February 22, 2012 New Unexpected Poetry
As you may or may not know, I have always enjoyed creative writing, whether it is reading or writing it. So naturally, I have my students do a little creative writing every now and then. For the most recent one, I gave them a picture and they had to create a story just by looking at this prompt:
It’s just a random picture that I found on the internet, but I thought that it looked profound enough to garner some creative perspectives!
Before I let them start writing, I asked them: What do you see in this picture? What emotions do you think can be connected with this picture? Then, I wrote their one-word responses on the board to further stimulate their brainstorming. I allotted 15-20 minutes for them to write and after the time was up, I had them pass their journals to someone on their right. That person would read the story and write a short comment. I had them pass to four people so each student had about four comments for their story. I asked them afterward, were any of the stories you just read similar to yours? And surprisingly, students said “no”! How neat for them to see that everyone thinks and writes differently even when they see the same photograph!
Below is one journal entry that I found to be quite soulful and poetic written by a fellow who usually has a very “cool and tough” exterior.
I know it’s a bit difficult to read so I typed out most of it here for you to enjoy (I left in the minor mistakes):
I was walking on the beach and thinking about my past if it was great or no. If I will be ready to die in any moment. Now I can feel the breeze from the ocean. I can hear the birds singing in my heart. In that moment I start to thinking in the woman of my life because she stole my breath and now she pass away with God and I know she is in a place better than here.
I want to finish my race in this world and spend eternity with her but I don’t know if I will finish.
These mountains are my wall and I can’t jump. I need to cross by walking and support everything.
My past it will be my future and my present because that is who I am.
My clothes represent my bitterness and solitude, my past. This violin represents the music I hear and how I express my feelings. I will finish my race and I would like to find her in the other world with God between me.
Reading this and other stories that students had written, I couldn’t believe that I was teaching lower-intermediate ESL. Just goes to show, you shouldn’t ever underestimate your students : ) I am looking forward to sharing more of these journal entries with you!
A
Tags: creative writing, education, ESL, learning, school, students, teaching, writing
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February 19, 2012 Breakfast is my Favourite
Usually I’m too rushed to actually sit down to a good breakfast, but when I do have the time, I love making myself a simple and tasty meal. My boss had recently gifted the staff at the school with homemade granola so I immediately tried it with yogurt and it is goooood. My other favourite breakfast items are soft-boiled eggs, toast (with either Nutella or peanut butter) and always a glass of orange juice.
I love breakfast.
February 16, 2012 God is Like Rehab
While on the train this early morning, I was thinking to myself for the umpteenth time this month “I really need to start doing my devotions again.” I keep telling myself this and I’ve meant to pick up my Bible and start journaling and praying, but I just never got around to it. I’ve been either too tired or too busy. And because I haven’t been spending time with Him, I’ve noticed how this lack of God in my life has resulted in my ugly inner self gradually wreaking havoc on my heart and mind. My thoughts are unkind, my actions are selfish, my heart is restless as nothing I do can satisfy it. I was thinking about all this when it suddenly occurred to me that God is very much like rehab. And it certainly does make sense, because that’s what He does. He rehabilitates.
Perhaps I’ve been watching too much Breaking Bad lately, but I can see how I sometimes act like an addict. I keep allowing my sinful nature to take control and no matter how hard I will myself to resist and to get myself back on track, at the end of the day, I feel unsatisfied and drained. Even then, I continue to listen to sin and push God away. Thankfully, God is faithful and promises to never forsake us. He waits for me with open arms, and when I finally come to him, completely used and dirty, He embraces me and begins the healing. On the train this morning, as I prayed to Him for the first time in a long time, He replied with this verse: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest… For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28,30
One by one, He shows me the sin in my life that needs to be surrendered. It’s not easy to turn away from these things, in fact it’s quite the slow process for me, but I know that whatever God has to offer will far exceed anything I could ever hope for. How He is willing to wait for me and to cleanse me after all I’ve done to Him and chosen to do – blows my feeble human mind.
He heals and He restores. He sets us right again after we allow ourselves to be ravaged by sin. No judgement, no bitterness. Just love.
Thank you for saving me… again and again.
A
Tags: Christianity, devotions, faith, God, love, Prayer, thoughts, work
February 11, 2012 Time for a Change?
I’ve noticed that I am beginning to start my all too familiar work – veg out – sleep cycle. I like to think that I learned it from my university days and I’m sure the majority of you know what I’m talking about. It pretty much goes something like this:
I come home after a long day of work and I’m in dire need of not thinking. So I scarf down some chocolate bars and numb my brain by watching random videos on YouTube or an episode of Breaking Bad.
This continues for a couple of hours and then I suddenly realize that I need to plan five lessons for the next day, so I lesson plan… slowly… taking a generous amount of breaks in between. Suddenly, it’s midnight and I’m scrambling to finish so I can get at least six hours of sleep. But that doesn’t happen for another hour.
I wake up the next morning to the sound of my alarm. I don’t even recognize the sound – I am that tired. I just want it to stop, so I hit the snooze. Four snoozes later, I wish I had stopped at three because I am running late. All the while getting ready, I scold myself for depriving my poor mind and body of precious sleep by going to bed late and watching YouTube videos instead of lesson planning. I go to work and I’m tired. I come home and the cycle starts all over again.
I also need to give myself plenty of commute time. I find that I get unattractively angry and think mean things to slow drivers when I’m stressed from being late.
In short, I’ve realized that I could be living healthier. And while on one of my brain-numbing breaks, I came across this picture that was posted on a friend’s Facebook page.
I liked the idea immediately and knew that I wanted to make some changes of my own. The main ones that I’ll be focusing on are choosing to move, hydrating myself, making sleep a priority, and this one I’ve added – connecting with God more. I’ve noticed that my lack of praying and reading the Bible has made my stress turn into anger and impatience with nearly everyone. I’ve also gotten into a shameful habit of saying “I hate (some random person who has done nothing against me but just merely annoys me)”. For example, “I hate you bus driver for braking too hard and making me lurch forward at every red light”, “I hate you man walking beside me because you didn’t cover your mouth when you sneezed”, etc. I feel that I have no love for people nor a desire to love people. And that’s a problem.
So if I achieve only one thing on this list, I hope that it will be my last goal because for me, healthy living really starts there.
Tags: God, hate, health, healthy living, life, love, people, sleep, work
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February 8, 2012 Talking about Alzheimer’s with Students
This week’s theme is on health and the body, and I don’t know why exactly, but I got excited thinking about doing a lesson on disease. I think it’s a topic that everyone can relate to in some way and/or have something to say about it. So last night as I was planning for a listening activity, I stumbled upon (not via stumbleupon.com) this very well put together video narrated by none other than David Hyde Pierce (YAY NILES!)!
Before I showed the video to students, I pre-taught some vocabulary words like “hallucinations”, “incurable” and “stigma”. I learned from last week that this new mix of students have a harder time with their listening skills, so instead of giving the usual short answer worksheet, I gave them a true and false. Success! I guess I also have to give credit to DHP for narrating so articulately.
After playing the video twice, I asked them if anyone knew someone with Alzheimer’s Disease. Surprisingly, only one girl did. I shared with them about my great grandfather who had Alzheimer’s and as I was halfway in explaining how he couldn’t remember his family members, I saw that I had made them feel really sad. Sooo, we switched to a happier sentence scramble activity where much laughter was involved.
Though it is a sad and sobering topic, I think it’s important to inform people about this disease. For myself, there was a lot that I didn’t know about it until I was lesson planning yesterday! If you’d like to borrow this idea for your own class, you can find my worksheet here : )
Happy Wednesday,
A
Tags: alzheimer's, disease, education, ESL, health, learning, students
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January 31, 2012 Engaging Class Debate
A while back, I taught a lesson on expressing one’s opinion. I gave students a nice ‘lil handout that included words and phrases to use when giving one’s opinion, making a point, and agreeing/disagreeing with someone else. To reinforce this, I decided to do a class debate. I first split the class into two groups, then I handed out a scenario to each pair within the group. In partners, they had to come up with reasons to defend themselves and then I had them lump together with the rest of their group members. This way, they would be able to generate more ideas.
In case you were wondering what kind of scenarios I gave them, here they are (and yes, I made these up myself!):
The Parent
You are a parent of a teenager and you have given them a curfew to be home no later than 10 pm on a school night. You’ve told them that if they break their curfew, there will be consequences. One night, they come home at midnight. You’ve been anxiously waiting for two hours and you are furious especially because they didn’t answer their phone when you called. You decide to punish them by not letting them see their friends outside of school for two weeks – no excuses, no exceptions. They need to learn to be responsible and should be disciplined.
VS
The Teenager
You have a curfew to be home no later than 10 pm and you’ve always obeyed this rule. One night while you are studying at your friend’s house, you lose track of time and see that it is past 11 pm! You quickly leave and drive home, but on your way home, you realize that you forgot your cell phone at your friend’s house, so you go back. By the time you get home, it is midnight. Your parents are furious and decide to punish you by not letting you see your friends outside of school for two weeks! They won’t even hear your side of the story. You believe this is unfair, especially because you always obey your curfew. You don’t think you should be grounded, because you did nothing wrong – it was just a mistake.
I had considered using controversial topics but in the end decided not to as I didn’t want the argument to become too heated. The “parent” vs “teen” scenario keeps it light and even humorous. I was so impressed with how students got so into it and actually came up with some really clever rebuttals. It was hilarious to watch and students got a lot of speaking time out of it. The only downside was that the quieter students didn’t really join in as much since the more out-spoken students dominated the debate. If I were to do this activity again, I would have each person required to express at least one point, that way everyone gets a chance to speak. Other than that, it was great to see so much enthusiasm and use of new vocabulary!
A
Tags: argument, classroom, debate, education, ESL, fun, school, students, teaching
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January 29, 2012 My Grandpa
This weekend was my grandpa’s birthday and we went out to celebrate with extended family. As always, we went to a Chinese restaurant and had lobster, fish, Chinese water spinach with mushrooms, sweet and sour pork (I still can’t believe that’s actually an authentic dish!), lo mai fan, and other dishes that I can’t remember.
I want to talk about my grandpa because I think he’s pretty cool. He is from Hong Kong and used to teach Chinese and when he came to Canada over 30 years ago, he got a job as a janitor at a high school. He is extremely skilled in Chinese calligraphy. He took the time to carve stone stamps for me, my sisters and cousins. He really wants to travel but because my grandma doesn’t, he is content to stay in Canada. He loves my grandma very much. He enjoys going to Swiss Chalet whenever he wants a break from Chinese food. He used to take his family there every so often (I guess that’s why my dad and uncles like Swiss Chalet so much). My grandpa likes watching Chinese television and whenever I ask him what’s going on (because I don’t understand very much) he is always patient to explain what is happening even though I’m disrupting him. He is an avid coffee drinker but cannot eat many desserts because he has diabetes. He is always willing to play majong, Chinese checkers or Chinese chess with us even though we’re way out of his league. He goes on YouTube and searches hymns in Chinese and sings along to them. He and my grandma have been growing zucchini and a variety of Chinese vegetables in their garden for years and always gives away their biggest vegetables. When he was a boy, he used to steal mangos from the neighbour’s trees. And (according to my sister) he says that my grandma is lucky to be with him because when he was younger, all the girls would chase him – but he chose my grandma :)
I love my grandpa and I am so thankful that I have known him this long.
Happy birthday Yeh Yeh!
A
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January 25, 2012 Learning a New Language is Like…
I was having one of my random bouts of nostalgia last night and was flipping through my 2009 day planner from my study abroad semester in France. I spotted a quote that I had written down and remember why I had liked it so much! Here it is:
“Si on vous met un ballon entre les mains, vous n’allez pas passer votre temps à l’analyser, vous avez envie de jouer tout de suite avec… c’est pareil avec une nouvelle langue.” -Vassilis Alexakis (auteur de “les mots étrangers”)
Basically, it says: If we put a ball in your hands, you are not going to spend your time analyzing it, you’re going to want to play with it right away… it’s the same with a new language.
That same evening, my dear friend Loule, whom I had met in France, called me. She and her husband live in Gevrey-Chambertain and we have been sporadically in contact since 2009. You can read more about them here (though it’s in French). We talked for about an hour and a half and filled the other person in on all the details and happenings in our lives. While speaking, I was painfully aware of my awkward accent, but gradually it became more natural like it used to be. I wrote down a couple of new words while listening to her: entouré, se fréquenter, chargé, contrefaçon. I miss her a lot. She told me how she was practicing her English by reading the Bible everyday in English and then in the evenings she would read it in French. I shared with her about God’s providence and faithfulness in my life and she did the same. How wonderful it is to be able to support one another in faith though we haven’t seen each other in so long. It’s a blessing that I will never cease to thank God for.
Going back to this quote, it reminded me that learning a language is an active process. It’s all about play and interaction. Your whole mind is involved – words that you think you’ve forgotten come back to you and new words that you haven’t heard before (or enough) stick with you. As you become more engaged in the conversation, you stop focusing on mentally structuring a sentence and instead, it forms on its own as you speak it. Learning a new language is like reuniting with an old friend. It makes me happy.
Love,
A
Tags: France, French, Friends, God, language, learning, quotes, thoughts
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January 24, 2012 Happy Chinese New Year!
Way back in December, my girlfriends and I had our yearly Christmas get together and spent the day over brunch and painting pottery. I haven’t gotten around to it until today, but I finally took pictures of my spoon rest that I had so lovingly added an Asian touch to. Can you guess which vegetable this is?
Here’s a close up.
And here is the bottom of the plate. How do you like my chinese calligraphy? I Googled it!
You guessed “bok choy”, right? ;)
I’m quite happy with how it turned out. I love the blue and the greens together. And although I would like to take credit for painting this from my mind, I had a little help. This was the inspiration:
This post, albeit late, shall be dedicated to the Chinese New Year. Happy Year of the Dragon!
Love,
A
Tags: art, bok choy, chinese, Friends, painting, pottery, spoon rest
January 20, 2012 Spelling Mistake
Today I gave out a vocabulary quiz on places to live.
As I was marking papers, this particular one caught my eye:
Not the same thing, my friend. Not the same thing.
Tags: education, ESL, humor, mistake, quiz, spelling, students, teaching
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