Teaching, marking, sleeping, more marking, more teaching
Learning to teach is a lot of work and often overwhelming. I spent a lot of time on the weekend trying to figure out how to grade some assignments and then on Monday I learned I hadn't done the marking right. Sometimes I wonder if it's me or the students who are learning more right now.
Every so often there are a few entertaining language moments when I am listening to the students' recorded oral presentations and I hear 'she rubbes her ears' and I look at a picture of a woman rubbing her eyes as she wakes up. Or when I read an assignment describing one guy's weekend activities and it ends with the phrase 'I fell down my dream's river' which I find is an interesting idea. Then when I was asked what the word scrapbook meant and a student asked me if it had anything to do with garbage and I had to smile. Sure scraps could mean garbage, but then I imagined a book of garbage souvenirs and tried to explain that idea to the students and they didn't really understand.
My teaching learning experiences are probably not so entertaining for students like when a bad photocopy job cut off three letters of every word on the right hand side of the page on their reading exam or when I used another teacher's grammar review in class and confused myself.
I guess I didn't work the entire weekend because I managed to get away to see my friend Alexis Normand perform at Café Vivant Friday night and then I caught the Troupe du Jour's production of the translation of Kevin Kerr's play called Unity on Saturday.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Me and my grandmother (this is a version of the text I wrote for my grandma Ethel's 90th birthday memory book and I meant to post it on her birthday October 9th)
We met for the first in England when I was three. I was still quite small and shy. At that time I looked up to Christopher Robin and had never tasted orange pop. I was really confused when I was told instead of having supper we were going to have Tea and I didn’t even drink tea. Now I mostly remember the photos and the stories more than actually being there, but it was a great visit.
The next time I saw her was when she and Grandpa Willis came to visit us in Canada. They were the busiest guests that have ever stayed at our house because they were always trying to do something to help us. They did things like cooking us delicious meals with Yorkshire pudding, digging up tree roots in the garden and building us our picnic table. It was sad to see them go.
We never really felt she was far because of her faithful correspondence. Thanks to grandma we have an impressive collection of Blue British Airletter envelopes. I think she could win an award for having written the most amount of letters in our family.
The next time we saw each other was in England just after I turned eighteen. We had the best guide in all of Sheffield. Not only were our bus trips planned and often paid for, but sometime strangers would come up to us with a question and it seemed like she always knew how to tell them what bus they should take. When she told us stories about the past I would imagine her training as a nurse in Leeds, working in hospitals during the Second World War and running a hospital in Delisle. I am very proud of everything my grandmother has done.
I wonder what it’s like to turn ninety, to have so many memories and to have collected such a large family. For me the best I can do is to imagine three times my life at this point. Is today what you once imagined what the future would be like? What was the best moment of all those years?
Whenever I have gone to Sheffield my visit is filled with bus trips, Scrabble games, art galleries, British telly, shows in the theatre, meals of fish & chips at the pub and so much more. My grandmother and my British family are tireless hosts.
I feel special to have such an amazing grandmother. She is a brave, adventurous, independent, caring, open minded, fun-loving, super-organized, cheerful, wonderful person. I can only hope to live as long and rich a life to be more like her.
We met for the first in England when I was three. I was still quite small and shy. At that time I looked up to Christopher Robin and had never tasted orange pop. I was really confused when I was told instead of having supper we were going to have Tea and I didn’t even drink tea. Now I mostly remember the photos and the stories more than actually being there, but it was a great visit.
The next time I saw her was when she and Grandpa Willis came to visit us in Canada. They were the busiest guests that have ever stayed at our house because they were always trying to do something to help us. They did things like cooking us delicious meals with Yorkshire pudding, digging up tree roots in the garden and building us our picnic table. It was sad to see them go.
We never really felt she was far because of her faithful correspondence. Thanks to grandma we have an impressive collection of Blue British Airletter envelopes. I think she could win an award for having written the most amount of letters in our family.
The next time we saw each other was in England just after I turned eighteen. We had the best guide in all of Sheffield. Not only were our bus trips planned and often paid for, but sometime strangers would come up to us with a question and it seemed like she always knew how to tell them what bus they should take. When she told us stories about the past I would imagine her training as a nurse in Leeds, working in hospitals during the Second World War and running a hospital in Delisle. I am very proud of everything my grandmother has done.
I wonder what it’s like to turn ninety, to have so many memories and to have collected such a large family. For me the best I can do is to imagine three times my life at this point. Is today what you once imagined what the future would be like? What was the best moment of all those years?
Whenever I have gone to Sheffield my visit is filled with bus trips, Scrabble games, art galleries, British telly, shows in the theatre, meals of fish & chips at the pub and so much more. My grandmother and my British family are tireless hosts.
I feel special to have such an amazing grandmother. She is a brave, adventurous, independent, caring, open minded, fun-loving, super-organized, cheerful, wonderful person. I can only hope to live as long and rich a life to be more like her.
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Return to Saskatoon
After just over ten months in Regina I am back up in Saskatoon. I was offered a position as an ESL teacher with the Language Centre at the University of Saskatchewan and decided it was time for a change. Since working for the ACF there's been a turnover of about half of the staff so it wasn't too strange that I was leaving. It was sad to say good bye to my new friends, but it all went by so fast. In just a week I had packed up my things and moved back to my parent's house.
I've been teaching classes for a week now. I like my students a lot. I teach level 20 English to a small group of eleven from China and Saudi Arabia. The preparation and correcting are a lot of work and I am always learning new things. Once I am a little more settled with the classes my next project will be to find another appartment and then maybe think about planning a holiday.
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