it totally does. My favorite quote of the day?
"I believe China has more people than the United States."
This is a quote from a teacher in my building. Thankfully (?) this is the same teacher who thought that World War I was in 1950.
Growing up, I never thought of myself as a genius (thanks Mom and Dad, for keeping me normal), but the longer that I work in the public schools, the more I seem to feel genius-like. Seriously, who is even questioning whether or not China has more people than the United States? I mean, doesn't one just KNOW?
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Monday, February 4, 2008
People of 1950: The Greatest Generation
Wow, I learned a lot about the year 1950 today at school. Unfortunately, all of it was incorrect. And even more unfortunate was the fact that I was interpreting and could therefore do NOTHING to stop the train wreck which I was witnessing.
Mom and Dad, did you know that you were alive during both World War I AND II? And that you were witness to the invention of both television AND BOMBS?! According to the deaf ed. teacher, all of the preceding occurred in the year 1950!!
True Story: I was in third period study skills today, where the deaf ed. teacher has currently undertaken the task of helping the students prepare for the O.A.T. While this is a worthy and completely acceptable practice, let's keep in mind that there is a mixture of sixth and eighth grade students in that class. And for those of you uninitiated with the intricacies of middle school: there is a HUGE difference between sixth and eighth grade students. Not the least of which is their size; only at a middle school could I feel like a giant AND a midget in the same day. Currently, the sixth graders are studying Mesopotamia and the eighth graders are starting to learn about the Industrial Revolution. Two completely related subjects. (That was sarcasm.) Finally, not only are there two grade levels in the same study skills class, but one of the boys in the class is exempt from taking state standardized tests because he is alternately assessed per his IEP.
So, moving on to preparing for the eighth grade social studies portion of the OAT...the teacher decides to review multi-tiered timelines today. *Sigh* Please tell me that all of you reading this post know what a multi-tiered timeline is. It's when one has one timeline that highlights two sets of events. For example, one could have a single timeline that starts at the year 0 that shows the events of Christ's life on top of the timeline and at the same time shows events that occurred in the Roman Empire at large along the bottom of the timeline. Or, as the deaf ed. teacher today put on the board, one could draw a timeline starting with the year 1800 and progressing in 50 year increments up to 2000. She labeled the top section "Inventions" and the bottom "Major World Wars."
This is where it got a little beyond my belief. The teacher asked the students what had been invented around 1950, and one student replied, "Television." She accepted that answer and added it to the timeline. Then she asked what wars occurred around that time. Not surprisingly, given the label "Major World Wars," one student said, "World War I." Surprisingly, the teacher drew a line from the year 1950 and labeled it WORLD WAR I. She then added WORLD WAR II to that same year. And then she asked what had been invented during World War II. One student replied, "Guns," and she said, "No," so he came back with, "Bombs." Which she promptly added to the year 1950.
By this time, I was in a state I like to call "Robotic Interpreter Mode." When I'm in this state, interpreting my little heart out, I'm just like a computer. I take the information in and put it back out in another language. Computers don't have opinions or feelings, and when I'm in Robotic Interpreter Mode, I don't have opinions or feelings, because if I did, things would get ugly. I was so stunned by this teacher's lack of knowledge that I didn't know what else to do. So, when this teacher said, and this is a verbatim quote, "Yes, the invention of bombs is what made World War II so much shorter than World War I," I just kept my mouth shut, and went right on interpreting like the good little robotic interpreter I can be.
Had I not been in Robotic Interpreter Mode, this is probably what I would have said: "Actually, television was invented in the 1930's. World War I started in 1914 and ended on November 11, 1918. World War II started with Germany's invasion of Poland in August or September of 1939 and ended with the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Therefore, World War II was not, in actuality, shorter than World War I. It, in fact, was two years LONGER. Bombs have been around for centuries. Not decades, centuries." Now, if one were to actually research these events, one would find I'm probably not 100% accurate on when they really occurred. But, I do know that they did NOT happen in 1950.
Tom Brokaw was right...to live through World War I, World War II, the invention of television and the invention of bombs, all in the same year, the people of 1950 really were The Greatest Generation.
Mom and Dad, did you know that you were alive during both World War I AND II? And that you were witness to the invention of both television AND BOMBS?! According to the deaf ed. teacher, all of the preceding occurred in the year 1950!!
True Story: I was in third period study skills today, where the deaf ed. teacher has currently undertaken the task of helping the students prepare for the O.A.T. While this is a worthy and completely acceptable practice, let's keep in mind that there is a mixture of sixth and eighth grade students in that class. And for those of you uninitiated with the intricacies of middle school: there is a HUGE difference between sixth and eighth grade students. Not the least of which is their size; only at a middle school could I feel like a giant AND a midget in the same day. Currently, the sixth graders are studying Mesopotamia and the eighth graders are starting to learn about the Industrial Revolution. Two completely related subjects. (That was sarcasm.) Finally, not only are there two grade levels in the same study skills class, but one of the boys in the class is exempt from taking state standardized tests because he is alternately assessed per his IEP.
So, moving on to preparing for the eighth grade social studies portion of the OAT...the teacher decides to review multi-tiered timelines today. *Sigh* Please tell me that all of you reading this post know what a multi-tiered timeline is. It's when one has one timeline that highlights two sets of events. For example, one could have a single timeline that starts at the year 0 that shows the events of Christ's life on top of the timeline and at the same time shows events that occurred in the Roman Empire at large along the bottom of the timeline. Or, as the deaf ed. teacher today put on the board, one could draw a timeline starting with the year 1800 and progressing in 50 year increments up to 2000. She labeled the top section "Inventions" and the bottom "Major World Wars."
This is where it got a little beyond my belief. The teacher asked the students what had been invented around 1950, and one student replied, "Television." She accepted that answer and added it to the timeline. Then she asked what wars occurred around that time. Not surprisingly, given the label "Major World Wars," one student said, "World War I." Surprisingly, the teacher drew a line from the year 1950 and labeled it WORLD WAR I. She then added WORLD WAR II to that same year. And then she asked what had been invented during World War II. One student replied, "Guns," and she said, "No," so he came back with, "Bombs." Which she promptly added to the year 1950.
By this time, I was in a state I like to call "Robotic Interpreter Mode." When I'm in this state, interpreting my little heart out, I'm just like a computer. I take the information in and put it back out in another language. Computers don't have opinions or feelings, and when I'm in Robotic Interpreter Mode, I don't have opinions or feelings, because if I did, things would get ugly. I was so stunned by this teacher's lack of knowledge that I didn't know what else to do. So, when this teacher said, and this is a verbatim quote, "Yes, the invention of bombs is what made World War II so much shorter than World War I," I just kept my mouth shut, and went right on interpreting like the good little robotic interpreter I can be.
Had I not been in Robotic Interpreter Mode, this is probably what I would have said: "Actually, television was invented in the 1930's. World War I started in 1914 and ended on November 11, 1918. World War II started with Germany's invasion of Poland in August or September of 1939 and ended with the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Therefore, World War II was not, in actuality, shorter than World War I. It, in fact, was two years LONGER. Bombs have been around for centuries. Not decades, centuries." Now, if one were to actually research these events, one would find I'm probably not 100% accurate on when they really occurred. But, I do know that they did NOT happen in 1950.
Tom Brokaw was right...to live through World War I, World War II, the invention of television and the invention of bombs, all in the same year, the people of 1950 really were The Greatest Generation.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Cool Book Website
Hey, I just discovered this cool website that lets you record books that you have read, write reviews, rate them, etc. You can also start a list of books that you are currently reading, books you are planning on reading ("to-read"), and also categorize the books you've finished.
I'm not going to lie to you...I'm a little bit geeky and I have a written record of books that I have read. So, when I found this website I entered all of those books (only going back to January 2005--yes, that was my New Year's resolution for 2005...did I mention I am a bit geeky?) and rated them. I wrote reviews for a few of the books on my list, but I think most of the reviews are for books that I totally hated. Because those are the ones that were, unfortunately, seared into my memory. And even though I have a written list of books that I've read beginning in January 2005, I only added and rated the books that I could somewhat remember and draw an impression of.
I'm not sure if John Q. can check out my list without actually joining the website, because I don't know if there is a way that you can search for a specific user's list, unless you have joined the site and then you can become "friends." (How completely MySpace-ish did that just sound?) But, I think if you search for a specific book, you could find either my rating or my review of that book. And then we could try to link up and be "friends." Right now, I have no friends (was that pathetic sounding?), so I encourage all of you to join and make your own booklists!! Go to Goodreads.
I'm not going to lie to you...I'm a little bit geeky and I have a written record of books that I have read. So, when I found this website I entered all of those books (only going back to January 2005--yes, that was my New Year's resolution for 2005...did I mention I am a bit geeky?) and rated them. I wrote reviews for a few of the books on my list, but I think most of the reviews are for books that I totally hated. Because those are the ones that were, unfortunately, seared into my memory. And even though I have a written list of books that I've read beginning in January 2005, I only added and rated the books that I could somewhat remember and draw an impression of.
I'm not sure if John Q. can check out my list without actually joining the website, because I don't know if there is a way that you can search for a specific user's list, unless you have joined the site and then you can become "friends." (How completely MySpace-ish did that just sound?) But, I think if you search for a specific book, you could find either my rating or my review of that book. And then we could try to link up and be "friends." Right now, I have no friends (was that pathetic sounding?), so I encourage all of you to join and make your own booklists!! Go to Goodreads.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
No hablo ingles
What a wacky day today at school. So, I work for a large urban school district, which means that there are a lot of weird/horrendous/don't-even-want-to-dwell-on-what-goes-on-at-home kind of families in the area. This, unfortunately, is a label that can be applied to some of the deaf and hard of hearing students with whom I have contact. One such student was removed from his mother's custody and is now residing with his grandmother and has a very messed-up home life. Anyway, he attends out of school counseling sessions and has also been speaking with a counselor at school, but not a school counselor. Our school has a community-based agency that houses someone in our building. To make a long story short, we interpreters are not to interpret these counseling sessions because of the conflict of interest. (Seriously, who wants to be sitting in math class trying to interpret a lesson on circumference when you just finished interpreting a counseling session with the same student and heard his real-life horror story, which I hear enough of during the course of a normal day?)
So anyway, I'm walking into the dreaded study skills class (which is not as horrible as the beginning of the year, but still quite unbearable--on a side note, the HI teacher literally snatched my pencil out of my hand today so that she could write a student a pass. I was thisclose to snapping and having an aneurysm to prevent myself from doing something drastic in front of the students. I mean, what adult grabs something out of another adult's hand while she is working, without saying anything? Just thinking about it is making my blood pressure drop (yes, drop, not rise, but that's another story)).
Anyway, back to me walking into study skills class...I see the pastoral counselor attempting to communicate with this deaf student. She actually pulled out a piece of paper and was writing a note to him. Writing a note to him. I bit my tongue and held my hands down and continued walking into the classroom. This deaf student can barely read and she was trying to communicate with him via the written word? It made me wonder how much they really accomplish in their "counseling" sessions. It wasn't my business and I didn't want to make it so, so I left them out in the hallway. But, when the student came into the classroom a few moments later, I asked him if he understood what the counselor was trying to say to him.
***Signed communication is notated by the use of italics***
"Oh, yeah, I understood. I can read her lips."
"Really?" I signed back, "You can read lips?"
"Yeah."
"Okay, what am I saying right now?" I asked, without signing.
"What? I don't understand."
"You don't understand? But you just told me that you can read lips. If you can read lips then why can't you understand what I'm saying?"
Confused look on the deaf student's face.
"How do you communicate with your counselor? Do you understand what I'm saying?"
"I don't know Spanish."
"Spanish? What? I didn't say anything about Spanish."
"I don't know Spanish."
"Spanish? What are you talking about?" I said, as I reverted back to signing.
"I don't know Spanish and you were speaking Spanish."
"I wasn't speaking Spanish. I was speaking English. I don't know how to speak Spanish."
Disbelieving look on the deaf student's face.
The phrase, "do you understand?" is probably one of the most used phrases around the deaf students. For this student to not be able to recognize that common, common phrase when I vocalized it without signing is pretty astonishing. Yet, somehow he is supposed to be solving his personal, familial, and home problems with a counselor who writes notes back and forth and relies on lip reading. Yikes!
Thursday, January 3, 2008
New Year, New Poll
Well, the new year is here and I have a new poll. I got the idea for this one when I saw a performance of the musical Forever Plaid. One of the numbers is a spoof of the Ed Sullivan show that the Plaids perform (in three minutes and eleven seconds!). Admittedly, I did not understand some of the jokes and references because I've never actually seen an episode of The Ed Sullivan Show, but I did know what some of them were, including The Singing Nun. So, when I heard "Dominique," the idea for the new poll came to me.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
I'm not using my classifieds, Congress of 1783, mayhap you would like to peruse them?
The other day I encountered a perfect example that illustrates the gap between the hearing and the deaf students with whom I work. And when I say, "gap," I really mean, the huge, gaping chasm into which all kinds of incidental, academic, semantic, social, mathematical, practical, and artistic (just to name a few) forms of knowledge are poured.
True Story: In eighth grade social studies we were discussing the Articles of Confederation and how they were ineffective as a governing document for the United States. Basically, the newly independent colonists (now Americans), were completely mistrustful of the federal government and wanted to prevent a strong centralized government from having king-like control. So, they wrote the Articles to outline the system of government, but they reserved most of the governing to the states. The federal government was very weak because of this, and could do little to control the states. Congress did not have the power to raise taxes and they had no way of forcing the states to pay the money owed to the federal government from the war. While this discussion was going on in the classroom, I was interpreting for a deaf student. We began to work on a chart explaining what each article was and why it was or was not effective. When we got to the part about the United States being in debt and Congress having no way to collect on their debts, I asked the deaf student why this would be problem. His response? "If Congress needs money, they should get a job." I had one of those moments when I wasn't sure whether or not I should laugh or take the student seriously (frankly, working in a middle school, this happens frequently). "Congress should get a job." Congress. Get a job. This came from an eighth grade student. Thirteen years old and this kid doesn't realize that Congress is not a person, it is an entity. And as such, it can't get a job. Not to mention, he's completely missed the point about Congress's ability (or lack thereof) to raise taxes. Simple, real-world reasoning skills. I still haven't completely wrapped my mind around this one.
True Story: In eighth grade social studies we were discussing the Articles of Confederation and how they were ineffective as a governing document for the United States. Basically, the newly independent colonists (now Americans), were completely mistrustful of the federal government and wanted to prevent a strong centralized government from having king-like control. So, they wrote the Articles to outline the system of government, but they reserved most of the governing to the states. The federal government was very weak because of this, and could do little to control the states. Congress did not have the power to raise taxes and they had no way of forcing the states to pay the money owed to the federal government from the war. While this discussion was going on in the classroom, I was interpreting for a deaf student. We began to work on a chart explaining what each article was and why it was or was not effective. When we got to the part about the United States being in debt and Congress having no way to collect on their debts, I asked the deaf student why this would be problem. His response? "If Congress needs money, they should get a job." I had one of those moments when I wasn't sure whether or not I should laugh or take the student seriously (frankly, working in a middle school, this happens frequently). "Congress should get a job." Congress. Get a job. This came from an eighth grade student. Thirteen years old and this kid doesn't realize that Congress is not a person, it is an entity. And as such, it can't get a job. Not to mention, he's completely missed the point about Congress's ability (or lack thereof) to raise taxes. Simple, real-world reasoning skills. I still haven't completely wrapped my mind around this one.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
The Corruption of Christmas
The world has gone mad. As I was driving home from school today, I passed a house that had one of those giant, inflatable Christmas decorations in the front yard. The hideous part was that it was a giant, inflatable Nativity scene. I was horrified. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph (was I just naming the characters in the Nativity? Or was I just swearing in an Irish-Catholic fashion? I'm not sure) were all cartoonishly huge and balloon-like. It was soooo tacky.
Oh, this all reminds me of that story from working one Christmas at Hallmark. True Story: One Christmas, while I was working at the Hallmark at home, a girl came in and wanted to know if we sold any Christmas snowglobes. I directed her to the front of the store where we had a display of Precious Moments snowglobes, all featuring a Nativity scene. The girl, who was probably between the ages of 18 and 20, looked me straight in the eye and said, "Oh, is this it? I was hoping you would have something more Christmasy." SOMETHING MORE CHRISTMASY. I kid you not. Is it even possible to be more Christmasy than a scene depicting the birth of Christ, Himself?
Oh, this all reminds me of that story from working one Christmas at Hallmark. True Story: One Christmas, while I was working at the Hallmark at home, a girl came in and wanted to know if we sold any Christmas snowglobes. I directed her to the front of the store where we had a display of Precious Moments snowglobes, all featuring a Nativity scene. The girl, who was probably between the ages of 18 and 20, looked me straight in the eye and said, "Oh, is this it? I was hoping you would have something more Christmasy." SOMETHING MORE CHRISTMASY. I kid you not. Is it even possible to be more Christmasy than a scene depicting the birth of Christ, Himself?
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