The times are getting nutty again. Next week is all-day workshop; in two weeks is another half-day workshop in the village of a colleague’s wife where I’ll be gifting some taxpayer-sponsored goodwill in the form of English language learning materials. The third Saturday will be another all-day workshop and three three-day workshops in May as well as another grant to bring some teachers from Papua to Makassar and gift them a small collection of English language learning resources for community use (meaning one school houses them with the understanding that the surrounding schools may also use the books). This last bit is all ‘hope’ since I can’t travel and see what happens.
I’m teaching a class for the English Department this semester and we spent two weeks discussing object speeches with plenty of examples. The third week was the students giving the speeches. I kicked the first speaker out after he went to the front, sat down, and proceeded to talk about his family. He might have fooled me had he talked in depth about his family but he remained silent for long periods while thinking of new things to say. The other speeches weren’t bad, but I definitely saw some kids who were unprepared. It will be reflected in their grade. And considering that my failure grade is 60 compared to the usual failure grade of 40 percent, some students might have a rude awakening.