homesad.

=(

typical just after a lovely visit from a lovely friend.

back to normal life, and feeling flat and uninspired by it all. 

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but

it’s been nearly 3 years. well overdue for a visit home.

hopefully we’ll make it there for christmas this year

Curious.

Last week I trimmed all my fingernails but somehow overlooked my left thumbnail.

Today, chopping the steak (yes, another tale of bloody steak chopping!), I sliced right through that lone long fingernail but managed to stop short of more than just nicking my thumbtop, adding only a tiny blood to the already bloody steak, and a handsome thumbnail, which – hoorah! steak eaters, now all dear blood brothers of mine – rejoice!-  I was easily able to fish out.

In an alternate universe I daresay, I HADN’T missed that lone fingernail, and all unprotected, chopped away at that steak, and therefore I sliced off not the thumbnail, but the whole top of my thumb.

This made me think, so far, this has been the lucky universe: the universe where every car accident-in-the-making has been narrowly – by fractions of a second, by millimetres -  avoided; where I was not picked up and raped and killed by Ivan Milat that time we were hitchhiking through Belanglo State Forrest in 1990,  where that complete stranger and completely strange porter guy I  weirdly – what was I thinking? – accepted to go out to dinner with, once he reclaimed that I had not given him a tip that time in Miami (we don’t tip in Australia, we believe in paying someone a dignifed wage instead, and I often forget this is not so elsewhere) who took me out driving for miles and miles in a sleek black car up and down scary highways most everywhere, far from anyone who knew where I was or what I was doing… was not a serial killer, or even a rapist or anything. At least not on that occasion.

This has been the lucky universe where not only have I been left physically intact against all odds heightened by dangerous and foolish risks, but also where I have been emotionally blessed to be, in the big picture, happy and lucky and things work out, on the whole, just swimmingly.

In so many of those alternate universes I already died, was mangled, was messed with, betrayed, backstabbed, miserable, sad.

But in this one, this universe, I have been blessed indeed, under a lucky star, everything works and all is glorious. In this universe, that appears to be my destiny.

And thus, I thought, contemplating my sacrificed thumbnail, in this universe, I fully and confidently expect to live at least until the ripe old age of 125, and with all my original thumbtops intact.

I was chopping up some (literally) bloody steak.

Lily, walking up to get a glass of water, said “Yuck!”

I asked, “What, you don’t like blood? That makes you not a very good Australian!”

She looked nonplussed, so I added, “And you’d never make a good pirate!”

That had her. She quickly ammended “Ah! I didn’t mean ‘YUCK’, I meant YARRR!!!”

My Pirate Girl.

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Last night after my class, she gave me some free lessons on her in her field of expertise:

5 stars.

shaking up and turning on end what we thought we knew

how history is manufactured to suit the spirit of the day

and the interests of those placed in a position to manipulate it

and a rollicking good read besides

getting ready for an afternoon class….

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a little time over

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working on materials development. one of my favourite parts of teaching. as well as testing and adjusting.

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more stuff to do than time to do it in

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life is always like that

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I wish i was at the beach

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don’t we all?

we have gotten better at staying there and being organised to spend ALL day at the beach – its too hot if you hang out at the house too much

especially wonderful – there is fresh water for showers and drinking, shade and nice beach chair things and always cool breeze coming from the sea…. all you need is food, fruit, cool drinks – beer is great – and I am making mojitos with my home-grown mint – and good reading matter, and you’re set for the whole day

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lovely

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I have done ZERO advertising, but I still get inquiries from prospective new Students.

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good

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i tried to upload some beach photos, but churlish Xanga wouldn’t let me

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xanga

is still my first true internet love

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=)

Sorry – all one or two of you who might have noticed -  to have been so MIA here on Xanga. More sorry not to have dropped by and commented than really about not posting here much.

Since I am no longer working for anyone but myself, I have enjoyed a proliferation of time which I dedicate to an increasingly disperse number of things, least of these seems to be poor old Xanga. 

i have a 750 words thing, which is supposed to be about writing 750 words, private words, each day. I tend to write more like once a month. but it is completely private writing, which feels great. usually I try on different characters from different stories I am writing. or have been writing in my head – more often than in actual words – for several decades now, some of them. I actually had huge whole chunks of written things, 20 000 or 30 000 words of which I lost when my last laptop suicided.

I have a blog for teaching EFL (English as a Foreign Language).just starting up. and I seem to be reading a lot there is a wealth of exciting stuff out there.

Mostly I’m concentrating on teaching, and teaching excellent classes. I try to fire up for each class, indeed, though probably no one would be the wiser, I tend to run on a level of mild stress until the moment I feel i have planned and prepared each one satisfactorily.

As well as designing my own materials, I’m doing lots of research into other materials, teaching methodologies and practices. Working for myself, I am teaching “unplugged” – not following a coursebook – so each class involves many decisions about students might need and how to give it to them. So there’s lots of intensive material preparation.  There is freedom and beauty in doing you own thing, and being completely free from external demands. I love not having to do any formal testing or assessing, rather trying to get Students to self-reflect and self-evaluate and work together with me to see where we should go next.

I try to be excited about each class, and a little nervous. I try to take some risks, come up with things that are creative, maybe surprising, that will get students from a number of different angles, appeal to their multiple intelligences and their different learning styles. I try to get them motivated, intrigued, entranced, illuminated, try to get them thinking about how their brains work, and using it’s full glorious potential. It doesn’t always hit the target, some classes don’t take off quite right. Sometimes I’m too ambitious. Sometimes I get the level wrong. Often I come up with something way too complex to cover in a three hour class. I try to have a reflective session after each class. Keep notes on how it could be improved. and maybe then re-implement improved versions with another group. funnily something that works great with one group needs significant adjustment or outright abandonment with another. I love to see the different dynamics you get from one group to another. something difficult for one learner is a non-brainer for another, but each will have his or her own stumbling block…

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I am playing lots of scrabble.

reading lately mostly teens books, having been given a bunch of them – great for language students too!

presently reading “Kidnapped” by Robert Louis Stevenson, which is fantastic.  with all that Scots, too difficult for my students though.

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i have to put up all the pictures from the A-Z photo competition!

maybe that can be the task for this weekend – though then again – we are going to the beach! yeehah!

by popular demand: the deadline has been extended to MONDAY>>>>>>>>>>>>

extra points will be taken into account for those finished in time for the original deadline, due to expire – in costa rica – in 8 hours…….

I can think up hundreds of things I love that start with B but nothing much that starts with H or O… =(

 - 1 – be exposed to it (a lot)

2 – use it for real communication (a lot)

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so easy

but very time consuming.

frequently frustrating. also frequently rewarding, fun, and SO good for your brain. for humanity. and the general good.

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you want to speed up the process, do more of each, more of the time.

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(i wanted to post some new photos but somehow, can’t)

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how to ‘teach’ a language: – forget teaching – work on facilitating the learning of a new language (this is a little more complicated to do well)

provide exposure to the target language (lots and lots) – preferably make much of it challenging but not TOO challenging, just above the level the student can produce. provide models of what they might need to express. make it interesting. make it intriguing. make it real.

provide opportunities for real communication (lots and lots) – make it fun. make it exhilarating. make it useful. make it real.

facilitate the breaching of any gaps between what is intended and what is produced.

provide opportunities to reflect on successes and failures of attempts at communication.

provide your students tools and strategies to go about communicating despite any lacks.

motivate them to practice outside class, to find ways to increase their exposure to and use of the language.

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there is more, so much more, for good language teaching

and

learning can be speeded up in various different ways.

but basically it comes down to maximize exposure to target language, and maximize your use of it. 

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Due date:

19th February, 12 midnight in your local timezone.

post a link to where you have your shots !

and let me know if you are ‘in’! =)