Wednesday, May 30, 2007

A B Cs & 1 2 3s & 42!

I get to meet my student tonight! I'm really excited. Yesterday I observed a literacy level class, which is for adults who had less than 4 years of schooling in their native country and do not read or write in their native language. There are so many things we take for granted about knowing how to read. First is the recognition of shapes as having meaning. But there are also things like direction - we read from left to right, which is not the case everywhere in the world. We know how big of a space to leave between words. And we know that a 'G' and a 'g' and a 'g' are all the same, while 'b', 'p', 'd' and 'q' are all different.

So this is what I get to teach. I'll need to figure out what she already knows, and decide where to start. I'm nervous, but I'm excited. And I'll be honest, I'm having a bit of a power trip thinking of all the idioms and pop culture references I'll be able to teach her.

In other, crafty, news. My secret project is going along well. I had a few moments of panic 'this is horrible, what was I thinking?'; briefly considered changing things around, but then went back to my original plan. Once things started coming together I was thinking 'This rocks! This is going to be awesome!'. But then again, by that point I was getting tired and had consumed half a bottle of Bartles & James Pina Colada wine cooler (can you say 'malt-ternative' ;) ), so my judgment may have been impaired. We'll see.

Unfortunately, there will be little to no knitting content for a bit while I work frantically on this project. But I promise some day I will bring out the needles again.

And apropos to absolutely nothing - this is my 42nd post. Yay - 42. Now what was the question?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love it when I teach kids something that I - in a moment of foolishness - assumed everyone knew. Have fun!

I'm intrigued by the secret projec.

Anonymous said...

I love it when I teach kids something that I - in a moment of foolishness - assumed everyone knew. Have fun!

I'm intrigued by the secret projec.