I woke up this morning and saw a friend request from one of my best students in San Francisco. She'd been accepted to an art institute, wished me luck on my journey and said she missed my stories. I felt great after reading that. I'm always uplifted by a message from a former student. Especially one that says they miss my stories, not my grammar explanations. I haven't been able to tell stories in class in NYC, and if I did have the time, they wouldn't understand.
Then I went to work and spent another day teaching them how to write present unreal conditionals. "If [this were true], I would [do this]." Of course, "this" isn't true, so I won't "do this." But it's always nice to imagine things, or bring up hypothetical situations. One of the students, who is generally friendly but must have been part of the group of four who complained about me, breathed deeply after my tenth review of the grammar (which began yesterday, but he missed) and said, "Teacher es diablo." I said, "I'm the devil?" and everyone laughed. I said, "If I had created the rules for English, I would have made them easier for you. If I were the devil, I would lie to you about the grammar instead of teaching you the correct grammar." We're also learning about vocabulary related to lying and telling the truth.
The next class began with the present perfect and indefinite past, on page 133. There was a picture of the pyramids and a camel, and then balloons in the next picture. Then a guy climbing a mountain. The theme of the chapter was "adventure travel." One of the readings was about a woman who got paid to do adventurous things and write about them. An exercise toward the end of class involved asking the students where they had been, and one of them had been many places because the Catholic Church had sent him there. Then a very outspoken but funny student who works for the Dominican embassy and has also traveled a lot said that "it is a pedophilic church," but then responded to protests from Catholic students by admitting that "not all priests are pedophiles." Then a few of the students started asking me what I believed, and I said I believed in teaching the present perfect tense, which was a lie, but as we learned in the previous class, a "white lie." Then I admitted I wasn't raised with any religion, but I believed in the bigger picture or whatever you call it, and that what I believed was irrelevant as far as them learning grammar was concerned. Of course, only two students heard me amidst the loud Spanish pronouncements of the original two debaters, who would constantly turn to me to explain what is happening in the world, whether it's religion or politics, as if them convincing me of their position would somehow settle the matter in the world. Then class ended, and I went home.
I cooked good food for a late lunch, and then tried very hard to do SAT math problems for my retake test on Monday. But my brain hated me for not sleeping enough Sunday night, so I took a nap to recharge, bought some more groceries, and then went back at it. I do not like math. Back in high school I was never that kind of person who said that, because I learned it every day and it made sense to me. After a twelve year break, some of these questions make no sense to me. I've got time to study though, and I'm retaking it on a day when I don't have to teach. I've noticed that my brain hurts more when I try to do math after a day of teaching. After math I finished The Information Diet by Clay Johnson and began Thomas Jefferson's biography by Jon Meachem. I read a brief one about him a few years ago which focused on a few major political points in his life, but nothing very in depth. For all of his moral contradictions (which we all have to certain degrees), he was certainly a Renaissance man.
After some reading I needed more food and went shopping while listening to Feist. During that song, "One, Two, Three, Four" she sings a lot about high school, which is coincidentally the last time I cared about difficult math, and then says, "You're changing your heart, you know who you are."
Then I cooked some pasta with beef, peppers and onions, something I haven't done in years, and it was delicious. Then I drank some ginger tea to settle the stomach. The message tag on my Yogi tea said, "Recognize that you are the truth."
I felt better after the food, but still a little lax overall. My mind's been off the past two days. It's been hard to concentrate. At least the moon parted the clouds as I opened up my wisdom binder for some inspiration. It reminds me of who I was when I left this city, who I still am, and who I've become. But none of it has anything to do with SAT Math or basic grammar.
Truth: if I hadn't been trying to write my book as quickly as possible so that I could be where I want to be, I would have done a better job writing it so far.
There is no solution but to write and to live in the process.
We all have trifling tributaries to ford. You just gotta ford 'em till you get to the king's bridge...
Then I went to work and spent another day teaching them how to write present unreal conditionals. "If [this were true], I would [do this]." Of course, "this" isn't true, so I won't "do this." But it's always nice to imagine things, or bring up hypothetical situations. One of the students, who is generally friendly but must have been part of the group of four who complained about me, breathed deeply after my tenth review of the grammar (which began yesterday, but he missed) and said, "Teacher es diablo." I said, "I'm the devil?" and everyone laughed. I said, "If I had created the rules for English, I would have made them easier for you. If I were the devil, I would lie to you about the grammar instead of teaching you the correct grammar." We're also learning about vocabulary related to lying and telling the truth.
The next class began with the present perfect and indefinite past, on page 133. There was a picture of the pyramids and a camel, and then balloons in the next picture. Then a guy climbing a mountain. The theme of the chapter was "adventure travel." One of the readings was about a woman who got paid to do adventurous things and write about them. An exercise toward the end of class involved asking the students where they had been, and one of them had been many places because the Catholic Church had sent him there. Then a very outspoken but funny student who works for the Dominican embassy and has also traveled a lot said that "it is a pedophilic church," but then responded to protests from Catholic students by admitting that "not all priests are pedophiles." Then a few of the students started asking me what I believed, and I said I believed in teaching the present perfect tense, which was a lie, but as we learned in the previous class, a "white lie." Then I admitted I wasn't raised with any religion, but I believed in the bigger picture or whatever you call it, and that what I believed was irrelevant as far as them learning grammar was concerned. Of course, only two students heard me amidst the loud Spanish pronouncements of the original two debaters, who would constantly turn to me to explain what is happening in the world, whether it's religion or politics, as if them convincing me of their position would somehow settle the matter in the world. Then class ended, and I went home.
I cooked good food for a late lunch, and then tried very hard to do SAT math problems for my retake test on Monday. But my brain hated me for not sleeping enough Sunday night, so I took a nap to recharge, bought some more groceries, and then went back at it. I do not like math. Back in high school I was never that kind of person who said that, because I learned it every day and it made sense to me. After a twelve year break, some of these questions make no sense to me. I've got time to study though, and I'm retaking it on a day when I don't have to teach. I've noticed that my brain hurts more when I try to do math after a day of teaching. After math I finished The Information Diet by Clay Johnson and began Thomas Jefferson's biography by Jon Meachem. I read a brief one about him a few years ago which focused on a few major political points in his life, but nothing very in depth. For all of his moral contradictions (which we all have to certain degrees), he was certainly a Renaissance man.
After some reading I needed more food and went shopping while listening to Feist. During that song, "One, Two, Three, Four" she sings a lot about high school, which is coincidentally the last time I cared about difficult math, and then says, "You're changing your heart, you know who you are."
Then I cooked some pasta with beef, peppers and onions, something I haven't done in years, and it was delicious. Then I drank some ginger tea to settle the stomach. The message tag on my Yogi tea said, "Recognize that you are the truth."
I felt better after the food, but still a little lax overall. My mind's been off the past two days. It's been hard to concentrate. At least the moon parted the clouds as I opened up my wisdom binder for some inspiration. It reminds me of who I was when I left this city, who I still am, and who I've become. But none of it has anything to do with SAT Math or basic grammar.
Truth: if I hadn't been trying to write my book as quickly as possible so that I could be where I want to be, I would have done a better job writing it so far.
There is no solution but to write and to live in the process.
We all have trifling tributaries to ford. You just gotta ford 'em till you get to the king's bridge...
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