Patrick is doing a really good job teaching. In my opinion, it is his calling. He seems to intuitively understand how to do it, how to connect with students, what is interesting or difficult for them, and how to invigorate a lesson. He has worked quite hard at tailoring lessons to the interests of his students and making the material relevant to their needs. On days that the teaching goes well, he comes home excited and days when the students don’t get excited or the tasks are too challenging (like when he was teaching relative clauses), he comes home a bit blue. He puts a lot of energy into his work, too. Far more than his colleagues and more than his bosses expect. Unfortunately, he had to tell them yesterday that in 2 weeks he was going to
Maddy is still in the throws of toilet training. Pat and I are so sick of it. She has been first afraid of the toilet, then actively resistant, and now, finally she has chosen to use it. She turned this corner and made the choice last weekend. She told me she wanted to use the potty all the time, and I understood that for her, the active resistance was gone. Now, we could finally teach her to attend to her bodily signs to get to the toilet as well as other potty etiquette (i.e. wiping, washing hands, etc). What a huge challenge this has been for us. I sincerely hope that by the end of December that she is well on her way to using the toilet on her own. Of course, this presents new challenges. For example, how do you take a 3 year old to the toilet on a moving train? Particularly after waiting in line, you find the floor is soaked with piss, the restroom is freezing cold, the train is loudly rocking, and the seat is a horror to consider? There are other challenges here, too, for example, Turkish toilets in most public buildings, no TP in most places (you have to carry your own), and no soap or towels to washing/dry your hands, let alone no potty seat or potty chair! If she was afraid of the potty chair, what will she think of a Turkish toilet? I can uneasily envision holding her over a Turkish toilet while my feet slosh in filth with a stench that reeks to high heaven. Good times. Good times. :-)
Last night, A, Maddy and I went for a walk to get theater tickets. We went to the Russian Drama Theater and checked out the upcoming plays. Then, we walked to the
Speaking of plays, etc, the Polytechnic English translator/interpreter students asked me to be involved in another play series! OMG, I so don’t have the time or the energy to put into helping with another round of practicing, staging, performing English plays. They did ask me to find a short English Christmas play for them online. So, I’m going to look for “Rudolph, the Red Nose Reindeer” of which they have never heard! I was surprised, but these students were born in 1990 and they think movies from the 1990s are really old! Ha! I think Grapes of Wrath and Gone with the Wind as really old!
Man, am I seeing my own aging. Not internally, but with things like this and the physical outside of me. It just creeps up on you, you know? I just realized that my nephew Codi is 14, that Annie was 17 when she had him, that I was 25 at the time. That means that if I’m 39, Annie is 31! Holy smoke, how did she become 31 years old? When did that happen? I cannot even imagine others in my life and what ages they are, for example, Neal’s & Jen’s boys? Molly’s kids? Maryanne and Mark’s boy, Ben, just turned 21. He was 5 when I met him for the first time and his brother, Matt, was 3. He’s about to become an Eagle Scout and graduate from high school. Pat and I used to wrestle them in Peggy’s hammock. The both of them would throw themselves on us and try to knock us out of the hammock. Basically, it was just rough housing, but it was fun. I still think of them as that age though I know them at other ages, too. I really want to see the Bergers again. We have gone to the Beach House each summer with them for several years, but not last year. It was a big loss for Pat and me, because they grow 2 years between visits! Likewise, the Bergers don’t get to see Maddy. I’m going to try to go this year, if Dad doesn’t sell the place. I need to make plans on this. Oh, and BTW, I’ll be 40 in May 2008.
Everything else is going well. My students at the Polytechnic are doing well. My freshmen in the Oral Practice classes now respect and like me. I noticed that they didn’t even try to cheat on the last quiz. That was actually a huge tribute to me. They tried because they didn’t want me to dislike them or be upset. I realize it is less about the grades or the knowledge for them and more about the personal relationship. After I helped with the play, they really warmed up to me in a way that my students back home rarely do. When we were at the play performances and my name was announced, there was a loud wave of cheers from the students in the audience and behind the curtains. It was an unexpected and endearing sort of valentine to the teacher. I loved it. Anyway, they are doing well with the classroom tasks and their English speaking/listening practice.
The American Culture class is a different story, but that is because we have to “cover” this awful, dry, odd American history textbook. I have done what I can to bring the material to life by explaining connections between history and the events in the
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