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Japanese as a gateway for learning to read?
2005-04-30 01:13:00
At work, I have several series that I keep on my computer. I let the students watch fansubs when they've finished their work, frequently they are so popular that I get passes to my room all throughout the day with students that are virtually addicted to some show or other. Plus, of course I have my 'video club' days when I let the students either make AMV's or simply watch some episodes (or the latest AMV disk that I've brought in), so I pretty much have some sort of anime going on in my room throughout the day.
Having learned my lesson from Excel Saga, I'm a little more careful about what I have on screen in case some parents stop by though.
The think that occured to me today, when I looked up and saw no less than four people watching shows (Naruto, Air, and Princess Tutu) was that all of these shows are subtitled. This means that the kids that watch it are essentially forced to READ as they watch. Anyone that works with students will tell you that reading seems to have sort of gone out of style these days. So here I have students that fight tooth and nail over even the slightest bit of reading requred for classwork, frequently preffering to take a fail one semester after another instead of admitting they can't read well, watching 20 minute episodes of Naruto, pausing where they have to and practically begging to come in to watch the next episode (it's up to what... 140 now?) On top of that, reading fansubs, or subtitled movies forces you to take in sentances as groups of words, or as a whole so to speak. This means that if you are an early reader and prone to stopping on each and every word, or even sounding out words you have to adapt to a more sophisticated method.
So come on now, do you think that's pretty cool or what? -
What really sucks?
2005-03-25 03:18:02
On friday last week I got paid back for a bunch of classroom supplies that I purchased out of my own pocket. It's not that big of a deal, I'm a computer teacher, and when stuff breaks down my classroom doesn't work. It's not like other classes where they can use photocopies, or share books and stuff.
So I go to the local Fry's and buy a couple of flatscreen monitors for the class. After rebates it's like 200 each.
That, plus some other minor things got me a check for about 550.00 from the school.
I lost it.
It's spring break right now, so I can't even get a call back from the school on whether they'll cancel the check, or if it's been cashed or what.
Man, it's going to suck if I just lost 500 plus bux.
Oh well, these things have a way or sorting themselves out. I'm sure that after I get (I'd BETTER GET) the new check I'll find the old one in a magazine or something.
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I saw in another Journal that someone was wondering if she was going to be able to be a math teacher (calculus right?) or would be stuck with English. I don't think you'll have a hard time there. I've been a teacher in High School for years. Most of the time the teachers hate math, especially the highter forms. If you offer to teach calc, trig, or even algebra 1&2, you'll be a goddess to the school. On top of that, from what I've seen, your easy command of english should give you an edge as well.
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That reminds me:
At the school a few weeks ago I heard that one of my ex-students was arrested and sentanced to 20 years. When I heard that I was honestly pleased, and also perplexed at the other teachers that felt sorry for him.
He was a real peice of shit; this guy used to break into peoples houses with his gang member buddies and wait for the owners to come home. He'd show up at school bragging about it, and waving a bunch of cash around. It seemed like I was the only person on campus that couldn't stand the guy. Sure, he was charismatic and charming, but he was also a fuckwad who brought drugs to school and sold them to middle school students.
So he's going to be gone for a very long time? Good. Fuck him, I'll stick to teaching people that actually want to learn something.
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Coversation about taxes.
2005-03-11 04:25:55
Taxes in California really suck.
Thinking that I would just get over the pain early this year, my wife and I did our taxes as early as we got all the W2's and what not from the employer, banks and so on.
As usual, we wound up owing a lot, again. I don't get it, even though we have the MAXIMUM taken out of our checks we still owe. Go figure. So, 430 dollars later I'm figuring that it's done till next year. NOT.
Today I got a letter in the mail saying that I owed a penalty. Essentially it says that I owed 430, and a 6.70 penalty on that. WTF? I thought I had till tax day at least right?
Fine so I call the tax board and it goes like this:
If you would like to hear this in english.... [1]
More menu commands
more menu commands
more menu commands
more menu commands
eventually:
"If you would like to speak to a representative stay on the line"
Thanks, not like I wouldn't have rather have done that from the main menu 10 minutes ago.
"HI I'M Jennifer! How can I help you"
You've sent me a bill for something I already paid.
"PLEASE WAIT WHILE I CONNECT YOU!"
10 minutes later
"Operator 724 can I help you?"
You've sent me a bill for something I already paid
"One moment please"
5 minutes later
"I'm transferring you now"
5 minutes later, and some jazzy music this time
"Can I help you?"
You've sent me a bill for something I've already paid
[she gets me personal info]
"Ahh, I see, you owe 430 dollars from a withholding of blah blah. "
But I paid that last month. I have the transaction numbers right here.
"hold on a moment please"
5 minutes later
"sorry for the delay, I see that you've paid that, I show a balance due of 5.37 cents. If you like I'll see if I can waive that" click on hold again
5 minutes later
"I'm afraid that I can't waive the fee. "
Wait a minute though, isn't that fee the penalty on the amount that I paid already? If paid the total of 430, why should I have to pay a penalty on it, since, you know I PAID it?
On top of that, the sheet you sent me has a different amount (6.70).
"My computer shows that you owe 5.37, would you like to send a check in for that amount, or set up a payment option?"
No. I want to know why I have to pay a late penalty for something that I paid on time.
"Sir... you are not paying a penalty on that amount, tax payments are not taxed that way, you are paying a penalty for not witholding enough money throughout the year. You pay taxes at every paycheck, and your employer didn't withold enough money. "
What? I just DID my taxes, isn't all that stuff supposed to be dealt with then?
"Sir... tax payments are not taxed that way, you are paying a penalty for not witholding enough money throughout the year. You pay taxes every paycheck, all year long and your employer didn't withold enough money. "
Yes, but I don't know any single person that writes a check off to pay state taxes every two weeks. Doesn't it just get added up at the end of the year, as, you know, part of that 430.00 bill that I just paid?
"No, it doesn't work that way, I would be happy to calculate your estimated taxes for next year, since you need to" ..blah blah, 90% of blah blah 100% blah blah...
Miss, we're going in circles here. If I was to write a check for say, 10.00 right now and send it, would that solve the problem?
"Don't do that! Your penalty is 5.37".
Right.
Since you sent me a late payment penalty, is this going to be reported to my credit agency?
"I don't have that information"
Right.
Ok, so lets recap here miss, even though I used turbotax, and all of my official documents to calculate my taxes and penalties, somehow magically I owe the exact amount of a late penalty on 430.00 right?
"it's not a..."
Wait, let me finish here.
Even though I have the MAXIMUM taken out of my check each week, I still need to have more taken out
"right, talk to your employer about setting that up".
So basically, I'm screwed here right?
"uh...."
Nevermind.
"is there anything else I can help you with?"
No, I don't think so.
"thank you, I'll send out some information packets so that this doesn't happen again next year".
Joy, Ok, thanks.
**click**
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Musical Benches
2005-03-09 02:44:02
You know that phrase "you have to take the good with the bad"?
Well, at work I've been given a new class (woodshop), where I get to do pretty much whatever I want in terms of projects so long as they fit in the budget, I get to pick whatever students I want from the entire school.
Pretty cool eh?
The problem, starts with my computer room. You see I also have to teach computer classes through the day, the classes are small, but busy and generally challenging. That isn't the problem. The problem is that the room that my woodshop was moved into used to be the room that the music class used. Now the music class is right next door to my computer room. So now, I have a class with a wall that I share with the music room. This wall is so thin that you can hear normal conversation on the other side. When this was the art room it wasn't a really big deal, since you know, 'ART' doesn't make a whole lot of noise. Now I drumsets, keyboards electric guitars, and some godawful sound that occasionally resembles singing, or maybe yodeling I can't tell. Now books and stuff that I 'used' to keep on the shelves attached to that wall for some reason keep falling off, and I'm going through excedrin really fast.
Back to the woodshop. The first project is a bench, the sort of thing that you might find out in a garden, or maybe on a nice porch where you can sip lemonade and wave at people walking their dogs. It's a NICE bench, I've gotten a lot of requests from teachers to make an extra one for them when it's done. I have to do all of the work in the little room that I was given. It's an ok room, although I'm not happy about the constant smell of hot pockets from the lunch crew everyday. I can't really work outside, since right outside is a basketball court, one basketball hitting someone while they are cutting would be disaster. But all in all it's pretty workable, and I have enough space to get done what I need. There is a problem with this set up though.
The
bench
won't
fit
through
the
door.
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FUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!
2005-02-26 18:07:35
Goddam all to hell.
My hard drive just crashed again. I had a 250gb hard drive that had been acting a little flaky for a while now, but since I only had various fansub dowloads and premiere files on it it had not been terribly problematic. I deleted everything that couldn't be archived to DVD and reformated the hard drive to zero state (factory state). fixed everything, hunky dory right? After couple weeks of using it for various niggly things I started my spleen project. Burned all the episodes, made all my working files everything. Having a fresh and clean 250GB drive dedicated for this was great.
So finally, I'm basically DONE with my video, I have a couple of simple matte shots, and a few color replace shots that I wanted to clean up and replace, but in all other terms: done. I output the file in huffy, (4 gig) and open it into Vdub so I can work on my compression and send out the beta for comments in case anything else stands out that I might have missed. For some reason the file just won't export.
That's strange I think. I'll export it to the D: drive and see it it works.
It works.
I close the program, close premiere, everyting, and restart the computer.
"cannot find file" what? The shortcuts don't work. I do to the drive directly using the 'my computer' icon.
"disk in drive G is not formatted would you like to format it now"
"disk in drive G is not formatted would you like to format it now"
"disk in drive G is not formatted would you like to format it now"
"disk in drive G is not formatted would you like to format it now"
Fuuuuuuuuuuuck!
I've just lost my entire project with the exception of a crappy beta with too much compression on it and some unfinished effects.
God Damm it.
all to hell and back.
If anyone wants to see the video that was apparently never meant to be:
it's
"spleen in the sky"
Video source:
Berzerk
Mao-Chan
Air
Abenobashi
Song:
William Shatner - Spleen/Lucy in the sky
from the album 'transformed man'.
PM me and I'll contact you on AIM and send it over.
gah.
Grr.
JOURNAL: madbunny
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