Another aspect of love is being faithful to the person you exploit this phrase to.
What do young men do, they chase down woman.
As a double partner [in adultery] that person has to know how to cover up his or her tracts.
A person can have multiple personalities if they have been at it for a while.
His parents never taught him how to great a girl respectively.
Why did you go along with marring your wife if you were not sure you loved her?
Every man’s personality changes weather they are with the guys or just hanging out with a group of girls from work or something.
True love has the same characteristics as one true love, but unlike one true love, regular love is not forever.
True love is when you find someone that can finish your sentences.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Vermin
“This is not a story about a bug.” I look at my class. We have just finished discussing The Metamorphosis. We have argued, questioned, though, been saddened, vindicated, revolted. We have shared death and dying stories, and remembered people we love who are on the other side of time and memory.
We began this class discussion with accusations and judgments. “This is a stupid story.” “I can’t believe you made us read this.” “Nobody could turn into a bug.” The students were dismayed and disbelieving. They were puzzled. Why would I have forced them to read this awful thing? Instead of defending the assignment, I listened to all they have to say, and nodded my head in acknowledgment of their opinions.
Empty of annoyance and rebuttal toward the assignment, they begin questioning the story events. Maybe it was a dream? “Look at the first part of the story,” I tell them, “See where Kafka writes, ‘It was no dream.’” That finishes our happy solution of waking-up-from-a-dream. It was no dream.
“I hated how his family turned against him,” one student says. “Me, too,” answers another. “My family did that to me,” offers a third. “My family did that when my grandma was sick.” We move from angry and annoyed to thoughtful. We ponder fear and love, racial profiling and sacrifice. We look at how we feel about money and family. We hurt for Gregor Samsa and we pity his sister Greta. We wonder how Gregor’s society came to the point it did. We look at our own. The comments are longer and the silences more thoughtful than when we began talking about the story.
We read and write from our hearts, because the story is true.
We began this class discussion with accusations and judgments. “This is a stupid story.” “I can’t believe you made us read this.” “Nobody could turn into a bug.” The students were dismayed and disbelieving. They were puzzled. Why would I have forced them to read this awful thing? Instead of defending the assignment, I listened to all they have to say, and nodded my head in acknowledgment of their opinions.
Empty of annoyance and rebuttal toward the assignment, they begin questioning the story events. Maybe it was a dream? “Look at the first part of the story,” I tell them, “See where Kafka writes, ‘It was no dream.’” That finishes our happy solution of waking-up-from-a-dream. It was no dream.
“I hated how his family turned against him,” one student says. “Me, too,” answers another. “My family did that to me,” offers a third. “My family did that when my grandma was sick.” We move from angry and annoyed to thoughtful. We ponder fear and love, racial profiling and sacrifice. We look at how we feel about money and family. We hurt for Gregor Samsa and we pity his sister Greta. We wonder how Gregor’s society came to the point it did. We look at our own. The comments are longer and the silences more thoughtful than when we began talking about the story.
We read and write from our hearts, because the story is true.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Grading Art
This is an excerpt from a forthcoming book on teaching.
Once upon a time, when I taught grade school level students, I also taught art. As anyone who knows me is aware, this was a stretch. However, what I learned is that art if art. Anyone can be artistic, if we only believe in ourselves.
This was not easy to teach students then, and it is not easy to teach students now. We are much too quick to take the commercial, Photo Shop, tinkered with version, and believe it is someone’s art work. We’re too quick to compare our attempts with those of someone who’s been schooled in art from childhood. We’re too quick to slap a negative value on what we’ve produced.
It would be nice if creativity existed for its own end, and if we could appreciate everyone’s creativity. Sometimes we can. Sometimes we need to grade art projects, and use these grades toward a report card “Art” entry. However, there was a report card slot for “art,” and so part of the grade school experience, I needed to grade art (hopefully while still valuing the students).
Grading tactics
Spread out all the corn pictures, and look at them. Some will immediately have you saying, “Yes. Exactly.” Some look good. Some look as appealing as cold oatmeal.
Who learned? Who became artistic? Who had fun – good fun? Who created the spirit of the project, even if the art of the project was not perfect?
No matter what the grade, all art deserves a positive comment. If they have done any art at all, the students have created something with a piece of themselves in it. It’s cruel to write “C” without some mitigating and positive comment. Keep grades on the back of the art, especially if you are hanging this project in the hallway or classroom. No student wants to be ridiculed for “not as good work.” The students who feel they have failed art, will be reluctant to ever again attempt art. When we “do art” we offer the world a part of who we are.
Once upon a time, when I taught grade school level students, I also taught art. As anyone who knows me is aware, this was a stretch. However, what I learned is that art if art. Anyone can be artistic, if we only believe in ourselves.
This was not easy to teach students then, and it is not easy to teach students now. We are much too quick to take the commercial, Photo Shop, tinkered with version, and believe it is someone’s art work. We’re too quick to compare our attempts with those of someone who’s been schooled in art from childhood. We’re too quick to slap a negative value on what we’ve produced.
It would be nice if creativity existed for its own end, and if we could appreciate everyone’s creativity. Sometimes we can. Sometimes we need to grade art projects, and use these grades toward a report card “Art” entry. However, there was a report card slot for “art,” and so part of the grade school experience, I needed to grade art (hopefully while still valuing the students).
Grading tactics
Spread out all the corn pictures, and look at them. Some will immediately have you saying, “Yes. Exactly.” Some look good. Some look as appealing as cold oatmeal.
Who learned? Who became artistic? Who had fun – good fun? Who created the spirit of the project, even if the art of the project was not perfect?
No matter what the grade, all art deserves a positive comment. If they have done any art at all, the students have created something with a piece of themselves in it. It’s cruel to write “C” without some mitigating and positive comment. Keep grades on the back of the art, especially if you are hanging this project in the hallway or classroom. No student wants to be ridiculed for “not as good work.” The students who feel they have failed art, will be reluctant to ever again attempt art. When we “do art” we offer the world a part of who we are.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Teaching Thoughts
The student who expects an immediate reply to his email is often the one explaining why his work will not be submitted on time.
Popup window: The operating system has blocked this file for your safety.
Teacher comment: Since I’m reading essays submitted by online students, through the school system, for a required course, it’s nice to think the system is saving me from yet another poorly written, boring student essay.
Just as there’s a difference between mental illness and insanity – one being a medical diagnosis and the other a legal defense – there’s a gulf between female and male, or student and teacher perspectives – though we do not label any one of them “sick.”
A teacher comments about a student essay.
“It was just like a Western. The boyfriend was in an argument, the argument turned into a fight, he got stabbed and died, bleeding all over his girlfriend. And while I read this, I kept writing on the essay, ‘Run on, run on, run on.’”
Popup window: The operating system has blocked this file for your safety.
Teacher comment: Since I’m reading essays submitted by online students, through the school system, for a required course, it’s nice to think the system is saving me from yet another poorly written, boring student essay.
Just as there’s a difference between mental illness and insanity – one being a medical diagnosis and the other a legal defense – there’s a gulf between female and male, or student and teacher perspectives – though we do not label any one of them “sick.”
A teacher comments about a student essay.
“It was just like a Western. The boyfriend was in an argument, the argument turned into a fight, he got stabbed and died, bleeding all over his girlfriend. And while I read this, I kept writing on the essay, ‘Run on, run on, run on.’”
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