How K and I Spent Saturday Afternoon
Translating course descriptions from Polish:
The course is presented in two parts. In the first part regarding the cadastre basics (semester V: professor Hycner), the course covers basic information regarding issues of land and building cadastre in Poland. The second portion regarding real estate economy (semester VI: Dr. Rutkowski), the course covers basic information regarding spatial development planning basics and information regarding real estate economy basics. The part regarding cadastre basics develops problems connected with establishing the land and building cadastre based on the existing land and building register. It also covers acquiring, storing, and actualizing cadastre information, which is developed in the laboratory, and students prepare cadastre documentation for a portion of the cadastral unit � using the most modern computer technology.
I was going to try to ramble on in a style similar to the original Polish of all these course descriptions, but it’s too hard. I guess you have to be “prof. dr hab. inz” to write like that…
The worst part is that for our purposes, we have to translate this as close to “word for word” as possible. A literal word for word translation, as in most cases, would make less than no sense. But the catch is that these are the writings of engineers and surveyors — in Polish they read awfully. So we’re trying to strike a “delicate” balance.
Translating anything is bad enough. Translating poorly written material is a nightmare.
Perspective
In the switch from science to social studies at the day treatment program with teach in, I’ve gone from trying to follow the appropriate grade-level curriculum in science to allowing the kids (and myself) a bit of freedom in what we’re covering now in social studies. (We switch subjects every six-week grading period.) On talking to the lead teacher, I realized that it’s not as critical that we follow the curriculum because there’s such a mix of kids.
M-Jezzy, of science fame, has been asking about slavery. How did it begin? Who started it? How’d they get the slaves?
In explaining that we’d be looking at slavery next week, I got a response I’d been thinking I might hear, but had hoped to avoid nonetheless. Basically, a young man asked, “What can a white guy teach black people about slavery?” Now, to his credit, it was very polite — surprisingly maturely and subtly phrased, in fact. It was more like, “I don’t mean any offense or anything, but, you know, I’d rather hear about slavery from someone who’s experienced it, someone whose people experienced it.”
“That’s a very good point,” I said, thinking, “Am I glad I did some research before mentioning this,” for that’s exactly what I found:
In the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) sponsored a federal project dedicated to chronicling the experience of slavery as remembered by former slaves and their descendants. Their stories were recorded and transcribed, and this site presents dozens of select sound recordings and hundreds of transcriptions from the interviews. Beyond the content of the interviews, little to no biographical information is available on the individuals whose interviews appear here.
These interviews are available at PBS’s site for their series Slavery and the Making of America.
An Agenda
Yesterday, one of the boys in our program asked if he could use the computer for a little while. “No problem,” I said. He’s had a great week, and it was a slow morning.
The week was much improved over the past. We were both frustrated about how things were going in my class — he much more than I. At the end of the last six weeks, when we were working on science (now we’ve switched to social studies for the second six weeks), M-Jezzy (his nom de plume at our program’s blog) was trying to make up some missed work, and getting very frustrated about it.
“Man, I just hate science,” he exclaimed.
“That’s fine,” I said. “Not everyone likes science. What we can do, though, is use that as a way to make up some of your work.” I instructed him to log into our blog, akacoolpeople.com, and write about science and why he hates it. “Explain three reasons you don’t like it, and we’ll count that as one of your missed assignments.”
He wrote,
I do not like science at all. And i,ve got three reasons why. One reason is because it is so confusing. likewhe gives the homework out. I dont know what he is talking about beause. They would be so many things that he is talking about. An the other reason iswhen he gives the i want know what to do because. It will be so many things that you would have to look for an you would have to do so much research. And the last reason is the things that he teaches in class i dont know wat in the world that hebe talking about. Likewe was talking about an atom an what i have to study about it is so hard because. The atom has so many things in it. And you will get mixed up with all the parts of an atom. Beceause you will not know how to put them in oder. An if you get this and you are really feeling wat i am saying to you then mail me back M-JEZZY out. I hate science so bad i wish i did not have it at all. (science)
I read it and thought, “What an indictment of me. I obviously don’t explain things for him, and I can’t even make myself clear when assigning homework.”
Depressing.
But fixable.
I talked to the head teacher about it; I talked to the program director about it; I talked to the head counselor about it. The consensus: M-Jezzy does not deal with ambiguity well (as if anyone really does). Like most people, he wants to know where he’s going and what he’s going to have to do to get there.
Starting this week, I began something new. Something obvious. Something basic. Something I should have been doing all along. I blocked off a portion of the white-board and wrote an outline of what we’d be doing, including information about what kind of activity it would be.
Next class, M-Jeezy was like a different young man — much more attentive, much more focused, much more involved. He asked penetrating questions, and he didn’t giggle too much.
A success, I thought.
Back to yesterday morning. M-Jezzy sits down at the computer and logs into “aka cool people,” and starts typing. This is what he writes:
now sence my teacher was started to put the agenda on the board i am starting to learn more in class and i know no wat to do.And i am not getting confused write me (Agenda)
I can’t remember the last time I felt so good.
Yet it was not what M-Jezzy wrote that made my day — it was that he did it spontaneously.
Fighting Back the Smile
Sometimes, the kids say things that are humorous, but not necessarily because they're trying.
Yesterday, I was talking to a young man about an altercation we'd had. I was trying to get him to see that he was arguing with me.
"I wasn't arguing with you!" he exclaimed, offended.
"Well, be that as it may, you're arguing with me now."
His eyes got really big -- wide with disbelief. "I am not arguing with you," he exclaimed as if he were shocked that I'd even suggest such a thing.
Please Don’t Give Us Homework!
There’s a “movement” to abolish homework, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Vigorous scrutiny of the research, they argue, fails to demonstrate tangible benefits of homework, particularly for elementary students. What it does instead, they contend, is rob children of childhood, play havoc with family life and asphyxiate their natural curiosity. Learning becomes a mind-numbing grind rather than an engaging adventure.
Who said all homework was mind-numbing? Perhaps these teachers should be thinking of more original alternatives than photocopied worksheets and such.
Who said homework has to impact family life? Here’s an idea — the parents become more involved in their children’s education and work with them.
Is this more of the no-wrong-answer-fuzzy-math theory of education?
In an era of more rigorous academic standards and vertebrae-straining backpacks, most American schools seem to be assigning more homework in earlier grades. For two decades, experts have propelled this trend with dire warnings that students in nations such as Japan are besting Americans because they diligently do more homework.
The problem is not the amount of homework we are or aren’t giving our students. It’s the time spent in actual instruction, particularly at the high school level.
- The Japanese school year starts in April and consists of three terms, separated by short holidays in spring and winter, and a one month long summer break. (Source)
- Japanese students spend 240 days a year at school, 60 days more then their American counterparts. Although many of those days are spent preparing for annual school festivals and events such as Culture Day, Sports Day, and school excursions, Japanese students still spend considerably more time in class than American students. (Source)
So it’s not just the amount of homework. Imagine that…
Take Five
One of my favorite albums is Dave Brubeck's 1959 classic Time Out, with probably his most famous piece, "Take Five." The quintuple time signature (5/4) could give it a somewhat jerky feel, but Dave's light touch smooths the piece and provides minimalistic base for Paul Desmond's now-timeless melody.
Playing in 5/4, I would imagine, is all about self-awareness. It's such an odd time signature and so rarely played that I would think it takes a conscious effort to stay in time.
It's almost as if Brubeck and Desmond were writing a soundtrack for events forty-seven years in the future, a commentary on some of the difficulties the kids I work with have, and how they deal with it.
"Why don't you just take five?" A question that comes from my lips almost daily. "Take five" means, in our program, getting up and walking to the front foyer and taking a break from a situation that is in some way upsetting. Staff can tell the kids to take five if the staff member feels things are getting out of control, and the kids can simply say, "I need to take five."
I imagine that the circumstances leading up to those "take-five" moments feel a bit like the 5/4 time signature played badly: jerky, unpredictable, out of control.
From the outside, it often seems like the smallest thing has set a kid off.
- Sometimes, I have to ask a kid to stop talking so I can finish explaining something, and boom. "Why are you always on my back?!"
- Occasionally, a couple of kids are talking, so I stop talking and just wait for them to finish. And then wait for there to be silence so I can continue. "Man, why you just standin' there?! I wanna get this class over with." Usually, the one who says this is one who was talking.
- Every now and then, insisting that a kid correct his work -- providing negative feedback, in other words -- upsets him to the point of distraction, even if I'm sitting there working with him. Indeed, this can make it worse.
In all these situations, and many others, I find myself thinking, "What's going on here? Why is this simple request to be quiet or to correct a wrong answer so upsetting?"
Such moments are harsh reminders of the simple fact that I see only a small portion of their lives -- almost incalculably small. These behaviors didn't appear instantaneously, and they were reinforced by events that I'll never know about and could do nothing about even if I did.
Bottom line, the reaction doesn't make sense, and the reason why they're occasionally reacting in such ways is the same reason they're in our program and not still in school.
Curriculum Concerns
In planning my lessons and the general shape of my course, there are a few things I have to take into consideration.
- The state curriculum
Since most of the students are in eighth grade, I generally follow the eighth grade curriculum. - The standards the program director wants implemented
Hands-on is what he suggests, and I try to make as much of my teaching “hands on” as possible. - The materials and facilities at my disposal
Our program is relatively new, and while there are plenty of teaching materials available to me, the facilities are somewhat lacking. To everyone’s relief, this is due to change within the year. - The worldview and experiences students bring into the classroom
Most of the young people in the program don’t necessarily see the importance of education. Further, because they’ve been thrown out of school, they do not have a lot of trust in the educational establishment, which I obviously represent to them.
For these first six weeks, I taught basic chemistry. It’s part of the state curriculum; it’s very hands-on; at the level I’m teaching it, the course doesn’t require a lot of materials.
Beginning tomorrow, I’ll be switching to social studies. If I follow the state guidelines, I’ll be teaching North Carolina history.
In both cases, I wonder I am (or will be) teaching anything useful to these kids. Who cares if they can tell how many protons a given element’s going to have in its nucleus? Who cares if they have a vague understanding of North Carolina history? How’s that going to help them in a future that likely doesn’t include college and might not even include a high school diploma?
Even more troubling is the thought that I’m not their permanent teacher. I — like the rest of the staff — want them all out of the program as fast as possible. That being said, shouldn’t I be teaching them things that will help them succeed better once they do return to “regular” school?
The frustration mounts when I consider the academic level of many of our “consumers” (as the kids have to be referred to in Medicaid reports). Sadly, not one is on grade level; tragically, several are two, three, even four years behind. And I could add perhaps “predictably” to those sentences: if they’re having problems coping with anger and frustration, problems with showing respect toward others, they’re certainly not learning very much.
Of course, the first obvious answer is to throw out the state curriculum, to some degree. Going strictly by the book is not going to reach these kids — the fact that they’re in our program to begin with is ample evidence of that.
Second, meet the kids where they are in their academic achievement and — most critical — interests. At the moment, I have groups of four students when everyone is present and accounted for. Sometimes, I have two students. That means I taylor something specifically designed for each student and monitor them all as they work.
There’s not much I can do about changing their worldview except by giving them an example of a different one. And so I try to be enthusiastic even when — indeed, especially when — they’re dead in their chairs.
Sometimes I feel that being an example is about all I can do — and that’s not meant as a comment about their inability, but mine.
Early Autumn
Evans, Ellington, et. al.
We got some new music today joined BMG again, with the intention of getting out within the month and doing it again.
Visions of high school, except the selections are a little more mature. Since I organized my music by genre ten years ago, the “rock and pop” collection has remained virtually static.
Among today’s arrivals:
- Bill Evans Conversations with Myself
- Duke Ellington, Charlie Mingus, Max Roach Money Jungle
- Thelonius Monk Monk’s Dream
- Chick Corea Now He Sings, Now He Sobs
- Bach Mass in B-minor
It’s too early to pick a favorite, but I’ve listened to the Monk and Evans and find them to be everything jazz should be. Evan’s version of “Blue Monk” could make anyone smile. It’s anything but blue.
Well, okay – I do have a favorite, previously unmentioned. Dave Brubeck’s Time Out. I burned a copy of that many years ago and finally got an original. If you have only one jazz album, it should be this one.
As AMG says, “It doesn’t just sound sophisticated – it really iss ophisticated music, which lends itself to cerebral appreciation, yet never stops swinging.”
M$ “Security”
The latest news about Micro$oft’s new “security” for their Vista operating system is its apparent ability virtually to shut down computers using pirated versions of the operating system.
According to the Bangkok Post (chosen from Google News at random):
If Microsoft thinks you are running a pirated version of its next-generation Windows Vista, it will shut down your access to the operating system and, within a month, to most everything on your computer.
Microsoft is adamant that these technologies “cannot and will not turn off your computer.” But the measures raise the question of: What’s the difference?
According to a White Paper issued by the company yesterday, Microsoft will severely limit what the operating system does when the product hasn’t been properly activated, using a product key, after 30 days.
Like a frog in a slowly heating pot of water, the PC of a user using an allegedly unlicensed copy of Windows Vista will gradually lose functionality, until he or she can do nothing but surf the web one hour at a time, then be logged off by Windows. (Source)
MS still does not take into account why much of the world uses pirated software: cost. Microsoft does not offer tiered pricing in countries where the average earnings are much lower than in the States, and so many users resort to piracy. In Poland, for example, a legit copy of Windows XP would have cost me at least half my monthly earnings.
akacoolpeople.com
I work at a day treatment facility for troubled youth. They wind up in our program either through long-term suspension or via adjudication.
It can be a tough bunch of kids.
Recently, I set up a blog for the whole program with the aim of using it as a way for students to write for an actual audience, instead of just writing for the teacher, as is often the case.
But for that, we need an audience.
That’s obvious enough.
Since I’m just trying to get the kids excited about the idea of writing on a regular basis, I’m not having them do much of any correction. Small steps”
Read it with a smile. So I’m asking any willing readers to pop over to akacoolpeople.com and read what the kids have written so far, make a few comments (even if it’s “Hey, that sounds really great!”) and – most importantly – to keep checking back from time to time to make comments. It’ll be slow for a while (right now, there are only a few posts – two of them mine), but I’m hoping that as kids get comments, it will encourage them to write more. (And obviously enough, I’m looking for comments to the kids’ posts, not my own!)
Additionally, if you yourself have a blog or web site and would be willing, give “aka cool people” a mention and see if you can steer some more traffic our way.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Fountain
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Tragedy’s Soundtrack
One of we regular listeners’ favorite aspects of NPR’s “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered” (other than the bookend effect it gives work day) is the musical interludes between segments.
Enough listeners apparently wrote in, asking for details, that NPR posts this information on their website.
It even spawned a new show: All Songs Considered.
Looking through ASC’s archives, I stumbled upon a link to the music NPR played on September 11, 2001.
As NPR covered the events of September 11th, it was music that gave listeners time to reflect, to digest the images and the impact. So many letters came to NPR telling us how comforted they were by the music. We’ve put together some of those songs here, in part to answer some of those letters wondering what we played (precise record keeping was impossible), and also to create an aural snapshot that in some small way tries to capture the tone of a nation shaken and changed.
It includes Philip Glass, John Williams, Pierre Bensusan, Ben Harper, Michael Hedges, Mark Isham, and Bach’s Suite No. 1 in G Major (played on a double bass). Many of the selections are from film soundtracks, and that makes sense. The music has been composed with the visual element imagined, or even projected on a large screen. It’s naturally conducive to subtly underlining the visual.
I’m not one usually to get sentimental about such things, but listening to the music, I couldn’t help but recall the footage we were shown over and over and over. At the time, it was tragedy only — no one had started using it for political gain. We didn’t know what lay in store.
The music brings back the overwhelming emptiness we all felt that day and puts some things back into perspective. It’s available at NPR.