Strange Happenings

Today while my students were taking their linguistics exam just when the room was at its absolute quietest some mice in the ceiling above us decided to make a mad dash across the attic. You could hear them scuffling as they went along. It sounded like they were out on some holiday. I had to laugh. Foolish mice. Bad timing.

Feedback

One of the hardest things I struggle with as a writing teacher is giving good feedback. Sometimes all I can think of is "this just sounds right" or "this just sounds wrong." But when it comes down to actually articulating why something is wrong or right, I find myself incapable of saying anything intelligent. I suffer often from grading block!

I suppose the issue of feedback is much deeper than just grading. It comes down to how can I move from doing something to showing how it is done? It's the difference between playing by ear and knowing how to teach piano. I've struggled with this dilemna ever since I started teaching.

I've read many books on writing pedagogy and while the books give me good ideas, they leave me unsatisfied. Maybe the unsatisfaction is partially with myself. "Yes, this is how I teach writing, but how can I do it better?" But I think there's also just more literature that needs to be written about teaching writing.

I guess when I start thinking about that than the next stop is, "Well, what research are you going to do about this?"

I'm rambling. I'm rambling because the reality is I have 20 essays on my desk that need some form of response. I'm going back to my desk now. Essays here I come!!

10 Reasons Why I Like Students

Okay, I'm starting a list of why I like students.

1) Because they are funny
2) Because they talk fervently (in my classroom) in another language and laugh so hard I wonder what they are talking about
3) Because they turn in home work assignments mislabeled with delightful plays on words like: "English Combustion I" or "My first drift"
4) Because they like each other
5) Because each classroom and each student teaches me something new about the world
6) Because they sometimes say the wrong thing like, "I was absent today. Did I miss anything?"
7) Because (sometimes!) they get excited about what they are learning
8) Because they are not ashamed to groan when I give them home work
9) Because they can get so excited about classroom games that they forget they are adults
10) Because I might have never gotten to know them if they hadn't walked into my classroom

Students' Laughing

My favorite time in the classroom is when students are laughing. I don't necessarily mean laughing at my jokes (though I appreciate a polite chuckle here or there), but just genuinely laughing as they work. I see it sometimes when they are working together. One student makes a a funny comment and the others starts to chuckle or sometimes they poke each other in jest. I walk around the classroom watching them and say to myself, "this is how I want it to stay."

Students Plagiarize

Students plagiarize. They plagiarize because they are tired, they plagiarize because they are ignorant, they plagiarize because they are lazy, and they plagiarize because they are overwhelmed.

When I get discouraged about plagiarism (and I do get discouraged when out of a class of 17, 10 students plagiarize), I remember one of the best lessons I ever learned about teaching.

I had been teaching the American Revolution to high school students and it came out that they were confusing the American Revolution with the Industrial Revolution. I told a friend about this class. I said, "I can't believe American students could be so ignorant of their own history!" My friend looked at me and said, "Isn't that why you are teaching them?"

I suppose that sentence has always stayed with me. "Isn't that why you are teaching them?" Students plagiarize--this is why I'm teaching them. I'm teaching them because I want them to care about their learning and their writing. I want them to enjoy their minds and the pleasure that comes from doing something well.

Students plagiarize. It's time for me to roll up my sleeves, pray harder, and learn more thoroughly how to make my students think, dream, learn, and write. God grant me the wisdom.

A Short Poem

Before words
Ideas
Before ideas
Wonder
How can I teach these things?

Polite Underwear

Sometimes I think that Thai men are much more secure in their masculinity than American men. I've seen many Thai men wear head bands (the kind that 12-year old girls wear in the states) with a confidence that surprises me. So last Sunday, as I walked through an outdoor market, I shouldn't have been surprised when my eyes fell on a brand of men's underwear that had a very unmanly ring to it. The brand name was "polite underwear."

Since when did underwear become polite?