Today, we were reading some Greek mythology in first hour. In one adaptation of the Cyclopes story, he falls in love with a sea nymph who is, for lack of a better word, a tease.
When trying to describe this concept to my 9th graders, I took a pair of scissors and asked one if she wanted them. As she began reaching to take them from me I said, "Just kidding!" and snatched them away. Everyone laughed.
I did the exact same thing to another student who had been talking a lot all class period. He reached for the scissors and when I snatched them away, he finally understood the concept of not getting something you wanted.
I tried describing that when girls do this, in America we call them a "tease." I said some girls go around saying, "Hi boys, you're very cute." and they flirt with boys but then they say, "You can't have me!"
They got a kick out of it.
For the rest of the class, they would throw "Just kidding," at the end of just about every sentence.
When I assigned homework, one looked at me and asked, "Just kidding?"
At the end of the class period, I stood in the doorway saying goodbye as they left. One student looked at me and said, "Have a good day, Ms. Seeds! Just kidding!"
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Double Ten Day
Today is my lovely mother's birthday! She is 53 years young. When I have more than one hour of free time, I have every intention of sending her present home. I also got some lovely ladies in my life a small trinket which I'm going to send home at the same time. Honestly, it's all about finding the time during the day to get to the post office to send the packages. Also, speaking the language would help so I'm planning on asking one of the teachers who speaks the language to accompany me so I don't look like a complete fool.
On another exciting note, Happy National Day of the Republic of China! Today is the equivalent of the Fourth of July in 'Merca. It's the day the Qing Dynasty, China's last dynasty, was overthrown. It all started with privately-owned railways being built across China. The Qing government ordered the railways to become nationalized so they could pay back the amount owed to Great Britain, US, France, and Germany (the countries building the railroads).
The people revolted and planned protests and a bomb went off earlier than planned and hospitalized one of the leaders of the protests. The government found out who he was and, in order to avoid being arrested and executed, they staged a coup and overthrew the government! This year is the 102nd anniversary of the Republic of China.
(This is the condensed version, summarized by yours truly from what I read on Wikipedia. I may have forgotten some important parts or maybe got some parts completely wrong. Look it up yourself.)
Some of the students in a Chinese class gave a presentation and passed out pins. They represent today's date: 10/10. In Chinese, the number 10 is written as "十" so the symbol for today is two of these characters put together.
Tonight, there will be fireworks all over the country. I would go down to People's Park in downtown Taichung but, alas, I am on duty tonight. Thursday night duty is the most entertaining because it is also room inspection night so the girls will be in a cleaning frenzy at 9pm when study hall ends. AKA dance party in the hallway with some rap and dance mixes.
Living in a boarding school, we follow many traditions that a boarding school on the east coast or in the United Kingdom would follow. One of these is the weekly room inspections on Thursday nights.
Since everyone is living so close to one another, germs are easily spread and immune systems are easily corrupted with dust! By having room inspections every week, every boarding room in the building is checked for said dust and trash and germs. Originally the headmaster was the one doing the checks, but he has since trained the Dean of Dorms and Dean of Students so now they're the ones who check the rooms.
And, yes, everyone gets a grade. A beautiful, sparkly clean room receives an "Excellent." If there's a little dust found, the room receives a "Good" and if there is too much dust found or trash not taken out or a pillow out of place, the room receives a "Fail." Then, they average the scores, get a percentage of each score and give the floor an overall passing percentage and that number is read off the next morning at assembly, along with each room number that failed.
If there are too many rooms on a floor that fail, the headmaster will go through a couple days later and check that floor all over again. Last week, for example, our second floor boys didn't do so hot. The boss checked their rooms again on Monday and was still not satisfied with the cleanliness of the rooms so he instructed the dorm parent on duty to take all of the second-offenders' computers. I saw Andy coming downstairs the next morning with somewhere between 10 and 15 laptops and tablets.
Overall, I love my job as a dorm parent. Spending time with the girls after school is over is so much fun and I'm getting to know them outside of the classroom, which some teachers will never get. It also helps that I only teach three of the seventy-some girls who live on this floor so there really isn't any teacher-student to dorm parent-student awkward transitions. Not like there would be... but it's nice that it's not really an issue to begin with.
I also love living in a dorm because I can hop upstairs and check on the other 95% of my students, 8th and 9th grade boys, during study hall to make sure they're understanding the material. These students are so great and they work very hard, but it's very hard for them to ask for help. By me going up and simply yelling, "Do any of Ms. Seeds' students have questions on the homework?" I get about seven to nine of them coming out and asking me questions they never would have asked me otherwise.
Hell, the other night, one of them asked me for help with his geometry.
Also, the chances that a student can help another student with homework are pretty great when all of the students live on three floors of the building. Tonight, for example, one student came to me asking for help with her biology homework. Osmosis. Yeah right! I read her notes and the section of the textbook that defined the terms and didn't get any of it. I grabbed her book and led her downstairs to the upper school boys' floor and yelled, "Is anyone really good at biology? Preferable AP biology?" I got a couple wonderful volunteers and chose one to explain the concept to her. He did it in Chinese, which is necessary with understanding concepts before learning the new language of it, and he also gave her fun ways to remember said concepts that he uses!
I told her if we hadn't come downstairs, I would still be staring at her book. She laughed. But it's those kinds of situations that make me very happy that I chose to work in this environment.
Now, I'm off to bed. I have a FaceTime date tomorrow morning with the birthday girl that I have to be up early for.
On another exciting note, Happy National Day of the Republic of China! Today is the equivalent of the Fourth of July in 'Merca. It's the day the Qing Dynasty, China's last dynasty, was overthrown. It all started with privately-owned railways being built across China. The Qing government ordered the railways to become nationalized so they could pay back the amount owed to Great Britain, US, France, and Germany (the countries building the railroads).
The people revolted and planned protests and a bomb went off earlier than planned and hospitalized one of the leaders of the protests. The government found out who he was and, in order to avoid being arrested and executed, they staged a coup and overthrew the government! This year is the 102nd anniversary of the Republic of China.
(This is the condensed version, summarized by yours truly from what I read on Wikipedia. I may have forgotten some important parts or maybe got some parts completely wrong. Look it up yourself.)
Some of the students in a Chinese class gave a presentation and passed out pins. They represent today's date: 10/10. In Chinese, the number 10 is written as "十" so the symbol for today is two of these characters put together.
Tonight, there will be fireworks all over the country. I would go down to People's Park in downtown Taichung but, alas, I am on duty tonight. Thursday night duty is the most entertaining because it is also room inspection night so the girls will be in a cleaning frenzy at 9pm when study hall ends. AKA dance party in the hallway with some rap and dance mixes.
Living in a boarding school, we follow many traditions that a boarding school on the east coast or in the United Kingdom would follow. One of these is the weekly room inspections on Thursday nights.
Since everyone is living so close to one another, germs are easily spread and immune systems are easily corrupted with dust! By having room inspections every week, every boarding room in the building is checked for said dust and trash and germs. Originally the headmaster was the one doing the checks, but he has since trained the Dean of Dorms and Dean of Students so now they're the ones who check the rooms.
And, yes, everyone gets a grade. A beautiful, sparkly clean room receives an "Excellent." If there's a little dust found, the room receives a "Good" and if there is too much dust found or trash not taken out or a pillow out of place, the room receives a "Fail." Then, they average the scores, get a percentage of each score and give the floor an overall passing percentage and that number is read off the next morning at assembly, along with each room number that failed.
If there are too many rooms on a floor that fail, the headmaster will go through a couple days later and check that floor all over again. Last week, for example, our second floor boys didn't do so hot. The boss checked their rooms again on Monday and was still not satisfied with the cleanliness of the rooms so he instructed the dorm parent on duty to take all of the second-offenders' computers. I saw Andy coming downstairs the next morning with somewhere between 10 and 15 laptops and tablets.
Overall, I love my job as a dorm parent. Spending time with the girls after school is over is so much fun and I'm getting to know them outside of the classroom, which some teachers will never get. It also helps that I only teach three of the seventy-some girls who live on this floor so there really isn't any teacher-student to dorm parent-student awkward transitions. Not like there would be... but it's nice that it's not really an issue to begin with.
I also love living in a dorm because I can hop upstairs and check on the other 95% of my students, 8th and 9th grade boys, during study hall to make sure they're understanding the material. These students are so great and they work very hard, but it's very hard for them to ask for help. By me going up and simply yelling, "Do any of Ms. Seeds' students have questions on the homework?" I get about seven to nine of them coming out and asking me questions they never would have asked me otherwise.
Hell, the other night, one of them asked me for help with his geometry.
Also, the chances that a student can help another student with homework are pretty great when all of the students live on three floors of the building. Tonight, for example, one student came to me asking for help with her biology homework. Osmosis. Yeah right! I read her notes and the section of the textbook that defined the terms and didn't get any of it. I grabbed her book and led her downstairs to the upper school boys' floor and yelled, "Is anyone really good at biology? Preferable AP biology?" I got a couple wonderful volunteers and chose one to explain the concept to her. He did it in Chinese, which is necessary with understanding concepts before learning the new language of it, and he also gave her fun ways to remember said concepts that he uses!
I told her if we hadn't come downstairs, I would still be staring at her book. She laughed. But it's those kinds of situations that make me very happy that I chose to work in this environment.
Now, I'm off to bed. I have a FaceTime date tomorrow morning with the birthday girl that I have to be up early for.
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Conversations with Students
My 8th and 9th graders are very comical groups of students. They are still at the stage of language-learning where they are always excited to be speaking English so they talk all the time. This is a wonderful stage to teach because, as many teachers would agree, talkative students present many teachable moments. As a teacher, you take every teachable moment you can find because you're opening their world to so many new things, especially ELLs.
Here are a few of the conversations that have made me love my job so much more. Some come from what we're talking about for the lesson, but most are just random conversations generated by inquisitive 8th and 9th grade boys.
Adam: What is 'yo mama'?
Me: It's short for 'your mom.'
Adam: What does it mean?
Me: In America, sometimes people make fun of other people's moms by saying mean things about them.
At this point, all of the students are staring at me like I'm insane. Rightfully so.
Jeffrey: Like what?
Me: Ummm, like, yo mama so stupid, she tried to arrange her m&ms in alphabetical order.
*after about five seconds, one student laughs*
Me: Do you know what m&ms are?
Kevin: Yes! Ooohhhh! I get it.
Jeffrey: What's another one?
Me: Yo mama so stupid, she went to the dentist to get blue tooth.
Jeffrey: Oh! Yo mama so blue tooth!
Me: No. What? No. You have to be mean about it. You say things like fat or stupid or slow.
Jeffrey: Yo mama so awesome!
Me: Sure. Say that.
Beckham: Ms. Seed, what do you call it when you put a needle into an animal and they die?
Me: Lethal injection?!
Beckham: Lethal injection?
Me: Yeah, the verb is to euthanize. It means to kill someone or something with using a needle. Why?
Beckham: Do they do that to animals?
Me: Yeah, I guess.
Beckham: And human?
Me: Um, let's talk about something else.
Me: Okay, take out your class notebooks.
Jeffrey: Yes, sir!
Me: No. I'm not a boy. You say "yes ma'am!" to a girl.
Jeffrey: Yes man!
Me: No, Jeffrey. Ma'aM! with an M!
Jeffrey: Yes man!
Me: Forget it. Just say "yes, Ms. Seeds."
Jeffrey: Okay, Ms. Seed! You're welcome, Ms. Seed!
Jeffrey: Ms. Seed, how many boyfriends do you have?
Me: Eight.
Jeffrey: Oooh! Eight!?
Me: Yup!
Jeffrey: Mr. Foster has five. And Mr. Perez has too many.
Me: That sounds about right.
Me: Who do you pray to and what do you pray for?
Daryl: "We buy paper money and burn the paper money and pray for more money, but we get no money because we spent our money to buy the fake money to burn!"
Me: Why do you do this?
Daryl: Me?
Me: Yes, you.
Daryl: I don't do that! I'm Christian.
Me: Oh.... okay.
Daniel: How many children does Zeus have?
Me: A lot. He was a very busy man.
Daniel: What does that mean?
Me: He had a lot of children. Like fifty or something like that.
*Confused faces*
Daryl: With Hera?
Me: No, with different women.
*Confused faces*
Me: Ummm... How do I put this delicately...? He had sex with a lot of women and had a lot of children.
*laughter*
Me: Yup, I don't have to translate that word!
Daryl: (facetiously) What's "sex"?
Me: Ask your health teacher. Who is your P.E. teacher?
Clement: Ms. Chevron! She will say, "That's an indoor activity!"
*laughter*
Here are a few of the conversations that have made me love my job so much more. Some come from what we're talking about for the lesson, but most are just random conversations generated by inquisitive 8th and 9th grade boys.
Adam: What is 'yo mama'?
Me: It's short for 'your mom.'
Adam: What does it mean?
Me: In America, sometimes people make fun of other people's moms by saying mean things about them.
At this point, all of the students are staring at me like I'm insane. Rightfully so.
Jeffrey: Like what?
Me: Ummm, like, yo mama so stupid, she tried to arrange her m&ms in alphabetical order.
*after about five seconds, one student laughs*
Me: Do you know what m&ms are?
Kevin: Yes! Ooohhhh! I get it.
Jeffrey: What's another one?
Me: Yo mama so stupid, she went to the dentist to get blue tooth.
Jeffrey: Oh! Yo mama so blue tooth!
Me: No. What? No. You have to be mean about it. You say things like fat or stupid or slow.
Jeffrey: Yo mama so awesome!
Me: Sure. Say that.
Beckham: Ms. Seed, what do you call it when you put a needle into an animal and they die?
Me: Lethal injection?!
Beckham: Lethal injection?
Me: Yeah, the verb is to euthanize. It means to kill someone or something with using a needle. Why?
Beckham: Do they do that to animals?
Me: Yeah, I guess.
Beckham: And human?
Me: Um, let's talk about something else.
Me: Okay, take out your class notebooks.
Jeffrey: Yes, sir!
Me: No. I'm not a boy. You say "yes ma'am!" to a girl.
Jeffrey: Yes man!
Me: No, Jeffrey. Ma'aM! with an M!
Jeffrey: Yes man!
Me: Forget it. Just say "yes, Ms. Seeds."
Jeffrey: Okay, Ms. Seed! You're welcome, Ms. Seed!
Jeffrey: Ms. Seed, how many boyfriends do you have?
Me: Eight.
Jeffrey: Oooh! Eight!?
Me: Yup!
Jeffrey: Mr. Foster has five. And Mr. Perez has too many.
Me: That sounds about right.
Me: Who do you pray to and what do you pray for?
Daryl: "We buy paper money and burn the paper money and pray for more money, but we get no money because we spent our money to buy the fake money to burn!"
Me: Why do you do this?
Daryl: Me?
Me: Yes, you.
Daryl: I don't do that! I'm Christian.
Me: Oh.... okay.
Daniel: How many children does Zeus have?
Me: A lot. He was a very busy man.
Daniel: What does that mean?
Me: He had a lot of children. Like fifty or something like that.
*Confused faces*
Daryl: With Hera?
Me: No, with different women.
*Confused faces*
Me: Ummm... How do I put this delicately...? He had sex with a lot of women and had a lot of children.
*laughter*
Me: Yup, I don't have to translate that word!
Daryl: (facetiously) What's "sex"?
Me: Ask your health teacher. Who is your P.E. teacher?
Clement: Ms. Chevron! She will say, "That's an indoor activity!"
*laughter*
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