wiggolation

Felt I needed a change of title to go with the new face lift of my blog. thus ellipsis, the deliberate omission of a word or words readily implied by the context. So there.

O my students are going to love throwing this in my face. Good for them. (I always knew it!)

As for improving the plight of ELLs, this is a start.

2002-03: Year in Review

I’ve been meaning to jot down a few closing thoughts about the past year or so.

Overall I have to say it’s been great. I moved from DeKalb, IL, to New York, NY, for one. I always wanted to live in NYC. In many ways it is the greatest city in the world. But I still have a few more great ones to see so I’ll hold off on any final judgment.

I also finished a master’s in rhetoric and literature, which I am glad about as it’s such an interesting area of study. If anything, I think I have only scratched the surface of what the study of rhetoric is. For me I guess it’s a rather vast area of study in which you, the critical reader and/or writer, look at issues that affect thought and reason, persuasion and identification, in the greater media of writing, literature, TV, radio, politics, and so forth – communication in general. Now that’s just the gist of it, for me anyway. Whether you’re interpreting the classic texts or the current president’s State of the Union address, there are a number of interesting observations to be made.

It’s a shame, by the way, that the word ‘rhetoric’ has suffered so much bad mouthing. Next time you hear the word ‘rhetoric’ in the news, substitute the word ‘bullshit’ and see if you can decide what is really being conveyed. A true rhetorician is all about turning over the many sides of an argument or problem, just as you would talk to the different witnesses to a car accident. I guess I’m just reacting to all the bullshit that has been thrown around the TV and papers about the so-called war on terror and the federal government and such. It’s not rhetoric they’re using. That’s for sure.

This country needs a great statesman. Or stateswoman.

Besides graduating and moving to NYC, I am pretty happy with my current lifestyle as I have fashioned it. Teachers College, which takes up a lot of my time after teaching, has been a generally positive experience. I think I am more knowledgeable about TESOL, teaching, and education in general. I feel I have managed to put myself on track towards a rewarding job and diverse educational background. Although there are some professors I have not appreciated, there is a greater number from whom I have learned a good deal in only a year. I’ve got a year to go, and I think it’s going to fly by, as this one seems to have done.

Teaching. Ah, teaching. What can I say? I’m done with my first year in the US system. The NYC system, that is. It’s been great, and it’s been hellish. It’s such a mixed experience. I’m without an appropriate analogy so I’ll just say it’s been a roller coaster. There have been many great lessons, great students, great teachers, great mentors. I think very positively when I think about the past year. But there is that certain nausea I carried with me throughout much of the year. Maybe it was the two and half hour round-trip commute every day on the crowded subway trains in the belly of New York City. Maybe it was all the long days of planning, teaching, meetings. Well, whatever it was, I will just try to accept it as the first year blues or something.

I hesitate to comment on the administration I worked under. It seemed half the staff in our school hated the other half. There’s some real hatred in the school system. It’s very sad too. Not to mention detrimental to the morale and spirit of would-be good teachers and schools. As I see it there is always going to be some ‘politics’ in schools, as there is in any organization where humans dwell. I just think my particular school suffered needlessly because some of the teachers and admin could not carry out their professional obligations without ‘watching their own backs’ and the like. It’s a great shame really. So much tit for tat.

All along, though, I thought it was the students I’d be challenged by. And, yes, they did challenge the hell out of me sometimes. Yet it was the staff and admin, half of whom should be fired. But I digress.

The biggest problem, which I almost forgot to mention, has been dealing with the demands issued by the NYC Dept. of Education as regards the English language learning population and graduation requirements. I have taken this issue personally, for better or worse. After all, the students I teach are at the end of the line when it comes to graduating from a US high school with a diploma. The situation, though, is almost impossible for them. Totally impossible for most, in reality. Unless the students who are in the ELL program are gifted language learners or have worked amazingly hard to improve their English over the years, there’s really no way for them to learn native-speaker English in a few years. In reality most people are not gifted or amazing. Just normal. So why does the state think immigrant youths are any different? Makes me want to go into language policy. But this has been my rant all year. Until NYCDOE comes up with an ELL version of the English Regents, the majority of the ELL population is going to be pushed out of school without a diploma. Not because they didn’t work hard or aren’t bright enough. But because they have impossible demands imposed on them. The state has been promising such an exam since 2000. Three years later there’s still no exam.

Stupid white people.

Nonetheless I feel I was able to affect things in my classes, a little anyway. I finished off the year having created a rapport with most of the students. I think many of them improved their English and overall ‘acculturation’ in the US.

I look forward to a relatively easy summer schedule and a new, improved year of teaching in September.

Destination: Portland, Maine.



Well, it kind of just happened. Today I was having my morning coffee, about noon that is, when I thought, "I've got fewer than ten precious days of absolute freedom from both teaching and studying; what the hell am I going to do with it? Sit around and wish I were somewhere else?" So on and so forth I depressed myself. I mean, if I didn't get away and take a trip I might go nuts. Right about then I thought of my ole buddy Jim Wackett, whom I first met in Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic. We taught English together at the uni there and have been "distant friends" since -- that is, we haven't lived in the same country (or state) since that fine academic year of 1996-1997. So, I did a search on whitepages.com found his telephone number. I hadn't been in touch with him for a year or so. But I knew he was now living in the north of Maine, teaching English. So I'd thought I'd pay him a visit. Hang out, catch up, drink beer in the summer sunshine, kick it around Maine. Sure enough I got hold of Jim and learned he had plans to be in Portland, Maine's largest city, over July 4th. Said he'd love some company as he was planning on going down alone. So we're meeting half way, so to speak.

So I'm kicking it in Portland July 2-6. Taking a train too. I'm looking forward to that as I've taken a long distance train in the US all but once, from Chicago to Ontario back in '94 (to attend the Stratford Shakespeare Festival). Something nice about sitting alone on a train for several hours, watching the country go by. And it's a nice break from the hustle and bustle of ORD, MDW, JFK, LGA, EWR, etc., etc.

I'll be looking for all the info I can find on Maine now. Want to make it a meaningful trip as it's probably the only one I'll have for a good while. All I know about Maine is that Longfellow and Steven King hail from thither. Jim says King donates a lot of cash to schools and writing programs in Maine. Says Portland is pretty cool too, and that was seconded by my Lonely Planet United States.

And let's don't forget the clam chowder.

What I've found so far:

Maine, coastal area photos
Maine blog
Portland bloggers
Portland city guide
Newspaper article on tourists coming to Portland

For all you poseurs out there who keep insisting you're better than the rest of the human race just because you don't watch TV -- or don't own one. You know who you are. Ha!

Catherine and Sean's wedding was perfect....


Moments after the ceremony: The Newlyweds, my sister Catherine and Sean, are now married (21 June 2003).


In the limo.


Sean with the fam (that is, from left to right, Mary, Jerry, Clare, John, Sean, Catherine, Brian, Mom [Theresa], Jimmy, Andy, Dad [Jeremiah], and me). Does Sean know quite what he's getting into??


The fam extended.


Beata and Brian (as in lifeofbrian).


With Uncle PJ, a retired Irish Guard who traveled from Ireland to Illinois for the wedding.


Tom and Susan, buddy and cousin, who have wedding plans of their own.


diggerblue and Beata: "Just follow my lead, baby: I'm a teacher."


With Catherine at the end of her big day: O my gosh! We're grown-ups.


Kim and diggerblue: "Wait a second: I know there's one missing."

DeKalb is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Thank god. You're still the same, you haven't changed. You're still the same.

I couldn't sleep so I am up early blogging. This is really pathetic.

"Slept" on skrub's kitchen floor (my old floor, that is) so that meant I was up earlier than I'd have liked. Thanks for throwing out your futon, skrub. You space freak. This guy won't even keep extra pens around for fear they may be taking up space.... I'm signing him up for the you-and-Michael Jackson-too-can-be-normal-people counseling sessions. On the bright side skrub has a nice pad and a great computer set up -- and he's promised me a full breakfast! God luv ya.

Another thing: skrub has been giving me shit about my unattractive blog template. Said something like, "I don't watch TV but I can tell your blog doesn't offer much sensory stimuli." What?! That son-of-a. He's so dead. Ripping on my blog! I told him to shuv it. Well, after he makes me breakfast, that is. When I told him my blog entries speak for themselves he puked. Then I laughed and puked too. Nice that we're all grown up and mature.

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So yesterday I awoke at my brother's place (in Wheaton). Showed him how to download music via Kazaa and burn downloaded music on a CD. Will I go to hell for this? I never really got into the downloading of music thing. I did it for a while but I found I was too busy. Or had other things I wanted to do instead. Besides, I downloaded an infected file one time that had 41,000 infected files or something. And I heard that 'spyware' was part of the whole package that you install in your machine. Needless to say I was not impressed with Kazaa or any of those applications.

After getting some wheels from my sister I toured the western suburbs a bit and then drove up to DeKalb where I met up with skrub and his girlfriend Angela. (They make a cute couple.) We talked about Peace Corps (she was in Bulgaria, I in Czech Rep.).

I later attended the wedding rehearsal dinner at Pizza Villa. That was interesting as my brother Andy showed up with his family. He moved to Michigan a few years ago. Hadn't seen him in ages. Anyway, the food and conversation were very good. Brian and I and some others later hung out Amex, the old watering hole in DeKalb.

Which is to say that I'm all ready for today, the big wedding!

Yesterday I spent the day proctoring a math exam, writing up a list of new ideas for teaching next fall, and eating with some of the other teachers at the best burger joint I've ever been to. Eventually I made it over to LaGuardia where I sat for three hours waiting for my flight, which was fine. On the plane I chatted with an interior designer from Chicago. We talked about learning languages, of all things. She had German parents and they insisted she speak English only as a kid. All her friends were bilingual so she felt a little cheated later. Anyway, it was nice to come to the sunny, warm weather of Chicago. NYC's been rainy and chilly for ever it seems. Unfortunately, after landing, Avis screwed me over and wouldn't rent me a car. I had reserved one through expedia.com and even confirmed it by phone in NYC, but when I got to Midway in Chicago they would not take my debit/credit card, saying that "Avis no longer accepts those cards." It's all I use these days.
"So why was I able to reserve a car with the same card?"
"I don't know, sir. But we stopped taking those cards."
"So, you can't rent me a car because I have a debit/credit card. OK, well I'll just pay cash right now then. How much?"
"Sir, we don't take cash."
"What the #@!? do you mean you don't take cash?"
More of the same, back and forth.

Eventually I walked away, beaten and without mobility. Imagine, dear reader, being in America without a car?

Yes, very pathetic.

Now what pissed me off was that I have rented from National/Alamo four times in the last eight months and never had a problem using this card. A good company, it seems to me, would have gotten me a car. I guess I should have gone with National/Alamo this time too--and not been tempted by Avis' special deals. Ugh. Boycott Avis! Boycott Avis!

Thanks to my sister Mary, however, I have wheels for the weekend.

Too bad one has to be so dependent on cars in this place. When was it that the idea of public transportation died in Cook County? The ONLY people who use public transport in the Chicago suburbs are the poor, the immigrants, et el. And me. What does that say?

After riding in a cab (!!) to Fox's in Oak Lawn, where I met some family and relatives in from the old country, I was able to relax and eat and socialize. The live entertainment, cheesy as it was at times, was perfect. I had one of those moments in which I was at home with stupidity and suburbia. Comfortable.
More like complacent.

[end rant]

Today, nonetheless, is a beautiful day. And my sister gets married tomorrow. DeKalb or bust.

Last night I watched The Godfather II. This two-hour plus sequel is really well-made and totally satisfying as a sequel, if not as a stand-alone film. At first I thought, "This is slow and boring"; however, it evolves, I think, into an interesting psychological drama, complete with murder, courtrooms, and plenty of careful chess playing among the mafia (for power, money, etc, etc). The whole Cuban setting is a cool surprise and a pleasant departure from the Italian scenes, however well presented they are. (I wish Coppula had developed the Cuban rebel motif a bit more though.) I suppose, at the end, we are to believe the Michael (Pacino) "succeeds" in keeping The Family in tact -- that is, though he kills his brother Fredo and some competing crime bosses, he does so in the hopes of preserving the tradition of loyalty to the family in a similar fashion to the way his father did. Of course there's an inherent double-standard and irony at work throughout Michael's "preservation" of family, for in reality he has killed his brother, his colleagues, some friends, and rejected his wife (Dianne Keaton) when she seems to have forgiven him toward the end of the film, etc., etc. So whether you think the film is a story of Michael's success depends largely on whose definition of family you use. A young Diniro plays a very decent role as the rising (original) godfather; his Italian is really good too. Did he learn Italian just for this film? All in all a really rich film experience. Can't wait to see III, which should be interesting as it was made about fifteen years after II.

Rushed to school (as fast as one can rush in the NYC subway, that is) to find that although I was supposed to show up at 10.40 I don't do anything till 2.40. I thought I might be a little late for my proctoring duty this morn but I will instead be looking for some bagels and some time to catch up on grading now that the semester is over. This morning was a perfect example of why I shouldn't ever have an irregular schedule. Yeah, it's nice to sleep in a little and start a little later than usual. But actually I'd rather not have my regulated physiological system be thrown out of whack like this.

Meanwhile I have grades due on Thursday and need to get those done. They will be relatively easy to do as my classes got smaller and smaller as the semester came to an end, unfortunately. The parties yesterday, by the by, were fun. I (and one brave student) brought in photos and books and memerobila from foreign countries; I had the students teach me a language lesson in their native tongue (Chinese and Korean -- tough stuff!), which they liked that a lot; everybody got competitive in a cut-throat game of "Taboo"; and finally I asked them to write themselves a letter, which they wrote and sealed in an self-addressed envelope and which I'll be posting to them in a few years' time. (I had a college teacher who did this with us many moons ago; boy was it interesting getting a letter from yourself written in the distant past. I still have the letter.)

On that note I got my master's degree in the mail, finally. It's now up on my wall next to my credit card statements, death threats from students, and dog-eared Muchas.

Das ist cool.

That's it for my first year of teaching in the largest public school system in the United States! Today I also had my exit interview for AmeriCorps. For that I had to write up an essay about what I've been doing the last year as an AmeriCorps member. I reflected on the ups and downs of teaching alternative high school ESL, living in NYC, being a grad student, etc. More on this in a weekend post.

The new blogger interface for posting seems nice, by the way. But it's weird cos every few minutes it seems like the browser refreshes itself. Hmm. And Brian can't seem to post anything this week either. Seems like blogger is acting a little unstable lately. I dunno.

It feels fine being done with preparing lessons for a while. Actually I don't mind the prep--it's the grading I can't stand. I get so backed up at times. I find I've got a thick folder of papers to grade every week. Next year I need to systematize my assignments and grading. By contrast, profs seem to have it easy: they just give the occasional assignment and have a week turn around time to give it back. And since the writing is generally good it is basically the content that they have to critique. That seems so easy by comparision. Of course, it's really neat to see students go from being totally lost in their writing to very decent, competent writers. Doubly so since they are ESL.

Too bad there's this dismal weather hagning around. This is fucking June 13! I haven't seen a full week of summer this year. Blah!

Got my ticket to Chicago for little sister's big weekend wedding extravaganza. Will be in Thursday evening and out on Sunday afternoon.

Otherwise, teaching is over! Tomorrow I'm giving tests and Monday parties during class. The rest of the week there are state exams. Then Chicago. Then a final week of hanging out at the school, cleaning and consolidating materials. Woo woo.

With the gang at 'Bar' in the East Village, NYC.

And some pictures from my grad ceremony at NIU back in May:

Just watched the Godfather with Pacino, Brando and James Caan, to mention just a few of the big names in an all-star cast. Can't believe I'd never seen it as it's a great film and relatively old (it came out in my birthyear, 1972). I enjoyed it because there're some great scenes and it gives you insight into all the other mafia movies that have been made since.

Otherwise it's a rainy weekend, again, and thus a great time to relax and think about future summer plans. That is to say, I'm trying to figure out when I can get away from school and where I can go once I get away. With all the current expenses it seems I won't be doing anything exotic, as I'd like. Instead, I think I'll be roadtripping and camping. Maybe I'll drive to a coastal spot and enjoy the beach life. The plan to drive down the coast has been scrapped, unfortunately. Nonetheless I am looking forward to next Monday, the last day of teaching till Sept.

And diggerblue is in town. He rang today and we're going to get together tomorrow. Tonight he's going with an old high school buddy to see Salome with, coincidently enough, Al Pacino.

Welcome back to blogging, skrub!

It's "Brooklyn-Queens Day" today so no school. Time to relax! I am not very sure what this holiday is all about, why only schools in Brooklyn and Queens are closed, etc. I got only a vague answer from the teachers at my school, so it seems to be a bit mysterious. I did a Google search and the best I could find was this:

Brooklyn Day, as I recall, commemorated the establishment of Parochial School education, a necessary ingredient to the formation of our school system at the time...around the mid-19th century...over the years, it expanded to include the borough of Queens, hence Brooklyn-Queens Day. Ultimately, the name was changed to Anniversary Day, the name by which it is known today. (The school calendar for Brooklyn-Queens differs by one day from that of the other boroughs.)

Nonetheless I'm certain there were any number of students standing around the school entrance wondering what the hell was going on today with no one around and the doors locked. Serves them right for not attending regularly!! Then they'd know we had a day off today. (Such a teacher way to think!) It is great to have a Thursday off, though, as the world stays busy while I reflect a little and sleep in....

If only I didn't have so much paper work to take care of at TC!

Another rainy day in the city. So what happened to spring? OK, what about summer? I was so excited about going for a ride tonight but it's pissing pretty steadily.

Seems like things are really winding down now with just nine teaching days left. I'm so looking forward to being done with teaching for a couple months or so. I'll be going back Sept. 3, the day after Labor Day, though the first day of teaching won't be till Sept. 8. I certainly will appreciate every day of recharge. I feel quite tired these days. No energy. But I've got to push on through and in a couple weeks it'll be over. For a while anyway.

We had a staff meeting today, but not a regular, monthly one. Today the principal came in to tell us about the changes that are going to be taking place and affecting our school. We knew it was coming a long time ago, but sitting there hearing about all the changes makes it seem the more real. Our school will be mixing with another alternative school. Once the seniority list is compiled (by combining both schools' teachers) the project director is going to decide how many teachers will be needed. Then they will take roughly the top fifty percent of the teachers with the most seniority. Normally I'd be screwed in such a situation as I am new, but since I am the lone ESL teacher (that is, the only ESL-certified teacher) I stand a decent chance of staying on at my current school. I will still have to go through interviews and go before a selection committee or something like that. But I'm told my situation looks good actually. What really happens only time will tell. I do feel bad for those who don't make the top fifty and have to be excessed and look for other teaching jobs elsewhere. Seems our school, no matter how "bad" or impossible it seems to me, is a good place to teach. One teacher says "this is heaven" and that kind of thing about our school. The other teachers say the same. That is, other schools, the big high schools, are zoos, totally crazy. Well, I suppose I should take their word as I wouldn't have a clue as to what the other schools are like. From what I hear from the other PC Fellows my school seems to be about average. There are far better and far worse places to be. So I'm told.

Otherwise the students are reading "Death, be not proud" and "The Death of Ivan Illych" as Regents prep. Straight from the book. But it's hard to teach "authentic" lit as this stuff is hard for the mainstream students to read and interpret. If it weren't for the bloody Regents I'd be teaching much more digestible material. Don't get me wrong, Donne is great, and Tolstoy is brilliant, but in the land of intermediate ESL it's just about the hardest thing you could do. Any sane ESL teacher would choose something easier in terms of language and meaning. But this is what I have to teach. The Board of Regents wants ESL students to pass the same tests as their mainstream counterparts. I digress....

...though when I started talking about the personification of death in the Donne sonnet some of the students sat up and found it really cool. You never can tell what they'll pick up on.

P.S.: I wonder is it really necessary that students learn what "personification" and "simile" and such terms mean and how they work. I mean, it all seems at once so technical and pedantic. I feel the student should be exposed to a wide range of fiction and nonfiction. But are we really doing them any good in the long run by making them learn these seemingly technical terms. If it weren't for the standardized tests like the Regents, I'd be using everyday language with them. It's hard enough teaching English to ESL students in a public high school, let alone literary jargon.