observations

last week in my 8th grade class i attempted to help a student write a paragraph. it became instantly clear that this student does not know the sounds of letters in the English alphabet. he is 13 years old and an ESL learner. the rest of the class is reading at about a 5th grade level and they are entering 9th grade next year. the class moves on, and many students (though not all) are improving every day with reading and writing. yet this particular student is left so far behind. its a sobering glimpse at the reality of our public education system and the challenges ahead for me, as a future teacher. as if i dont have enough going on, ive spoken to this student and im going to start tutoring him in the early mornings and on the weekends. i have no experience tutoring an ESL learner. my idea is just to start learning the sounds of the letters by using flashcards combined with reading out loud (a combo of phonics and whole language learning).

for my final school project, ive submitted a proposal to my professor to let me write a short book or story designed for students like the one im tutoring. i think im going to base it on the story of julius casear, since SuperDork is a roman history buff and i think this story will have special meaning to the student im tutoring. the books in the class written for students with low reading proficiency are horrendous! such as a "play" based on a king of the hill episode. i love king of the hill...but im not sure of its literary value!

im still humored by my students' quirks such as: "sneaking" a bulk-size bag of cheetos into class via an oversized backpack-- a bag almost the size of the student himself. or wearing house slippers to school and grandma's rosary as a necklace. they are also thoughtful kids. in one class discussion they all agreed the U.S. should help poor countries "even if they can never help us back." they just think other people should not be allowed to suffer. period. my students would make good world leaders.

in my other job, really interesting projects are emerging. like a "chapter" ill be co-authoring with my boss (due at the end of december!) and our design competition. im trying to figure out a way to keep working AND finish up my content-area requirements for my teacher certification.

meanwhile, im slowly recovering from the red sox's defeat of the rockies sunday night. its hard to hate the red sox too much since they have such charasmatic players. like kevin youklis (the girly hitter straight out of "deliverance"), man ram ("i think ill just live here at the ritz"), coco crisp ("i think ill jump backwards 12 feet in the air to catch this"), dustin pedroia ("i am short but awesome") and curt schilling ("i am god.") my obsession with the playoffs and world series was a major time commitment. something like 5 hours a day...watching BASEBALL.