s mentally ill. Their mother is apparently still living back in Africa. They’re waiting for her to arrive. Meanwhile they live with an aunt. Although when she is in school she comes late and is, not surprisingly, unprepared due to her absences, she does participate and the work she does is good. Today I saw her standing outside the counselor’s office. I asked her if she was OK. She said she might be in trouble. Too many absences. I’d like to help this student out but what can I do? It’s actually really difficult because she is in school one day and then absent five. In the middle of all that goes on any given day it’s too easy to overlook the students most in need. The quiet ones. You get too caught up with the loud ones. I mean, I’ve talked to this girl several times, little mini-conferences, whatever, but it’s always the same. That is, I have to help my brother. I suggested she talk to her counselor about getting some help. She says she will see somebody, a social worker, someone in her neighborhood. I don’t know what is going to happen to this student, obviously, but you wonder now and again, in between all the rush at school and college and in the city, what happens to the students who fall silently through the cracks.

Ugh. Just too busy for my own good. Come on, weekend.

Met with Bede, the prof for SLA, and it seems I can take a Computer Assisted Language Learning workshop and get credit for it toward my degree. Sweet. The guy who's running it is the Dean from UCLA or something, and he's supposed to be a big name in the field. I'm psyched about this as it's the first course (and quite possibly the last) that I've taken at TC that has to do with language learning and computers. About time too.

Otherwise grades are done. Some F's are being dished out but so too A's and B's and C's and D's. So it's a mixed bag. Not bad either as I've heard some teachers say they're giving out a zillion F's. Yikes.

The blog thing is coming along slowly but surely with the students. Tomorrow we're in the lab so they'll be adding to their sites. That's the plan, anyway. Most dig it, though a few couldn't be bothered. Funny, but these are the same students who couldn't be bothered to do much of anything. So it goes. I've got to remember that not all the students can be helped. Go for the ones who can, I guess. Can't be cynical. Gotta be positive.

Got to get back to my final papers, which are coming along at a snail's pace.

Come summer. Come!

Another Monday--and what a busy week it is turning out to be. Graded a fat stack of homework and tests on Sunday; prepared and presented info about the NYSESLAT at the school staff meeting today; getting things ready for Chicago; and now about to get into the two final papers for Second Language Acquisition and Discourse Analysis. I still have to do grades for the second marking period; those are due Thursday.

Otherwise my classes are getting smaller. Seems to be the case with other teachers as well. I have had a few students taken off my class register in just the past week. Whether they were discharged I don't know--and who am I to expect to know what the admin is doing with the students? Anyway I'm down to 8 students in the beginning ESL class; 18 in the intermediate class; and 19 in music. So I went from having 65 students to 45 in one semester. That's normal, so I'm told. Such is teaching in NYC schools.

As for the beginners they're reading and writing about 'The Cask of Amontillado' with short nonfiction texts mixed in on alternate days; the intermediate students are analyzing 'The Necklace' in preparation for the literature section of the Regents (it's a struggle but I'm supposed to teach native-speaker level lit); and the music students are writing movie reviews of 8 Mile.

Source for Tolstoy. (There's a free mp3 audio book of Anna Karenina for those who have trouble falling asleep.)

Hamilton takes the 2003 Tour of Romandie. Go figure. What's next? Le Tour? Watch out, Lance. Go easy on the pasta.

The students seem to dig the blogging thing. As did some observers I had. The principal came in to observe me and she liked the writing/computer/publishing activities. Some of the students have posted to their sites from home, which I see as a good indication of their motivation.

Nontheless today was a warm Friday and the attendance in the later class was really low with less than a third of the students present. Ah well. Can't win 'em all. The students who were there dug 'The Cask of Amontillado'.

Because I was so busy this week I totally forgot to turn in a termination of occupancy form to the housing people at the College; so I'm getting penalized 150 bucks. Just another reason to dislike Teachers College. Ironically the people who get treated worst in that place are in-service teachers. Well, at least I'll be half done with the program in about a week and a half. So be it.

Can't wait to get through my 'customized' 4-day week next week and head to Chicago on Friday. Going to see the family and some friends; celebrate my graduation from grad school in DeKalb; celebrate some more in Wheaton; and celebrate some more in Chicago.

Otherwise I'm following Hamilton; he's looking more and more like Armstrong's biggest rival for le tour this year. You heard it here first. This week he's racing in the Tour of Romandie in Swizerland:

Got my ESL students blogging. And the music class too.

And, yes, this is a new, humble look for wiggo. I was having browser issues with IE.