'Tis the season to write essays
Nov. 16th, 2004 06:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spacealien_vampA rather ominous report on the student interpersonal relationship front: During the morning faculty meeting, one of the teachers announced that someone found a note reading "Die!" They don't know who wrote it, apparently, but they're quite concerned.
Now I'm going to take a moment to talk about essays. One of my third-year classes, with 26 students, has a writing practice lesson once a week. At the end of the class, they print out their work and turn it in to my team-teacher. He has been collecting these papers for about three weeks now. Yesterday, when he mentioned that there would be a short writing portion on the mid-term exam, the students protested that they hadn't received their essays back with corrections yet. Fair enough.
So, this morning, I find two weeks' worth of essays stacked on my desk with a note asking me to grade them.
Okay, I don't have a problem with grading student essays. That's part of what I'm here to do. But if you're going to have me grade them, don't hoard them for several weeks and then dump them on my desk at the last minute. Sheesh. You're just lucky today was my lightest schedule.
I did, in fact, enjoy reading the students' papers, which included the "scary story" assignment from before Halloween and an essay about favorite seasons. There were even some lines that really brightened my morning.
And, in New Years day we get OTOSHIDAMA from our grand parents and aunts and ankles.
I wish my ankles were that generous.
Some people say that they like winter better for some reason but I hate the cold winter. It makes my nose runny or plagued. I hate that feeling.
I totally agree. The plague is the worst.
I was particularly impressed by this student, who valiantly sticks with this sentence until the bitter end:
Also in winter time when I go shopping by bike, I have to wear really thick and heavy clothes and when I get the place, inside the building, it would be really hot so I have to take off my jacket or whatever that I wear and the jacket makes trouble because I have to hold a lot of stuff that I bought and the jacket!
And on a completely unrelated note, as I was trying to find out if there was a special nautical term for the steering wheel of a ship (my English vanishes in unexpected ways, so sometimes I think there must be a word for something, but I can't for the life of me remember what it is)... You know you've been in Japan too long when you are flipping through the dictionary and spot the heading "rubricate," and your brain automatically switches the "r" for "l."
Then, in my fairytale class, three students performed the sock-check upon entering the room. Wow, it's contagious.
I also feel I should mention, these girls can be really sharp. We're currently doing "Rapunzel," with which only one or two had been familiar. Upon hearing the part about the witch climbing up Rapunzel's hair, one of the girls immediately protested, "Hey, wait, if the witch could use magic to make the tower and put Rapunzel in it, why does she need to climb up her hair to get in?"
Good question. "Maybe the magic method is very hard?" I speculate. Harder than climbing twenty yards straight up supported only by a braided rope of hair? (Is it here I should mention I like the Koori no Mamono version *so* much better? Or is that too fangirly of me?)
Now I'm going to take a moment to talk about essays. One of my third-year classes, with 26 students, has a writing practice lesson once a week. At the end of the class, they print out their work and turn it in to my team-teacher. He has been collecting these papers for about three weeks now. Yesterday, when he mentioned that there would be a short writing portion on the mid-term exam, the students protested that they hadn't received their essays back with corrections yet. Fair enough.
So, this morning, I find two weeks' worth of essays stacked on my desk with a note asking me to grade them.
Okay, I don't have a problem with grading student essays. That's part of what I'm here to do. But if you're going to have me grade them, don't hoard them for several weeks and then dump them on my desk at the last minute. Sheesh. You're just lucky today was my lightest schedule.
I did, in fact, enjoy reading the students' papers, which included the "scary story" assignment from before Halloween and an essay about favorite seasons. There were even some lines that really brightened my morning.
And, in New Years day we get OTOSHIDAMA from our grand parents and aunts and ankles.
I wish my ankles were that generous.
Some people say that they like winter better for some reason but I hate the cold winter. It makes my nose runny or plagued. I hate that feeling.
I totally agree. The plague is the worst.
I was particularly impressed by this student, who valiantly sticks with this sentence until the bitter end:
Also in winter time when I go shopping by bike, I have to wear really thick and heavy clothes and when I get the place, inside the building, it would be really hot so I have to take off my jacket or whatever that I wear and the jacket makes trouble because I have to hold a lot of stuff that I bought and the jacket!
And on a completely unrelated note, as I was trying to find out if there was a special nautical term for the steering wheel of a ship (my English vanishes in unexpected ways, so sometimes I think there must be a word for something, but I can't for the life of me remember what it is)... You know you've been in Japan too long when you are flipping through the dictionary and spot the heading "rubricate," and your brain automatically switches the "r" for "l."
Then, in my fairytale class, three students performed the sock-check upon entering the room. Wow, it's contagious.
I also feel I should mention, these girls can be really sharp. We're currently doing "Rapunzel," with which only one or two had been familiar. Upon hearing the part about the witch climbing up Rapunzel's hair, one of the girls immediately protested, "Hey, wait, if the witch could use magic to make the tower and put Rapunzel in it, why does she need to climb up her hair to get in?"
Good question. "Maybe the magic method is very hard?" I speculate. Harder than climbing twenty yards straight up supported only by a braided rope of hair? (Is it here I should mention I like the Koori no Mamono version *so* much better? Or is that too fangirly of me?)
