I don't currently own the new-fangled technological hardware required to play music directly from my iPhone into my car speakers, so I still make mix CDs to play in my car from time to time. Don't judge. And, hey, at least a have a 6-CD changer!
In any event, since recently discovering that Soundcloud is a virtual treasure trove of music new and old - not to mention free downloads offered for a fair amount of that music - I have been making mix CDs. Although I'm sure that there is a fantastic selection of music in all genres, but I have found the vast quantity of electronic music posted on Soundcloud to be particularly awesome. Sure, there's a lot of junk on there, but I do run across and enjoy a lot of what I find.
So, here's my first edition of what I'm going to call I Still Make Mix CDs. These are basically the top 5 tracks I seem to keep wanting to listen to for the past week or so (in no particular order). I've included the Soundcloud hastag for each track so that if you hear something you like, you can search for similar tunes.
Here were go... you'll notice I'm a bit into chill trap right now.
1. Seven Lions - Don't Leave Ft. Ellie Goulding (Slander Heaven Trap Edit) [#HEAVEN TRAP]
2. IIRIS - Tigerhead (EBY Remix) [#Chill]
3. #dmsn - New Mecca [#Chill Trap]
4. Identical by $aturn [#Chill Trap] (Note: $aturn is 15 years old... 15!!]
5. Ghost by Halsey (Daktyl Remix) [#Chill Trap]
If there is a track I should be adding to a future mix CD, please let me know in a comment below!
Over the last three to four years, I have had the absolute pleasure of teaching many of the Saudi Arabian students (as well as students from other Arabic-speaking countries) who have attended the Old Dominion University English Language Center where I am employed as a faculty/administrative coordinator. During this period of time, I have had the opportunity to form strong [and, I hope, lifelong] friendships with a quite a few of these students. I can confidently say that I have learned quite a lot about the culture, and although I still wouldn't consider myself an expert, I definitely have a very strong basic understanding, and it is difficult for me to adequately express the sense of respect that I have for this culture and for those who I consider my "Saudi family."
Many of my Saudi students see me as a mother, sister, and friend; I definitely feel a similar closeness to them. Five years ago I knew really nothing about the Arabs or the Middle East aside from what I had seen in mainstream media, which offers an extremely limited, inaccurate, and stereotypical depiction of the beautifully rich and diverse culture. Part of the reason why I believe I have been able to develop a strong rapport with my Saudi students is because of my interest and efforts in learning not only about the culture, but how to communicate in Arabic.
Naturally, my interactions with my students/friends piqued my interest in learning the Arabic language.
Being fluent in Spanish, I feel motivated to learn another of the world's major languages, especially one that is in such high demand as Arabic. Also, I've had a fascination with learning about Arabic language, music, and dance for the last 8 years or so (a remnant interest from my belly dancing days).
In my opinion, one cannot truly understand a culture unless he or she develops some level of proficiency in the language of that culture. Language is culture, and culture is language. We perceive our world through a cultural lens, and our social interactions and interpretations of reality are shaped by the language that we use to communicate and engage with each other and with our world.
I clearly remember the first words I ever learned in Arabic. Ironically, they were, "DON'T SPEAK ARABIC!" (!لا يتكلم العربية)
I'm not sure if it was Abdulrahman Arhama or Bader Alrandi from Kuwait who taught me these words so that I could use them in class. It was the fall of 2009 and we had just gotten about 40 students from Kuwait, so we started having problems with students speaking Arabic in class. Over the next couple of years, I learned just a few words here and there, such as shurkan, afwaan, yalla, walla, and ya shabob.
It wasn't until late 2011 that I really decided that I wanted to start learning the language. Two of my earliest memories of learning some words in Arabic around this time were with a good friend of mine, Abdulaziz Alshahrani. The first memory was when we were on the way to Mr. D's farm, which is located in Elberon, VA. I learned how to say kharoof, which means lamb or sheep. My second memory with Abdulaziz teaching me a few words was one night when we were at Mazzika, and he taught me how to say "I want to learn how to speak more Arabic."
It's ironic, because at the time, Azooz barely spoke any English at all. Now, he is an academic student at VCU, and his English is about a million times better than my Arabic is now.
About one year later, around October 2012, I met my student/friend Abdulrhman Althgafei. He is the one who taught me how to read and write, and he has been the one person to really make an effort to sit down and teach me. He has been an amazing teacher, and I have been a terrible student.
Here are a few snapshots of some things I have learned over the last 18 months or so...
OCTOBER 2012
NOVEMBER 2012
JANUARY 2013
MARCH 2013
<<<Then there was a long break when I didn't learn much... at least, I don't have any photo evidence of my progress! I continued to work on some conversational Arabic... >>>
SPRING 2014
In March, I went to the TESOL International Convention in Portland, OR. On the airplane heading west, I entertained myself by translating the in-flight entertainment menus...
... and visited Powell's Bookstore where they had a decent section for Arabic books.
Earlier this year, I recorded a couple of videos....
This was my first attempt:
This was my second attempt (almost the same thing, with corrections):
Clearly, I have a loooooong way to go. Ideally, I would move to Saudi and work intensively on my Arabic for a few years, but that's not an option right now.
Wish me luck and please, speak to me in Arabic if it's your first language! :)
In the summer of 2013, my boss informed me that he didn't need me to teach in the fall and that he needed someone from the ELC to go to Brazil in September and represent ODU at a student recruitment fair. Obviously, I was ecstatic to have that opportunity, as I hadn't been out of the country in 12 years - and that was to Canada, which doesn't really count. I had been on several other international trips as a teenager, but never as a solo traveler.
While waiting additional word about the trip, I began getting my documents in order. As it turned out, my passport was about to expire within two months, and I couldn't get it renewed in time to get a visa to travel to Brazil in September. Fortunately, my boss told me he still needed someone to go to Vietnam in October and asked me if I was interested.
Of COURSE I was interested!! For some reason, I had never thought about traveling to Vietnam or even Asia before, but I was immediately so excited to have the opportunity to travel to Southeast Asia for a week. I knew almost nothing about Vietnam and not a word of Vietnamese, but I was ready to pack my bags and go explore what I knew would be an amazing place.
So, I renewed my passport, applied for my tourist visa, got the recommended vaccinations, booked my hotels and flights, packing my bags, researching things to do and places to go in the two cities I would be visiting: Ho Chi Minh City (AKA Saigon) and Hanoi.
I departed Norfolk, VA, USA on Thursday, October 3rd and arrived in Saigon on Saturday, October 5th at around 12pm local time. Of course, I could write all about my nearly 30 hour journey to the other side of the world, but I'll skip right to the good stuff.
Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)
There is no better feeling than arriving in a foreign country and being greeted by a friendly and familiar face. I had never met Duyen before landing in Vietnam, but she and I embraced like old friends when we met outside the airport where she had been waiting to for me with a colorful hand-drawn sign bearing my name. Not only that, but she had a SIM card for the prepaid cell phone that her sister (a student of mine) had given me back in Norfolk. Not even five minutes in Southeast Asia and I was experiencing the gracious hospitality of the people. I won't lie, it was pretty awesome to have that personal connection through my sweet student as well.
Duyen only spoke a few words of English, but one of her family members was with her and spoke a bit of English, which was definitely reassuring. He promptly loaded my bags into his car and he asked me where I was staying, which was the Saigon Sheraton, and we merged into the organized chaos of the traffic.
So, there I was in Vietnam! I sat there in Duyen's cousin's(?) car wishing I could spin my head around 360 degrees on its axis in order to take it all in properly.
After stopping at the hotel to check in and leave my luggage, Duyen and I headed back out into the rainy Saigon streets and caught a cab to the Reunification Palace to do the "tourist thing". Duyen and I could barely speak with each other, but we had no trouble communicating at all. We hit it off right away, and we had a great time! We both cried when we said farewell 36 hours later.
My time in Saigon went by in a flash. Because I was also expected to work while in city, I really only had [less than] a day to see and do things. After seeing the Reunification Palace on Saturday afternoon, Duyen and I walked around downtown Saigon a bit, visiting the famous Ben Thanh Market and catching a fantastic performance of the AO Show at the Saigon Opera House. We also bought our tickets for a boat ride on the Saigon River for the following evening.
Sunday was a work day for me, so I spent it at the recruitment fair being held at the hotel. It was really exciting talking to prospective students about studying at ODU, but it was a little slow, so I was excited to get back out and see things that evening. After my work commitments were over with, I had a little time to explore on my own, and then later in the evening, Duyen picked me up from the hotel and we went on that boat ride. After that, we had a really great dinner and then went to the mall for dessert.
Alas, my time there just was not enough, and I am sparing 95% of the details because I really could go on forever about the brief but amazing time I did have in Saigon. I'd rather let the pictures speak for themselves. In future blog posts, I will definitely elaborate...
On Monday, I flew north to Hanoi where I spent several more days. More to come...
You can use the words "nevertheless" and "despite" in the same sentence.
Here is an example:
Sometimes I sit for hours and I can't write a word. Nevertheless, despite my frustration and long hours of work, I tend to have a positive attitude toward writing in English.
Source - Writing Clearly: An Editing Guide, 2nd Ed. by Lane and Lange, Unit 1, Exercise 4, pg 24)
In this sentence, both nevertheless and despite are both performing adverbial functions, one as a connective adverb (transition word), and one as an adverbial prepositional phrase.
Nevertheless is a cause-effect linking adverb (transition word) used when there is an unexpected outcome, and it is usually located in the second clause or at the beginning of a sentence containing a contrary outcome for an opinion, belief, or action. Its function is to show that the information in the second sentence contrasts the information in the first sentence.
In other words, in our example...
Action (first sentence) = sometimes I sit for hours and I can't write a word
Contrary outcome (second sentence) = I tend to have a positive attitude toward writing in English
(Note: This is the independent clause from the second sentence; in other words, it is the primary outcome.)
The second sentence can be broken into two parts. The word despite is part of a prepositional phrase "despite my frustration and long hours of work" that is performing an adverbial function by contributing contrasting information and describing the manner of the action in the main clause "I have a positive attitude toward writing in English."
Manner (prepositional phrase) = despite my frustration and long hours of work
Action (second clause) = I tend to have a positive attitude toward writing in English
The question is, is it redundant to have nevertheless and despite in the same sentence?
In this case, no.
Yes, these two words are both adverbs signaling a somehow contrary outcome. However, they are functioning in very different ways, as they are modifying two different pieces of information. Nevertheless is indicating a contrast between the first sentence and the second sentence and functioning as a transition word connecting two ideas at the discourse level. Despite is indicating a contrast between two pieces of information in the second sentence and functioning as an adverbial prepositional phrase at the sentence level.
Please feel free to leave comments or questions about this explanation below.
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For additional explanations and exercises, please check out the following resources.
Last week, I started teaching a graduate level ESL writing course. It's a very small class composed of three students, two of whom are studying Economics and the other who is studying Early Childhood Development. Since the class is so small, and we will only be meeting for four more weeks, I wanted to make sure to spend some time discussing how I could structure the class in a way that would benefit them the most and help them to reach their goals in writing.
On the first day of class, Wednesday, I asked the students to write a traditional five-paragraph essay about the three most important writing strategies or skills required for graduate students in general and/or for students pursuing their chosen academic majors. I also assigned an in-class writing activity, which was to respond to a Maya Angelou quote. Finally, after we briefly reviewed the first two themes from the first unit of the text - writing strategies and audience, we discussed the questions from a task from the textbook (Academic Writing for Graduate Students, 3rd Ed. by Swales & Feak; Unit 1, Task Two, p. 3). For homework, I asked them to complete Task Four (pg. 6), which required them to write about a term in their academic field for two different audiences.
On Friday, we started with a review of verb tenses using Exercises for Practice from Writing Clearly: An Editing Guide, 2nd Ed. by Lang and Lange (Unit One: Verb Tenses, Part III, pg. 22, Exercises 1 and 3). Through the completion of these exercises, we determined that the first thing we should focus on in grammar should be the perfect tenses. For homework, I assigned Exercise 5, which is a verb tense editing activity. I also assigned Writing Topic C from Part IV. I plan on marking this assignment for grammar error tracking purposes.
Next, I returned their responses, which I had marked with error correction symbols. We discussed the difference global and local errors, and we completed an error correction tracking worksheet, which will allow the students to track the relative abundance of different types of errors that they make so that they may focus their grammar studies on the points that they find most challenging. I will ask the students to complete one of these worksheets each time I mark a paper that they have written so that they are able to track their progress and continue to identify grammar points that they need to review and practice.
Then, we discussed their ideas from the five-paragraph essays they had written:
From this discussion, we decided that it would be helpful to practice two things each time we met for class - grammar and discussing/analyzing visual and numerical data in writing. We also began discussing potential writing assignments that they felt would benefit them the most. We decided that we should definitely practice writing critiques and a literature review. We also decided that synthesis writing for research would be very important for both all of them.
In the midst of our discussion, I began thinking about how a fun and engaging way to accomplish these goals through a meaningful and relevant writing assignment would be to have the students complete a collaborative writing assignment on a topic that would synthesize concepts and issues from their respective academic fields - economics and early childhood development. I proposed the idea to the students in class, and they seemed excited about it. I think this will be a great opportunity for them to be exposed to multidisciplinary collaborative research, which is an important skill for really any academic or professional in any field.
I now at the point where I'm in the process of developing the guidelines for this assignment, so I've started by collecting some useful resources on collaborative research writing:
I'd like to use GoogleDocs as the platform for coordinating the students' collaborative work. This is the best option since all students have a university email address that is hosted by gmail, so they will already have access to Google Drive.
I will have the students read, summarize, and critically respond to this article as an assignment. This assignment will not only meet a number of the course learning objectives and student goals, but it will also prepare the students for the collaborative writing project by introducing them to a number of Google applications that can be used as tools for the project.
This article is a bit outdated, but it has a few good ideas for assignment guidelines that can be adapted for the Web 2.0 student generation to take advantage of new learning technologies. Tasks for the assignment will include choosing the topic; gathering resources; paraphrasing, summarizing, responding to, and synthesizing relevant information; drafting, revising, and editing their work; and conducting self and peer evaluations.
This article starts with considerations for encouraging active learning in the classroom, and then offers a number of recommendations for how to design and evaluate activities and assignments for effective collaborative learning.
This article provides some good advice for teachers assigning a collaborative writing project, to include elements of a good collaborative writing assignment, staging of tasks, style of collaborative work, assigning the groups, and monitoring student progress.
Cooper, Tuesday. "Collaboration or Plagiarism? Explaining Collaborative-Based Assignments Clearly." Essays on Teaching Excellence: Toward the Best in the Academy 19.1 (2007): n. pag. Podnetwork.org. The Professional & Organizational Development Network in Higher Education. Web. 31 May 2014. http://podnetwork.org/content/uploads/V19-N1-Cooper.pdf
This article offers excellent advice on considerations for assigning collaborative writing projects such as making clear expectations, defining team vs. individual accountability, being clear with students about the purpose of the assignment, following-up with assignment tasks with written feedback, giving students detailed guidelines, focusing on the process of writing a research paper, and information literacy.
I will have the students read, summarize, and critically respond to this article as an assignment. This article assignment will help students understand some of the challenges associated with collaborative writing projects and will offer some tips and strategies for overcoming those challenges.
This handout will be part of the assignment guidelines. "This handout will offer an overview of the collaborative process, strategies for writing successfully together, and tips for avoiding common pitfalls. It will also include links to some other handouts that may be especially helpful as your group moves through the writing process."
"Not a Research Paper: Alternative Assignments to Teach Research Practices." Not a Research Paper: Alternative Assignments to Teach Research Practices. Western New England University, n.d. Web. 31 May 2014. http://www1.wne.edu/library/index.cfm?selection=doc.7793
This page provides a list of links that lead to resources for "assignments that provide meaningful research practice."
This article describes how to "sequence deliverables" as a method of assessment for a collaborative research project. I like the ideas presented in the table because the suggested assignments will not only walk students through the research process, but they provide opportunities for the students to reflect on their experience and progress while completing individual elements of the project.
This article offers some unique suggestions on how to plan, implement, and assess a collaborative research project. One idea that stands out for me from the description is having outside readers come in to read a draft of the students' paper. I think this could be an interesting opportunity for each student to get feedback from someone different on the paper and then come back to the group to discuss the feedback and discuss how to incorporate any potential revisions.
A few weeks ago, my boss informed me that my contract would be changing to a 10-month contract, meaning that I'd have about two months off of [paid] vacation each summer. In realizing that I haven't had two full months off from work or school since high school - in other words, about 14 years - I, needless to say, immediately began thinking of ways to get out and do some exploring and adventuring in this seemingly vast expanse of free time laying ahead of me.
First, I thought about visiting Cuba, but I think I'd rather save that for when my husband is able to travel with me - maybe we could go for the holidays again this year.
Well, today I had an epiphany. Actually, I think this epiphany might have stemmed from some things I learned in this book I just finished reading: I Could Do Anything If Only I Knew What It Was by Barbara Sher. For instance, in Chapter 6 "I Want Too Many Things; I'm All Over the Map," I sort of identified myself as someone who is what she refers to as a "scanner."
In this chapter there is a short exercise that walks you through a thought process to help yourself realize that you can do all the things you want to do - but sequentially, and in their own time. I've always wanted to take a summer and travel around the U.S., but I've never done it. Well, now is my chance! And really, I need this! Lately I've been practically overcome by feelings of restlessness and wanderlust. My plans to travel abroad didn't pan out, but I really feel like at this very moment I am in serious need of some time to explore new places and, at the very least, temporarily feed my free-spirited nature.
So, here's what I'm thinking:
I definitely still need to tweak this plan a bit, but this will be my approximate route. I'd like to head southwest and check out Asheville. I've heard it is a really cool little town, and that I'd love it. Then, I'd like to head over to Nashville and try to hear some live music and check out some must-see attractions there. After that, I'll make a possible detour to Cadiz, KY to meet an old friend before heading down to Memphis, where I'm hoping to take in some music, food, and drinks. I'd also like to see if I can go fishing on the Mississippi River either in Memphis or on my way south to Jackson, MS. Honestly, I have no idea what to see in that city, but I'm sure I will discover something!
The part of the trip I'm most excited about is New Orleans - I have ALWAYS wanted to visit there! I want to eat seafood and busk on the street - even if it's just for 5 minutes. I just want to be able to say that I busked on the streets of New Orleans before I died - and if I can make enough dollars to buy myself a beer, even better!
After, Louisiana, I'd head back east through Biloxi and Mobile before heading north toward Atlanta. Then, I'll make my way toward the coast and hit Savannah before passing through Charleston, which will be my last stop before heading home.
I figure it this way - that's 7 cities. If I take 15 days for the trip, I'll be able to spend about a day and a half or so in each city. It will be about 40 total hours of driving (that's about 5 hours over the estimate according to Google Maps, adjusting for traffic and detours).
I want to go camp, fishing, hiking, and biking; I want to get lost in used bookstores, drink coffee in locally owned cafes, eat fresh fruit and vegetables from farm markets, buy some local art, and listen to live music while drinking seasonal microbrews; and I want to learn, meditate, and just generally recharge my batteries. [Hipster alert. Ha!]
But seriously, I want and need to do all of those things. I'm really excited about this idea, and I'm hoping I can make it happen.
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