Teacher education

nhfalcon
November 12, 2007 at 1:47 pm

So, um, what IS the difference between a subjective pronoun and an objective pronoun?

This coming from a man who got his BA in English – 15 years ago, granted, but I still have a degree in the damn subject.

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9 Comments.
mrschili
November 9, 2007 at 8:57 am

Seth, you’re right about the 9th grade vs. the 12th grade brain. I’ve got a student in this class who’s still stuck in the middle school paradigm: she can’t read for concepts or for connections – she reads for facts. I had to give her a new mid-term because she couldn’t manage the essay questions (and there are some GOOD ones) that asked the students to consider the answers to questions in relation to the novel (“what is evil? Is it learned or is it part of the human condition? What do you think, and what do you think SHELLEY thinks?”). I ended up re-working a multiple choice, plot-based exam for her. Completely joyless. Sigh.

Dawg, how the hell are you!?

Lara, thanks – I’ll let you all know, as soon as I know, whether I got the course or not.

Leah, I’m TOTALLY with you on this. I HATE having classmates who just won’t play along – though, on the other side, I love it when we get a group who’s completely into it, so I guess there has to be balance.

My personal experience has been that people go into these courses just to fulfill the credits: they don’t have a rich understanding of the purpose that these classes are supposed to serve (though, to be fair, a lot of professors don’t, either, so we can’t blame the students entirely). I was lucky to have, early in my college career, a couple of professors who encouraged me to reach just beyond my grasp; I once did a paper for a criticism class that connected Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, a scholarly article about the idea of the “man-god,” and an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. I was nervous about handing it in, thinking that pop culture and erudite scholarship don’t mix, but the professor was THRILLED with it. Not only did I get a perfect score for the piece, she asked to copy it so that she could offer it as an example, for later classes, of insightful and productive use of literature.

I’m still a little high over that…

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Mamie
March 4, 2009 at 1:21 pm

Shouldn’t it be “realLY” since “real” is being used to modify “sexy,” which is an adjective applied to the bra? So adverb-ize the “real,” would they not need to add -ly?

It’s a dumb ad in general.

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3 Comments.
Kizz
February 12, 2009 at 9:40 am

No, of course not everyone does. In a non-face-to-face interaction with the person who actually DOES the writing it makes perfect sense that the interaction would be lovely (and thank god because “salad’s” if their salad can possess something I don’t want to eat it). Calling the rank and file out for the company’s grammatical errors is different, I think. Am I crazy to make that distinction?

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23 Comments.
Mrs. Chili
February 11, 2009 at 8:56 am

Chatty, I KNOW. It’s really hard, sometimes, to maintain a level of professionalism in the face of this sort of stuff.

Angela, my 4th grader puts out nicer work than most of my college students do. This disturbs me in ways I can’t begin to articulate.

Lily, this is the thing – if there were some REALLY GOOD reason for his changing the assignment – and he came to me beforehand to discuss it – I might be willing to acquiesce. Taking it upon himself, though, is totally not cool.

Mamie, I’m sending everything the kid gives me up the chain of command. CYA is an important part of my professional philosophy.

Sooza, I like to err on the side of the kid, but even MY patience only stretches so far.

Michael, I suspect that an F is in the kid’s future, regardless of how much I try to help him. The bottom line is that the students have to meet the minimum standards of mastery of the material. If they don’t meet the objectives set out on the syllabus, they don’t pass.

Laurie, one of the nice things about teaching in a college setting is that I NEVER deal with parents. I can’t – FERPA prevents me from discussing a students’ status with anyone but my colleagues and the students.

Melissa, isn’t it, though? To answer your questions:

I would do a little investigation into whether this student is
–an ESL student

I asked; he’s not.

–learning disabled (this could be some kind of disgraphia)

I HIGHLY suspect this – or, rather, I HOPE he’s got a definable disability and he’s not just lazy (or worse, manipulative). The problem is that my college is closing and, as such, we don’t have a whole lot of resources available to the students who are left. I honestly don’t know WHAT I’m going to do with this kid, because I know for sure that, if he does have a disability, I’m not qualified to care for him in the way he needs (and deserves to be) cared for.

–turning in similar work to other classes.

Though I haven’t confirmed that he’s currently turning in work like this for his other classes, I HAVE confirmed that this sort of thing has been in his history (I spoke to the composition teacher he had, and that man confirmed that, until Incomprehensible Boy dropped out of his class, that was the kind of work he was getting, too).

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Dina Ocampo August 19 at 6:23pm

Hi Joe,

Thank you very much for the birthday songs! [ 1 , 2 ] Ang saya!

Your message:

Far from arrogating unto myself the power of determining who should lay down the primer on the step-by-step implementing rules of DO 74, I think it’s a safe bet you’re in the greatest position, as Oustanding Teacher, to do just that–having… experiences in both alternative and mainstream education systems–instead of awaiting the first move from the DepEd bureaucracy.

I think my peripatetic fellow advocate, Aurelio S. Agcaoili, could muster his NAKEM network to test-drive the implementing rules you may evolve in Ilocandia. In fact, even as we are cognizant of the time and financial constraints, we’re eager to put Ilocandia on the front burner for the DO 74 MLE implementation. May we count on your generous help?

My reply:

I had to think 3x times because I wasn’t sure the message was for me. The only giveaway was the reference to the Metrobank award. I think Ilocandia is going to be really exciting with you and Mr. Agcaoili at the forefront. I’m busy and sometimes cranky but I’ll help.

I am thinking of writing an opinion paper for the media to signify certain directions for the DepEd order. I will ask for your help before sending it out to the inquirer. Basahin mo muna? What I’d really like to do is to force DepEd into phasing the implementation of the DepEd Order so that teachers do not bear the brunt of the problems which will surely stem from lack of preparation.

best regards and i hope to meet you soon,

Dina

Joe Padre August 19 at 7:38pmI can only thank you so much. Let me know when you come this way so we can make some arrangements, like Disneyland 12 miles from home or a little further north in L.A..

If you need to bounce your opinion on me prior to submitting it to the media, I’d be so honored.

Posted in Dina Ocampo , multilingual education | Tags: Metrobank outstanding teacher of the year awardee , mother tongue as MOI , multilingual education

mrschili
March 4, 2008 at 5:40 pm

I’m not sure I could agree more, Daz Cox.

I should also say here that “good grammar” is a HIGHLY situational thing. Sure, there’s the academic, “proper” grammar, but there’s also colloquial grammar. If I’m writing in my true “voice,” I’ll say things like “wicked good” – but I’d never say that in a formal piece of writing….

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13 Comments.
saintseester
March 3, 2008 at 5:31 pm

When you investigate tools that will be useful to you for your on-line /hybrid courses, many platforms support some nifty plagiarism sieves. (We use Blackboard and there is a module called safe assignment, I think). These tools require the student to submit their papers online, and then the tool scours the net for lifted passages. This is a time-saver.

Then you can focus on reading the papers rather than searching the web.

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2 Comments.
Darci
February 27, 2008 at 8:40 pm

Dear Lord – I love this show. Season 1, 2 and 3…true brilliance. I this scene is a gift.

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9 Comments.
mrschili
February 8, 2008 at 9:08 pm

Mary, I love that you say that like EVERYONE knows who she is. I have the Goddess stumped, and I’m betting that none of the kids will know who she is…

Seester, that’s a great idea. I’ve got an extra copy of The Bluest Eye that I might just give away – or I might get a book of MLK quotes as a prize.

CTG, I like it, too (though it means my GSA mug is out of date). I’m hoping that it helps with membership; I’ve been disheartened at how few kids come to the gatherings…

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