I'm still here...

I haven't been writing a lot these days. Just too caught up in a very tangled web of stuff to do and I don't know where to start.
My students are ready to finish this term. Officially school is out on April 30. We start again on May 12.
These days it's kind of difficult to deal with them because to be honest, we are just about fed up with each other. It's a harsh thing to say but that's the way it is. I just wish I could have a lot of students like the boy in "The Blind Side". The boy was from the projects, yet he had manners. That's difficult to find these days, even the kids from "good" families are severely lacking in manners and general values. *SIGH*

Anyway, tomorrow another week begins and I'm not really looking forward to it but a warrior never gives up.

Back to reality :S

So vacations are over. :( I can't say I'm happy at all because I very much got used to the idea of staying in bed until late (at least past 9 am)instead of waking up at the crack of dawn to be sitting in my office by 7:30 am.

I also hate coming back and having less than half of my students actually in class because they haven't come back from wherever it is they went...and those who do show up are in perpetual "lazy" mode.

This is just one of those days when you wish I could quit teaching and find some other activity that's actually worthwhile because the way things are right now, students don't give a damn about school.
I just hope this feeling of despair isn't permanent.

How to acquire new vocabulary every day...believe it or not

As an ESL teacher it strikes me as funny when students tell me they've realized they lack vocabulary in English. Duh...no surprise there considering they never do any reading, not even in their own language because Reading is boring, according to them.
I was brought up in a bilingual home, so both English and Spanish are my mother languages. However, I was introduced to reading at a very early age. When I say I was introduced, I mean that it wasn't forced on me, I watched my dad read at all times and so just followed his example. There were tons of books at home, there were many others I could check out of the library (to me this was heaven)and pretty soon I couldn't conceive a life without having something to read.
Why is reading so important? it provides you with endless new vocabulary, spelling and correct grammar. It's infinitely more entertaining and you're not even aware that you are learning because it is not done within a class setting.
To show you an example, I'll tell you about Simon. Simon was a korean student I had in fifth grade once. Simon had arrived in Mexico when he was in the second grade. All he could speak and understand was Korean. simon was extremely smart and learned Spanish very fast. By the time he reached the fifth grade he was fluent in Spanish and English as well as Korean. By fluent I mean he could understand, read, write and speak. His classmates could hardly master their own language, and English?....no comments. I had never seen a grade shool kid who ordered as many books from the Scholastic books catalog as Simon did; and read them all as well. When talking to his mother I congratulated her for investing money in Simon's favorite hobby...which I vehemently share. What's the difference between Simon and his classmates?...forget the fact that he's asian and asians are wired differently; the answer is that Simon reads and they don't. I prefer knowledge to ignorance any day So I'm going to play "Simon says"....and Simon says: READ
:)GLB

Why are husbands so difficult? part 2 of you can't imagine how many more...

What's your take on husbands who want to play Dr. Sears? Seriously, It would be funny if it weren't so annoying. Take this for example; my husband has gotten the notion that he must care for my health. Not a bad notion of course, but when it becomes an obsession it loses all its charm. So now he's telling me I should eat this and not eat that because my health is at stake (anyone would think I'm in my deathbed). I do admit I love food; I can't deny that. And maybe I should eat more veggies and fruit,but I drink water I don't drink Coca Cola like I'm dehydrating in the desert on a mission. You know what my husband's favorite snack is?...bread dipped into a glass of Coke with an iceberg in it. He can drink an average of 12 liters of coke and a whole bag of bread in one weekend... and I'm the one who should mind her diet??
Don't get me wrong, I adore my husband but we just don't agree on many things and this is one of them.

Sometimes having a teenage daughter is so much fun ¬¬

I've been going out with my daughter for lunch or coffee or whatever we feel like having, and I must say it's a lot of fun because she and I can talk about so many things. It's kind of a blessing because she tells me a lot of stuff I never even dreamed of telling MY mother about. And it also tests my endurance.

Maybe one of the reasons for this is that I've always told her that she can tell me anything - I may not always like what she has to say- but I'll listen and support her (even if I do throw a fit like any God-fearing mom should. After all, it's part of the job description).

We laugh and cry together. We watch movies (we love chick flicks) we share music, we get mad at each other, I give her a hard time, she gets on my nerves... but I wouldn't change any of it because I LOVE her and am enjoying every minute I get with her before she flies off. Time goes by soooo fast (*sigh*)
To those of you who have teenagers...all ican say to you are two words... GET INVOLVED!!!!

:) glb

Classes on Saturday??? No way!!! I'm on vacation!!!

Yeah, that's what my students said this morning when they had to come in for class at the ungodly hour of 8 am. It really isn't my fault if they're in this all-consuming high performance football program and can't leave without their coaches' permission.
Hey, I'm tired too and I'm sure Maryk, Carlos and Adriana (my wonderful foreign language tachers) could sure use the R&R.
At least we don't have to come to classes for the next two weeks so we can all use this time for some "school madness detox". I, might need more time than that, though.

Happy detox everyone!

:) GLB

Easter Vacations are here!!

Today was the last day of school before Easter vacations. All day I watched the constant exodus of students leaving campus with their suitcases already packed and ready to go after their last class. Well, almost everyone because some students didn't even bother to come in today.
I don't know about school policy in other places, but here if you accumulate more than 20% unjustified absences in the period you automatically flunk out. The kids know it but they are absent anyway.
The part I hate is when they come back and start pestering teachers to make their absences disappear. I'm not Harry Potter and I can't do magic, dudes. Sorry.

Tomorrow I'll have to deal with the football jocks, who need to come in on Saturdays for class (let's see how many of them actually do).

To all of you out there...take care and be safe; your families expect you back in one piece and unharmed.
:) GLB

Drinking alcohol, not sleeping and not eating are a bad combination

So us teachers somehow become substitute mothers for our students. Having teenage kids myself I worry that they might get themselves into all sorts of trouble...these thoughts actually keep me awake nights. Seeing what my students are capable of doing, especially since they're far away from home...and their parents, makes me be on alert at all times now.

Take this kid, for instance: He's been losing sleep because he's studying for exams (I don't entirely believe that) he's eating poorly (whether it is by choice or lack of money I can't say)and then he goes out partying with his buddies and gets mega-drunk on COGNAC. Hello???!!! Cognac is hard liquor, you are supposed to have a snifter for digestive purposes (or to try to look refined, which I don't think was this kid's intention at all) but he went ahead and drank the whole bottle. Results? Well, he fainted during a conference and then he went into respiratory failure, they had to give him CPR!!! Now if you ask me, the kid has been neglecting himself for some time and none of us knew about it. But take my word for this: The truth eventually comes out.
What's my point? Well, you can party and have fun while you're in school but there has to be some balance in life. Even if you're young, neglect during those years can bring serious health issues and repercussions.
Please be safe.

Talk about being a blog newbie

Haha, so I tried to put up a new post and ended up writing it in the comment section...duh. That's why I deleted it. Not because I was attacking my own post or because there was any unacceptable content in it. Plain and simple; I'm still not good at managing a blog.
Maybe in a couple more weeks I'll be wiser. :S

So you think you can blog?

Great, so I start a blog and then I totally stop writing in it for several days. I'm ready for a vacation. For me that would be NOT seeing my students for at least two weeks. I'd probably want that to happen with my kids too. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I hate my kids and have become a bitter middle-aged mean mom; it's just that I also need some time for myself. I want to actually be able to hear the thoughts in my head, and with kids around (the feared teenagers) it becomes an almost impossible task!! They usually listen to music at top volume (in their Ipod) and poke fun at me because I tell them I can actually hear their music in my bedroom and behind the closed door!!! They're like "no way mom, your hearing can't be that good" Whoever said it was a good thing? I wish I could become deaf by choice whenever it suits me. Wouldn't it be awesome to "tune out" your kids when they're whining, arguing or just when they're being impossibly stubborn? I'm getting too old for that. Really, I don't think it's a blessing to be equipped with super-hearing.
The funny thing is, I used to bug my mom about the exact same thing when I was 12 and she kept saying "wait til you have kids of your own". Gee, mom you were right about that too.

Why are husbands so difficult?? Part 1 of a whole bunch...

My husband drives me up the wall. I don't know if maybe it cuts both ways, but the fact remains that he drives me up the wall.

I've been dealing with hormonal changes, which in the real world means that I have changed in so many ways and these changes are totally out of my control. Can I help it if I need my sleep? I can't function properly if I'm sleep-deprived. I get so irritated over the dumbest things and sometimes I just don't want to talk to him.

Another problem causer is the fact that I don't enjoy watching TV with him anymore. How can I when all I get to see is a potpourri of channels because he can't lay off the remote? I usually do that when I'm scanning for something to watch...but I leave it on a channel long enough to know what's playing, and when I find something I like, I leave it there. With my husband its exasperating, so I turn to reading and then I get the perpetual "you don't love me anymore" spiel because I don't want to watch 100 different channels in one minute or less.

Why am I writing a blog???

So I've been a teacher for a long long time. You name the age group, I've taught it. I started out with very little ones, (toddlers actually) and then I kind of worked my way up. I've also been a mom and a wife for a long time too. Sometimes all these areas blend together into...chaos!!
You'd think by now I should know what to expect...but people from all age groups (especially teens), nationalities and and all walks of life will never cease to amaze me... or make me laugh until I cry...or make me wonder about their sanity...and mine.
Over the years I have been telling my students and my own kids that I have enough stories to write a book, and to be honest with you, I need to get some things off my chest, (because some of this stuff is worth sharing and because some stuff just has to be said before it makes me sick) so, in this space...and for as long as I live or you decide to stop reading me (whichever comes first) I will share some of these experiences.
Please feel free to comment and share some of your own.

:) GLB