"She [Anna Jarvis, founder of Mother's Day] was specific about the location of the apostrophe; it was to be a singular possessive, for each family to honour their mother, not a plural possessive commemorating all mothers in the world."
i appreciate people like anna jarvis, not for this "celebrating mothers" crap (although i am down with that), but because she not only thought about possessive apostrophe placement but also formed a strong opinion on it. i miss grammar nerds.
tomorrow's mother's day in thailand, hence my mother's day-related post in the middle of august. right now the students are in a big assembly and a bunch of them brought their moms. it looks like a semi-fancy affair. ooh la la.
love and miss you, momma :)
11.8.10
average weather forecast
for koh chang/trat, tomorrow through sunday:
high: 32 degrees celsius (89.6 F)
low: 24 degrees celsius (75.2 F)
chance of T-storms thursday and friday: between 30% and 50%
chance of rain showers saturday and sunday: between 20% and 30%
tropical island, here we come?
high: 32 degrees celsius (89.6 F)
low: 24 degrees celsius (75.2 F)
chance of T-storms thursday and friday: between 30% and 50%
chance of rain showers saturday and sunday: between 20% and 30%
tropical island, here we come?
10.8.10
i'm such a fat kid
i've really taken a liking to just sitting on my bed lately. actually, sitting is a generous term--i'm really lying down with my head strategically propped up against a pillow so i can play on the computer. i've also really taken a liking to eating a lot because food rules.
those two new habits lead to this picture of me right now:
that's melted chocolate on my neck. it's still there. fat kid.
those two new habits lead to this picture of me right now:
that's melted chocolate on my neck. it's still there. fat kid.
8.8.10
the upsides and downsides to actually being involved
last week, i sat down in a meeting with my four co-teachers to discuss what they wanted from me for the future--what sorts of lessons they want, what they want the kids to learn, how they'd like it taught, what sort of expectations they have for different classes, etc. one of the teachers had made an outline of what they thought would be good things for me to teach: reading/listening passages and general knowledge trivia games, mostly.
it was awesome. i've wanted a meeting like this since october. i have NO IDEA what i'm doing here, in this whole "teaching" business. i've been mostly relying on my wit and good looks to teach the kids english, and it's only been half working. so to have this outline of things to teach, to be on the same page as all of my coteachers, to now be doing something that i KNOW they want me to do is thrilling.
but this now means that i'm staring at a list of 20+ vocabulary words and trying to make 5-10 of them into an interesting dialogue. come on, brain. let's work together on this.
it was awesome. i've wanted a meeting like this since october. i have NO IDEA what i'm doing here, in this whole "teaching" business. i've been mostly relying on my wit and good looks to teach the kids english, and it's only been half working. so to have this outline of things to teach, to be on the same page as all of my coteachers, to now be doing something that i KNOW they want me to do is thrilling.
but this now means that i'm staring at a list of 20+ vocabulary words and trying to make 5-10 of them into an interesting dialogue. come on, brain. let's work together on this.
6.8.10
a big group hug
sports day (which is actually a week and a half of sports playing and about two months of preparation) is officially over. if i know high school kids, at least half of'em are out finding beer/wine coolers/cheap thai whiskey to imbibe this evening. well deserved, kids.
at the end of the two days of solid competition, there was a huge awards ceremony to give out trophies to all the winners--the football champs (boys/girls, m1-3/m4-5), the volleyball champs, the netball champs, the basketball champs, the overall sports champs, and the dance champs. an unusual silence fell over the crowd when they announced the winners for that one.
right as they announced the dance champs, the monsoon season came in with full force. pouring rain, all over all the kids who were sitting all over a dirty, soon-to-be-extremely-muddy field. at first everyone ducked for cover. but then a couple boys came out into the rain on the field. they were joined by a few other boys, who all motioned for everyone to come out on the field. soon enough, everyone was back on the field, in the pouring rain.
they started singing and holding hands, grinch-style. and magically, the rain stopped. the song went on for a few minutes, all these kids from all these different teams, holding hands and belting out the words. as soon as the song ended, the rain came back. FREAKY MAGICAL SPORTS DAY COINCIDENCE? i think not.
the whole thing gave me chills. that they could have all these weeks of being on separate teams, competing against each other, losing to each other only minutes before, and now they were all singing and dancing in the rain together. no bitterness, no grudges, no complaining about how unfair the judging was.
these kids are amazing.
at the end of the two days of solid competition, there was a huge awards ceremony to give out trophies to all the winners--the football champs (boys/girls, m1-3/m4-5), the volleyball champs, the netball champs, the basketball champs, the overall sports champs, and the dance champs. an unusual silence fell over the crowd when they announced the winners for that one.
right as they announced the dance champs, the monsoon season came in with full force. pouring rain, all over all the kids who were sitting all over a dirty, soon-to-be-extremely-muddy field. at first everyone ducked for cover. but then a couple boys came out into the rain on the field. they were joined by a few other boys, who all motioned for everyone to come out on the field. soon enough, everyone was back on the field, in the pouring rain.
they started singing and holding hands, grinch-style. and magically, the rain stopped. the song went on for a few minutes, all these kids from all these different teams, holding hands and belting out the words. as soon as the song ended, the rain came back. FREAKY MAGICAL SPORTS DAY COINCIDENCE? i think not.
the whole thing gave me chills. that they could have all these weeks of being on separate teams, competing against each other, losing to each other only minutes before, and now they were all singing and dancing in the rain together. no bitterness, no grudges, no complaining about how unfair the judging was.
these kids are amazing.
5.8.10
SPORTS DAY.
before i launch into my gushing over the gloriousness of sports day, i wanted to tell you i just had my first day tutoring The Man. it was great. he's studying to get a degree of some sort in vocational education even though he already has his phd in industrial engineering (i think...maybe it's his masters) and has already studying methods of industrial education in a bunch of other countries. in order to get this degree, he has to pass an english test. this is where maddy and i come in (she sees him tuesdays, me on thursday). his english isn't very good, but i think his biggest problem is his fear of saying things wrong. us grown ups have such a problem being wrong. this is why kids pwn at learning languages (plus some other stuff, but i think this ability to be wrong and ask questions is one of the biggest things kids have going for them).
ok ok sports day time. this day is phenomenal. it's like homecoming plus lip sync plus dancing plus speed. the kids have been working on this pretty much since the beginning of school. during 9th period--from 3:10 to 4, when nobody has class but nobody can leave school--they've been grouping according to their colors, either yellow, red, pink, green, blue, or pink. i'm pretty sure the school assigned these colors. they've been banging on drums, clapping their hands and chanting for no discernible reason.
today, we found out why. (go watch the video at the end. i know i'm demanding and i should really embed the video right here in the middle, but i didn't so you can just scroll and check it out a little ways down.)
each team has its own chant and a set of girls dance in the middle of the field in front of the whole school to their team's chant. their make up was INSANE. these girls are 16 years old--18 at best! most of these made up girls are my students and i spent half the morning trying to figure out who was whom. my favorite lady boy was dressed in his lady get up today. he was gorgeous, of course.
one of the biggest downsides to only seeing my kids once a week for an hour is that i never get to know them. it was awesome seeing'em outside the classroom today, absolutely rockin' it. a bunch of my boys who can't speak english for crap are excellent atheletes. go figure, eh?
seriously, watch the video. sorry for the butt shots.
ok ok sports day time. this day is phenomenal. it's like homecoming plus lip sync plus dancing plus speed. the kids have been working on this pretty much since the beginning of school. during 9th period--from 3:10 to 4, when nobody has class but nobody can leave school--they've been grouping according to their colors, either yellow, red, pink, green, blue, or pink. i'm pretty sure the school assigned these colors. they've been banging on drums, clapping their hands and chanting for no discernible reason.
today, we found out why. (go watch the video at the end. i know i'm demanding and i should really embed the video right here in the middle, but i didn't so you can just scroll and check it out a little ways down.)
each team has its own chant and a set of girls dance in the middle of the field in front of the whole school to their team's chant. their make up was INSANE. these girls are 16 years old--18 at best! most of these made up girls are my students and i spent half the morning trying to figure out who was whom. my favorite lady boy was dressed in his lady get up today. he was gorgeous, of course.
one of the biggest downsides to only seeing my kids once a week for an hour is that i never get to know them. it was awesome seeing'em outside the classroom today, absolutely rockin' it. a bunch of my boys who can't speak english for crap are excellent atheletes. go figure, eh?
seriously, watch the video. sorry for the butt shots.
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