I’ve been meaning to do some clean up of the last few weeks, but I’m still recovering from all the travel that I’ve been doing.
However, I just want to point out a website that I searched and found while doing some research into EFL Literature Circles (there are others, but I used the role handouts presented in this one). I had only heard the name of this and hadn’t done any reading into it. Of course, I did this after the boredom set in on my Literature classes and eyes were glazing over. After spending the whole class session last week distributing and explaining the roles and procedures of Literature Circles, the students jumped right in. And what a change it was. Everyone was talking. The students were connecting the short stories to their own lives and keeping the exchanges going. My first literature class this week was superb, the second one has a marginally lower level of English so they needed a little help with extra questions. All in all, the students were very excited with literature circles, and I get to listen more than I talk.
Flickering sunset,
cupping tired retinas:
a day’s lullaby.
I went to the classroom to teach first period yesterday. A sign on the classroom door read that I (and anyone else teaching in that room) have been reassigned to another due to a faculty and staff table tennis tournament. The tournament is now in its second full day.
Daylight fades, rune-like,
stroking the sky’s last morphemes:
merging our Edens.
March 17, 2008 – 10:26 am
This weekend I caught up with an old colleague who still pounds the pavement in the Big Durian. He’s a bit older than me with a great story to tell about his worldly travels, his ups and downs. The point is this: while talking to him, I realized that looking for a job in the U.S. at this time is a pretty ridiculous thing to do. The economy is in the dunk tank, no matter how many times the interest rates get changed, and putting gas in a car is getting obscene. With most locations in the U.S. necessitates the use of a car, something that I’m looking to move away from at this point in time. Of course, you can counter me by telling me to live in a city and use mass transit, but too many people want to live in a city. To add to that, jobs are much more plentiful (and better paid) abroad.
I’ve been in Indonesia for the better part of four years, and I feel it’s time to move on. Read More »