(no subject)
I swear, sometimes these ESL students just don't get it.
Like, there's that one girl who, no matter what, isn't going to pass the class. She just isn't. She doesn't have any understanding of what she's reading, and since I won't do the work for her, all of her work is poorly-done. She didn't understand the concept of a research question. It took 20 minutes to talk her through that. Then it was time for the thesis statement. After another half hour, it was done, but ... it's awful. Too broad, but I won't do it for her, so I'll wait for her teacher to tell her it's poorly done. THEN I had to teach her how to do an outline. Like, seriously? I realise English is your second language, but do they not teach you how to write papers in your own country? Because it's kind of just like that.
And then today, I helped this man who is as old as my stepfather. He'd written his assignment, but ... it was poorly-done. So I said I would help him. He handed me an extra piece of paper and the assignment guidelines and asked me to write it out how it should be for him. Needless to say, I didn't do that, because fuck, no, I'm not getting paid enough to write your assignments for you! He went to class, and I helped another student that I will get into next, but when he came back I hadn't done anything. I did a rough edit of his assignment, and he just didn't understand any of my notes. One line literally said "I urge you to take steps to make the Government ban fast foods ads on TV," but it listed no steps--and it was an editorial to a newspaper. Like, wtf is the paper going to do? Nothing. He went on to use "facts" that he said were opinions, but they weren't presented as his opinion, and I tried to get him to realise that if you're going to use facts, you need to have some expert to back it up, since nobody cares what you think unless you're an expert in the subject. UGH. He took up 3 hours of my day. That is not an exaggeration. He took an hour yesterday, too. He can't make sense of things, but he won't listen to me when I tell him to try and translate things into easier words to clear up that confusion.
That third girl ... she's a doll. Really sweet, but she's not getting the idea of a "summary." We've been working on it for two weeks now. She's still putting way too much into it. I've tried to explain it as many ways as I can, and it always boils down to "if it doesn't change the story, don't put it in." For example, it doesn't matter than her dad went to get her chocolate milk--just that she drew a picture. Stuff like that. She keeps adding more stuff in after I cross it out, too. It's almost funny, but whatever. It's her grade. I'll keep doing what I'm doing.
Then there's this sweet girl who ... well. She's going to ace her classes. She worries unnecessarily, really. Today she needed help pronouncing words, and she can't seem to differentiate n and l--she keeps missing "magnitude" and saying "maglitude," no matter how many times we go through it sound by sound. But she's sweet, and I'm pretty sure she's not going to be docked too much for that, since it's not the pronunciation class.
I've been crazy fortunate that creepy-Rocky has not come to visit me at all this week. I'm praying he got the hint. It's all my good friend's fault that he even knew where I worked, and so I'm mildly unhappy with her, since she knows I do not like him at all. She thought she was being less-than-obvious saying I worked in the language department ... but there's only one language lab. It's a quick website search to find it. *facepalm* I asked her why she didn't say I worked with English students, since that's technically true, and also means he'd have gone to a different lab where I would not be ... and it's because she didn't think of it. But he hasn't been back in days, so I'm praying he stays away.
Went and saw Dumb and Dumber To last night. YOU GUYS. OMG YOU GUYS. Go see it. It was so funny. My stomach ached from laughing. You know when you laugh so hard you don't even make noise, just awkward gasping type sounds? That was what I was doing in this movie. It was funnier than the first, but it actually made sense, and it didn't try to bs why it took 20 years for a sequel; it worked that into the plot. Heh.
I'm not sure if I'm getting sick or it's just allergies/sinus issues from the weather change, but I'm stuffed up and it's making me cough because all the gunk is now in my lungs. I'm taking Buckley's and Sudafed, but I'm still feeling stuffy.
Tomorrow is a Smallville marathon with Amanda, and cottage pie for dinner. I haven't made it in a long time, but I'm excited to do it.
Also, I GET PAID NEXT WEEK! *happy dance* Sweet, sweet paycheck.
Like, there's that one girl who, no matter what, isn't going to pass the class. She just isn't. She doesn't have any understanding of what she's reading, and since I won't do the work for her, all of her work is poorly-done. She didn't understand the concept of a research question. It took 20 minutes to talk her through that. Then it was time for the thesis statement. After another half hour, it was done, but ... it's awful. Too broad, but I won't do it for her, so I'll wait for her teacher to tell her it's poorly done. THEN I had to teach her how to do an outline. Like, seriously? I realise English is your second language, but do they not teach you how to write papers in your own country? Because it's kind of just like that.
And then today, I helped this man who is as old as my stepfather. He'd written his assignment, but ... it was poorly-done. So I said I would help him. He handed me an extra piece of paper and the assignment guidelines and asked me to write it out how it should be for him. Needless to say, I didn't do that, because fuck, no, I'm not getting paid enough to write your assignments for you! He went to class, and I helped another student that I will get into next, but when he came back I hadn't done anything. I did a rough edit of his assignment, and he just didn't understand any of my notes. One line literally said "I urge you to take steps to make the Government ban fast foods ads on TV," but it listed no steps--and it was an editorial to a newspaper. Like, wtf is the paper going to do? Nothing. He went on to use "facts" that he said were opinions, but they weren't presented as his opinion, and I tried to get him to realise that if you're going to use facts, you need to have some expert to back it up, since nobody cares what you think unless you're an expert in the subject. UGH. He took up 3 hours of my day. That is not an exaggeration. He took an hour yesterday, too. He can't make sense of things, but he won't listen to me when I tell him to try and translate things into easier words to clear up that confusion.
That third girl ... she's a doll. Really sweet, but she's not getting the idea of a "summary." We've been working on it for two weeks now. She's still putting way too much into it. I've tried to explain it as many ways as I can, and it always boils down to "if it doesn't change the story, don't put it in." For example, it doesn't matter than her dad went to get her chocolate milk--just that she drew a picture. Stuff like that. She keeps adding more stuff in after I cross it out, too. It's almost funny, but whatever. It's her grade. I'll keep doing what I'm doing.
Then there's this sweet girl who ... well. She's going to ace her classes. She worries unnecessarily, really. Today she needed help pronouncing words, and she can't seem to differentiate n and l--she keeps missing "magnitude" and saying "maglitude," no matter how many times we go through it sound by sound. But she's sweet, and I'm pretty sure she's not going to be docked too much for that, since it's not the pronunciation class.
I've been crazy fortunate that creepy-Rocky has not come to visit me at all this week. I'm praying he got the hint. It's all my good friend's fault that he even knew where I worked, and so I'm mildly unhappy with her, since she knows I do not like him at all. She thought she was being less-than-obvious saying I worked in the language department ... but there's only one language lab. It's a quick website search to find it. *facepalm* I asked her why she didn't say I worked with English students, since that's technically true, and also means he'd have gone to a different lab where I would not be ... and it's because she didn't think of it. But he hasn't been back in days, so I'm praying he stays away.
Went and saw Dumb and Dumber To last night. YOU GUYS. OMG YOU GUYS. Go see it. It was so funny. My stomach ached from laughing. You know when you laugh so hard you don't even make noise, just awkward gasping type sounds? That was what I was doing in this movie. It was funnier than the first, but it actually made sense, and it didn't try to bs why it took 20 years for a sequel; it worked that into the plot. Heh.
I'm not sure if I'm getting sick or it's just allergies/sinus issues from the weather change, but I'm stuffed up and it's making me cough because all the gunk is now in my lungs. I'm taking Buckley's and Sudafed, but I'm still feeling stuffy.
Tomorrow is a Smallville marathon with Amanda, and cottage pie for dinner. I haven't made it in a long time, but I'm excited to do it.
Also, I GET PAID NEXT WEEK! *happy dance* Sweet, sweet paycheck.