November 25, 2014: Gratitude

During my listening and speaking class today, we found that there was some time left over - a very rare occurrence in MY class. To fill the last five minutes of class, I started a group conversation about Thanksgiving traditions. I rather casually mentioned that Thanksgiving is a day when some families go around the table before or after the meal and name one thing in their life for which they are thankful; I also mentioned that many of the Christian families offer thanks to God for all His blessings on this special day, just like our traditional tale states that the Pilgrims did during that first harvest.

After I dismissed the class, one of my more thoughtful Middle Eastern students - a true old-soul-in-a-young-body gentleman - stayed after class to chat, as he often does. We often get into deep discussions about abstract ideas and meaning of life topics, so I was expecting something profound as usual - which it was, but not in the way I expected. He politely asked me to clarify what I had so off-handedly mentioned about giving thanks:

"Teacher, you said that Christians give thanks to God on Thanksgiving. Why only this time? We give thanks to God everyday."

I gently explained that, of course, we give thanks at other times. But then I started thinking. Do we? How much of this manifests itself in our prayer life? Do we give thanks at other times? 

We could learn a lot from our Muslim friends - to give thanks every day for each day of life we are given.

Through my conversations with my Muslim and Near East students, I have come to a greater understanding of the God of Abraham, and I see certain passages in the Old Testament in a new light as a result. Of course, the Christians are covered under the NEW Covenant, but we can also see traces of the Old Covenant among the peoples who still follow the ancient traditions of the near East. I have had some interesting discussions with my students, and I am still amazed and inspired by their absolute reverence for the Creator of All Things.

And their Gratitude.

June 22, 2014: Dallas Hospital Adventure, Student Edition

On Friday night, I volunteer, along with another teacher, to accompany a group of our international students into Dallas to go see an art exhibit and street festival. The bus ride is uneventful, aside from the second bus’s air conditioner mysteriously quitting. I am on the first bus, so I only hear about the other bus later. We arrive at the art museum and began queuing up to get tickets for the exhibit. Actually, because the new activity coordinator is a little inexperienced at “cat herding” international students, I step in, using my best teacher voice. In spite of our best efforts, some members of the group “escape” to buy dinner before we can give them their tickets, causing much confusion when they arrive later. We get the remaining students lined up (more or less) and begin counting heads. As I confirm the ticket purchase with the coordinator, she mentions that there is “kinda-sorta” an emergency call – a student has passed out from the heat but is now conscious and talking. I offer to go check him out, as I have the most updated first aid/CPR certification, and the coordinator needs to deal with the stragglers. The other teacher accompanies me. When I get to where the student is staying, he is sitting on the ground, outside the museum in the heat. One student is feeding him half of a Kit Kat bar, and the other student is holding a bottle of water; I caution the student with water to only let him sip it - it is not ice water, thankfully - but that turns out to be unnecessary. He seems a bit dazed and confused, but assents when I ask if I can touch him (as Red Cross protocol demands). His roommate says that the student had not eaten that day and had stayed up all night studying for a composition exam. I touch his forehead, and to my surprise, discover that he is cool and clammy. I instruct his friend to keep a cool, wet paper towel on the back of his neck to keep the intense summer heat at bay. He is able to say his name, date, and day of the week. He then starts trembling all over. By this time, a security guard is on the scene, and the security guard and I lift him gently and walk/carry him inside. As we lower him to a seat, he blacks out again, and his eyes roll back in his head. He starts trembling again, but his breathing is normal. The shaking – fairly mild at this time - continues, so I have a student hold his head gently in the correct position for clear breathing. In between seizures, his eyes remain at half-mast and stare in different directions. The security guard calls an ambulance. When the ambulance arrives, the student is really beginning to have a bigger seizure. I ask his friends if any of them are Level 5 or 6 – high enough English to translate if needed. His roommate and another friend volunteer to go with him as translators. I send his roommate with the ambulance, and his other friend goes with me in a taxi. The paramedics tell us to go to Baylor Hospital. What they don’t tell us is which Baylor Hospital to go to- there are three. The first taxi we hail refuses to take us – I got the impression he doesn’t like Arabs - but the second taxi knows exactly where to go. In the ER, the agent has some difficulty finding the young man, who has an unusually long “foreign” name. Eventually, the clerk locates him, and we go to his ER cubicle. He is in full seizure when we get to the hospital. In between the first two seizures, he is able to “appreciate” the cute nurses fussing over him, but can’t really speak or think clearly. The doctor expresses some serious concern over his condition, and the decision is made to move him to the ICU for “life support.” It takes three hours to get a bed, and he continues to have seizures throughout the night. During one seizure, the student becomes quite delirious, muttering “go away!” in Arabic and pulling at his IVs. He then starts crying, still not in his right mind. I cautiously lean over him to reassure the poor boy, placing one hand on his forehead, like a mother would if her boy were suffering. This is quite out of character for me, as I hate touching people I don’t know, but it seems to be the right thing to do at the moment. He suddenly grabs onto my other hand firmly …and promptly blacks out again. He has exceptionally long fingernails, so every time I try to pull my hand away, he digs into my hand with his nails. He doesn’t let go for 30 minutes, and my arm falls asleep. Finally, he relaxes into a deep slumber, and I am able to retrieve my hand. When he wakes up again, he is quite clear-headed. I re-introduce myself. “Do you know who I am?” He thinks hard, then smiles a bit, “Mom?” I explain that I am a teacher in his program. He is silent for a minute, then asks for “Miss Patria Teacher. I like her.” A few moments later, he says, in English, “I can’t control my body.” I tell him what has happened, but he doesn’t remember any of it. He goes back to sleep, but starts shivering again. The nurse brings a warm blanket, and this time, the shivering stops. Not a seizure. He turns on his side and begins to snore gently. His two friends are fairly calm during the episodes, and I am really proud of them for dealing with the situation as well as they did. They are both only 19. Actually, one of them really can’t deal with the medical procedures at all, but he always returns to the room once the medical staff leaves. The other one stays by his side, makes some phone calls (as do I), and finally connects with the patient's father through the Oman embassy. Two hours later, the orderly from ICU comes down to move him. “Como estas, Mr. Al******?” I gently explain that he isn’t a Spanish speaker. “Does he speak English?” “Yes. Well, as a matter of fact.” I guess he could pass for South American. Honestly, I am so used to dealing with people from other countries that the thought hasn’t occurred to me he might be mistaken for someone coming from a different country. He is a nice looking boy, I think a few minutes later, as I pray silently over him. I haven’t noticed before, but he has very chiseled features, with strong and regular bone structure visible under his tawny complexion; he also has a rather nicely shaped nose. A bit on the thin side, but he is still a teenager, so that may change. No wonder the nurses like him. I go up to the ICU with the patient to assist with answering the attendant’s questions. I chat with his friends quietly for about an hour as he settles in. We have one of those deep, serious conversations one tends to have at 3;00 am in a hospital room – Buddhism, Henry the 8th, and silly wars fought over camels, if I remember correctly. At 4;00 am, I leave the hospital, his two companions remaining as sentries in his room. I take a taxi back to the town I live in and have a delightful conversation with the driver from Ghana, who offers to go back for the boys later. I crawl into bed at 6am and do not wake up until 2pm.

July 10, 2014: Trying Times

As of July 31, I am homeless. As of August 1, I am jobless. God is laughing at me. My student reviews are "higher than average." All except for three rather unmotivated students are passing at a "higher than average" GPA and overall rate. My students actually show up to class regularly, which is an ongoing battle for almost everyone else. The Big Boss eviscerated my teaching and ranked me "fair" to "poor" in most categories. Granted, he saw me on a suckish day. I followed the previous teacher's lesson plans, as advised and actually required, even though I didn't feel terribly comfortable with the idea of using "stations" for teaching beginners - ESL teachers will know what I mean. He first said I didn't explain enough, then later said I over-explained. Whatever.  My students are still fasting, and also happen to be passing around a bad summer cold - which I now have - that has caused them to drop like flies. Their energy level is pretty low, and Tuesday was actually the worst day of class ever. Oh, and did I mention we still have no functional air conditioner in the classroom - in a warmer than usual Texas summer? We all STINK at the end of a class, especially one poor young man who has gotten severe gas and diarrhea from Ramadan fasting; I let him sit by the window and run to the bathroom as necessary. The A/C issue has been reported many times, but no one has come to take care of it. The Big Boss has offered to observe again, my other class this time. I will take him up on the offer, but only to prove I don't suck. Some of his criticism was just, but it couldn't be helped due to the trying situation. I DID have some issues that day - which reminded me of some of the ridiculous teaching methods expected at a certain for-profit learning center -  but they have resolved now that everyone is back and actually doing their homework. The irony? My students were very energetic today and had a blast. Not incidentally, they learned something. We almost got yelled at again for too much noise!

July 17, 2014: How to Convince Your Students You Are Crazy

So, a rather shy student student was frantically trying to get my attention during a rather chaotic "educational activity" (game). There were people scrambling around the room, and this student is rather soft spoken, so I didn't hear him at first. Finally, he whistled at me as I went by - like you whistle at an animal, not a cute girl, to be clear - and made the universal "come here" hand wave. Without thinking much about it, and in the spirit of the game, I walked over, and BARKED at him "Arf! Arf!"

He stopped, stunned...then apologized profusely!

The other students razzed him a bit, but he took it pretty well.

September 15, 2014: A Delegation of Nations

I think I startled a Yemeni scholar today by shaking his hand. Actually, he took it pretty well, which I appreciate. I get the impression that they are kind of conservative in that country.

There is a delegation of international teachers and scholars on campus. They are from the most random countries you can think of... I am completely fascinated! I hope I get to meet some of them. They are here to learn about American teaching styles and education - its through some kind of government outreach program, I think. If I am wrong, I will edit this post tomorrow;)

Actually, I am just honored to MEET someone from Yemen. I have several students from Panama as well, which, oddly enough, some of my Saudi students seem to find fascinating. There are also Iraqi, Emirati, Omani, Brazilian, Chilean, Swiss (he's a watchmaker!), and Senegalese students.

How often does THAT happen, meeting and working with people from so many different corners of the earth? This is why I love my job and cannot give it up. I may have had to give up travelling...for the time being, at least, but at least I can still experience other cultures.

TEACHING JOURNAL: Critical Thinking 101

One of the greatest complaints I hear from other teachers about Asian immigrant students is that they have limited to non-existent critical thinking skills. This is primarily due to the Asian style of teaching by rote and repetition (aka "drill and kill") rather than comprehension and analysis. This style of education should not be completely dismissed by Western style teachers, however - it is one of the many reasons why the Asian nations leave Western nations far behind in the dust when it comes to mathematics and scientific principles. The problem with this kind of education lies in the sectors requiring more innovation (scientific discovery) and problem solving (engineering), rather than cold, hard facts. Some economists have gone so far as to suggest that Asian workers will never be profound innovators, but will instead continue to rely on darn good imitation technology for economic growth.

This summer, I have begun teaching an English Literature class for incoming high school sophomores. We are required to finish one novel a week, so the pressure is quite intensive. The novels range from the classics (Tess of the D'Urbervilles) to modern fiction (The Kite Runner). The ongoing theme for our class is "The Human Condition." Although I had no say in which novels were assigned, I did find this theme to be a consistent, as the novel choices literally take the readers around the world and through space and time. The stress on international stories and writers (thank you, California political correctness!) is actually not a bad thing for developing critical thinking, I have found; it forces the readers to try and understand radically different viewpoints and character backgrounds, including political situations and alternative lifestyles.

There are two native-born students (male) and two fairly recent immigrant students (female) in my small group, and the differences in critical thinking abilities so far is subtle, though definitely present. We just finished reading Lord of the Flies. I myself had not read it since high school; I remember learning to HATE the book through too much close reading, so I was determined to focus on themes and archetypes, rather than reading comprehension and random plot points. Accordingly, each class period, we breezed through the required course multiple-choice questions (most of which were esoteric and/or downright silly) and focused instead on discussion and inquiry into motives and themes. I gave a fifteen minute lecture on the Nature vs. Nurture debate, and asked the students at the end of the week to write a literary analysis of Lord of the Flies and whether the events, characters, etc. of the novel support one side or the other particularly.

I have found that, in general, my native Korean students are very reluctant to open up and challenge an argument (or each other), especially if one classmate is perceived to be the class genius or teacher's pet. As I have only fours students, I instead focused on each individual student justifying each answer or opinion expressed. No one was allowed to repeat anything another student had said, and I got some very interesting answers as a result. I do not necessarily think that dead silence is a bad thing, by the way; it shows that the student is thinking.

As for the essays I received, well, it's clear that no one has been taught how to correctly format a reading-analysis essay (spawning this week's writing class focus!). That said, there were some attempts at real critical thinking. We still need to focus on, well, focusing our topics and using concrete examples, but I was impressed with the amount of thought that was put in to the actual content. That said, I also found a lot of my original "lecture language" fired back at me a bit too obediently; I would like to see more thought put into the issues that I and the other students raised, such as the nature of evil in Lord of the Flies. I suspect that this will come with time as we get deeper into discussion about "The Human Condition."

This week, we will be studying Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.

TEACHING JOURNAL: Generation 1.5 Students

It is both my pleasure and privilege to be currently working with several Generation 1.5 students in my classes and one-on-one tutoring sessions. I will be journaling my experiences this summer in order to bring attention to "silent demographic" that has been creeping into American public schools and causing some consternation among teachers. Having worked both locally and abroad in the ESL/ELD and mainstream English composition industries, I will also be working "aloud" (in written format) on creating some sort of teacher-training methodology for teachers who encounter this special group of students.

I have reprinted part of an article I wrote for The Examiner last year below to offer one definition of a Generation 1.5 student below.

A Generation 1.5 student:

• was born in a non-English speaking country.
• immigrated to the United States as a young tween or teenager (age 12 and up)
• usually has studied for three or more years in the United States or another English-speaking country
• frequently speaks two or more languages fluently
• does not speak English at home with their parents (although they may speak English, or language hybrids - such as Spanglish or Konglish - with their siblings)
• may (or may not) get placed in ELD classes in high school or college, although they may exhibit some ESL- like difficulties, particularly with written language
• do not have formal training in academic English (reading and writing) or American history
• are usually oral or auditory learners
  

More information on the challenges facing Generation 1.5 students (and part two of my Examiner commentary) can be found here.