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15 thoughts on “Spinning PQA 2”
“It is enough that I just concentrate on the slow circling and on listening to them really well. It’s like the conductor who doesn’t actually play the music.”
…and this just might be the key to our longevity in the classroom. What a low-stress job, if we can make it so. If I can do this, then I will not “work” another day of my life!
Yes, Kate, and this is what La said in that email to me a few days ago. We have to take responsibility for our stress levels. Nobody is going to come along and take the stress away from us. Not in this time in the history of American education. On the contrary, very imbalanced people are making decisions that affect us in internally vicious ways. The data collection is beyond the ken. The fear is so high. The threat of loss of income if you don’t speak a certain way is rampant. We are all in such danger in our beliefs. And yet, in spite of all of that, we have a vastly superior way to reach kids in pleasant ways. We can, in fact, in spite of the ridiculous odds, lower our stress. La says below that her stress is way down. Read it carefully. It is something that we all can do. Here it is again in case anyone missed it on that other thread. It’s pretty kick ass:
I just want to thank you and everyone in this community. I learn and reflect SO MUCH from you all. As the semester progresses, I find myself a happier person (still stress occasionally but not as bad) so as most of my students. It just made my days when a senior student talked to her friend how she loved the class and that this will be the only class she missed when she leave high school. Yesterday, several kids were talking how they unconsciously mixed up speaking Chinese to their peers in other classes. Even if they’re simple words or phrases like “no, it’s incorrect” or “I don’t want it”, it just made me really proud of them.
Next I’m going to learn how to cook up the grade book and to let go some stuff…like projects. Though I admit that sometimes I have students do projects just to fill in between lessons, to “show off” the program (it’s the first year so not many people know that Chinese program exist), to please the administrators and parents-kind of a fake “achievement”, etc.
I wish I could go to iflt! I’ll be on the beach in Thailand so that’s ok. I’m sure I’ll keep learning from all of you 🙂Merci beaucoup!
P.S. Sorry for the grammar mistakes, I learn English on the streets.
Dearest La,
You are the smartest street-English speaker I have ever met. And the funniest. And the most tender-hearted. Your students are lucky to have you!
with love,
Laurie
My fifth period wants to bring Yokokokokokokoshisha back. I keep rejecting her (as she lives on Planeta X super far from here).
They love her, I should just let them bring her back. They created her and you’re right, they have a connection with the beings they create. Maybe she can write an email saying what she has been up to. I don’t know how she has been doing, but the kids sure might.
How do you create these characters? I’ve love to give my students the opportunity to do something like this, create some recurring character, but how do you do it? How did Yokokokokokoshisha come to life?
Does she have an evil alter-ego? Or was she always evil? I love the email letter from Planeta X idea. Or perhaps a news article from el periódico, “eXaminar”, about her demise and the planet’s fears about her “replacement” who will soon be traveling to Earth. It only works if it comes from them, though, so all of my ideas are junk. Oh, well.
I agree, Jody! I’m sure Yokokokokokokoshisha@gmail.com isn’t taken. She should definitely email you this weekend, Drew and you share it with the students this coming week.
HA! nice. What a great idea. An email (and a theme on the AP exam).
And I’m not sure if she is evil. The kids probably remember what she looks like. If I remember correctly a kid had a big red balloon and travelled to Planet X to meet her because they met on the internet…
I am doing something wrong.
I have spent most of the weekend – at least fifteen hours – trying to sort out the whole RT thing and all sorts of stuff about reading for next year. And you guys are talking about:
Yokokokokokokoshisha!
Why can’t I see what is important? AGH!
Good news. Tomorrow Yokokokokokokoshisha (in 5th period) and Flaflarkasha! (in 1st period) will be getting pets.
tiene una mascota (has a pet)
crece [demasiado grande] (grows [too big])
le da de comer (feeds)
We will see what happens.
Chris “likes” this. *insert thumbs up here*
Write up the story and send it to us in English so we can keep up. I don’t know that Flaflarkasha is going to do too well by Yokokokokokokoshisha – I sense tension there. Yokokokokokokoshisha is most certainly evil.
Certainly not as evil as Moon Cheese: http://www.hubworld.com/watch/1472063137001/the-aquabats-super-show-space-bees
She isn’t evil but when I introduced the words
fue sequestrado [was kidnapped]
dejó una pista [left a clue]
all of a sudden in both classes the absent kid became the kidnapper.
That’s awesome!