Outposts from Civilization or Not
Jan. 29th, 2017 03:07 pm![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rachelautumnNew thoughts for new times. (Isn't it exciting?)
1.Jellybaby- word for a child who gets sick when it is time to go to a protest. Reference to Mrs. Jellyby from Dickens, you know, the one who was so busy with her causes that she was a BAD MOM.
2. Need to bone up on works of literature necessitated by current political climate. Must be smart! I just started to go back to work as an ESL teacher and I am already trying to get a new certification as an English teacher.
3.Could the opposition's refusal to read the constitution and its ammendments work in my favor? My job teaching English to second language learners (and similar jobs teaching bilingual classes) is actually federally mandated under Title VII. The thing is I don't think Fox News has noticed yet....BUT
4.Even here in New York, which is an international city more than anything, they've tried to limit ESL teaching as much as possible. I came back from 8 years away to find that newcomers are "accountable" for all exams after only one year, so there's no time to use all that silly scaffolding in English I was trained to do. I am supposed to "push in" to another teacher's class and hand out translations of To Kill a Mockingbird in Chinese and Russian and Arabic etc. while using google translate to break down the assignment questions. People who speak more obscure languages are just shit out of luck. Ummm...no?
5. It would be different if the plot of To Kill a Mockingbird were on the exams, but it's not. Those are purely skills based.
6. It's just as well that no one is actually putting literature as content on tests, given the following story:
Teacher I am replacing: so the 6th Grade is reading Bud, Not Buddy.
Me: Oh that's a great book.
TIAR: You've read it?
Me: Yes?
TIAR: So the theme that year is "Character", so they're also reading Steve Job's biography.
Me:
Me:
Me: Ok.
TIAR: But the text they're having the hardest time with is this one.
Me: "If" by Rudyard Kipling. Huh, I wonder why. Let me take a look at it.
Me (reading)If you can keep your head...but not..If you can dream, but not....if, if,if
Me: I think I can see the problem. They left out the part where it says, "Then you will be a man, my son." Look it even says so in the curriculum guide. There's no last stanza.
TIAR: There's supposed to be another stanza?
Me: (to self) I guess the people in Albany stalled at the "man" part and were too lazy to scrap the curriculum they'd already written. Would I have any luck teaching this with Yiddish "Mensch" instead? Or maybe there will be nuclear annihalation before we get that far.
1.Jellybaby- word for a child who gets sick when it is time to go to a protest. Reference to Mrs. Jellyby from Dickens, you know, the one who was so busy with her causes that she was a BAD MOM.
2. Need to bone up on works of literature necessitated by current political climate. Must be smart! I just started to go back to work as an ESL teacher and I am already trying to get a new certification as an English teacher.
3.Could the opposition's refusal to read the constitution and its ammendments work in my favor? My job teaching English to second language learners (and similar jobs teaching bilingual classes) is actually federally mandated under Title VII. The thing is I don't think Fox News has noticed yet....BUT
4.Even here in New York, which is an international city more than anything, they've tried to limit ESL teaching as much as possible. I came back from 8 years away to find that newcomers are "accountable" for all exams after only one year, so there's no time to use all that silly scaffolding in English I was trained to do. I am supposed to "push in" to another teacher's class and hand out translations of To Kill a Mockingbird in Chinese and Russian and Arabic etc. while using google translate to break down the assignment questions. People who speak more obscure languages are just shit out of luck. Ummm...no?
5. It would be different if the plot of To Kill a Mockingbird were on the exams, but it's not. Those are purely skills based.
6. It's just as well that no one is actually putting literature as content on tests, given the following story:
Teacher I am replacing: so the 6th Grade is reading Bud, Not Buddy.
Me: Oh that's a great book.
TIAR: You've read it?
Me: Yes?
TIAR: So the theme that year is "Character", so they're also reading Steve Job's biography.
Me:
Me:
Me: Ok.
TIAR: But the text they're having the hardest time with is this one.
Me: "If" by Rudyard Kipling. Huh, I wonder why. Let me take a look at it.
Me (reading)If you can keep your head...but not..If you can dream, but not....if, if,if
Me: I think I can see the problem. They left out the part where it says, "Then you will be a man, my son." Look it even says so in the curriculum guide. There's no last stanza.
TIAR: There's supposed to be another stanza?
Me: (to self) I guess the people in Albany stalled at the "man" part and were too lazy to scrap the curriculum they'd already written. Would I have any luck teaching this with Yiddish "Mensch" instead? Or maybe there will be nuclear annihalation before we get that far.
