Students fail classes. That is the reality, and the harsh reality of being a teacher is having to fail them. Or rather, giving them their failing mark. Many students at the UDLAP have scholarships, which, if they fail a class, are taken away. This means that students have a financial incentive to not fail. Unfortunately, this seems to only ( Read more... )

The UDLAP, the university that gave me my MA, plans on contracting me as only having a BA because they don´t have "el titulo" in their hands.... Problem: I will never receive a "titulo" because it is something the Mexican Secretary of Public Education (SEP) gives for "maestrías", only for Mexicans, while they do not give these for "masters", which ( Read more... )

So, I was sick of being on vacation...a luxury, I know... so I signed up for a free course on how to use Blackboard for teachers. So, it is 9am and I´m at the university... 9-1 and then from 4-6. I´d better get used to waking up early since I´ll be teaching at 7am starting the 15th ( Read more... )

Yesterday I got married! I am so damn happy I don't know what to do with myself. Going to work was difficult as all I wanted to do was be with my new wife. So damn happy! We'll be moving in together this week too! A little house that her family has. So damn happy! I want to move now! Thankfully my last day of work this summer is tomorrow ( Read more... )

I´m teaching an academic presentations class. Their first assignment was to interview one of their peers and then present a quick 4 minute biography about that person. For the most part it went well, except for one guy, who volunteered to go first, who stood up, explained that he hadn´t taken notes (I´d given a spiel on how it was important to ( Read more... )

I defended my thesis and did a great job. I felt confident and wasn't even as close to nervous as I thought I'd be. It helped that there were only 4 people in the audience since I told anyone who asked that I didn't want them there. hahaha ( Read more... )

is near...

Thesis was turned in last week and now I'm preparing to defend it on Friday. 30 min. to summarize four+ months of intense investigation, followed by an hour of questions by three professors. Yes, I'm nervous as hell.

The semester has started again: teaching academic writing and working on my thesis. My class is going ok, the students are working and not following directions as usual. Sometimes I wonder about them. I give them directions, written out, and they still don't follow them. I know their English is good enough ( Read more... )

So, I haven´t been doing a whole lot: watching TV on-line, watching movies on-line, eating, drinking, not-smoking, hanging out with Mary. I feel useless and unproductive. I feel like I should be reading, writing, doing something! Anything! Even with all this time I don´t sleep much: 5 or 6 hours a night. I just can´t bring myself to climb into ( Read more... )

I turned in my thesis proposal--35 pages--and my bilingualism project--19 pages. Only some materials to put together for my pedagogy class, easy. Today I did almost nothing except clean my apartment, finally, and get my last check. Tomorrow it is back to work on the last project ( Read more... )