Remember as you read this: all of my stories are mixed in terms of place and time, and my characters are distorted composites created as types; you do not know for sure how many universities I work for or have worked for, or from whose traits my composite characters have been built; I am a … More Still More on Why I So Dislike Teaching Foreign Languages
Too tired to sleep, I am musing on the blog but what the random kids at the corner store said was: “Wow! You have cool shoes. Your whole atmosphere — you don’t seem like someone from here!” Why not I asked, and they said, “Because you have so much energy, and such a calm energy!” … More Down on the Corner
Question: There are all these blogs about writing, and how hard it is, and how to get it done anyway, and all these blogs about teaching techniques and enthusiasms. Am I the only one who talks about how just plain hard teaching is? It seems that the level of difficulty I have with it – … More Another Question and Comment
…that, incidentally, almost never appeared when I was a TA: 1- Papers with unexpected problems, having to do with lacking K-12 skills that I hadn’t planned on confronting and also don’t know how to teach. Trying to figure out how to address these papers is much harder than grading papers written, well or poorly, but … More The Two Hardest Things About Grading
Well, second language acquisition isn’t my field, so doing it means preparing something out of field. Any time management expert can tell you that that is a huge distraction from the real work. Then there are the politics around it; the personalities one has to deal with are often very unpleasant. Next, I’m not the … More More on Why I So Dislike Teaching Foreign Languages
I am overworked and I know it is a crime, but that has not been the point of the last two months of posts. My small point is, do not overdramatize because I can show you overwork and this person can show you still more. My larger and real point, and this is an individual’s … More Rainbow Sign
Remember, you may find a cathartic post here at any time. I realize how Gothic these sound but I have absorbed many decades of dire warnings and discouraging words. Every post in which I repel those who say you cannot do it makes me stronger and I am going for that, full on. Y’all don’t … More Advertencia al lector
This is my new favorite movie. I have not had a new favorite movie, apart from some brief flirtations, since 1987 when Burden of Dreams came out. From the beginning Biutiful reminded me of what Tree of Life could have been, had that film been actually good. Here is the last scene, dubbed into Italian, … More Biutiful
For someone I wish I knew how to get in touch with more directly, this is a picture of our good man I took today. Grab it girl, I shouldn’t keep this post up too long. Vous-autres, sorry for the mystery; I will explain or have explained, if you have been with me long enough … More A Smoke Signal
Ça va, man? I asked, running into one of our newer hires; evidently ça n’allait pas, because of social life. I may place a manifesto on my door: dear assistant professor, dear instructor, the reason the other instructors and assistant professors are not hanging out with you is not that they are mean, but that you … More Mais yeah, cher
coldhearted scientist وداد 