
![]() Of course nothing beats getting to know your students like sitting down with each one individually. Last year, with the help of another teacher, I managed to do this at at the outset -- she took the class while I briefly met with each student. That doesn't mean I can remember every detail, like who has a brother or who comes from this city or that. But there are just too many freshman this semester for me to meet with them during class time. So for the first class, I had the students interview each other with a short survey so I could collect the basic detail about each student -- where they were from, what their career goals were, if any, their hobbies and interests. And it's not like I make the time to study and memorize these facts and I won't have the time, but it's there to refer to. The random fact does get stuck in my head along with the random name.
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![]() Julie, my TESL teacher, gave us aspiring ESL teachers a lot of useful information and ideas for classroom activities. But I found the textbook material broke down into two categories -- the first was what I call the no sh*t, Sherlock stuff, such as blindingly obvious remarks about the advantages and disadvantages of different classroom seating arrangements. Student teachers have to read sentences like this: "In any classroom, pupils will be drawn together for many purposes and we can refer to such within classroom contexts as 'groupings'".... Seriously. Get your yellow hiliters out and plow through that stuff. Then there's the edu-speak, the jargon, which I simply loathed. Example: "...that sees language as a semiotic system, that is, a meaning-making system that constitutes a resource, not a rule-governed object...." ![]() I've been looking forward to a visit from one of my sons, along with my husband's return to China after some time working, golfing and fishing back home. Our pre-trip preparations are a breeze compared to what my Chinese colleagues would have to go through if they planned a trip abroad. Recently, two of my colleagues mentioned to me that they have had to surrender their passports to the authorities. Everyone on staff at the managerial level had to turn in their passport. If they want to go abroad, they have to fill out forms, get things stamped, their boss has to sign off for them, and so the boss's career is on the line, too. This curtailment of their civil liberties is an attempt to stem mostly corruption+ and to a lesser extent espionage. For me, this was a reminder that behind this civil society (and by "civil," I mean orderly, courteous, safe and the trains run on time) lies a dictatorship. In my year and a half in China, I haven't seen a prison or an orphanage, but I know that they are out there. Somewhere in this province, political dissidents are being held and baby girls and disabled children are being abandoned by parents. One such "baby hatch" is located in the provincial capital of Jinan, just a few hours by train from where I live. Shortly after its opening the authorities were overwhelmed with the number of foundlings. I love the Minions. And so does the rest of the world, including China. Here, the name "Minions" has been blandly translated as "Little Yellow People." So when the topic of the Minions comes up, I tell the older kids to look up the word "minion" in their smart phone dictionaries so that they can understand that the humor of the name. Minion means: "a follower or underling of a powerful person, especially a servile or unimportant one." ![]() The third movie featuring the Minions came out this past summer. But not in China. In China, the government suggested* that the movie theaters refrain from showing Western blockbusters to give a boost to the Chinese feature film industry. The government wanted the kids to go see the adorable little monsters in the domestic movie "Monster Hunt" instead. And they did. Regardless, the McDonald restaurants in China rolled out the tie-in campaign -- little Minion toys -- with their Happy Meals in the summer, but the Chinese kids had to wait til late September to see the movie. A cosmetics and personal care chain, Watsons, also offered Minion memorabilia. I got some Minion fans. I mean fans that have Minions on them, not fans of the Minions. |
About the author:Greetings! I blog about my research into Jane Austen and her world, plus a few other interests. My earlier posts (prior to June 2017) are about my time as a teacher of ESL in China (just click on "China" in the menu below). More about me here. Categories
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