Actions, Repercussions and World View

     What is wrong with people that they do not see that each and every action, innocuous or not, has its own set of repercussions?  We watch news unfold of more policemen shot and, somehow, while we can see that this is in response to police violence against people of color, we fail to notice that the perpetrators are contributing to the the very same issue that they are reacting to.  If police currently say that they are in fear for their lives when making traffic stops  or approaching people of color, then how does it help to engender further fear and anger between police and the communities in which they operate?  Do people who shoot and kill police officers not think of the fact that they are putting more people of color into the cross-hairs of a gun when they are driving to work with an expired tag or a tail light that does not illuminate?  Why is it that we all think of today is our own satisfaction and not in how our actions might contribute to the melee going on in our communities and in our society as a whole?
     Going back to the world stage where a military coup failed in Turkey in the past week, we can see similar lack of regard for the value of lives other than our own.  A faction in the Turkish military had grievances against Erdogan or the military or the government as a whole, so it decides to endanger civilians even before endangering the person or people against whom it has grievances.  Disregard for Turkish citizens number one.  Erdogan, interestingly enough, was not seized in the coup attempt which, in and of itself, seemed rather stupid to me...if you are going to overthrow the government, at least get the leader out of your way first...might learn a few things from the Bolsheviks.  However, what I found most heinous, though politically effective in this case, was Erdogan's call for civil protest against tanks by ordinary citizens, while he stayed in his own "undisclosed location".  A responsible, caring leader does not remain behind a curtain while he sends lambs to slaughter, those lambs being the very ones who will keep him in power.  Disregard for Turkish citizens number two.  Now the backlash will continue while Erdogan shines light into every nook and cranny to purge any opposition to him and his government, in which I believe many normal but nonviolent critics may be caught up.  Disregard for Turkish citizens number three.  Isn't it three strikes until you are out?
      Back to the nonsense occurring across the United States...while we are anticipating two major political conventions this month where decisions which hardly will be good for the American people will be made, attention of the public (as usual) is being diverted from the political arena and system.  Rather than scrutinizing the process in this year of insane political options, and rising in unison to resist the will and good of the people being overridden by the rich in so many situations, we give them more ammunition against us through the use of violence.  When will we learn that we are actually helping them to divert our attention from their actions and divide us from one another?.

Reflection, Respect and Other Issues

     This has been a rough week.  There are very few places that I consider my "happy" places, and while I was in one (TEA at CU Boulder), I watched another unravel through news reports from Ankara and Istanbul.  I had just declined a teaching position at a university n Ankara for family reasons, but had sincerely hoped to return to Turkey to present again at the GLOBELT conference in Izmir next May.  A few years ago I presented at a conference in California for "Freirean" educators about what I considered the necessity of peace education in the United States and elsewhere.  I hope that we can move toward peace so that this is not necessary, but I believe that every child in the world could benefit by education on how to accept and get along, and how to become adults who foster hope and peace and a new world vision.
     While trying to process an attempted military coup in a country that I love, worrying about friends there and who have family there, worrying about the impact on friends of mine in neighboring territories and thinking of what repercussions the failed coup will have on the society, I was listening to an incredible talk by Consul General Ito of the Japanese consular mission in Denver.  The parallels between what he said, much of which I had certainly not anticipated, and the popular resistance to the coup in Istanbul and Ankara were hard to miss.
     Consul General Ito quoted Prime Minister Abe's speech before Congress, where he expressed remorse for his country's behavior that caused so many lost lives in World War II.  While I hesitate to listen to Abe's without considering his motives for such a display, it was difficult to hear Ito quote him and not hear the voice of the Japanese people in those words.  Similarly, when Erdogan urged the Turkish people to resist the attempted coup by rising up in protest, using a FaceTime interview with CNN Turk, having previously frowned upon public protest and social media, it is difficult to listen to him with any notion of his sincerity.  Yet the Turks did go out of their homes, into the fray of declared martial law, to support continued advancements in democracy and to make it clear to the world that military suppression is not the way to reconcile differing opinions.  These civilians stormed tanks in Istanbul, risking life and limb, to avoid becoming the victims of repression.  Yet they will be rewarded by the world with economic difficulties as tourists avoid traveling through on of the world's major airports once again.
     While the world's various national leaders may be insincere, politically motivated or desirous of a historical legacy where their names are remembered, whether for good or for ill, the world's people are good, brave and sincere in their desire to live and get along with everyone else, for the most part.  While listening to Ito, I wish I could have recorded the rise and fall of his voice as he spoke of different unpleasant historic legacies that his nation has been known for.  A proud Japanese man speaking to a group of American educators about his countrymen's regrets was an astoundingly beautiful, while profoundly sad, thing to see.  These things should not necessarily be carried on the shoulders of a man who has spent his adult life in service and in the hearts of every Japanese man and woman because leaders want to play politics with the facts and their repercussions.
     I do not know if any of my colleagues in the room felt as I did, but I must say that I have a heightened respect for the average Japanese citizen and will always remember the day that I watched a man express the soul of his people and a people express their collective faith in humanity across the globe.

Today

     After a particularly rough week, topped off by very sweet gestures by some of my students, the fact that my heart shattered into a million tiny pieces yet again should not even take me by surprise anymore.  I was warned multiple times by a very good friend, but I resisted her advice because I am the consummate optimist even when every previous experience should scream "no" to me at the highest of volumes.
     Again, I will say that I will not get into such situations and in another ten years, I may do it again. But I will still say now that I will not allow anyone to get so close to me again nor I to anyone else.  Students, of course, will always have my heart and soul given fully to their success, but beyond that, I am even going to put my own success on a back burner because I am very tired of always being overlooked or unappreciated at every turn.  I will stop wearing my heart on my sleeve and hopefully I will learn to take pleasure in doing as I please regardless of how it might affect others, but I have never been blessed with that outlook on life.

This Really Is a World of Wonder

     I do not know about you, but I am fascinated by the differences and similarities among people from all over the planet.  We all have words for essentially the same emotions, fears, needs and thoughts while things may not be translatable because they may not even exist from one culture to another.  Why is it that we all feel the same but we put our feelings into practice in such distinct ways?

     In some cultures bigamy is not only culturally accepted but socially necessary because of a huge disparity in the number of women to men.  In such a world, do women and men love differently than I do?  Simply because there is not a husband for the woman down the way, would I love my husband any less to be willing to share him equally with her?  How could I be happy when he spends time with me, knowing that next time he will be with her?  And when he is with her, even if she is his wife also and a member of my household, how do I forget my love for him?  And he his love for me?  I can theoretically understand the necessity of such an arrangement in societies where women always get married, where they all wish to get married.  But I wonder if all is still for love or if it is more for convenience and future stability in the society as a whole.

     Perhaps my idea of love, true love, is old-fashioned and idealistic.  If my husband could not live through my having him one night and my second "husband" the next, because he loves me too much, how would I love him any less and hurt any less while he has a second "wife"?  If there is no love, of course, the arrangement is only that, an arrangement.  But when love enters into it, all bets are off.  I have been told that in such arrangements, a man must be equally fair in all dealings with both wives.  If one gets a gift, the other must also.  However, often the heart leans more toward one over the other and, in such cases, this must be hidden.  Tell me, how can it be hidden?  Will not all three people know how much time is being spent with one another?  How can a husband love one much more but still divide his time exactly in half?  How can this be what I know of as love?  Maybe I am mistaken.

     Now, I must also admit, not every relationship has lasting and sustainable love.  Sometimes people make regrettable choices and might not even care if a husband or wife has another partner.  But, in such cases, why continue to divide time equally?  Will love not win over all?  These ideas pose me so many imponderable questions that it makes my heart hurt.  And, while we are on the subject....why do we love one person and not another?  Why are some people disgusted to look at a person or race of people who someone else is enchanted by?  How do we connect on levels far beyond what the eye can see?  Why do I talk to you and not someone else who might be more pleasing to the eye?

     I believe in a force which guides these types of interactions.  You might call it God, Allah, Yaweh, karma, fate, serendipity.  You might not believe it at all.  You might think that the randomness of it all is simply that, random.  I happen to believe that so many things cannot be explained by randomness.  Too many things are, at the very least, serendipitous, and at best, true blessings.  Anyone who has met his or her true love in a place or time where maybe neither was ever supposed to have been can join with me in discounting the randomness of our lives.  We may not know the plan, we may even buck against it, but there are things that we are meant to do and things and people that we are meant to know.  I can certainly attest to that, coming from a monolingual family and having an insane love of and propensity for languages.  We have abilities, faculties, that are innate in us, whether we choose to recognize and utilize them or not.

     Back to the world of wonder....
If we, as human beings, see things as the most important in our lives, why are those the parts of our existence which are least relatable to others?  Why are love, hate, joy, pain and the smile of the person you love the things that are most understood by every human heart?

There Are Weeks and Then There Are Weeks....

     To say that this past week has been rough would be what we would call an understatement.  Returning from Turkey to my rural school district is a bit difficult, but the smiles from students helped with that hurdle.  The work, the apathy, the feigned investment in what is going on...it all seems so trivial when the world just got so much smaller last week.
   
      On a good day, in a good week, I find small-mindedness and trivialities challenging.  Couple that with jet lag, general disinterest in progress and myriad other organizational issues and the annoyance is multiplied thousand-fold.  I have been able to talk with some of my new-found friends and supporters each day, which has been immensely helpful, although also distressing because they all believe that they are aspiring to what we have here in the United States education system, but little do they know....

      Upon my return, I sent out an email to key persons in my place of employment asking if anyone had any interest in hearing about the research that I traveled (on my own dime, I might add) half-way around the world to present, and which was generally well-received, as unusual as it was.  Of the forty people to whom I sent an email, including the highest individuals in the organization, I received a statement of interest from three.  Of those, one is an administrator who previously worked for the state, one is an outside coach who does not work for the district and the third is in a district-level position, but has no direct dealing with me on a professional level.  I don't know,,,I feel like I would want to know about any research that had been conducted in my organization, especially if it had seen positive results.  I guess I am weird like that.  Probably why I bothered to even try new and unconventional methodology in the first darned place.

      After all is said and done, I personally approached one administrator and she gave me permission to speak at a staff meeting in May.  I have not decided if I will present or not because staff meetings are not really great venues for such discussions at the end of a long day when everyone just would rather be on their way home.  Seems counter-intuitive to me, but that was the only option I was given.  I think I will ask if I could use some time allotted to professional learning committee time and speak to them in small groups at a better time of day,

       I still have a bit of a way left to get work completed for this week, so I will sign off now, but if you are reading this, thank you very much for tuning in, and I hope that you have a lovely week!  I hope to see and hear from all of you very soon!

Keeping the World Small and Our Part in It HUGE

     Well, if you have read any of my prior posts, this theme has emerged: I think the world should be a place without divisions.  Of course, we create more and more divisions while the problems that we all face as human beings are becoming ones that we can only face and solve together.  Whether any of us would like to admit it or not, none of us has all of the answers and we will, whether now or later, need one another in order to address these issues.
     
     We could be talking about climate change, the rise of Daesh, the crises of migration and economic collapse, refugees, wars or changes in political regime.  In any and all of these situations, we can make our voices heard.  It is not always easy and it is often without recognition or remuneration, but if we want a world in which we can live, with or without our artificial boundaries, we must speak.  If we do not raise our voices, we, and our world, may simply cease to exist sooner than any of us can imagine.

     I was born into a society that many wish to have been born into, with a skin tone that affords me more opportunities than others with different skin.  The fact that I have not always made the best choices and have perhaps failed to recognize and take advantage of these opportunities does not negate their existence.  Being born into a skin that some will detest at first sight while others envy or fear is difficult, but not as difficult as it would be if it were another color.  My native language is English and, while I speak another language, much of the world struggles to learn and teach my mother tongue while so many of its native speakers make no effort to speak another.

     I studied my masters in teaching English as an additional language in order to help people who arrive in the United States with little English.  I feel like the imperialists of old (and even the present) when I hear that every country has schools for English and tests for English.  I feel sick that a person must speak my language in addition to his or her own (and perhaps many more) in order to be employed in his or her own country.  Even though without English I could not be understood by many people, I encourage people to stop this trend in their own countries because, while it helps me to understand them, it minimizes their contributions in the world.

     If each of us could look clearly at what society values and throw out what we do not value in it, great strides could be made toward acceptance over tolerance and peace over conflict.  Let the parts each of us play be too big to ignore.


   

A Smaller World, All Around

It is often difficult to know how others around the world feel about events which touch them and affect their lives.  This past week, I have had the honor and the pleasure to interact with intelligent, educated and very dedicated people who teach English all over the world.  Most of them do not have English as their mother tongue, and many followed this line of work when and where it might have even endangered their futures or their very lives.  I am so proud to know each of them.

I attended the GLOBELT 2016 Conference in Antalya, Turkey and was privileged to hear some very amazing academic work, but also to converse outside of the presentations with some truly incredible and awe-inspiring people who I know will be lifelong friends and colleagues in this far-too-competitive field.  Collegial respect and collaboration is truly what the conference was about and I am constantly reminded that we are not in that business in the U.S. education system for the most part, which is entirely unfortunate.

Of course, at a conference in Turkey, there would be presenters from Turkey, but there were also presenters from Iran, Palestine, Iraq, Kurdistan, Dubai, Libya, the United States, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Ireland, United Kingdom, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Austria, Taiwan, Latvia, Slovakia, Spain, the Netherlands, Cyprus, Australia, Egypt and Canada.  And, although the professional atmosphere was incredible and collaborative, what was so immensely valuable to me was getting to know everyone and hearing their stories and walking in their shoes for just a while.  The world was all of a sudden the size of a dining hall or cocktail party and I did not ever want for it to end.  People and places and events that, here in America, we only hear about in the news, are things in which these people live, work, breathe and worry.  Several of the presenters live and work in Ankara, where there recently was an attack at a bus station which one of the presenters uses every day for her commute.  She could have been there.  I do not want to use her name without her permission, but she confided in us how attacks change how people go about their lives and make their decisions about the future.

A presenter from Libya and I spoke at length about a longstanding Libyan leader and his grip on not only his country, but on many others, and how he had held many in fear over the years.  And we spoke about how her homeland is now a bit chaotic as the leader's followers dispersed and show no connection to the land or her people.  Simply knowing this woman put a face on all of the pain of the Libyan people all of these years and has made me feel like my small job in my small town is nothing at all compared to the suffering around the world.

An attendee from the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in Northern Iraq spoke about what it is like in his land now that Daesh has been pushed out, and I spoke with him about how proud the Peshmerga must be to have been able to protect many of their families and futures from people who spend all of their time and energy to slander the ideas and reputations of millions of respectable and loving Muslims in this world.  A presenter from Cairo talked to us about why Egypt had declined into chaos after the Arab Spring and how things have improved greatly, even though the news rarely reports the positives.

My goal of opening a multicultural and linguistically global school was reinforced and I realized that there are many others around the world that also want to shrink what comes between us and keeps us at bay.  There are many of us in many places and, together, it is up to us to make a smaller world, all around.

I hope that each of you will read this and know that I am speaking of each of you that has changed my life in very profound ways.  I love each one of you and look forward to seeing each of you again.

Good News and Nerves

     Well, I suppose I should recount some of the interesting news and happenings in my small corner of the universe, and share some interesting insights on other situations.
     After having spent uncounted hours completing many rounds of applications for various seminars, events and placements, I have been accepted to the Summer Seminar on "Japan's Olympic Challenges" at the University of Colorado at Boulder in July, sponsored by TEA/NCTA.  I had the honor of attending a seminar there last Summer on Korea and it greatly changed my teaching and perspectives.  I am sure this one will do no less.  I am still awaiting news on so many other projects that I could not even fairly give a passably complete list.  The highlights, however, of these have been my application for a Bridge Fellowship for Advocacy through TNTP   and a short-term Fulbright application for placement in Botswana to teach teachers participatory methodology, student-led instruction, project-based instruction and authentic learning.  Since those are all paramount to my teaching, I feel I am a good fit, but I am waiting to hear if  Fulbright agrees.  I have also submitted some manuscripts to writing competitions, but I do not really hold out a great deal of hope to win any of those.
     Now, amidst all of the insanity of deadlines and applications, I am also teaching, which is really the reason for everything else.  The past several weeks, I have been spending the entire morning with a pair of siblings who need a great deal of intervention.  It up-ended the rest of my schedule quite a bit, but it was necessary.  I had been seeing these students at the end of the school day, and I was not seeing a great deal of progress and no linguistic retention at all.  It was disappointing to me, but I cannot even imagine how terrible it felt for them and how disappointed their parents must have been feeling.  This week has been the harbinger of change, and I am so happy to have been a part of it!
     The two siblings have learned a significant amount of math this past week, and they are able to remember from day to day how to do it.  This, in and of itself, is fantastic because I do not speak their language at all, and they have been able to tell me, in English, what they are doing as they complete a problem.  The older sibling, a boy, is a soccer nut, but they have been playing basketball in P.E., which is taught by their favorite teacher.  Having had no exposure to basketball in his country of origin, he does not like it and does not know how to dribble at all.  I brought in a basketball and showed him how, along with different passing methods.  He now participates in P.E. class more than he ever had previously!  On top of this, which was a breakthrough for us, another teacher walked into my classroom the other day with a student.  Her student is typically sent out of his classroom for disciplinary issues.  She asked if she could come in, and I agreed, so they say down at the table with myself and my two ELLs.  He politely asked them their names and told them his.  After some reading aloud and math drills, the student asked if he could also help my student with basketball because he knew something about it.  I agreed, since it was time for a small break anyway.  He and the older sibling passed and dribbled and passed away the ten minutes.  When we were going over vocabulary at the end of class, one of the vocabulary words had been "friend".  I have asked many times for each sibling to name one friend.  The sister is always able to give me a name of one girl because she had been paired up with her since her first day in school here.  The brother, on the other hand, is a bit more shy and had never been paired up with anyone by his teachers.  He had been rather isolated.  So, on this particular day, the brother turned to the visiting student and asked, in a complete English sentence "what is your name?"  The student answered him, and the ELL turned to me and said "_____ is my friend".  I was so happy for him!  He asks about this student every day when I pull him from his class.
      Why did a typically difficult student want to be in my class for kids learning English as a second language?  I suppose that it might be a great boost to his esteem to be able to know that he is a bit of an expert on something.  He had been having a difficult time fitting in at school because he is the new kid, here from a major metropolitan area moving into a very rural locale.  Perhaps he could identify with the struggles that my students have been facing since arriving in the Unites States.....I do not think even he would know if we asked him.

A Couple of Tasks Lighter and More on the Way

     It is certainly a relief when some thing finally get completed and become a new responsibility for someone else.  Such was the case late yesterday when I finally was able to mail off the application materials for the NCTA/TEA seminar in Boulder, Colorado this Summer.  I hope to land a place in the "Japan's Olympic Challenges" course which would be very insightful and helpful in the broadening of my perspective on Japan in order to provide a more in-depth treatment of it with my students.  I also finally finished all of the writing needed for the Teachers for Global Classrooms initiative, which I hope to be a part of next academic year.  It concentrates, as the name suggests, on cultivating a global perspective in our classrooms and with our students, to the benefit of all.  This is one of my passions, and the other one is to provide equitable educational opportunities for students of color in poverty, whether they be in urban or rural environments.  I am looking again at H. Richard Milner's "Start Where You Are, But Don't Stay There" as a potential source for professional development for district or state teachers.  I will pitch a design to some important players locally perhaps later this week (if given the chance in our meetings).  It remains to be seen.
     These past few days have been a bit difficult for me to muddle through because I have experienced a series of betrayals that I had been trying not to face head on, but they have finally crystallized to a point where they are no longer able to be denied.  It is a very sad end to what I had believed to be a familial tie which had grown into a friendship.  To add to the betrayals, I have not been quite able to share them with anyone, which has put me out of sorts more than I would like to admit.  I am trying to refrain from sharing any of the details of the betrayals, so as not to dampen anyone else's spirits because I am not one who believes that misery loves company...I try to avoid partaking in someone else's misery unless it affects someone that I love.  So, I am certain that no one would care to become involved in my own misery at the moment.
     Testing for my students has wrapped up completely as well, which is a relief rarely savored as much as this year.  Testing was much more time-consuming and tedious than in years past, and I hope this was only due to the new format.  I am crossing my fingers that next year will be handled much better (on my own part) and can be done more easily.  I am pretty confident that I know where the pitfalls were and can avoid them in the future.
     On a cheerier note, vacation from school is coming up from March 25-April 3.  I am looking forward to all of the days to catch up on outside projects, although my original plan to take my sons to Korea was not able to be done.  I have high hopes for getting it done pretty soon, though.  Before we go off to vacation, however, I still have St. Patrick's Day and Easter to deal with, with students who have no earthly idea why Americans celebrate in the ways that we do.  Today, I began with a lesson on where the traditions came from, and passed around a globe to my first grade students, who were so fascinated to actually be able to touch it.  I guess I take too many things for granted.  That six-year-olds would have had a balloon in their home at one time or another, and that everyone is as geography and history-oriented as myself.  Unfortunately, I need to stop and pay attention to my own assumptions because they are so basic for me, but are definitely not so for many of my students.  I can unpack many of my presuppositions normally, but it still takes me by surprise when a child says that they cannot understand a page in a story where a balloon floats in mid-air after it is a day or two old...because she has never had a balloon.  And when we took a poll afterwards, there were several more students who had never had a balloon.
     I was euphemistically called a bleeding heart a while ago, which is definitely not the first time I had been referred to by that moniker, but it hit me hard because I strive every single day, in the face of a significant amount of criticism and resistance, to enlighten each of my students to who and what is holding him or her back in school, in society and in life.  I talk to them about self-fulfilling negative mindsets and provide them with challenging and interesting work.  I believe that teaching skills and material which engages students will lead to the expansion of those skills and knowledge of other material because of that engagement.  If I teach a fascinating piece of literature, scaffolding it for my students, they will seek out another piece of literature on their own.  I have seen it happen time and time again.  But we have to find LITERATURE that is awesome, not fan-fiction or the like which is pandering to their immature selves, rather than raising them up to their best selves.  Of course, teaching teen fiction is a lot easier than teaching Shakespeare, but the rewards are also far greater for me, as an educator, and for them, as human beings who see the true level of their own abilities.
     Did you know that often it takes one truly invested teacher to change the course of a child's future, that one who sees everything that child can be, even when his or her parents, grandparents, neighbors, friends and pastor cannot or will not?  Maybe it is not a teacher, maybe it is you...that one person who can allow that child to see his elevated self.  Can you be that to one child?  Even when it is difficult, even when he or she is at the bottom rung of the ladder?  I challenge myself to do it with each child I teach, but I challenge you to just do it for one child who is having trouble visualizing his or her best self.  The true beneficiary of that involvement will be you when you see that child become more than he or she had ever thought possible.
   

Wrapping Up and Gearing Up

     ACCESS for ELLs testing will wrap up for my students across the district tomorrow or early Tuesday, depending on how well the first session goes.  I have my fingers crossed to wrap up Monday so that I can get back to my actual job....helping students to access the material presented to them in a language that they do not understand.  It may still take the balance of Tuesday to re-imagine and implement a drastically different schedule so that I can dedicate more time to a very English-language deficient group of students.  If I manage it, I will be giving some of my course load back to my colleague.  Of course, these students were not part of my original course load, but I have been doing my best to challenge and engage them in the pursuit of acquiring the English language.

     So, so much for wrapping up.  I am also gearing up for another review of my action research work that I will be presenting at the GLOBELT Conference in Antalya, Turkey, in a few weeks' time.  The final manuscript is due after the presentation, but I would rather get it off my plate.  The stress of travel in the final week of two different courses is a bit much, so I will also need to work ahead and complete final projects for both prior to traveling.  That is quite a tall order, considering that I am barely keeping my head above water with all of my obligations in the first place.  Tomorrow will be the new beginning of after-school tutoring again until 5:30 p.m. for any of my students across the district who choose to attend.

     In addition to upcoming international travel and tutoring, The TESOL International Conference in Baltimore is also on the horizon.  I wish that I were traveling a bit to the southwest rather than to the northeast this time around, but no such luck at the moment.  Even better, would be to the Far East, but that is also on a back burner for the moment as well.

     I have just finished and submitted an application for a Hope Street Group Fellowship, which concentrates on legislative advocacy in education, and a Bridge Fellowship, which specifically concentrates on developing strategies and programs to reach Latino and African American male students in high poverty and low-resourced schools.  The Bridge Fellowship is my ideal project, so I have my fingers crossed for that while I am finalizing a Teachers for Global Classrooms packet and a NCTA/TEA summer seminar packet as well.  Last year I attended the NCTA/TEA Korea into the 21st Century seminar in Boulder, and I am really hoping to be able to attend their Japan's Olympic Challenges seminar this upcoming Summer.  The seminar on Korea was immensely enriching and allowed me to bring a great deal more depth to my teaching this academic year, and I would expect no less from the material on Japan.  Speaking of East Asia, there is also a final curriculum unit project due in a few days for a book group called "Reading the Mao Years" which, by the way, was fascinating.

     Sometimes I think I have way too much on my plate, but it is a sure way to not become bored.  With Spring Break coming up, nothing will be dull, that is for sure!

Interesting Occurrences

     Well, it is a lazy Sunday evening even though it has been a rather busy but uneventful day.  Catching up on my homework is an unenviable task, but necessary nonetheless.  It has been an interesting week because I met a very fascinating person in a rather unconventional way, and am looking forward to meeting in person soon.  The difficulties of living a significant distance apart may be worrisome, or may dissipate, depending upon one's point of view.

     Testing will rev up again tomorrow and will keep me (and my poor students) busy for another couple of weeks.  It would be lovely to think I could wrap it all up more quickly, but it does not seem likely.  This past week saw me on the verge of tears watching my lovely fourth grade Arabic-speaking student  practice her test on a laptop, in English, when she could not understand anything on the screen.  The test was previously administered with paper and pencil and, if a student could not, or did not, answer more than a few questions in a row, one could stop the test.  With this lovely computerized interactive version, the student, regardless of English level, will begin with the listening portion, which consists of a great deal of verbal computerized instruction followed by approximately 30 questions, all in English.  In order to advance from one question to the next, an answer choice is required.  After wading through this first trial, a student goes on to a similarly-formatted reading segment and speaking as well.  The writing is the last segment and, even if a student could not answer a single question, he or she must begin an online writing portion.  After spending several weeks trying to work with newcomer students and trying to show them (and their instructors) ways that they can be successful in a classroom, we sit them down in a desk and say "have at it" without any supports at all.  It is thoroughly disheartening.  And, when I went to get the poor girl to take the actual test, her classroom teacher said that the student had stopped doing any work at all since the day we practiced the test.  Not something that is nice to hear.

     This week one class ends for me while another has just gotten under way.  On top of these two, I am participating in a Coursera class on Sustainable Development and an East Asia Society book group on "Reading the Mao Years".  I would love to just get away for a few days with no worries,but I would probably be worried no matter where I am.  Better to stay on track and keep the shoulder to the wheel, right?  
 
     Fingers crossed that I get some good news from Colorado on a seminar I hope to attend, good news from a seminar in Chicago, and that all goes well for my presentation of action research at the GLOBELT 2016 Conference in Antalya, Turkey!  Thank God for a very cool friend who will be meeting me there for moral support.  Thank you, Sarah Healy!!  Also, I have my fingers crossed for continued luck with a very special person as we continue to get acquainted.

Slow Day, Snow Day

     Anticipated bad weather has made a regular mid-February weekend into four days and that is good and bad.  Since I was rather sick last week and had to work due to test administration for my students, I have taken advantage of the extra time to recuperate as well as I can.  However, testing for my students has now gotten seriously off track and, with everything being online this year for the first time, it may create issues down the line when we are trying to finish up and get on with our Spring Break.  I hope that will not be the case this year!
     When the weather is grey and cold, it seems as if time passes more slowly when, of course, it does not.  Catching up on work missed while sick is probably the most boring and annoying pastime one could possibly engage in, but that has been mine for the last three days.  I hope to finish it all up today because I begin a new course tomorrow for my full licensure, and it looks to be rather time-consuming....on top of the doctoral class, preparing to present at the GLOBELT Conference and being a single parent.  I said last time that I would try to write more this year and take advantage of opportunities which present themselves.  Well, sometimes there is an over-abundance of opportunities presenting themselves at once, so I have begun to fill up my Google calendar like never before.  I wish that I had the time to put all of my miscellaneous deadlines into it as well, rather than carry around several calendars of mixed efficiency-levels.  Perhaps I will show myself how after wrapping up all the craziness of the day.
     You may or may not know this about me, but I have written poetry and fiction off and on (more off than on of late) since my high school years, and am taking it up again in earnest to try to write an anthology of poems about major historical events (and minor ones which have gotten a lot of misguided press) directed toward students of various ages.  I want for them to be catchy enough that kids can understand the major players and political situations, but interesting enough for other audiences as well.  Wish me luck!  I have eight written and would like to have it at about fifty before submission.

Another year. Another project. Another opportunity.

     Well, I have not been as prolific as I should have been in 2015, although I must say that I was as prolific as my time and schedule allowed me to be.  I hope to do better as this year progresses because there are great things on the horizon, all things considered.
     On a personal note, I am still employed in a rural Southern high-needs school district as an ESL teacher.  I am half-way through my Ed.D. studies in transformative leadership.  Let's not get started on the craziness of having a doctorate and not qualifying locally for a job which requires a master's degree in leadership...because my master's degree was in something else.  That rant alone could go on for days.  One of my sons recently turned 17 and another one 16, so the hormones and attitude level in my abode is a bit, shall we say, charged?  Testing my ESL students has begun and this year most will be done in an online format.  It will be an interesting few weeks, but I am anticipating that all will go swimmingly.
     Since we last spoke, I have had some very interesting experiences, including an incredible educators' seminar at the University of Colorado at Boulder on Korea into the 21st Century, which I did not want to end, a research grant in Boston at the Massachusetts Historical Society (and a stay with a wonderful group of people while I was there, along with meeting others :)) which I found enlightening and fascinating.  Both of these occurred in the Summer of 2015.  In the Fall, I began back at work, traveled to Mexico to present a project at the MEXTESOL 2015 Conference and traveled for the first time to Korea.  Since it was the second year at a MEXTESOL conference, it was not terribly interesting, although I did meet some interesting people.  BUT KOREA.  If I had brought my sons along, I would never have come back!  I certainly had not expected to fall in love with Seoul, with Gimje, with Iksan City.  With the people.  With the history.  With the technology, transportation and food.  I wanted to take my sons there to see how they like it so I can start applying to teach, but finances will not allow it this year due to my next fascinating news...
I will be presenting some research at the GLOBELT2016 Conference in Antalya, Turkey, in April!  It is disappointing that my business-related travel must come out-of-pocket, but the opportunity to be published in a European linguistics journal is too great to pass up.
     So, on top of my doctoral courses, licensure courses and study of Korean, I am also studying Turkish and maintaining my family and my employment obligations.  Ah, to spend Spring Break in Korea smelling cherry blossoms, but alas!  Not quite yet.
     Paperwork for Summer opportunities is coming due fast and furious, and trying to maintain everything in order is much harder than it has been in recent memory.  Fingers crossed that all will come to pass as I am anticipating, and that all is well on the horizon for this year!