Wednesday, March 30, 2005

phương tiện giao thông

...translated from Vietnamese, Means of Communication

Teaching quarter classes gives me the luxury and pain of having four first days of school a year. The change is refreshing but I miss the routine of even a crazy class (for the record, I will say I have been pretty lucky this year, nothing truly wretched).

So today it's all new. I have the tedium of my tried and true first day speeches ("Have you been in the good class? What's it like? Have you been in the bad class? What's it like?") and the reteaching of routine. This morning a challenge was added to the routine---several non english speakers have been placed in this speech class. Today there were three lovely Vietnamese girls and I understand I have several Hispanic kids and perhaps one Jordanian. My district has pulled all ESL teachers to perform testing for the entire last quarter.

So here we are.

I think my English is better and much clearer when it is spoken with wide eyes, deep knee bends and sweeping gestures. I think that made it sound like Vietnamese and I'm sure it will help with Spanish and Farsi also. I am taking this advice. Hoping for success.

Additionally, I don't know if you all wished this on me, but be aware that Princess Grace has joined us in Modern Humanities. I will now be teaching Art History to a young lady who claims that holding your farts in will kill you.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The princess is just like a boomerang!