Month: April 2011

Hazardous Speech

Oh, and a couple days ago one of my students was joking around with the head of our department, suggesting that he be a man and buy French fries for the class. But she didn’t know how to say “be a man.” Instead, she asked him, “Show us your sex!”

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Spiders Are Wonderful

I gave my intermediate students an assignment to write about a scary moment in their lives. One wrote about the earthquake in Japan. A young woman from China wrote about being chased by a ferocious dog. The Korean boy wrote about seeing his two friends get into a bike accident, during which one kid lost his arm and another was blinded. And then there was this, about an unpleasant ride at an amusement park: When […]

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What If You Gave a Presentation & Nobody Came?

Yesterday I took over a class for a colleague at Ohlone. I was amused by the lesson plan he gave me: Pass out slips of paper to each group and have them discuss the topics with each other. Chastise those who do not participate. As it turned out, only seven of his students showed up, and we had a fabulous time. At least I did. The slips of paper were inscribed with discussion questions. One […]

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