The Sunshine State beckons

Well, my fellow Americans, I have found a job that I think I will love. I'll be teaching middle schoolers at a CSI school in Cape Coral, Florida (about 100 miles south of Tampa for anyone who wants an excuse to visit) and I'll hopefully be moving down there sometime in June. Wow, it was such a Providential situation. I'm still reeling from the whirlwind trip I took to the school last weekend, and I can barely get my mind around the fact that when I finish student teaching, I won't be unemployed. I will actually have a classroom waiting with my name by the door. The Lord has been really good in providing this opportunity; I would have never thought I would go to Florida to teach.

Student teaching itself is pretty good, especially since this first session is almost done. I'm so fed up with the little nagging irritations. For example, today I was introducing a short story by Guy de Maupassant ("The Necklace", "A Little Bit of String"), and I said his name G-ah-ee (like hey guys, come over here), and my cooperating teacher, who was piddling around in the front stopped me and said, "Actually, it's pronounced G-ee du M-ow-pow-san. It's not Guy. G-ee. I just thought you should know that." I really didn't know what to say in response. I had completely lost my train of thought, and I had been struggling to keep the class focused from the beginning (Grammar exercises will do that to a class). I just kind of nodded and tried to continue with the lesson. She does that a lot--stopping me while I'm talking to correct me. And sometimes it's good. For example, if I write a sentence on the board that's supposed to demonstrate a gerund and I actually write a progressive verb instead (eg. "He was running quickly" instead of "He liked running quickly"); I appreciate the correction because I don't want to confuse the students. However, G-ee instead of Guy? I mean, does it really matter? *sigh* I just feel like she cuts my feet right out from under me all the time. Anyway. Two more days with her and then I'm finished, and I'm off to a new classroom. It should be interesting.

Well, I'm looking forward to seeing everyone next week at seminars. We'll have to share horror stories! Best of luck finishing up these next few days.

Another Grammar Post

Yesterday my sister shared me with a paper she wrote for Van Gilst and one for Elgersma, both of which she had several grammar problems (although she used great images in her English paper!). So she gave me her papers to look over, and I had no problem picking out the main problems and then how to explain them until I came to . . . . COMMAS! Sure, the use of commas in joining two independent clauses was easy to explain, but what about all those commas that just feel right to me but that don't feel write to Bekah (that's my sister)? Where do those come from and why do we use them?

So I got out my Rhetorical Grammar book from Van Gilst's grammar class and had a little comma review; mostly, I wanted to know why we use commas in certain places so I could explain the concept behind them. As I reviewed this stuff, I began to realize the value of transformational grammar and of how understanding deep grammar really helps to explain why, for example, an adverbial clause at the beginning of the sentence needs a comma. Bekah caught on quickly and remembered stuff from her Honor's English class in high school, as well as examples from Van Gilst's class. I appreciated being able to go over stuff one-on-one with her. The challenge of the future: Make grammar relevant and understandable (and maybe even fun?!) for my future high school students.

I'm out.

the value of Constance Weaver

Remember in advanced grammar, the book Teaching Grammar In Context? Well, after teaching grammar from a workbook for the past two weeks, I can fully see the value of teaching grammar in the context of students' own writing. I can't tell you all how frustrating it is for me to have to go through grammar in this systematic, unadulterated manner with the freshmen and sophomores here at ECA. Grrr. I don't want to chuck grammar study out the window--I think it is good for students to know the parts of a sentence and how they work together. But do you really need to know that would have been going is the past perfect progressive form of the verb? I don't know... Anyway. I looked through Constance Weaver's book, and now that I've been teaching grammar, I see the genius of her wonderful appendix with ideas on how to teach some of these tricky concepts. I want to make my coop. teacher read the first few chapters on how typical grammar study does nothing for students, but I think that might be pushing it. I try to keep a positive attitude, but I think she's caught on that this kind of grammar study isn't my favorite. Anyway, just a thought I had.

MIA

Okay, so where are Josh and Abby and Rochelle? We need to hear from you! Josh, I hear you've been busy. Rochelle, I'm sure that you have some experiences you could share. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? All right, I'm sure we've all been busy--I know I have. But I think those of us who check this site and contribute to it would love to hear how things are going!