Interludes - Travel

Short trip back to California for a week 6/2 has preoccupied me; as well as my backpack finally breaking (8 solid years of daily use as a student bag and an EDC).  I've had to do a lot of footwork (physically and online) to find something I liked at a reasonable price.  Then too, a lot of preparatory buying of things for the trip.  Making lists of what to take back, what to bring back (there's always something you forget).

On the teaching side, I've been making targeted translation quizzes for my ESL students - it's a better way of testing both grammar and vocabulary because sheer memorization wont help you, especially when combined with the need to use proper grammar - simple word/meaning substitution often wont do.

Of course, this is somewhat limited by my own Chinese language skills, which do not even approach my students'.  We seem to make do.  I've also been analyzing the "New TOEIC" (now with 30% less calories, 45% more vitamins, and all natural ingredients!) exam.  One of my students, a middle schooler whose parent's thought he was somewhat a lost cause, has been emboldened by exceeding their expectations on the GEPT.  He's decided to take on the TOEIC (which is surprisingly, much like a business-vocab focused GEPT) even though he is, perhaps, too young.  I think he'll do fine though.

I'm starting to run out of read-along books though.  And movies (at least, for younger students; come on pixar, churn out some more stuff).

For my creative writing student - I've been trying to find books and authors that can help in our lessons.  It's one thing to talk about exposition and active scenes and so forth - it's another entirely to see how it goes so right you forget you're even reading, or goes so wrong you might as well forget reading.  As with many types of art, imitation can be instructional.  And then there's also grammar - rules, conventions, common errors, and so forth.  A painter needs to know many things besides how to convey an object; he also needs to know how not to mess up his paints and brushes.  And writing is painting with words.

It's been busy.

In the meantime, my mind has been absorbed with a high middle (well look, it's not low) fantasy story - probably due in part to Skyrim, and part in due to playing Ascension and Lords of Waterdeep.  Go figure.  Something, anyway, has been inspiring me to tell a tale of betrayal and a job gone wrong.  Between ~24 hrs in the air (11 leaving, 13 returning) and lots of nothing to do in Cali (except drive my beloved car and eat), I should be able to get a good amount of writing done.