One last thing...

Before I got a computer, finding out about out-of-the-mainstream subjects was a lot more labor intensive.  Lately I’ve been thinking about art that made an impression on me in my college days, and this led me to wonder about the photographer Ralph Eugene Meatyard.  His photographs were fleetingly covered in one of my classes, lo those many years ago, but his images made an indelible impression on me—so enigmatic, some might say disturbing.  Unlike the photographs of Diane Arbus, however, I didn’t feel uncomfortable and had to look away.  I think this has to do with the fact that many of his subjects wear masks as props…Beyond the masks, though, the compositions are so carefully constructed & elements within them seem to have a purpose.  I didn’t know much about him & wondered about him as a person, so I started investigating him.  Although I didn’t find out much about the reasons behind the choices he made, I did learn that he was someone who lived & created his work outside of what you would call the hub of the art circles.  He was a family man who lived in Kentucky and was an optician by trade.  In his spare time he worked on his art.  When you look at his photographs you can make your own interpretations about what you’re seeing.

How Do You Rank?

We got rid of the “call waiting” feature on our land line phone about ten years ago. It never felt quite right putting one caller on hold while checking the incoming call, then deciding which one was more important to talk to at that moment.  We always told the second caller we’d get back to them later.  Eventually we agreed that for really important calls, it wasn’t imperative to have call waiting.  They would try again later.  We’re not they type of people who talk on the phone for hours on end, for heaven’s sake.  If it were a real emergency, those people close to us could contact us on our cell phones.

When I have a face-to-face conversation with someone, I try to be a both a good listener and participant in the dialogue.  One of my pet peeves is when others don’t pay me the same courtesy, especially the listening part.  On several occasions in the last few months it came to pass that I was speaking with someone & they were carrying on two conversations at the same time…and one of them was not with me.  By this I mean that they were texting someone else while they were talking & listening to me.  I didn’t quite know how to react.  I did wonder if they really heard what I had to say.  Is this the shape of things to come?  Am I being overly sensitive?  Are there rules of polite conversation, and if so, have they changed?

Feast or Famine

When every minute of every day is spoken for in some way, a sudden change in routine can be quite disorienting. With this in mind, I am trying to prepare myself for the coming summer months. The budget cuts in our state have affected us all, and I (and my students) are no exception. Instead of seeing the cut in the amount of hours I will be working as something devastating to my pocketbook, I will try to look at the sunny side. It will give me an opportunity to re-connect with my progeny, though they may get tired of too much of my full and undivided attention...I will try to tackle the mountains of clutter that have continued to grow since I began my studies in the Master's program...and to make use of what I have learned so far. Here's how I have begun to get this process going:

This weekend I created a blog on which I hope my students will find a forum to continue to learn and practice their English over the summer months. I know there will be bumps along the way. I took my class to the computer lab today in the hopes of getting a little blogging practice in. What I found was that students had neither email addresses (required, apparently for posting on the blog) nor the language skills to make the email address acquisition process a smooth one. Nevertheless, we persisted. The four students who stayed til the end are now the proud owners of email accounts. Next week when I take them to the lab again, maybe we can do a few practice postings.

You may think...how odd.  A row of ducks.  What does this have to do with ESL teaching?  The workshop I attended at CATESOL was taught by Susan Gaer (who was actually filling in for a presenter who was a "no show").  I knew Susan from a workshop she had conducted at the adult school where I teach, so I was very happy to see her.  Her enthusiasm for using technology in the classroom is infectious & I know she has experience using technology in teaching all levels of ESL--not just intermediate and above.  I need suggestions for activities I can use with beginning-level students. When she uses a blog in her classroom, she often posts a picture and poses a simple question.  So for this row of ducks she might ask, "What do you see?"  A picture that's deceptively simple can be rife with possibilities. (Have you ever tried to explain the term "reflection" to someone whose native language you don't speak?...)  Beginning level students could reply with single words, students with higher levels of English proficiency could write sentences.