Contagious joy! I got on the bus the other day, and the driver asked, "How are you?" I answered, "Terrific! How are you?" He said, "I'm not terrific yet, but I'm working on it--now that I have a role model."
Wow.
That got me to thinking that, for better or for worse, we really are role models. I'm grateful to the Lord that I could spread joy to the driver and the one other passenger on the bus at the time. In that short encounter, they didn't learn the reason for my joy, but I knew, and could thank the Giver of all Good Things for His gifts. (I'm praying for the opportunity to ride his bus again!)
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Saturday, October 13, 2007
It's a Joy being a Teacher!
Aren't these a beautiful group of women? These are some of the women I teach thru the Cross Culture Club. (Two women left and four more have joined since this pic was taken.) God has given me such a love for these wonderful women! We have a great time learning together, and it always thrills me when I see friendships develop between students. I always teach them about the motto: "If mama aint' happy, ain't nobody happy." Of course I have to explain the slang, but they understand the principle: A woman's attitude has a huge influence over everybody under her roof! Not all of these women are married, nor are all mothers, but they know that they need to work at finding joy while they're here for the good of all concerned.
Some of these women are highly educated and can run circles around me if we were comparing occupations. Most of them are unable to work while here because their visas do not permit it. That can be incredibly frustrating. Or, as I encourage them to think of it, it can be an unthought-of opportunity (if they were back home) to allow themselves to try something new and have some fun!
This is my 8th year of teaching. It's hard to believe that this summer I was really thinking I was about through with it. But, as the Lord would have it, we didn't hold summer classes because enrollment was too low. God is so gracious. I really needed the break. It gave me a fresh perspective. It allowed me to realize that I absolutely enjoy teaching internationals and can't imagine doing otherwise. I entered the Fall of 2007 anxious to begin and full of the Joy of the Lord Who is my strength to do the job!
Friday, October 12, 2007
Maiden Voyage of the Journey
I'm in love with the printed page. Always have been. My dear husband tells me that I could do a blog on our .Mac site, and I'll probably move this there one day. But for now, I'm in the mood for conquering virtual mountains on my own while he's off hunting in the, uh, really virtual mountains.
I should be cleaning my kitchen, which is crying for some attention, but I always do my best writing when I should be working, so here I am.
Rather than give you a backlog of info, let me tell you where my life is today. I'm currently enrolled in a TESOL course. That's Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, for those of you who are Acronymically deprived. The course I'm doing is online, which is a new experience for me. Actually, being a student (instead of a teacher) is a new experience for me, at least as an adult. I graduated from Christian Heritage College many moons ago, did the Mommy Track for years (although I worked a part-time succession of jobs), and finally, in 2000, began using my English and Education degrees when I started teaching conversational English to the spouses of international students and scholars associated with the U of U.
We've all seen movies or read stories of creative individuals who have managed to mask their illiteracy from the public eye. Maybe even from the private eye, too! Well, I think I've learned a bit of what that feels like. No. I'm not illiterate! But, no thanks to the California educational system in the 60's and 70's, to my own mental blocks, or to my college which graduated me with a degree in English, I can't communicate grammar. I can use it. (Almost) perfectly. I just can't tell you what's what.
Fortunately all of the English classes I've taught, up to this point, have been conversational English classes. Phooey on studying about the language: let's just use it. Really, it's a good concept. BUT, now I'm teaching real English to people who actually ask, "What is the gerund form of the word compose?" and I'm supposed to know it. Can you believe it?
The best way to learn English is to teach English, so I've heard. It doesn't hurt to take classes on how to be a teacher, either: they make you learn it, too. I wanted to do this back when Bethany was in 11th grade. Skeeter, then in 7th, told me, "I think you should wait until Bethany graduates." Hmm. Out of the mouths of babes? There's a message here, I told myself, so I heeded it.
Three years later, I broached the subject again. By then, Skeeter himself was in 10th grade. His response this time? He looked me in the eye, and with an impish grin said, "You want to be there for the best years of my life, don't you?" Now, there are two times in a mother's life when she needs to be there for her kids: 1) when they say, "Mom, get out of here," and 2) when they say, "Mom, I want you here." Of all the jobs I've had, Mom is definitely the tops, so I set my aspirations aside, subbed at Skeeter's school (and was known to all, with his blessing, as "Skeeter's mom"), wrote and got paid for three personal histories, worked for Kelly Temps, continued teaching conversational English, counted heads during the Census, etc. All this was pretty much done during the hours that he was in school. Not a bad way to go! I tell you, his high school years were some of the best years of my life, too, because I was involved!
So here I am in 2007. Mark and I have no time to bemoan our empty nest. We're busier than ever. We're both involved in Bible studies. He's in a community chorale. We have a blast co-teaching one of the Cross Culture Club conversational English classes one night a week. The students seem to find us fairly amusing, and "the Mark & Julie Show" (as I think of it) may be their best opportunity to get to know an American couple very well. We relish the opportunity!
Skeeter's "empty" bedroom has hosted a number of missionaries and friends who have stopped through here. (He's not officially gone--just off at school. More about that another time.) We moved a year after Bethany got married, so we no longer have a shrine to her teenage years. Sigh. Someone else is enjoying the bright yellow walls dotted with white daisies. It was a really cool room!
God is good to us! We have pretty good health, lots of energy, terrific friends, a wonderful church, plenty of opportunity, and fairly good brains. Correction: Mark has an amazing brain--he's ALWAYS learning new computer programs and putting them to use. (He manages three or four websites, designs Power Point [or the Mac equivalent, which is Keynote] presentations for neuro nursing classes he teaches, etc.) He's doing his best to ward off Alzheimers! Honestly, that's part of why I agreed to do the student track myself. My next step will be a Master's degree in Linguistics, which scares the socks off of me, but I'll deal with that when I get there.
So, in the meantime, I'll plug away with my online TESOL course, stay busy using my writing skills as I design curriculum, make up tests, quizzes, dialogs, and even grammar songs for class, and only heed the kitchen clutter when I can't get to my computer!
Just in case you were wondering about the gerund thing, the answer is "composing." It is an -ing form of a verb and used as a noun (as opposed to the present participle which is the -ing form as a verb structure). Wow!
JOY!
Julie
I should be cleaning my kitchen, which is crying for some attention, but I always do my best writing when I should be working, so here I am.
Rather than give you a backlog of info, let me tell you where my life is today. I'm currently enrolled in a TESOL course. That's Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, for those of you who are Acronymically deprived. The course I'm doing is online, which is a new experience for me. Actually, being a student (instead of a teacher) is a new experience for me, at least as an adult. I graduated from Christian Heritage College many moons ago, did the Mommy Track for years (although I worked a part-time succession of jobs), and finally, in 2000, began using my English and Education degrees when I started teaching conversational English to the spouses of international students and scholars associated with the U of U.
We've all seen movies or read stories of creative individuals who have managed to mask their illiteracy from the public eye. Maybe even from the private eye, too! Well, I think I've learned a bit of what that feels like. No. I'm not illiterate! But, no thanks to the California educational system in the 60's and 70's, to my own mental blocks, or to my college which graduated me with a degree in English, I can't communicate grammar. I can use it. (Almost) perfectly. I just can't tell you what's what.
Fortunately all of the English classes I've taught, up to this point, have been conversational English classes. Phooey on studying about the language: let's just use it. Really, it's a good concept. BUT, now I'm teaching real English to people who actually ask, "What is the gerund form of the word compose?" and I'm supposed to know it. Can you believe it?
The best way to learn English is to teach English, so I've heard. It doesn't hurt to take classes on how to be a teacher, either: they make you learn it, too. I wanted to do this back when Bethany was in 11th grade. Skeeter, then in 7th, told me, "I think you should wait until Bethany graduates." Hmm. Out of the mouths of babes? There's a message here, I told myself, so I heeded it.
Three years later, I broached the subject again. By then, Skeeter himself was in 10th grade. His response this time? He looked me in the eye, and with an impish grin said, "You want to be there for the best years of my life, don't you?" Now, there are two times in a mother's life when she needs to be there for her kids: 1) when they say, "Mom, get out of here," and 2) when they say, "Mom, I want you here." Of all the jobs I've had, Mom is definitely the tops, so I set my aspirations aside, subbed at Skeeter's school (and was known to all, with his blessing, as "Skeeter's mom"), wrote and got paid for three personal histories, worked for Kelly Temps, continued teaching conversational English, counted heads during the Census, etc. All this was pretty much done during the hours that he was in school. Not a bad way to go! I tell you, his high school years were some of the best years of my life, too, because I was involved!
So here I am in 2007. Mark and I have no time to bemoan our empty nest. We're busier than ever. We're both involved in Bible studies. He's in a community chorale. We have a blast co-teaching one of the Cross Culture Club conversational English classes one night a week. The students seem to find us fairly amusing, and "the Mark & Julie Show" (as I think of it) may be their best opportunity to get to know an American couple very well. We relish the opportunity!
Skeeter's "empty" bedroom has hosted a number of missionaries and friends who have stopped through here. (He's not officially gone--just off at school. More about that another time.) We moved a year after Bethany got married, so we no longer have a shrine to her teenage years. Sigh. Someone else is enjoying the bright yellow walls dotted with white daisies. It was a really cool room!
God is good to us! We have pretty good health, lots of energy, terrific friends, a wonderful church, plenty of opportunity, and fairly good brains. Correction: Mark has an amazing brain--he's ALWAYS learning new computer programs and putting them to use. (He manages three or four websites, designs Power Point [or the Mac equivalent, which is Keynote] presentations for neuro nursing classes he teaches, etc.) He's doing his best to ward off Alzheimers! Honestly, that's part of why I agreed to do the student track myself. My next step will be a Master's degree in Linguistics, which scares the socks off of me, but I'll deal with that when I get there.
So, in the meantime, I'll plug away with my online TESOL course, stay busy using my writing skills as I design curriculum, make up tests, quizzes, dialogs, and even grammar songs for class, and only heed the kitchen clutter when I can't get to my computer!
Just in case you were wondering about the gerund thing, the answer is "composing." It is an -ing form of a verb and used as a noun (as opposed to the present participle which is the -ing form as a verb structure). Wow!
JOY!
Julie
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