Who said TESOL was boring......

#1 Tom: Grammar can be induced.

Dr. G: Can you do that? It sounds like you're giving birth.

#2 Let's eat, Grandpa.

Let's eat Grandpa.

Commas save lives.

#3 When doing a classroom simulation. My friends (the teachers) played a game called pile-up where if a person said yes to an answer they can to get up and sit in the chair to their right (we were sitting in a circle). They know me so I had to move every time and I ended up sitting on top of two boys. Sorry!!! I know that my butt in large. Maybe you just had to be there....

The birthing process

Stare stare stare 10 minutes.

Write 10 words.

Stare stare stare 10 minutes.

Delete 5 words.

Stare stare stare 10 minutes.

Look up something on Google.

Stare stare stare 10 minutes.

Decide you have to go to the bathroom yet again (didn't you know that proper hydration is key to academic writing?)

Come back, write 18 words.

Lather, rinse and repeat. Thusly, a contrastive summary is born.

Life from atop a bicyle

I shall title this first part "How to get strange looks at least 5 times a day"

1. Ride a bike roughly 2.3 miles to school every day.

2. Ride a bike roughly 2.3 miles in the rain.

3. Ride a bike roughly 2.3 miles when it is below freezing.

4. Ride a bike in a skirt.

5. Ride a bike in high heels.

6. Tell people that you have no desire to purchase a car........ ever.

7. Have exotic food in your pantry like lentils and split peas and bulgar.

8. Know how to cook with said lentils, split peas and bulgar.

9. Gleefully freeze your roommate's turkey bones so that you can make turkey stock a couple days later.

AND

10. Think that a thermostat set at 60 degrees is a luxury. That the temperature is perfectly fine because you are wearing wooly socks and complain bitterly when the other roommates turn the heat up to 66 because they want to sleep in shorts and a t-shirt...... in the middle of winter.

Culture of Negotiation

Most of the students in my CIEP class at UNI are from Saudi Arabia and it seems that they have a different set of ideas on tests and test taking. Either that, or they look at me, think easy target and then try to finagle things so that they go in their way.

Recently, they took their final exam and 5 students failed to pass to the next level. To compound the problem, I ended up teaching the same level so they were my students...... again. Most of them, I had no doubt that their levels were inadequate to move up but I had some doubts on a couple so I "allowed" myself to give them another exam. This happened all across the levels because there always is a question of whether or not a capable student bombed the test. It's so hard to create tests that accurately show a students' ability. A couple of my students can communicate very well but they have a lot of problems with writing and grammar and that's what I teach. What I teach is precise (especially at such a low level). It's either right or wrong. No native speaker of English would say that "A lemons isn't sweet. A lemons is sour." is correct.

So I put a lot of time and effort to put together another test and see if the first one was inaccurate. Of course, they tried to cheat. I had taken away their cell phones but I saw that some were trying to compare answers and there was talking done as well. I couldn't keep a really close eye on them because I had four new students to look after and was trying to teach at the same time that the old students were taking a test. NOT AND IDEAL SITUATION to be teaching at the same time as testing.

They whined about the length of the test (4 pages, just like the old one).

They whined that I didn't give examples (the old exam didn't give examples and I ended up giving them a few verbal examples because apparently, they still don't know what "simple present," "present progressive," "singular," and "plural" mean).

They complained that the test included past tense (yes, we quickly went over this but I told them to study it and they are expected to have a good understanding of it for the next level).

At the end of the class, they handed in their exams and one of them tried to get me to check it right then and there. At 5:00........ On a Friday evening........ Of my week of midterms......

I really wish that I could be one of those strict teachers that invokes fear in my students but I'm not so this is what I get. Extra work, extra grief all to tell me that I was right to fail them the first time because they still can't work fluently within the level that they are in right now.

Wonderful fall day

How quickly the weather changes around here. Last week it was below freezing and this week, absolute fall perfection. I should be outside enjoying it but instead I am preparing to cook a fall inspired meal for some friends. It's a sacrifice that I am willing to make. So here's what's on the menu:

Apple and Ginger Pork Chops

Mashed Potatoes

Butternut Squash Salad with Apple Cider Vinaigrette

Baked Apples

Being a typical menu prepared by me, I've found all of the recipes off of the Internet (minus the potatoes) and have never cooked them before (minus the potatoes). I'm not really worried about the recipes turning out, I'm more worried if they will be all done at the same time.

I'm also a bit worried about school this week because it's midterms and I'm not really prepared. I'm in the middle of a lazy period at the moment and don't feel like doing too much. I'm just going to have to push through it, though, because I won't have a break until Thanksgiving and even that will be filled with papers along with travel.

Anyway, I should go start cooking so that supper doesn't end up being a disaster. We'll see if I remember to take some pictures of the food :-)

More photos from Madison County

I seem to have a problem getting photos to go places that I want them to so I'll just post some separately.

Fun in the snow

Yes, that's right. I said snow and it's barely October. Global warming around here has turned into global freezing. Granted it didn't snow in Cedar Falls, it snowed in Madison County but.....

Anyway, this was the first time that I had been out of Cedar Falls in almost two months so it was a welcome change. I went with UNI's Cultural and Intensive English Progam (CIEP) and I had an absolute blast. The best part of the day might have been when all of the Saudi boys realized that it was snowing outside so that meant that the temperature was a wee bit chilly. It was absolutely priceless. Of course, their horror of the temperature did not deter them one bit from having a bare-handed snowball fight when we took a bathroom break. I wonder who threw the first snowball.....

We started off with a bus tour of a couple of the bridges and some of the surrounding countryside. I feel no remorse in saying that we had the worst tour guide ever. He was old, he didn't say anything interesting and even I had a hard time concentrating on what he was saying. The only thing that saved him is that the Saudis and Asians have a great deal of respect for their elders. Poor Bob, the bad tour guide. You could tell that he really loved his county but when you talk in a monotone voice about how corn silks propagate kernels of corn, I'm afraid you'll loose even the most polite person's interest.

We got to see the famous Roseman Bridge that features prominently in the movie, Bridges of Madison County, and also the Holliwell Bridge, the longest of the bridges in the county. The rest of the time was spent wandering around the local festival with Siyan (Chinese), Renee (Chinese), and Bin (Korean). We ate a lot of food and took a lot of photos because that's what Asian tourist seem to do, take pictures. It was a lot of fun and it was great to see a small town through another's eyes. When you are used to something, you take it for granted and I need to remember that I do love this area of the country even though I don't want to live here forever.