As with any group activity, my experience was colored by the people I worked with. As before, I was fortunate to work with Curtis and Joseph, whose perceptive ability and sense of humor made learning a pleasure. I’m glad. I kept you in your memoir groups with the hope that you had established relationships that…
As with any group activity, my experience was colored by the people I worked with. As before, I was fortunate to work with Curtis and Joseph, whose perceptive ability and sense of humor made learning a pleasure. Happenstance led to our choice of Top of the Hill Grill as our object of study. We were…
Interview Reflections Question 4: Who I Am in the Classroom I noticed a surprising thing in one of Elizabeth’s classes last semester: that who I am in the SIT classroom is not someone my old friends would entirely recognize. In a small-group project for The Four Skills, Sarah presented a lesson in which we thought…
I didn’t like Barnga, a game we played in ICLT last week, because it made me feel rotten. That was part of the point: not to make us feel rotten, but to get a sense of the massive challenges faced by those who enter a new culture. In our first group, four of us learned…
Top of Hill Grill Visit 2, April 14, 2010 Parking lot is full. No one is sitting inside except a family with an infant who leaves as I arrive. Reggae is playing, and a young white rasta climbs into his SUV in the parking lot. Six tables of people, dotted like stars or moles on…
Overlapping triangles: Culture loss, language loss and environmental education; hearths and marketplace (required for language survival), migrating stories (traditional tales that need a place to land) and ecological identity. Her interest and research in this led to her dissertation question: How do children experience their refugee parents’ memory of place and loss of place? And…
Clean Laundry Hi. My name’s Ginna. I was born on May 30, 1954, in Memorial Hospital in Wilmington, Delaware. That same day, a litter of possums was born in our basement. We infants drew the attention of the local newspaper, and we got our first ink. It is the Cold War. We like Ike. I…
Soft pop music and soft conversation. Racing green woodstove with a gas fire. Chimney pipe through the wall, not the ceiling. Wood floors Then a blues song and people at both tables tapping their feet. Man in 60s in jean jacket and jean pants, Timberland t-shirt, white hair, glasses, beard. Sitting alone at round table,…
We had an assignment for ICLT to create an identity box, containing artifacts representing ourselves. I didn’t want to do the assignment. It seemed random, not connected to any specific outcome: just a general exercise in self-revelation. Further, this was shortly after my incident with the professor, so I, formerly open, was especially disinclined to…
I noticed a surprising thing in one of Elizabeth’s classes last semester: that who I am in the SIT classroom is not someone my old friends would entirely recognize. In a small-group project for The Four Skills, Sarah presented a lesson in which we thought of adjectives to describe the others in our group. Some…
“So we are talking about cultural things, so I will tell you about it. I grew up in a very white culture, my school was almost entirely white. Not only white, but it was like.. Maybe there was one token Jew, maybe one token black kid .. .I don’t think we had any Asian kids..,…
What did I notice about myself During the interview: That I was engaged and comfortable in talking with Natalia, and impressed with how open she was being. That I was sensitive to the importance of what she was revealing and cautious about not invading her privacy. That the most important thing to her in the…
Natalia spent the first few years of her life in the early 80s in a religious community in the USSR where the “Old Believers” — a form of Christianity — preferred to live a somewhat separate existence from the rest of local society. When she reached school age, she experienced a major shift in her…
Interview: March 30, 2010 Ginna: What kind of community did you grow up in? Natalia: Uh, this is, uh, kind of “old believers” community. It is a kind of, um, a Christianity thing. You have to christ like with two fingers only — well, like this. Not like this. G: You have to cross yourself?…
WHEN WHERE ME MY COUNTRY May 1954 Wilmington, Delaware Some ‘possums and I were born Cold war, Ike, desegregation, assassinations, man on moon, antiwar demonstrations, civil rights movement, Beatles. September 1972 Brooklyn, NY Study fine arts at Pratt Vietnam War over; drugs. July 1975 San Francisco, CA Study photography; BFA Watergate 1977 Oakland, CA Fall…
Reflection Paper on Visuals: Relationship between Language Classroom & Culture Overview From the visuals that classmates presented, I saw a range of themes which I’ll identify here as headlines. In the classroom, culture can be: An impediment to communication A way to enhance communication A means for students to learn about themselves and each other…
Assignment: “What was the bump about? When and how did it occur? Describe it as clearly as you can. Describe your behaviors and feelings. What cultural values do they represent? How will this learning impact you in the future? What were the other person’s behaviors and feelings? What were the behaviors that you expected from…
Reina — The Queen When I was introduced to Magdalena’s housekeeper, I was friendly, warm and low-key. I knew I was about to be spending a long time with her since she lives with Magdalena except on weekends, and wanted to get off to a good start. I tried to talk with her as best…
Today’s project was like one in 4 skills: write and then tell a story — this time a short one about a person, place or experience from the internship — while the other listens and writes it as just notes rather than whole sentences. She did that in a two step process: first showing us…
Overall I haven’t had any problems living with Magdalena. I marvel at how she can open her house to a stranger, feed them wonderful food, give them her keys, trust and freedom, and be helpful about giving directions, etc. (even though she teases me relentless for always getting lost and always being on the computer).…
On the work front, she’s been very elusive about what I’m supposed to be doing and when. It wasn’t till minutes before my first class that I first saw the classroom. I didn’t get the books till the night before. It’s been unnerving. She initially seemed to be flexible in how I approach my classes,…
I have arrived in Pachuca. I don’t know if this is a culture bump, but it is a bump: Magdalene, dueña of mi casa and head of our internship program here (with whom I’m also living) continues to be evasive about who my students will be. I start teaching in two days. I have no…
The Ladder of Inference Always try to move down the ladder. Books for CLIT Pat Moran: Teaching Culture Lisa Delpit: Other People’s Children The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
