(no subject)
I wish I had something more interesting to say than "I haven't done anything interesting." I got sick, though, and that worked out sort of in my favour--it meant that my one student, the older gent who ...
Okay, I should start at the beginning on this one.
So, last week, one of the classes was assigned an oral presentation, on a city and a geographical feature that impacted the city. You know, pretty standard stuff, easy to research, all that good stuff. Anyway, this dude comes in, and after waffling for like 20 minutes, he finally decided on Mt. Everest and the city of Murree. Okay, great, we're getting somewhere! So I ask him about how the mountain's impacted the city, and we get aother 20 minutes of waffling before I take him to the computer so he can look things up and give me a break from the headache that was forming.
I open the web and take him to Google. I tell him to Google. He says "No, you do it! I am learning from you how to do it!"
WHAT THE FUCK OLD MAN. NO. I explained that's why I was showing him how to do it; if he has to do it again when I'm not there, he needs to know how to do it.
Finally, thank God, my day ends, after another 15 minutes of that mess. He promised he'd be back Thursday so I could help him with his Powerpoint--which I'm pretty sure means I'd be doing the whole damn thing if he got his way.
And then I got sick. So horribly sick that I couldn't talk at all. Teaching without a voice is nigh on impossible in an ESL setting, so I didn't go to work.
Friday I left early because I felt awful.
Monday he came in to tell me he missed me Thursday, and yesterday, he came in ... WITH A COMPLETE POWERPOINT. I don't know if he did it himself or got help from someone, but it was done, without me having to do it for him!
The presentation's today, so that's good for me.
And then, research essays were due yesterday. Argument essays. I'm not kidding when I say I'm thinking I'll write a book for ESL students on how to write one.
'Cause like, how many times is it appropriate to say "Nobody cares what you think in a research essay. We want to hear from people who study this stuff. Nobody wants what you have to say." before it's appropriate to go all Mommy Dearest on them?
Because after 12 times, it's damn hard not to do it. This woman ... I told her repeatedly NO PERSONAL PRONOUNS in a research paper. She emailed me her essay for editing. Now, aside from the fact that I know we'd covered a fair few of the errors she still had, every single paragraph had a personal story.
So I sent it back to her, repeating the "No personal pronouns" thing. She re-edited it and sent it back.
There were no more personal pronouns. However, she hadn't kept most of my edits for the rest of it--you know, important things like subject-verb agreement.
WHAT THE FUCK PEOPLE.
I love my job. I do. But sometimes I just want to bash my head against the wall. Like, how are they not retaining things I know they've heard dozens of times?
Or the woman who's in the highest ESL writing class who can't cite a source in MLA format with a copy of how to do it printed in her book and three separate handouts that she still had in her possession. How is that possible? She's covered this for years, and it's a standard form, isn't it? MLA doesn't change between countries, and certainly not within the same school department ...
I also have a lot of studets who think I'll write their papers for them. THAT IS NOT MY JOB, AND I SURE DON'T GET PAID ENOUGH TO MAKE IT MY JOB.
I also have issues with one specific teacher's methods, but that's not my place to say anything. :/
Blah. I have work today. Thank God that it's nearly the end of the term. This is compunding my barely-no-longer-sick stress and sleeplessness.
On the other hand, my life is being taken over by Kingsman fandom. Holy shit, you guys, why do I not have more friends in this fandom? I've hardly written anything in ages, and I've got like 5 fic ideas for this fandom, one of which is already over 5k words and nowhere near done, because I can't do anything by halves, apparently.
Seriously, though. I need more friends in this fandom.
Edit:
I FORGOT ABOUT THIS.
Okay, so last week, a friend of a friend that I hate posted a dating profile up on Craigslist. Aside from the fail of that, it gets worse. She included the following line: "No momma's boys! If your mom's dead, even better!" AND SHE DOES NOT UNDERSTAND HOW AWFUL THAT IS.
The mutual friend said that she ought to think about people like me and another friend, who both recently lost our mothers, and she was unrepentant.
I heard about it, and I was like ... she's a mother herself. So, basically, by posting that, she's saying she doesn't mind people wanting her dead.
Mutual friend relayed the message.
Chick is still unrepentant: she didn't mean it that way!
I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU MEANT, IT'S WHAT YOU SAID THAT'S NOT COOL.
Ugh.
Okay, done now. I just wanted to get that out so that if anyone ever asks why I'm not friends with that woman, I have proof that this is a thing that happened.
Okay, I should start at the beginning on this one.
So, last week, one of the classes was assigned an oral presentation, on a city and a geographical feature that impacted the city. You know, pretty standard stuff, easy to research, all that good stuff. Anyway, this dude comes in, and after waffling for like 20 minutes, he finally decided on Mt. Everest and the city of Murree. Okay, great, we're getting somewhere! So I ask him about how the mountain's impacted the city, and we get aother 20 minutes of waffling before I take him to the computer so he can look things up and give me a break from the headache that was forming.
I open the web and take him to Google. I tell him to Google. He says "No, you do it! I am learning from you how to do it!"
WHAT THE FUCK OLD MAN. NO. I explained that's why I was showing him how to do it; if he has to do it again when I'm not there, he needs to know how to do it.
Finally, thank God, my day ends, after another 15 minutes of that mess. He promised he'd be back Thursday so I could help him with his Powerpoint--which I'm pretty sure means I'd be doing the whole damn thing if he got his way.
And then I got sick. So horribly sick that I couldn't talk at all. Teaching without a voice is nigh on impossible in an ESL setting, so I didn't go to work.
Friday I left early because I felt awful.
Monday he came in to tell me he missed me Thursday, and yesterday, he came in ... WITH A COMPLETE POWERPOINT. I don't know if he did it himself or got help from someone, but it was done, without me having to do it for him!
The presentation's today, so that's good for me.
And then, research essays were due yesterday. Argument essays. I'm not kidding when I say I'm thinking I'll write a book for ESL students on how to write one.
'Cause like, how many times is it appropriate to say "Nobody cares what you think in a research essay. We want to hear from people who study this stuff. Nobody wants what you have to say." before it's appropriate to go all Mommy Dearest on them?
Because after 12 times, it's damn hard not to do it. This woman ... I told her repeatedly NO PERSONAL PRONOUNS in a research paper. She emailed me her essay for editing. Now, aside from the fact that I know we'd covered a fair few of the errors she still had, every single paragraph had a personal story.
So I sent it back to her, repeating the "No personal pronouns" thing. She re-edited it and sent it back.
There were no more personal pronouns. However, she hadn't kept most of my edits for the rest of it--you know, important things like subject-verb agreement.
WHAT THE FUCK PEOPLE.
I love my job. I do. But sometimes I just want to bash my head against the wall. Like, how are they not retaining things I know they've heard dozens of times?
Or the woman who's in the highest ESL writing class who can't cite a source in MLA format with a copy of how to do it printed in her book and three separate handouts that she still had in her possession. How is that possible? She's covered this for years, and it's a standard form, isn't it? MLA doesn't change between countries, and certainly not within the same school department ...
I also have a lot of studets who think I'll write their papers for them. THAT IS NOT MY JOB, AND I SURE DON'T GET PAID ENOUGH TO MAKE IT MY JOB.
I also have issues with one specific teacher's methods, but that's not my place to say anything. :/
Blah. I have work today. Thank God that it's nearly the end of the term. This is compunding my barely-no-longer-sick stress and sleeplessness.
On the other hand, my life is being taken over by Kingsman fandom. Holy shit, you guys, why do I not have more friends in this fandom? I've hardly written anything in ages, and I've got like 5 fic ideas for this fandom, one of which is already over 5k words and nowhere near done, because I can't do anything by halves, apparently.
Seriously, though. I need more friends in this fandom.
Edit:
I FORGOT ABOUT THIS.
Okay, so last week, a friend of a friend that I hate posted a dating profile up on Craigslist. Aside from the fail of that, it gets worse. She included the following line: "No momma's boys! If your mom's dead, even better!" AND SHE DOES NOT UNDERSTAND HOW AWFUL THAT IS.
The mutual friend said that she ought to think about people like me and another friend, who both recently lost our mothers, and she was unrepentant.
I heard about it, and I was like ... she's a mother herself. So, basically, by posting that, she's saying she doesn't mind people wanting her dead.
Mutual friend relayed the message.
Chick is still unrepentant: she didn't mean it that way!
I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU MEANT, IT'S WHAT YOU SAID THAT'S NOT COOL.
Ugh.
Okay, done now. I just wanted to get that out so that if anyone ever asks why I'm not friends with that woman, I have proof that this is a thing that happened.