Guts

MN: Congressman Keith Ellison by AFLCIO2008 on Flickr

Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison has been arrested for protesting against aid agencies being thrown out of Sudan.

Bold move for a politician.  And so much for “Minnesota Nice.”

I’m impressed.

On Self Expression

Every so often, I feel like I can’t adequately express myself. So I write more and I talk more and keep on trying till I can more or less get it right.

I have a pretty great vocabulary and a native-speaker grasp of English grammar.  Perennially feeling like I don’t have good enough command of English to say what I mean puts teaching ESL into a different perspective.

We usually focus on teaching survival in our workplaces and culture: food, health, introductions, etc. It’s easy to forget about the basic need for self expression beyond “can I borrow that stapler?”  Those units on writing and feelings often seem less concrete, and so less important.  And really, people can survive without being able to shape their innermost thoughts into comprehensible English. But what’s the point of learning a language in which you can’t say what you mean? It’s a quality of life thing.  It’s good to remember.

Sharing The Power

My thoughts on today’s conference are actually pretty brief:

The best presentations align their content, structure, and facilitation.  In other words, they demonstrate what they teach.

A corollary:

Saying “Don’t say things over and over again in the same way!” over and over again in the same way is a little ridiculous.

That is all.

My Return, and What Makes Me Happy

Hello!  I’m back.  I’m not sure what exactly I’ll be doing, but that’s no longer stopping me.

I’m up to a few things that are exciting to me.

First up, I’m addressing the fact that my computer is over 5 years old and I don’t want a new one.  As I type I’m testing out Mozy.com’s free 2GB file back-up.  I currently don’t back up my home-use computer, which is stupid, particularly when it’s already so old.  It’s nice to finally move from “I should do something about that” to “I’m on it.”  Inspired by a Lifehacker link to ChrisWrites about slow Macs, I also downloaded Onyx, a utility that does Mac system cleanups.  And I’m considering investing $60 in additional memory (Chris links to Crucial.com, which awesomely helps you figure out what kind of memory your computer takes, even if it’s a Mac).

Also in the realm of being a wannabe tech geek, my organization started up a “Tech Vision” committee a couple months ago and asked me to be on it.  It’s fascinating to me.  One of our goals is to get technology vision into the strategic plan – an exciting move in the right direction!  Another is to map out our current tech uses, from fax machines to Web 2.0 sites to databases and beyond.  I’m gently pushing for this map to be electronic (with live links, etc.) and not just on paper.  It’s a huge task, but I think it’s good for us because we’re having an all-agency conversation (through delegates, but it’s a start), and because I think it’s great foundational work for a website overhaul in the future.

I’m also excited about the Spring (it hit 80 in the Twin Cities yesterday!), and making summer plans, and closing out my first program year at the learning center, and the Sharing the Power conference tomorrow.  I’d love to write more about them and add photos to this post, but I just burned my hand cooking and typing isn’t going so well for me at the moment.

Signing off to run my hand under more cool water!

Which 5 Weeks?

A major downfall of my 5WC has been that it ignored the rhythm of my life.  I started it without regard to the monthly visits I have with my long-distance boyfriend.  This was silly of me.  I basically set myself up to fail.

The great news for me is that he’ll be visiting in just a couple of days.  The good news for my self-directed professional development is that I’m looking to change the 5WC structure starting when he goes back home.

So, I’ll be back late next week with some proposed changes.

Quick Report

Happy Snail by davey-boy on Flickr

Although I’ve been slacking with the blogging, I wanted to let you know that I’m still inching along with the 5WC about teaching.

I had an “interview” with one of my volunteers who’s an experienced adult ESL teacher.  It ended up going much differently than I’d expected.  We both teach Advanced at my center, so we ended up talking a lot about that class specifically.  It was fantastically helpful, I think for both of us, and I think it will result in some positive changes that will benefit our students.

I was surprised that I was able to give back during our chat.  She asked more about the 5WC with the idea of bringing it to a group she’s involved in.  I was also able to give her helpful tidbits about Macs and social media.

So I’m really glad the 5WC spurred me to actually take the time to talk to people instead of just saying, “yep, that’d be a good idea someday.”  The 5WC made “someday” become a “today.”

I have to admit, I’m not doing so hot with my reading.  I also have no idea where I’m at in the five weeks.

But for now I’m still going (at a snail’s pace, but still going!) and finding that every effort I’ve put in has been rewarded far more than I’d expected.