Thrilled to be here!
- Thread starter DawnBrown
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Ona, I'm in the Centerville section of the state. Been here my whole life, but one of these days I hope to go south! The winters here are just not my thing anymore! 
I can't imagine the frozen north! You're correct, Ohio is about as different in dialects as well as many other things from North to South and East to west as can be.
I can't imagine the frozen north! You're correct, Ohio is about as different in dialects as well as many other things from North to South and East to west as can be.
Gwyvian, I teach English/Language Arts and a class of American History. I'm qualified to teach in both areas, so they take advantage of that. Our school is committed to our students becoming better Readers/Writers/Speakers, so that's mainly what I do all year. We read, we write, we talk about it. We read, we write, we do a speech about it, then we read and write some more.
Our school is committed to our students becoming better Readers/Writers/Speakers, so that's mainly what I do all year. We read, we write, we talk about it. We read, we write, we do a speech about it, then we read and write some more.
I should have guessed. I have fond memories of my Language Arts classes while attending school in the US. Especially the large writing assignments - my teacher used to give me these odd looks when I showed her essays I wrote in my free time... I'm not sure many of her students voluntarily sacrificed time and energy on essays like that. I still use the same techniques for writing to this day and I still find them solid. It baffles me, but in Hungary you get a great education in terms of what you learn and the quality/quantity of it, like anywhere else in Europe, but they don't teach simple things like how to properly construct an essay. I had classmates in university who struggled with how to approach a term paper - let alone their theses - because of it and I always wondered how they managed to pull it off without botching the whole thing.
I do a little teaching myself, just individual language lessons for English learners. The two most useful things I can offer them is give them a native speaker to converse with and a basic model of approaching grammar which I have my L.A. teacher to thank for. So keep up the good work! The world needs teachers like you.
I have fond memories of my Language Arts classes while attending school in the US. Especially the large writing assignments - my teacher used to give me these odd looks when I showed her essays I wrote in my free time... I'm not sure many of her students voluntarily sacrificed time and energy on essays like that. I still use the same techniques for writing to this day and I still find them solid. It baffles me, but in Hungary you get a great education in terms of what you learn and the quality/quantity of it, like anywhere else in Europe, but they don't teach simple things like how to properly construct an essay. I had classmates in university who struggled with how to approach a term paper - let alone their theses - because of it and I always wondered how they managed to pull it off without botching the whole thing.I do a little teaching myself, just individual language lessons for English learners. The two most useful things I can offer them is give them a native speaker to converse with and a basic model of approaching grammar which I have my L.A. teacher to thank for.
So keep up the good work! The world needs teachers like you.
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Gwyvian, I would love it if one of my students started writing on their own! I have the harder to motivate kids, my administrators reason that anyone can teach the highly motivated kids, but not everyone can teach the ones that aren't as motivated... LOL, I just do what I can with what I have. Though I think my intrinsic rewards are far greater than those who have brilliant students to begin with.my teacher used to give me these odd looks when I showed her essays I wrote in my free time... I'm not sure many of her students voluntarily sacrificed time and energy on essays like that.
I do a little teaching myself, just individual language lessons for English learners. The two most useful things I can offer them is give them a native speaker to converse with and a basic model of approaching grammar which I have my L.A. teacher to thank for.
I imagine your students are thankful to have you! Wow, that is interesting, it really is. I have always thought it would be fun to go somewhere to teach English to non English speakers for a summer or term.
I am sure that my students would disagree with you.
But as I said, I do love what I do, and I like to think that even if I didn't have to work I still would... and I hope one day to be faced with that dilemma!
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Ona, No, I'm not from Centerville, but if you cut Ohio into quarters, I'd be in the same quarter as Centerville.
Ah, gotcha!
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Gwyvian, I would love it if one of my students started writing on their own! I have the harder to motivate kids, my administrators reason that anyone can teach the highly motivated kids, but not everyone can teach the ones that aren't as motivated... LOL, I just do what I can with what I have. Though I think my intrinsic rewards are far greater than those who have brilliant students to begin with.
Hehe, I can well imagine it's no easy job to coax motivation and interest from kids, just based on what I've heard from my classmates in all the schools I've attended - and I've attended quite a few on both sides of the pond. But it is indeed a great achievement to be able to work with students who would otherwise have no inclination towards literature. Not to say that writing is for everyone, maybe not even reading (well, actually call me snobbish, but I think everyone should be a devout reader
) but I feel that everyone could benefit from at least a minimal effort to develop in this area (biased though I am as a writer and philologist). I've studied this to a degree through my BA work (you could say it's informally related, as anthropology is merely the bouncing board for my hypotheses), namely that reading literature is essential for the healthy development of personality, social integration and finding the cultural connections which are rather lacking in modern society. I could talk about that subject to no end.In so far as they actually listen to me...
Well, truth be told, foreign language teaching in Hungary is largely abominable in quality, at least in public schools, so there's a lot to stitch together. They learn a lot about the English language, but there's too little emphasis on connecting the dots so to speak - the knowledge is there, they just don't know how to use it. For that reason I try to explain the mechanics behind *why* grammar says so and so, using live examples and simply explaining what they need to keep in mind when trying to use it - but a lot of the time it's a simple confidence issue. And, of course, Hungarian logic is *very* different from English, so there's a lot of amusement to be had.I am sure that my students would disagree with you.
Cheers. And who knows, you might have inspired or will inspire a kid to become a writer... or dozens of them! The important thing is that you love what you do - my best teachers were the ones that did.
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and thank you for the welcome cooeedownunder!
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Well, if you go on my profile you can see where I've posted, so stalking is easy.