This is the conversation that I had with my 9 year old student. I thought it was funny. Dan are you a baby? no I am an adult. Are you a giraffe? no,I'm a piano teacher.then you are monster. If I am a monster then I:m going to eat your feet and then your nose. then you are a crazy baby monsteI am an adult crazy monster and you look like dinner. then I will eat your face and I will cut your body.Is it OK? NO! It is not ok. If you do that then I:ll have to swallow all of your clothes and shoes and I'll burn your piano! then you:re a baby,monster,crazy,bad boy,and I will give your clothes to the factory worker. Is it good? NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!I will run away and I:ll find you and I:ll steal your ipod. then I will throw away your bodyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!! Then I'll come out of the trashcan and I:ll break your ipod and steal all of your CDs and music. hahahahahahaha&& then your will dieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!...

http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif Here are some resources I've found for Beloved by Toni Morrison: Did you want to know what a "pateroller" was? Look here: http://pinkmonkey.com/booknotes/monkeynotes/pmBeloved65.asp This sight has a whole list of definitions that Morrison uses. And here I really like these questions. This one has several different links: This website is good too. I like the last one because it seems to be more indepth than Sparknotes.

I'm changing my grading for essays since too many students are getting A's. Not that I have anything against A's, but I want my students to work for their grades. I am pondering two different grading schemes right now. The bonus points that I worked in this year has been effective and kids are starting to work in vocabulary and figurative language. Overall the papers have been vastly improved. 9=A 7-8=B 5-6=C 4=F or 8-9 A 6-7 B 4-5 C 3=F If I do the first, an A would be a real accomplishment and it would really force kids to write well and to work in bonus points. The second one would make getting A's something common. I am choosing the first one. Let them work for their grades. Dan PS. I reviewed my papers and my students are getting a medium grade of 5.5 and that would give them a C in the first grading system and a B- on the second. At my school, getting C's means that the school will call their parents and give them a warning. I know it sounds weird but t...

Ugh...I'm a little hungover today. (Remind me never to do jello shots ever again.) Today I'm going to do a process analysis, which is always a very fun thing. I got a funny example in "How to Kill a Zombie." Last term, I did how to make ramyeon and that was fun because some people recommended boiling the noodles in milk first. I think I asked them to write out the process for for tying one's shoes, but I thought that was a bit of a disaster. I Googled it and here's what I got so far: "How to fail out of college swiftly and completely" "How to be a super villain" "How to protect yourself from a robot uprising" I think that'll work. I'm going to get them to write a funny process for their essay. I think I'll also get them to do a little editing and rewriting. Dan

A bachelor breakfast and a cool samsung phone. I would totally buy this phone except it weighs a ton and it's a bit thick. I totally like the sliding concept though.

I've been teaching a couple of different essays about the rights of passage for men and the depictions of manliness in American society. These essays include Dubus's "Digging," Cisnero's "Only daughter" and Staple's, "A Brother's Death" and the conclusion that I've come to, which is especially relevant in Korea and the more affulent "upwardly mobile" demographic, is that civilization is emasculating men and inhibiting them from being what nature has conditioned them to be for millions of years. Of course, this is a good thing, but sometimes the only true catharsis can come from going a bit berserk sometimes. Think about it. Lifting a 200 pound dumbell over your head isn't as rewarding as punching some jerk in his gut and likewise; there is no wake up than a full afront confrontation. I sometimes think this whole passive approach to asserting authority is entirely ineffective because the lines between the acceptabl...

"Tuesday, a mutual friend of Monday and Wednesday, pondered if she had to go to Monday's birthday party or Wednesday. Thursday was feeling gloomy today. However, after talking to her frend Friday on the phone, she perked up with overwhelming joy. Saturday donned his old jacket and left the busy city in search of a placid quiet village. Sunday the philosopher was stuck in a stumper question of life then at last an answer struck his mind." Written by Jenny Heo

I'm going to have to threaten my students with death today. They need to underline the vocabulary words in quizzes. It slows down my grading when I to search for the words. Hey, I'm the king and they've gotta follow my rules. Jenny wrote some fun sentences this week. I'll post them during my next break. Dan

If anyone needs English Help with KTF, call this number 02-2190-1180 If anyone needs KT the Korean Internet service like Nespot call 02-100, then when the machine starts dial 8 Dan

Today I'm reading one of my favorite essays, "The Saturday Evening Post." I really want to focus on characterization because I feel many of my students lack a voice in their essays. I mean if I was to draw a picture of who they were according to their essays, I would get a bland cutout of a lethargic kid listening to pop music, trying to be cool. All these kids need to have some gumption! Any of these qualities would be nice: 1. initiative; aggressiveness; resourcefulness: With his gumption he'll make a success of himself. 2. courage; spunk; guts: It takes gumption to quit a high-paying job. 3. common sense; shrewdness. I should also explain what a chasuble is because there is metaphor to religion and being a priest in the essay. There is a sacredness in putting on the newspaper pouch.

I think the lesson today is on using examples in writing, but I'm really going to focus on what I expect on rewrites. I'm going to give them a short passage that a student wrote and give it to all the students. Then I'm going to rewrite it on the bored and then get them to rewrite their's too. This should take like 30 minutes so, I'm going ot have to watch my time. I'm thinking I should use Michael's essay, since he only turned in half a page and made me so angry that I wanted to use his essay as toliet paper, but I think that'll send out the wrong message. I'm going to pick an average essay as an example. Dan

I've figured out my grading system for papers. I'm going with a 9 point system because I feel that a numerical system will make it easier for students to gauge their work. Instead of writing CHECK GRAMMAR!!!! over and over on paper, I'll give them points out of 3 for that category. Then if they want to improve their score then they have to rewrite. The categories I've made, and I might tweak these in the future, are Grammar- 3 points Content- 3 points Style- 3 points I'll give them points in increments of .5. Content includes research and the ability to support their main ideas with strong examples. Style refers to their ability to write in a cohesive way that is of interest to the reader. This includes using figurative language, framing, idioms, quotes, narratives, etc. I'm also going to encourage them to use vocabulary collocations and figurative language in their essays. They should underline them, like last year, and I'll give them extra points....