I want to make these shirts for my teachers this year....
Anyways... This post is to mainly place some websites that I have found to be quite useful. They are filled with worksheets, flashcards, game ideas... all your esl needs.. well, maybe not all, I mean, you still need coffee, patience, and a LOT of candy to stand the headache that is students whose English is worse than those you find in a crack-addicted monkey... Seriously! I bet it is easier to teach THESE monkeys than the students I am comparing them to... I hope the pages are useful... and if you have more, please let me know! WEB PAGES
Today is Monday and there is nothing worse in this world than to come to school and teach a class when you have no desire to do so. Today was one of those days. I suddenly remembered my old mentors, particularly Federico Perez Casio, when he would show up in the mornings and announced that he wasn't in the mood to teach a class.
How much we dreaded those words coming out of his mouth! The class was then boring, tedious, and given the chance, he would go into a dictation rampage that would leave us with our hands sore. Now, as I look back at my class this morning, I think to myself, "my god! I am one of those teachers now!" I did not want to give a class -- somehow the class fairy has slipped away from my spirits today and thus enforced the "I will write grammar exercises on the board for you to copy" rule. It was boring. Even for me it was boring. Might as well just let them sleep while we were at it.
I hope tomorrow it comes with better intentions...
FALLING ASLEEP IN CLASS by Kenn Nesbitt
I fell asleep in class today, as I was awfully bored. I laid my head upon my desk and closed my eyes and snored. I woke to find a piece of paper sticking to my face. I’d slobbered on my textbooks, and my hair was a disgrace. My clothes were badly rumpled, and my eyes were glazed and red. My binder left a three-ring indentation in my head. I slept through class, and probably I would have slept some more, except my students woke me as they headed out the door.
Today is one of my dearest friends' B day. Mr Eduardo Varela turns an X ammount of years. Happy B day Lalo (lalovarela.deviantart.com)
I thank also my computer calendar for reminding me of that -- yeah, I have a tefflon brain, what can I say?
So -- yesterday was the season finale of my two favorite TV shows: Private Practice and Grey's Anatomy. O though I cannot say where the fuck PP is going now, I can say that GA has opened a new set of worms that can easily be transcripted into two seasons more. PP -- you're good, but you've dealt most of your cards right about now.
My mother, however, has become a mega-fan of House M.D.
-- I did not watch the MJ funeral. I mean, what a freak show that is! If I wanted to see the circus, I would WALK to my nearest one!
Tomorrow there is this big presentation I have to do for the CEO of the school. I only hope that I get enough attention to get my dept. some earphones so we can have a some what decent English lab. Yeah! We're teaching English to ESL students with no AUDIO lab. How F-ed up is that? (and no, you do not get to tell me that somewhere in a poor country school in Bangladesh they do not have an idea of what an Audio lab is because things in the most important borderland in Mexico are different than in the Bangladeshian jungle... Hah! I made a new word! Bangladeshian!)
It's the beginning of a new week and already something wicked this way comes...
One of my teachers, Mr Venegas, teaches an administrative class and he has told the students (since last week) that he is no longer going to be able to teach the class because he is leaving for Mexico City in a week. He has also told this to the Social Sciences coordinator.
Has he had the decency to tell me this? No.
Here's the deal: he teaches English VII. The class began last week. He is leaving me one week to find a new teacher, train him to the teaching model we have here, give the teacher the week's trial... a whole bunch of burning circles that this teacher has to jump through like a circus poodle. And the frikky part of it is that he saw me, this morning, and still -- NADA! I mean, dude! WTF?!
Well... that and the fact that my car got a flat tire today hahaha! I was supposed to go out and pay for the electric bill, but now I have to fix my car's tire. Poor baby!
The class in the morning has been behaving. So far, so good. I have started a blog-program, where students have to go on-line and start their own blogs. They're pretty lazy, and even though it only takes a few minutes, they're still relentless about doing it. Today I have left a week-long assignment in which they will have to log in to the university's web site and post their blogs even if it kills them (THEM, why should it have to kill me?)
... I'm in the mood for Chinese...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VALENTINE'S DAY SPECIALS...
BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO... ESPECIALLY IF YOU DO THESE THINGS: In her book, A Girlfriend's Guide to Getting Over Him, author Sandra Ann Miller lays down the law for the brokenhearted. She's created ten essential ground rules to prevent the recently split from making the most common breakup mistakes...
1. I will not call him… even if I am convinced it will make me feel better. I will not call him even to get my stuff. I'll have a friend do that, preferably via e-mail.
2. I will not email him… Not even an innocent or funny group e-mail forward.
3. I will not frequent the places I know he goes… even if I went there first and like it better. I know going to such places will hurt more than it will help.
4. I will not encourage or allow friends to do anything foolhardy… even with my best interests at heart. This includes talking to him when they see him in public to let him know he is a jerk and he'll never do better than me, or to share that I'm looking fabulous, got a promotion, and am dating George Clooney.
5. I will screen all of my calls. I will not answer the phone unless I know who it is and I'm sure it's not him.
6. I will not take his phone calls. I repeat -- I will not take his calls.
7. I will not return his phone calls or e-mails. If he is "just checking" to see how I am, I know he is really just checking to see if I think he's a jackass. He is looking for an ego stroke, not to get back together.
8. I will not look for signs that we will get back together. This includes asking the Magic-8 Ball or psychics, or your horoscope.
9. I will not believe this is temporary. I will see this as permanent until proven otherwise by concrete actions, immense apologies, and couple's therapy.
10. I will not hide under a rock, be humiliated or ashamed that this relationship ended. For all I know, this could be the best thing that ever happened to me.
I promise to abide by these vows for at least thirty days, or until I have gotten over him, whichever is longer. This I do affirm. So help me.
I found ye old quotes and phrases collection notebook. It's like finding that old friend whom you've enclosed in a box and placed under the bed. Yeah, sort of like that. I also found those cheese poems you usually find on the girl's bathrooms here in Mexico... and my old cheers. Oh yes, my good friends: I was once a cheerleader.
.... Rah!
As I ponder on what's gonna be like next semester, it becomes even more clear that even though I've been at this for a very long time, the student's ideas on how to avoid taking a class are becoming more and more creative as years go by. For example, yesterday one of them came SWEARING to me that he had taken all the English courses and that the coordinator (me) had signed a letter passing him. He even had the letter signed and all... not by me, of course. I just looked at him, stretched out my hand and said "Hello, I'm the person who supposedly signed this nice to meet you".
You should have seen his freaked-out look. Priceless.
OR I also enjoy the kid who SWEARS he knows English and speaks it quite well. They always end-up sounding like that girl who sings the Mariah Carey song... remember? I mean, I don't know what language is that... but it ain't English...
Poor girl. She'll go down in the annals of history for this...
So... WHO'S GONNA WIN THE SUPERBOWL?
Go Cards...
I mean, granted, none of my favorite teams made it to the Big game (thank you Bad Luck Daddy!) but...
TOP 5 REASONS THAT I CHEER FOR THE CARDINALS
5. I like the pretty little bird.
4. Look at this bear and you tell me it ain't adorable!
3. I cannot pronounce/create cheer for that guy from the Steelers... you know, the guy who has the ball and passes it around and looks at the other guy's butt? Yeah! that one!
2. Kurt Warner's 6 degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon.
1. I would rather be stabbed in the eye with a rusty spoon than to cheer for the Steelers.
So... go Cards...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The "What in tha'---" note of the day...
MEXICAN VOODOO ... The Mexican national soccer team is coming to Columbus, Ohio next month to play the American team in a tournament to qualify for the next World Cup. They haven’t won playing in the US for several years so here's how they're hoping to change things...
Mexican citizens are being urged to go to stores in their country and pick up American team voodoo dolls! They're hoping to cast a spell on the Americans before the big game.
--- HOW ABOUT JUST PLAYING GOOD SOCCER INSTEAD? HOW ABOUT JUST PLAYING WITH GOOD PLAYERS? SHEESH, PEOPLE!! IT'S JUST A GAME! They LOST TO SWEDEN!! I MEAN--- SWEDEN! ............... o though, the dolls are ADORABLY cute.......
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AND THIS IS WHY GOD GAVE RACOONS SHARP TEETH....
A RACCOON BIT OFF A PIECE OF A RUSSIAN GUY'S JUNK ... Last weekend, 44-year-old Alexander Kirilov of Moscow, Russia, was doing some heavy drinking while on vacation with friends when he came up with the unfathomable idea to try and force a RACCOON TO PERFORM ORAL FAVORS ON HIM!!!!
And believe it or not, the raccoon wasn't in the mood for a little interspecies action. . . and he BIT OFF a chunk of Alexander's UNIT.
“When I saw the raccoon I thought I’d have some fun,” Alexander told stunned casualty surgeons in Moscow. Now Russian plastic surgeons are trying to restore his mangled manhood.
“He’s been told they can get things working again but they can’t sew back on what the raccoon bit off," said a pal.
“That’s gone forever so there isn’t going to be much for them to work with."
