wiggolation

Watch Dekalog I and II by Krzysztof Kieslowski. Four stars.

Week 4 ... but who's counting?

Yeah, there just ain't no time to do this here blogging thing much no more.

I think school is pretty interesting but I very often myself thinking of the lovely days to come when I don't have to go to school and teach school at the same time. It's useless to complain about it but I do think I'm going to be about 13% better off in the fall of 2004. Don't ask me how I arrived at that percentage. It seems about right though.

This week was pretty good overall. I am having a good time teaching the ESL classes, all four periods of them. We're working on literature mainly, the 'suspense' genre to be exact. The book I'm using has a lot of enrichment activities and a variety of task-based lessons. We did 'hist whist' by e. e. cummings along with other ghosts stories, anecdotes, and folktales predicated on the theme of suspense, witchcraft, and ghosts. I showed The Crucible with Daniel Day-Lewis and Wynona Rider to enhance our text and it worked out pretty well. Most liked it and were able to make connections between the film and the literature. While the students didn't seem interested in reading Miller's play, they wrote a short comparison/contrast essay on the different portrayals of witches. The 'lower-level' ESL class continues to work harder than the advanced group, which is pretty damn lazy. This class really has to get its shit straight. They are supposed to be doing better than the others, yet they are always absent, 'sick', sleeping, late, etc. The other class, however, is moving along great.

As for the music class it's still pretty hard to say what's up with these guys. The second test, which I just marked, did not go as well as the first. Some did better but the average was a whopping 19 points lower. Some are doing great so I know it's not me. I only got about half of the number of essays I should have gotten. The topic was "Why (so and so) Would Make A Great Teacher." It's based on School of Rock which comes out October 3rd. Almost all the males wrote about Tupac or Nas. Surprise. The females wrote about a variety of pop artists. Some were pretty good, but some were just writing crap to get a passing grade. Others did not even try. I think it's going to be more telling now that I'm going to have them do presentations on an artist/singer/band via PowerPoint in the computer lab. Last year this was a big hit. With this group though I wonder. Some of these kids seem so out of it. I just don't get it. Maybe they just hate school. Or their homes. Or something. Fortunately a good few are into the class. That's a relief.

I am embarking on the major project in SLA. It requires my partner and I to design a language test. Since it's a pretty intense class on testing it won't be as easy as it might sound. In fact testing is terribly difficult to do well. Apparently most tests are poorly designed. It's one of those subjects in which the more you learn the more you realize you don't know. It's a great course though, and by the time it's over I hope to have the skills needed to do design and analyze tests well. Time will tell.

K-6 Methods is crawling along. I don't mind as I'm busy with everything else. The class is interesting though. I never thought about teaching in a grammar school but if I ever needed to I suppose I'd be better able after taking this class.

Otherwise Brooklyn rocks. Went out with my teaching buddy from school to Planet Thailand, one of the better restaurants in Williamsburg. Even the Indian boy found their spicy food hot. He was bragging before eating how he grew up eating the hottest dishes. After the meal, though, his eyes were watering like a baby. These are the moments that you get to retell over and over in the teachers' lounge. Yes, the pathetic thrills of teaching high school...

Week 3

I think that things are better this year in part because I chose to use a couple of textbooks, and have decided to stick to them. I think last year I was really trying to do a bunch of different kinds of lessons with a variety of materials. But in the end I felt exhausted and frustrated even. Using the right books is critical of course. I think I got lucky in that the book I chose was one of the few textbooks that we have class sets for. It is a lit book designed for ESL students. It doesn't water down the curriculum either. But it does offer a lot scaffolding and pre-reading and follow-up activities.

While on the topic I just have say I'm really puzzled at how little other teachers know about ESL instruction. Not that they are supposed to be experts or anything. But every couple of days I get an anonymously dropped old book in my box with post-its that read 'Here's some stuff for your ESL kids' only to find that it's grade-school material, and about ten or twenty year old stuff at that. I do appreciate the kindness of course. But there are so many misconceptions about ESL instruction. The most prevailing myth is that ESL students need a watered-down curriculum. The rationale is that they would not be able to appreciate authentic native-speaker material and therefore need 'Dumbo Goes to the Zoo' etc. etc. Imagine if you were taking a class in a foreign language and the instructor gave you 'Curious George' to read. OK, that's a fun book, granted. But what if your whole damn curriculum was based on that shit? I think I've made my point. So instead of that crap I've got some great age-appropriate literature that has appropriate exercises that develop fluency and accuracy in the target language. If I had a dime for every time a student comes up to me after class and says, 'I'm glad we're reading [book du jour], because last year our English teacher made us read kids' stuff.'

Anyway, all is quiet on the home front. I did find a cool video rental in Williamsburg though, called 'Reel Life'. Very cool selection of foreign, noir, etc. Very good to have a place like that around, lemme tell ya. I rented Leningrad Cowboys Go America by Aki Kaurismaki and Waking Ned Divine. I thought the former was brilliant, the latter cute but essentially stupid. Aki is someone I wish I knew personally though. I think a lot like him. If I have a creative fabric in my body it's got the same genetic code as his.

I actually got my Columbia work done before nightfall this Sunday. That's a relief. So I made a grade sheet with Excel to keep record of my music class test scores. I don't know what they were complaining about on Friday because most passed, some even got hundreds. I think many of them are just wary of their teachers as a rule. Probably because of the system they've been pushed through. I still can't believe the turn out I get for this class. It's an 8th period class but I get almost everyone to show up. That's about 28 kids. I'm knocking on wood anyway....

Another One Bites The Dust

Week two of teaching has come and gone, and now I think things are normalizing for the most part. I can get into regular routines and concentrate on getting everyone up to speed with the texts I've chosen and the goals I've written up for the courses. The texts and goals are based on my analysis of their skills upon entering the class and some writing samples, so I feel I've got things going in the right direction.

The music class today didn't seem to like their first test. Some are just downright lazy quite honestly. Some complained about how I was even making them take a test every Friday (!!). Well, I suspect they were trying to mold me into something they wanted, that is, a blow off teacher in a blow off class. Well, obviously yours truly is having none of it. Thus a nice little two page tests on the music of North Am. and Canada based on the music program I'm using, called 'World Music' or something like that. I know some of the students are keen on it and are up to speed, but there are the slackers who invariably have a comment (negative) for anything we do. Don't get the wrong idea: the class is rather cool and pretty fun. Many of the comments that are negative are just from kids who are fronting anyway.

But some of these kids are living in another world. I know I need to make theirs and mine meet but for now the two are far apart. As for the majority they seem to be into the lessons.

The funny thing is that one of my 'assumptions' about ESL students seems to be turning out to be true, more or less. That is, the longer the students are in the US the less polite and engaged they become. Take for instance my two ESL classes. One is lower level, the other is higher. The lower level invariably outdoes the higher level. They have more respect for themselves and they are more open to trying new things. They participate more and are more interested. Etc. Etc. This leads to me think that there are certain problems that the newer ESL students have yet to deal with. There must be a number of issues at play here, but one I think has to do with something like culture shock. Yet it's bizarre because one would usually think culture shock happens right away, once the student arrives in the US or wherever they land. But I wonder if after a while if there isn't some sort of build up, a make it or break it type of period wherein the students who've been here a while see themselves either making it in the culture or not making it. Well, these are just some ideas I had. I can't say I have a clue as to hell what is going on with some of the students. You can ask them, of course, and I have, but I think not all of them will open to you. Not all of them are ready. They have a lot of stress.

Blah

I just can't keep up with the blog these days. It's so pathetic.

Anyway the year is going well so far. Teaching is pretty cool, even if there are some things I try not to think about. Like the handful of totally unprofessional staff and a couple of kids who don't even deserve to sleep during my pedantic lectures on life, struggle, and the precise time one needs to hit the Dunkin' Donuts (6:45 A.M.). Otherwise all's pretty good in the house.

I just love having a 'career' though. It's pretty fun. I just have to remind myself of that sometimes. It can be a total drag of a life if you let it be. I think we all have to force ourselves to do the things we like and give us deep down pleasure. For me it's reading stuff completely unrelated to teaching ESL or grad courses. It might be something easy and fun like Henry Miller or something pretty wild and abstract like Ezra Pound. I can't tell you how many times a day I count the syllables of 'A Station in the Metro' as I stand waiting for the train. Mondays and Wednesdays it seems that's all I do: wait for the train. Those days I spend at least five hours commuting...underground.

Who knows, maybe I'll end up finishing Columbia with a phat little piece of paper and land a phat little job in some obscure language center for immigrants, writing tests and creating courses for people to learn English in sixteen weeks. Then again, maybe I'll end up a high school teacher. You know, the guy with the bad tie and short-sleeved shirt who is ALWAYS holding a cup of very dodgy coffee in his left hand, while in the other he's got his copy of Clockwork Orange, wishing he were allowed to teach it--and show his kids the movie in its entirety. Wow. The stuff of dreams.

Anyway, the weeks are going just so fucking fast, I swear. It's Wednesday night and I am absolutely knackered and can't type without mistyping. Yet the best two days of teaching are still to come. Yes, my Thursdays and Fridays tend to be the best of the week. The Columbia nights are a thing of the past by then, I'm more relaxed as a result, I've usually had better nights' sleep, and I tend to be a little more wacky in the classroom. It's great to be able to teach something and be a little goofy. As Clinton would say, it's a win-win situation. And Fridays just rock for obvious reasons.

If I could just keep my eyes open a little longer. I think I'm going to be bold and read something before I conk out, something that has nothing to do with the job or the master's.

Very Interesting Spelling Research . . .

aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.

Half Way Home

Been a while since I wrote much here. Been too freakin' busy to.

So my second and final year of the Fellows Program has begun. I'm well into the teaching groove now with about a week and a half past me. How many to go?? Anyway, it's too early to say for sure but things so far are much better than last year. I guess I actually learned something about teaching last year. The devil knows I've much more to learn. But I think I have made progress in the areas of more effective instruction and planning and classroom management. Having said that, I think I need to improve in these areas. So I guess it's one of those things where you're always evolving, experimenting with trial and error methods, etc. I got a compliment today by word of mouth which was pretty nice considering I'm relatively new on the American high school circuit. Our school is looking for a dean now that it is supposed to be a real high school, as opposed to its old status as a program. Anyway, someone said I would be a good dean. What?! Me? A dean? Well, it ain't gonna happen. But it was nice to know someone is paying attention. I think my classes run smoothly because I put in a lot planning time and thought into controlling the variables I can control. There are teachers who let their classes get pretty out of hand. I just can't teach like that. At the same time I don't think I'm a control freak. I am not a type A personality, for the most part. I am happy to let students go a little nuts and talk out and that kind of thing. But I always tell them they have to be on task or forget it. Inevitably there are those days when they just can possibly sit still and concentrate on fiction or whatever. And I understand that. Sometimes I can't either. I mean, we see each other every day for 90 minutes, and I know I get sick of hearing myself for that long! I just try to keep everything civil and manageable. Anyway, I would never want the job of dean. Not a chance in hell of that. I'd rather be in the classroom. The plus of the job is that you teach just four classes and not the usual five. But I'd rather teach five and not have to deal with all the discipline problems, all the problems the others don't want to deal with.

As for Teachers College things there are also well underway. Second Language Assessment is pretty cool and interesting. I am pretty keen on learning about designing and evaluating language tests. I see a potential direction for me in language testing in the future. Then again, maybe not. We'll see how it all goes this fall. The one nugget of wisdom I got so far was about the GRE and SAT exams. Each has an accuracy of about 3%, that is, they're horribly designed tests and won't tell you jack about a person's chance of doing well in grad school. Ditto for the SAT and college. It's not really a surprise to me though as I always felt the GRE was stupid. How is the ability to match 'wine is to picnics as beer is to bowling' supposed to help anybody know anything? Grad school success, in English anway, depends almost entirely one's ability to write good papers. Period. It's quiet another thing to be able to match obscure antonyms and synonyms. It's too much of a stretch to connect command of vocab with writing abilities. The more you think about it the stupider that exam seems. I know they have recently added a writing component to the GRE, and I think it makes sense.

Anyway, Brooklyn has been good to me. I like the place. Lots of cool people. Down to earth. Things are very cool and I don't miss Manhattan a bit. My time there while attending classes on Mon and Wed is plenty.

We Must Go On

No, I don't mean 9/11 and its aftermath.

I mean the horrible, tragic deaths of John Ritter and Johnny Cash! Two great losses in 24 hrs? It's too much I say!

Jack Tripper taught us all so, so much. Seriously, I think I learned more about human nature from watching 'Three's Company' than I did anywhere else in life. Whether it was how best to ditch fanatical women with jealous boyfriends or the snooping Mr. Firley, Jack was 'the man' and, like Ulysses, never at a loss. And what a great introduction to human sexuality! Janet and Chrissie provided me with so much in the way of learning to be a man, with all their direct and indirect sexual innuendoes, tight clothes, disco dancing, and that irresistible sexual naiveté.

But Jack was The Shit--always trying to score. Cool enough to let the opposite sex know he was hip to their sexual innuendos and subtle (or not-so-subtle) remarks regarding his studliness. Always ready to make out. Whether at the Regal Beagle or on his couch, Jack was my hero. Forget the rest.

I will always remember the picture that hung on the wall in the apartment too, the one with a colorful butterfly and the word 'Life' written under it. Why such images are impressed so indelibly in my mind I can't say. But they are.

Ah, me. Ah, Bartleby. Ah, humanity! Today we morn Jack Tripper, forget his later TV stints, remember with great joy his early work, and drink to his charming ways.

As for Johnny Cash, the redneck songs will that much the sweeter at 3.47 A.M. while hanging on in the redneck bars....

The calm before the storm

School starts in about 72 hours or so, thus a six-pack of Czechvar from the supermarcado. Oi!

I really have to rant about the idiots at my school and elsewhere who left us teachers with just one day to be in our school building, to get our books and materials dusted off (literally), rooms cleaned up, and some kind of planning done and copies made. It would be less annoying were the inept admin not so insistent that teachers produce a 'class contract' and make pretty bulletin boards and submit various other pointless things by Monday. But they are. And thus I have had a long, needlessly tiring day.

I mean, last year I had a full week, that's five days, to prepare myself. Had I known I'd be so bereft of time this time round I'd have done some planning after I finished up summer courses. No, really, I would've.

ANYWHO. I did manage to give the new ESL teacher a tour of our school, show her all our books and materials and her classrooms, where she can hang her coat and eat her lunch, how to beat the kids without getting busted. The usual. I also got my room looking like a respectable language classroom, as opposed to the drab computer lab it used to be. This required the elbow grease of myself and my right honorable friend and colleague as we tore up the desks from the floor, to which they had been bolted down for some ten years or so. It wasn't fun but we got rid of some Communist-looking furniture and cleaned the joint up. What is 'Communist-looking furniture'? I have no idea. But in Prague I'm certain I saw a lot of it.

Hemingway, I'm planning to go out tonight for some brewskies in Manhattan; buy some teacher books and stuff tomorrow; plan out some lessons for the first week; get my old 'class contract' (i.e., class rules) updated; generate some kind of not-too-pathetic syllabus; and spend most of Sunday watching movies I've been putting off a while now, including The Portrait of a Lady, which I just realized I purchased merely because I met Nicole Kidman recently. Well, I gawked at her while she drank anyway. And it was only a buck for the VHS at the second-hand.

It could always be worse; and it could always be better.


'Life in the cheap seats', i.e., a recent Mets vs. Phillies game, chez Shea Stadium.


Would you trust this man with your child's second language acquisition?

100 percent humidity

Yesterday I attended a day of 'professional development' over on the Upper West Side. It consisted of three workshops: 'Classroom Management', 'To Teach To The Test or Not To Teach To The Test?', and 'ELL in the Content Areas'. Well, all three were designed for first-year teachers and were old hat for me and for most of the seasoned teachers, so we were bored to say the least. I don't know why the DOE is so messed up but there was obviously no forethought or planning put into the programming. The last workshop was pretty good as the 'coach' was able to adjust to us when we told her we were experienced teachers already. So we discussed important issues, like the English Regents and ELLs' struggle to pass that totally biased test. Overall though we could have done much more good for our students by preparing at our own schools. But that would, as they say, make too much sense.

So far I'm not impressed with the 'big changes' the DOE has been hyping all year.

Otherwise I had my first meeting for Second Language Assessment at Teachers College. The damn class meets at 4:30 and goes to 7:10, which is longer than any class I've taken at TC. But the prof seems really cool. He tells a lot of jokes and knows his stuff. It'll be a hard class though as there's a ton of work to do in it. I'll be lucky if I make it on time to this class as I'll be 'rushing from Flushing'. Everyone at school thinks I'm crazy to commute like I do but it just seems so natural to me as I'm living in NYC. I suppose a lot of it has to do with the fact that the teachers at my school are mostly older and like many good Americans rely on their cars for transporting themselves. As usual, I had to suffer a bunch of whinny teachers complain about how they 'had to come all the way out to Manhattan' for the professional training yesterday. People are so lazy!!

On the brighter side our school found a second ESL teacher. Her name's Helen and she's from China. She seems cool and has experience. She'll be teaching the beginning and intermediate students and I the advanced level. It's cool that we have her on board as we have some Chinese students who will appreciate having her. We talked a lot today about the ESL popluation at our school.

Tomorrow then I finally get to actually go to my school and set up things. I got a peek at my teaching schedule today, which is pretty stupid really since most teachers get their schedules BEFORE they are about to teach (!!). I've got four advanced-level ESL classes to teach and ... yes, once again... a music class! Well, I just couldn't believe it. Why do they insist on having me teach subjects I know nothing about? Well, I know the answer, of course--they have to offer a music (and an art and health) class and can't afford to hire a licensed teacher, and they dish it off rather randomly to whoever 'seems right' for teaching the class. So be it. At least I know what NOT to do this time around.

I have to get some plans together. This weekend I'll have to get out to the teacher bookstores too to see if I can't get some ideas and materials together.

Back to School, Fool

Ah, another year is upon me.

It got started today on a low note as I arrived for the first day of school to find the school all but empty and its main doors locked. After I banged a while the security agent at our school answered and said, 'What the hell are you doing here?'
--'Well, I was going to take my student loan and get a flight outta JFK somewhere, anywhere. But I decided at the last minute, at the ATM, that I should keep my promise and teach again this year.'
--'Well, you're a sucker if I ever saw one! I'd have flown, baby!'
--'So, are you going to let me in?'
--'No, you have to go --.' [Door slams.]

To make a long story short, I never received a letter that had been sent out to most of the teachers informing us that we were to meet at the -- campus today. That's the other half of our new school, --- High School. So I had to hail a taxi for 22 bucks (!!) to get over doublequick to the teacher meeting.

Once there I met up with most of the gang from last year, and it was nice to see them all again. Three of the teachers from last year had been 'excessed' over the summer as part of our restructuring. Anyway, we met up with our new counterparts at 'the --- campus' of --- H.S., who all seem pretty cool.

One guy there, who works as a computer aid or something, used to race bikes and represented the USA here and abroad. We rapped about bikes. That was a nice break from boring introductions....

Then there was this guy from Chicago of all places. He told us about his summer vacation in South Africa where he was kidnapped and beaten. He was told that since he was American he must have money, either with him or at home. He ended up escaping, running across a highway, and falling down a large ditch. When we were having a break I talked to him and he asked me if I'd look at a manuscript about his kidnapping experience. We might meet up for a coffee and look at what he's written.

All in all it was an easy day except for having to run around Queens at my own expense--due to others' incompetence.

As for the weekend I'm just coming off a great one. bmac and Dave were here and we got to see a lot and do a lot in three days' time. Mainly we hung around Brooklyn (Park Slope, Williamsburg, etc.) and Manhattan. I think we ate and drank enough about a month or two. At least we were able to walk it off by seeing a lot of cool sites.

The only bummer about this week is that I have to be in Manhattan tomorrow from 8 AM to about 8 PM and back in Jamaica Thursday. That means I'll get just one day in my actual school before classes start on Monday. So much for all my planning plans and setting up my room and the rest. Unless I can do it all in one day.

I suppose it's going to be a weekend of planning....

Well, after a 'summer off' (that is, summer school, not that much-talked about trip to Asia) and two months of no teaching, I suppose it's the least I could do.

But I don't even want to think about my two classes at Columbia, Second Language Assessment and K-5 Methods, two pretty tough and very busy classes.

O, it's going to be another fun year.

Brooklyn building in Park Slope area.


Brooklyn building in Park Slope area.


Brooklyn building in Park Slope area.


McSorley's Ale House, East Village.




T at Economy Candy Store, East Village.