La tercera época (The third period)

4.10.18: When you realize why/"I"

I've been teaching English writing to Spanish-speaking students for about six months now, and have always been met with a confusing error:

My father is known as a great doctor. He treats patients just the way He wants to be treated, and He never attends to a client as anything less that a whole person. Due to this reputation, He is always met by a parade of waves and smiles on the street, which He always responds to warmly.

You may have already identified the error here: The pronoun "he" is capitalized when it shouldn't be. This is a pretty common error, and I never knew why it happened. It didn't make sense until, earlier today, I watched this video.

Sure it's a grammar video "for kids," but it's often helpful to review the basics, no? Now I will approach this common error with a new understanding: Students may capitalize pronouns in the middle of a sentence because they were taught to always capitalize "I." This is a strange thing about English -- we don't capitalize pronouns, except for the first person singular "I." Why do we do this? This realization led me to spiral down to a New York Times article dedicated entirely to the topic.

This is just another reminder: There is a method to error-making; isolate the method, help your students fix the error.

4.11.18: A second post

4.19.18: After a sufficient amount of time reading one thing

5.3.18: This is why

5.9.18: Teacher Sarita "in her natural habitat"

5.23.18: Movie night

Here is a half an hour of me and my partner, Daniel, dancing salsa -- just in case you want to have a movie night:

6.11.18: Magnet poetry/word classes

It has been a while since I've posted, and that's because we've just begun a new cycle (semester).

This cycle is different from the three others I've taught -- a major difference lies in the sheer quantity of students. There are so few this semester, it sometimes feels like I'm giving a private tutoring lesson. But changes inspire (and force) us to adapt, so that's exactly what I'm doing.

So far, the low number of students (compare this semester's 5 students to my first semester's 25) has helped me discover advantages of having fewer brains to teach to, fewer attentions to capture, fewer grades to give. For example, today in class we went over word class, or parts of speech (you can see the PowerPoint here). To practice, we played around with some magnet poetry. Throughout this play time (which would not have been as intimate if I had as few as two more students -- number makes a huge difference in the classroom), the students were confirming their (educated) guesses as to which word was the noun, the determiner, the conjunction, etc. We ended up creating this little guy:

• Note: The magnets to the right are supplemented by added words to the written version on the left. And for rotating reasons, you'll have to tilt your head...

6.25.18: Punctuation Presentations

Here we go again, my favorite day.

(Click on the "Here").

7.23.18: Thinking, with Expo markers as metaphors

This is going to be my last full week of teaching in Quito, Ecuador, and I can't help but stare at my Expo markers, thinking:

• First of all, I should have never thought that the recognized brand would somehow be the best type of marker to use up here in the Sierra, because these markers weren't built for the Andes; I've heard they dry out quicker than other dry-erase markers. The idea of "markers drying out" changes when you become a teacher; suddenly, it's a life-or-death situation.
• Second of all, I'm really proud of these ones for having lasted 6 months (I got them halfway into my time here -- thanks for bringing them all the way from NYC, mama). I think they did because I skillfully switched between colors, being sure to never use one too often, lest it'd dry out and leave me with one less streak in my rainbow of a whiteboard:

• Third of all, having these markers made me realize how important it is for a teacher to have markers. You can't just talk all day in the hopes that your students will visualize all the knowledge you're spewing.
• Fourth of all, it's not just knowledge you should be spewing, but behavior. You are a teacher for being an expert in something, yes, but also for the way you portray that expertise. As a teacher trainer of mine once said, to paraphrase:

As a teacher, you conduct knowledge as well as behavior; the two must coexist.

If you want to learn something, you can stay up all night memorizing and studying, but if you don't behave in a way that's going to help you remember it in the long-term, well, that's not knowledge at all. So, as a teacher, you repeat your material again and again (and then repeat it again), then write it, then maybe draw it, then maybe you act it out, and ask your students to do all of that, too. And then probably tomorrow, you spend 20 minutes reviewing what you just did in class today. THAT'S learning, becoming knowledgeable -- behaving in a way that will help you practice and refine that knowledge.

I think the proverb above sums up my fourth point pretty well.

• Fifth of all, damn. I feel sad just looking at these Expo markers.

Does this mean your teaching is over?

No, dear; it has just begun. Catch me in Uruguay from March - November 2019 (Fulbright!).

8.4.18: Como ya te extraño ^^^^^