This is a project I did for a class. I am sharing it because I got lots of positive feedback on it, which is nice and encouraging. In this video, I recommend and give a sneak peak to some books K-12 that are good for language learners, migrant students, bilingual environments and culture studies. …
Category: teaching
Dual Language Immersion done correctly answers real questions about 21st century education.
It doesn’t take an extensive literature review or an exhaustive tour of programs to see that dual language immersion programs exponentially improve educational outcomes when implemented correctly… So why doesn’t every district in the nation turn to dual language immersion? Why doesn’t every University have a rich Middle Eastern Studies department? One could get the wrong idea.
Pivoting
ChezWhat? is an old site. I have been writing here now for 12 years. Most of what fills this space has been an exercise of writing as a personal endeavor. Gratitude, controversy, art or talking about things that have happened recently or long ago has been the realm of ChezWhat? But I am going to…
Vocation | Enneagram: Ugh!
“they tell me” I am a Type 2 “Helper” with a close runner up of “Peacemaker” which would make my parents howl with laughter.
So, this.
When a person writes in the same place for ten years to not ask “what am I doing here?” is unnatural. Perhaps this is what I have aspired to all this time. Maria Popova’s BrainPicking Finally a place where the purpose is not to market oneself, which seems like just the scratch of the surface…
The Year of Living Domestically
I guess I was about 13 or so when the movie “The Year of Living Dangerously” came out. I watched it and at that point, I pretty much knew what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to be a foreign correspondent, a journalist in another country. Well, since I foolishly believed people…
Political Correctness (a repost from 2005)
Published in 2005, long before Portlandia… If you have ever listened to Dandy Warhols or listened to Damali Ayo talk about Portland types, it’s clear that I am not alone in noticing Portland types are often a sort of..different. I say this with love, I am a Portlander and I work with Portland “types”. Recently…
Strange fruit: where I tell about a person who I don’t want to fix my tire
Once upon a time, there was a teacher. This teacher was asked to do many, many things. In her enthusiasm, she often (too often) said “Of course!”. She learned eventually that she had to stop doing that. In one such instance, she ended up with a student who could be considered, at the stage in…
Spot on.
One of the great failings of the American education system, in our view, is that young people can graduate from university without any understanding of poverty at home or abroad. Study-abroad programs tend to consist of herds of students visiting Oxford or Florence or Paris. We believe that universities should make it a requirement that…
Minding the Gap: In defense of the Gap Year or study abroad experience for stateside high school graduates
Because I teach high school, I see first hand struggles that students sometimes have when high school ends and the time to go to college begins. Senior year can be overwhelming, and it’s not even the beginning. Some youth transition with no big deal. Some already have their paths set out. And some are just…
Some thoughts on being a language teacher: linguistic imperialism
I have been since I decided what I wanted to do, a language teacher. I didn’t end up here by mistake. The first place I went was Russia with Peace Corps. Peace Corps had in high (sarcastic) comedy brought all these “teachers” to one of the most educated countries on the planet to teach the…
Really, is there anything better than ¡Dance party! with 2 little kids?
When I started schooling Addy at home (only for a few months, she is a preschooler) I decided it needed to be fun. I started collecting up all the fun good music for kids in my collection. Recently my bro turned me on to this one. It is by a Japanese all girl band and…
