the end is near!

I can’t believe the end of the semester is upon us! I just finished putting my final exams together. I have noticed some of the end of the semester burnout! My students are fried and so am I. I plan to collect my last batch of writing tomorrow and spend Monday and Tuesday reviewing for the final and eating treats! I am having a party for my 50 students on Tuesday. I need to do something to let them know how much they have contributed to my life, so I am going to make some banana bread, éclairs and a few other holiday cookies for Tuesday. I simply cannot end the semester without doing something special. In my short teaching career, I have (regrettably) let the opportunity pass and I decided, not this time. Students, even the slackers, light up my world in their own way . So that’s my weekend in a nutshell. I think we will review and spend the rest of the time visiting and taking pictures. I find that international students love to take pictures, so there will be many Kodak moments I am sure and a Pictionary showdown. In addition to writing, I teach a course for graduate students to help them succeed on the GMAT and GRE. We do lots of practice writing tests, and idiom and vocabulary work. I found that the best tool for building vocabulary is playing Pictionary. The students love it. We divide the class into teams and the competition is fierce. I really believe that learning should not be sheer drudgery (even if it is GMAT prep). I think back to the “fun” teachers I had, and I actually can recall what we covered in class. I think the idea of drilling and pop quizzing endlessly is a fate worse than death for the student (and the teacher!). It is always fun to see what the students come up with.

Writing, Writing, Writing

Now that the comps are over, I feel like I am finally catching a bit. Also, I just finished a marathon grading session. I don’t know why I have papers from 4 different classes due on the same day and, worse, I promised the students that they will be returned in a week!!! Oh well, I got them graded and returned at the expense of several brain cells and blurred vision. Grading papers for ESL students is definitely a challenge. The process involves some degree of deciphering, not because of grammatical errors, but because the idiomatic elements of English pose continual difficulties for the students. I find that if you read closely, most of the time there is a very logical use of the language to communicate meaning. (No surprise of course) I have a student who persists in using the idiom “to make do” as a synonym for management! He gets frustrated with literal and nonliteral usage, with good reason! It is easy to take for granted how much of the odd intricacies of English we, as native speakers, never question. In spite of these issues, it is really kind of interesting to view my native language through someone else’s eyes. Also, as I read the papers, I continually come across phrases that, I am absolutely convinced, are not incorrect or accidental. Another student of mine commented about when she graduated from Architectural design school in her country and she described the feeling as “sunshine on my heart”. I thought it was a beautiful way to show the excitement of a new future and the relief of having survived 4 years of hard work. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t rhapsodize about every unusual statement, some of them are down right confusing or wrong but some are really a breath of fresh air. If I ascribe to any rule of writing it’s that a fresh way of seeing the same thing (or feeling) is really a noble goal and more often that not, my students accomplish that goal without even realizing it. On a more disheartening note, I am shocked that some teachers still insist on grammatical correctness as a measure of intelligence and good writing. Of course, that is a part of the process. But I don’t think you need to know how a combustion engine works before you can drive a car. A bad analogy I am sure. But I have been really concerned about some students in other classes that are struggling because their teacher only marks surface errors on their papers, and apparently makes to effort to try and understand what they are trying to say. I really get upset about this! I can’t believe the remnants of the Stone Age pedagogy are alive and well in some corners of this campus!! I am going to walk my dogs and vent further….

It is sunday night. I think I am the last one in the class to create a blog. Sorry! I am easily intimidated by technology.