Rough Mondays

Okay, this blog is sort of turning into my journal about teaching. I'm sure that that will slow down as the semester progresses and teaching stops taking over my life. But right now I'm doing a lot of preparation for my classes, a lot of grading homework for my classes, and a lot of teaching IN my classes!

Mondays are kind of rough for me. I have usually prepared well for my classes. This weekend I took a chunk of Saturday to prepare. And yet, when I sit down for all of the last minute details, I always find so many things that I missed in my preparation! Today was particularly difficult because I found out that I was going to have two new students in my class at the ELC. They were in a lower level, but they were moved up after the first week because their skills were good enough. So I had to talk to them about a bunch of stuff that they've missed. And I had several students in my writing class at UVU that showed up for the first time today. They've been registered for the class and just haven't shown up. There's one more that still hasn't shown up, because she thought that she was in another section and just realized today that she had been in the wrong class. She's going to come tomorrow. [Sigh] I will be glad when this week is done, I have all of my class rolls finalized, I've caught everyone up on what they need to be doing, and I can stop having these last minute emergencies to take care of.

Mondays are also hard because it's kind of hard to just jump into teaching when you haven't done it during the weekend. I do teach a primary class on Sundays, but it's to 3-year-olds, and I only teach every other week. So I really didn't have to think about classroom management much this weekend. So it's always kind of a jolt to get back into it on Mondays.

Fortunately, I have 3 classes on Mondays, so by the end of Monday, I'm back into the swing of things! You've got to love Mondays!

I really do love teaching.

So, I may have had some teaching anxiety earlier this week. I think it's understandable, what with starting two new classes this week and all. But tonight I got to teach my community ed. class, which I started to teach 2 weeks ago. It was great! I love that these people want to learn so much, and they are really fun to work with. Tonight I taught them all a bit about how to use Word to write, and how to attach a Word document to an email (since they email their drafts to me). There were some funny moments. Especially since I couldn't figure out how to turn on the projector at first, and I looked a bit technologically backwards myself! But I really love seeing my students smile during class. I enjoy making a fool of myself sometimes if it lightens the mood and helps my students enjoy learning more. This class really is great! So even though I do sometimes get anxious about teaching, nights like this one will always make me feel glad that I'm a teacher!

Teaching Anxiety?

Last night was not a good night for me. I didn't sleep well. And it was all because I was nervous about starting my class at the ELC (English Language Center) today! I didn't really feel that nervous about starting teaching today. I have felt really excited and happy to teach at the ELC. But I must have had some inner anxiety about it, because it was definitely manifested in my lack of good sleep last night.

First of all, I teach at 8:15am. So I have to get up at 6:00am in order to get to class on time. I've done a couple of practice runs catching the bus, and I was satisfied that I can do this all summer long. However, last night I frequently woke up and looked at the clock. Every single time I looked at the clock, I was worried that I had missed my alarm and that I was going to be late for work.

Secondly, when I was asleep, I was dreaming about my class syllabus and calendar. What!? I mean, doesn't a dream usually have at the very least a plot, even if it is incoherent? My dreams last night did not. I dreamt only in images of my syllabus and calendar. It was kind of like those slideshow presentations, where the images just transition from one to the next. Crazy? I think so!

But my first day of teaching wasn't bad at all! I really think that when this subconscious anxiety works itself out, it will be really easy to get up at 6:00am for work. And I am really going to enjoy this class. It's a reading class, which I've always wanted to teach! And it makes me feel really productive to get going on my day right away. I just hope I don't have any more syllabus dreams! They're really boring!

I'm Done!

I took my last final yesterday, and I'm done with my graduate certificate!!! Wahoo!

I was accepted!

Sorry for not updating about this earlier. I found out on Thursday that I was accepted into BYU's TESOL MA program! I'm so, so, so excited! I'll start taking classes in the fall.

Thanks for all of the support that all of you have given me while I've been working on my graduate certificate, and while I've been preparing for the MA. :D

TESOL MA at BYU

I'm supposed to find out today if I made it into the TESOL MA at BYU.

And the anticipation is killing me!!!!!

2009 Highlights

Not all of these happenings are going to be that interesting to read about, but here are some of the things that Dave and I experienced during 2009:

January: Dave and I met on January 3rd at Jason (a mutual friend)'s party. We were both smitten pretty quickly with each other. Dave had 1 extra week of vacation before he started school, a lot of which he spent hanging out with me. Then he kept commuting down to Provo to see me during the next two weeks. We started dating exclusively at the end of the month. Dave was starting his 2nd semester of law school. I was still working for an office on BYU campus where I had worked as a student, but I started new responsibilities because I was no longer in school and could take on extra work.

February: Dave and I went on a road trip to Preston, Idaho. We saw some of the places where the movie "Napoleon Dynamite" was filmed. And we discovered that we liked to spend even long amounts of time with each other! Dave started living at his parents' house in Provo during the weekends, and I bought a car from my grandma so that I could drive up and see Dave in Salt Lake during the week.

March: Dave and I experienced our first real trauma. My mother had a heart attack and I drove to Arizona to see her. I was there for a week, waiting to see how she would recover. Dave called and texted me every day, and we came out of the experience much more attached to each other. I found out that I was admitted into the TESOL certificate program at BYU.

April: Dave and I talked a lot about marriage this month. We discussed what it would mean for us to be attending different schools 40 miles apart. And we continued our courtship. I moved into a house in Provo and continued to enjoy work. And I replaced the alternator in my car.

May: Dave took his finals. Then he proposed! And he had appendicitis. This was a busy month for him. I took care of him, had to replace the fuel pump on my car, and continued working.

June: Dave and I kept preparing for our marriage. Dave took classes during the summer time and worked. And I drove to New York with my friend Emily. Also, Dave and I floated the Provo River and did all kinds of summery things. I'm looking forward to doing that again next year!

July: Dave and I celebrated the 4th of July, hiked, swam, and generally had fun. We sent out our wedding invitations. We read a lot of "Dandelion Wine" together (I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for an easy, pleasant read). And we started moving some of our belongings into our new home.

August: Dave and I got married! We spent about 4 days in Arizona before we got married, then spent our honeymoon in the White Mountains in eastern Arizona. The last night of our honeymoon we camped at Goblin Valley in Utah (I can't believe that no one commented on my post about Goblin Valley, since Dave and I were trying to trick people into thinking that we'd spent our whole honeymoon there). And then at the end of the month I started school!

September: Dave and I started our commuting life style, Dave taking the train to school and me taking the bus to school. And we started to get more settled into married life.

October: I set some goals for the school year. Dave and I babysat my niece and nephews, and decided that it's going to be several years before we have any kids. We fell more in love!

November: Dave and I continued on with school and work. Dave got hired to work at the attorney general's office. And we went to Arizona for our first Thanksgiving together. It was a fun trip.

December: I finished my first semester of grad school! I have one semester left in my certificate program, and I am applying in January to BYU's MA program. Dave and I celebrated our first Christmas together! And we are excited to celebrate our first year of knowing each other on January 3rd, 2010!

Right now I should be doing homework.

But instead, I am looking at past posts on my blog, and thinking about how much I LOVE having a blog!

The other day I attended a conference session that was talking about how blogging can be used by writing teachers. A blog allows students and the teacher to comment on different writing assignments, and gives the students another forum for writing. I think that if I ever teach another writing class, on my own, I might incorporate a class blog into it. I think it would be fun and rewarding.

Having a blog has been a really great experience. I've used it to get to know myself better, write about my frustrations and joys, publish my writing from Two Good Things, and tell jokes. And now I get to share it with Dave. It's just so fun!

Update: Dun, dun, dun!

I know that I haven't been posting very much. This month has been the normal blah. Work. Laundry. Cleaning.

It's also been an abnormal blah. I'm starting to pack, since I'm moving in a couple of weeks. I'm going to be moving in with my cousin Rachel. And I'm going to be living in a house! I've never lived in a house in Provo, and I think it will be fun. Another thing that will be wonderful is that I'll have my own room! I've always had a shared room in my apartments in Provo, except when I lived on the foldout couch in the living room! (That was last semester when I lived with Lorie.) So, now I'll have my own room, and I'm really looking forward to it.

This month has also been wonderful! I've spent a lot of time with Dave. Conference weekend was wonderful. We spent part of it with Dave's family, and part of it with my extended family that live in Utah or were visiting for the weekend. I thought the talks were wonderful! I love the feelings that I have while listening to spiritually uplifting messages. We also spent some time with my cousins this last Easter Sunday, and then went over to Dave's family's house. Two Easter dinners in one day? That's what I call beautiful!

I've also been talking to my adviser in the TESOL Certificate Program and preparing for classes. I'm excited to get started on that in a few months!

Bilingual Education

I have such a hard time understanding articles like the following. Read my response to it after you've read the article.

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Dearborn schools urged to ban Arabic
School district, Arab community at odds over proposed language ban.
Tanveer Ali / The Detroit News

DEARBORN -- A recommendation to bar Arabic speech in the city's most
heavily Arab public high school unless it is absolutely necessary has
sparked a sharp debate between those who say it's necessary to help
students perform better and those who say it only helps alienate them.

A study commissioned by the Wayne County Regional Education Service
Agency said the use of Arabic by students in the bilingual programs in
Dearborn Public Schools slows the assimilation of students "into the
school and American society in general" and fosters suspicion among
students and teachers who don't speak the language.

Students' ability to communicate in the language they feel most
comfortable with is a basic right, said Imad Hamad, regional director of
the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee.

"It should not be touched," Hamad said. "I am not a fan of restricting
or reducing language. I feel that goes against the best interest of any
type of education."

The 44-page report from the Michigan Leadership Institute, an
independent education and municipal consulting group based in Old
Mission in the Grand Traverse Bay area, addressed the usual problems
public high schools grapple with, including overcrowding, test scores
and No Child Left Behind compliance, but also took note of the specific
challenges for the district with an Arab population that reaches as high
as 90 percent in some schools.

Though the language divide is a problem at all three high schools in the
district, the report singled out Fordson High School to prohibit all
non-English use unless absolutely necessary to communicate with parents
or students.

"To do otherwise reinforces a perception by some that Fordson is an Arab
School in America rather than an American school with Arab students,"
the report stated.

District officials said they will explore ways to accelerate students
into English-only classes over the next 18 months.

Intissar Harajli, the district's coordinator of bilingual education,
said the district tests all new students' English proficiency and places
them in English-only or bilingual classes according to their skill
level. All schools and all subjects have bilingual options.

"The misconception is sometimes (determining) when the child has
survival skills they can move on," Harajli said, adding that it takes up
to four years for a new English speaker to gain the skills to adapt to
an English-only classroom.

Kevin Harris, president of the Dearborn Federation of Teachers and a
former economics teacher at Fordson, said a bilingual education is
necessary in the school district, home to many students and parents who
are new to the English language. Yet, he agreed with the report's
assessment that the use of languages other than English "contributes to
an atmosphere of distrust and suspicion on the part of English-only
speaking adults in the schools."

"The report's concern is that there's an overuse of the native tongue
when there didn't really need to be," Harris said. When English speakers
choose to communicate in Arabic he said, "It does make me suspicious and
I think it's rude for them to do this. If situations were reversed, how
would you feel? I don't think they get that."

Non-Arab parents like Tomara Doss, who has a daughter and a sister in
the Dearborn school system, said English-only education is necessary in
order to integrate a community that seems to be distant from American
culture.

"Schools should be all English. If you live in America, you are an
American," said Doss, 33, who was picking up her sister from Fordson.
"Not to take anything away from their culture, but only speaking Arabic
won't give them a chance to broaden their horizons."

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After doing a little bit of research in language education (during my TESOL minor at BYU), it seems clear to me that bilingual education is the way to go if we want the students to have the best education possible. Of course, that doesn't address the concerns that English only teachers have about what the Arabic speakers are saying, and I supposed that some policies should be put into place so that there's no abusive use of Arabic in the schools. But, there's still the underlying idea that many educators and policy makers advocate a double standard. They want to put lots of money into programs to get young native English speakers into these "high demand" languages like Arabic (I work in an office that's federally funded to produce and provide learning materials to learners of Middle Eastern languages), and yet they are so willing to cut off a native Arabic speakers possibilities to develop high literacy skills in their native language, saying that it prevents them from assimilating. Does teaching Arabic as a second language disassimilate English-speaking students from the rest of the population? No. And does continuing to educate them in their native language of English have a benefit? Yes! So give the native Arabic-speaking students the same chance to be the best learners they can. It's their futures we're talking about here.