In these political times, a political phrase seems a propos, so here it go
“There you go again.” – Ronald Reagan
Here’s where I ’m going……. again. Writing my blog. I’ve tried and tried to find the time to organize everything. You see, the original motivation for this blog was one time I got about 4,000 posts behind and read through hundreds of them over just a few days’ period. That was like listening to a piece of music from another room: stuff pops out at you that was smothered before by the ambient noise. In the case of posts, it was the way certain themes came in dribs and drabs.
But in reading hundreds at one time, the few dozen posts on a particular theme stood out as a unit. That made me realize there were certain themes and topics that crop up again and again. Well, of course they do. BUT, the big deal is that I saw that people were missing information.
For instance, the continual complaints about how bad the grammar of English speakers is. That misconception could be remedied by a good number of quotes from books on Prescriptivism and its faults.
Another instance, related, is that only the students make these errors. Well, I’ve gatherd dozens of quotes from teachers and other educated professionals that belie that. I even have them organized – all those scraps of paper – into types of errors e.g. ones that deal with words, those that deal with grammar, those that have dialectal origins, those made by foreigners, etc. But I can’t get them typed into the computer!
Then there is the polemic by a classics professor claiming the “the war on grammar” is ideologically motivated (shades of the Neocons!). I went through that line by line one summer and answered charge he makes, I even wrote it all up, and STILL haven’t typed it into the computer.
Also, of interest to some, are voluminous notes I made on my various teaching experiences, incl. the current one. The first one I put on tape and have to listen to the tape and transcribe from it. I have done two parts but still have a number of parts to go. That should answer questions of the “what do you do” sort when you run into problems like unmanageable classes, third year students who know nothing of L2, switching from one teaching method (the previous teacher’s) to another (mine) when they are diametrially opposed without offending the previous teacher, salvaging the good parts of what they did, building on what the students do know, etc.
Just tons of stuff.
BUT!!! I’ll not get it organized teaching full-time as I am now. If I go back to subbing, I probably could do that but I’d really like to continue this position or in another language, full- or part-time, or teach ELL kids, esp a history class. I just got my bilingual endorsement, so I may get something it that field or something in social studies may open up or a foreign language I can teach.
So, all that to say, bombs away! Here I go, again, trying to blog daily. Please forgive any discontinuities. Just ask me to straighten them out. And, ABOVE ALL, respond!! Let’s get discussions going.
BTW, I am involved (marginally) in two groups discussing several very interesting topics. It’s just for those who want to discuss it. Most lists highly discourage that. People somehow don’t know where the delete button is and so ask people on a particular thread to cease. It really bothers them. To use a language we’re all familiar with — totally weird, dude.