Tag: teaching
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Summer Writing & Smiles
I smiled today. It was nearly involuntary. It emanated like a ray of light piercing through a small hole. That smile was summer. I’m finishing up my second year of living in Saudi Arabia and a whole two-month writing bonanza stares me in the face. Oh sure, there’ll be family and barbecues and fresh berries…
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Sally, Where are you?
I’ve been rummaging through boxes of old mementos, and I came across a letter from a former student of mine. Here name was Sally. That’s not her real name. She’s Chinese from Dalian where I spent the summer of 1993. I remember her well. She taught me to play Chinese chess, which I have since forgotten.…
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Cool Your Jets, Teachers. I know I have.
Between my writing and dramas and other pursuits, I do this regular thing called my day job where I teach for a living. I really do enjoy it. I’ve been doing it in various settings for the past twenty-two years. I’ve noticed one thing that’s changed about my approach to teaching the last couple of…
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Public Shame in Education: Some Cultures Use It
This article about a teacher being terminated for supposedly “bullying” a bully made me think about an amusing incident when I was living in Vietnam. I know nothing about the situation in the article, so I cannot comment whether the school administrators were right or not. However, the contrast in the educational philosophies between the United States…
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Is this an opinionated question? (An example from Truman & the A-bomb)
As a teacher, sometimes I’m asked this question about the questions I ask my students: “Is this an opinionated question?” “Yes it is,” I reply. “So you can’t mark it off, right? It’s just an opinion.” “Oh no, you can most definitely get it wrong.” “But how can an opinion be wrong?” “Perhaps an opinion…
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Getting what we earn. Nothing more.
Each new school year I am confronted with a new crop of students who tend to think they deserve what they have not earned. Now don’t get me wrong, I have incredibly motivated students who do earn a lot. But it’s never enough. And here is, invariably, where the situation arises. After I return a…
Author Mark W Sasse 