This is one of my favorite poems

LOVE IN THE CLASSROOM
by Al Zolynas
--for my students


Afternoon. Across the garden, in Green Hall,
someone begins playing the old piano--
a spontaneous piece, amateurish and alive,
full of a simple, joyful melody.
The music floats among us in the classroom.

I stand in front of my students
telling them about sentence fragments.
I ask them to find the ten fragments
in the twenty-one-sentence paragraph on page forty-five.
They've come from all parts
of the world--Iran, Micronesia, Africa,
Japan, China, even Los Angeles--and they're still
eager to please me. It's less than half
way through the quarter.

They bend over their books and begin.
Hamid's lips move as he follows
the tortuous labyrinth of English syntax.
Yoshie sits erect, perfect in her pale make-up,
legs crossed, quick pulse minutely
jerking her right foot. Tony,
from an island in the South Pacific, sprawls
limp and relaxed in his desk.

The melody floats around and through us
in the room, broken here and there, fragmented,
re-started. It feels Mideastern, but
it could be jazz, or the blues--it could be
anything from anywhere.
I sit down on my desk to wait,
and it hits me from nowhere--a sudden,
sweet, almost painful love for my students.

"Nevermind," I want to cry out.
"It doesn't matter about fragments.
Finding them or not. Everything's
a fragment and everything's not a fragment.
Listen to the music, how fragmented,
how whole, how we can't separate the music
from the sun falling on its knees on all the greenness,
from this moment, how this moment
contains all the fragments of yesterday
and everything we'll ever know of tomorrow!"

Instead, I keep a coward's silence.
The music stops abruptly;
they finish their work,
and we go through the right answers,
which is to say
we separate the fragments from the whole.



---

I love this poem because I can relate to the coward side it expresses, how it touches on what I've been writing here lately, that we focus on the details and miss the bigger picture. Do the students just come to class to learn what a simile is and how it is different from a metaphor? Do they come to class to just sit there and dream? Does the teacher come to class only just to teach what a term means or what an essay is supposed to look like formally? Or is there something more that we both, students and teachers, come to class for? Isn't there something more that you take away with you after a class period is over? After all the analyzing and/or memorizing is done, what is it that we're left with?

Personally, I'm left with what Zolynas calls here, that "sudden, sweet, almost painful love for my students". I love the fact, that as a teacher, I get to hear and read ideas from all of you at a time when you're all learning and changing, I get to see your progress and sometimes regress (and I wonder if that's my fault), I am inspired by so many students, especially being here at MC where everyone is from a different corner of the world with such interesting, unusual, original lives. The painful part is that I know you now but I might not know what you'll become even if I have some idea of it, though it remains an idea, probably a vague one. There are things that I cannot cover in a 50 minute period, things I may want to say just like the speaker here, but I coward and don't say anything for fear of sounding too gay or whatever, heh, or I don't say anything because I know you'll get it in your own ways, in your own terms, in your own time...some things are meant for us to learn on our own, nobody can teach us. I don't want to be a teller of secrets. I'd rather show you clues. Ideally, this is what I want to do as a teacher. I'm not always able to achieve that though. But I love to learn and adopt/adjust myself.

What about you? What do you take away after the learning and relearning has been done and over with? What do you care about the most about your experience as a student? What do you, ideally want to be and/or do as a student?

ags

The 'Roald Dahl' Family?!?!?!?

Well, that was what my friend called my family

I've never read any of Roald Dahl's work...

But here is how the label came to be...


My family used to rear Mill Worms, containers and containers of them, just go to the library, and go to the shelves, it covers one entire row of shelves, believe me.

Every evening the whole family will be sitting on stools, under the fluorescent light, with chopsticks and bear fingers, going through the different containers containing the different 'growing stages' of the worm.

I've never liked the idea of rearing worms, but the business was great! I would remember having to clean up the worms, picking up the dead ones, seperating the cacoons and sifting the eggs from the wheat 'breeding ground'. The process would take hours, and it always happened in the evening. Although i didn't quite enjoy rearing worms, i did enjoy sinking my hands into the container of worms, (the worms ain't slimy) and feel it going through my fingers and crawling onto my palm. It was so nice to feel them silking around. Just like holding silk! HAHAHAHAHA...

I'm writing this in a hurry because I'm supposed to be in class, thus this is subject to editing!

-Daron-

Assignment for next week

Hey everybody,

Here's the link to Roald Dahl's short story "Lamb to the Slaughter".

http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/lamb.html

Print out a copy for yourselves and have this read by the time you come to class on Tuesday along with the chapter I handed out to you today on short story writing, and Yasunari Kawabata's "The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket". Enjoy!

Ani

Aussie English

I can tell you guys that Aussie English is the most difficult for me to listen. I don't know why? However, the 1st sentence or word that I heard was....
"G'DAY MATE"(gidday mate)..umm....what is he talking about??!! I kinda confused.
Then he kept saying "how are you doing "today"? and it was like "to die". Ahh.. excuse me..what did u say?? I am not gonna die yet!!!!...he laughted at me, and said today not to die..Ok...I got better, and everything was fine after that..

Um..yeh..there are still many Aussie slangs that I cannot think of it at the moment. These are some of them, and they can make you wonder (maybe)...

G'Day : hello!
Amber fluid : beer
Ambo : ambulance, ambulance driver
Ankle biter : small child
Barbie : barbecue (noun)
Barrack : to cheer on (football team etc.)
Captain Cook : look(noun) ("let's have a Captain Cook")

Surasak Srisuchan

The River is Here

Down the mountain the river flows
And it brings refreshing wherever it goes
Through the valleys and over the fields
The river is rushing and the river is here

Chorus:
The river of God sets my feet a-dancing
The river of God fills our hearts with cheer
The river of God fills our mouths with laughter
And we rejoice for the river is here

The river of God is teeming with life
And all who touch it can be revived
And those who linger on this river's shore
Will come back thirsting for more of the Lord

Up to the mountain, we love to go
To find the presence of the Lord
Along the banks of the river we run
We dance with laughter giving praise to the Son

Hey Daron and Julie

This morning you were up there on stage singing that beautiful river song. I had never heard it before. I just love it. Would you be able to post the lyrics of it here? I can't promise extra points but I will be very grateful! Where did you guys find this one?

Ani

I Just Don't Get It...!

I was just thinking about what Mrs. Ani said about how people have different perceptions differently about the same thing. There are advantages and disadvantages to that. The different opinions that we get are interesting because to me, I get to know other people's views and in a way, it makes me see the way they see something. Unfortunately, when people misinterpret what they are seeing, then that is the disadvantage.

In poetry we learn that there are no wrong or right answers, JUST as long we can support our answers. This is the same with interpreting a subject. There is no right or wrong answer to it as long as it is relevant. To be a good reader and listener, we must be open to the opinions of others. If we are closed and narrow minded, we cannot see them as a good thing and instead condemn them.

I have a friend back home who kept on asking me about the Second coming. I honestly know nothing about it except for the general idea that Jesus will come and every eye will see Him. My friend who reads the Bible and Sabbath school lessons like her text books somehow did not get the right message. She kept asking me for the signs and how scary it would become when Jesus comes in the future. One thing that scares her is "Jesus is coming soon!" She keeps hearing about people who had done their research and that He will come in the next two years. How much can we believe this? This kind of research was done before and yet it never happened. I told her about this but she somehow did not want to accept my explanation and only wanted to stick to her own answer (if that was the case, why bother asking me when she did not want to accept my explanation in the first place?!) I gave up trying to explain things to her and I only asked myself how poeple could go so far away and not look at the logical side?
There are things that can be so believing and yet they are not the truth. I guess faith plays an important role in this, which also helps us in making the right decisions. I'm not sure how to end this story, but there you go...


Fiona

Rambling on perception

I believe we all suffer from perception deficiency. In fact, I believe we're all excessively judgmental. This post is nothing but another judgment on someone else's judgment. But I'll post it anyway for what it's worth.

After the first FOF meeting today I heard people say that they didn't like it. That comment was interesting but even more so was how it was backed up. They didn't like it because it felt too personal to them, too much like a personal testimony without relying in the Bible and therefore it didn't build a strong connection with the audience or try to relate to issues of faith (outside of the speaker) that the audience might be struggling with.

What often puzzles and disappoints me is our failure to see the bigger picture. How can we say what a given speaker is supposed to say about faith when we don't have enough faith on that person to be able to explain himself to begin with? This was the first speech in a series that will go on this week. How do we know the impact of a whole week's messages if we make up our minds about it from the start? Sure, we can go ahead and form an opinion on what the speech was like, we can go ahead and predict what the next one might be like, or when or how the speaker will do his best or loose his cool, but to say that this first speech didn't say enough in terms of faith and what this festival means, when we have no idea what is to come, or how the speaker will make connections and relate what he says to us, I think that's our clear falling short on understanding (or are we falling short on listening? Or is that the same thing?).

When one wants to say something -- be it through words in writing or in a speech, or through colors/shapes in a painting, or through music, sculpture, or even through acts of violence, even through acts of mercy -- one is sending out a message (even when they're not consciously trying to), but the truth is that message will never be the same one for everybody. That message insists against definition. That message will always remain open to interpretation. You all experienced this the day we had the 5 senses experiment. The music pieces were all the same; the scented inhaler was the same; and the food too, yet you all came up with such uncomparable, unrelated descriptions among the eight of you.

Not one thing in this world is exactly and only just that one thing. It is what it is to Johnny, for example, plus what Johnny can never conceive it to be because perception is limited. Or is it? We didn't get Jesus when Jesus was around. We don't get Jesus now either. Or Buddha. Or the next person we befriend, or the next person we hate, or even ourselves. I mean we don't get someone -- their behavior, actions -- as in not exactly, not always, not all of us do. Some people say they get God and that too is just their own understanding, somewhat different from everyone else's no matter if they belong to the same faith, same congregation or even the same family. I think that is fantastic, I think thank God for that, I mean I love the fact that one thing can be so many things depending on the mind that perceives it. At the same time, this idea makes me feel restless. We have the ability to see something in so many ways but when we fail to see it, does that mean the thing loses meaning completely? Does that mean we are lost to it forever? The thing ceizes to exist? Is God dead until we find him? Is a poem or a book dead until it's read by someone? If we fail to perceive something, are we losing out on ourselves? Do we diminish? Questions, questions. Things I'll need to think more through but, for now, there is this long ramble in my head and fortunately or unfortunately, in yours too if you read through.

Ani

a post

"Air" in malay means water, but of course it's pronounced differently. Water. I need water right now. i have an almost empty bottle of water. but i won't drink from it till i'm done writing for 20 minutes. so my almost emptied bottle of water would be a sort of bribe fore me to complete this write up. i haven't written much in the last five weeks. only did minor writings like fillin up legal documents and jotting down friends' numbers. my head is pounding. pressure is rising. water, when pressurized would becom a lethal weapon. it could blow a plastic bottle to pieces. i saw this on mythbusters. the weight of water would relase pressure on solid matter thrown into the abyss of mystery...ahhahaha, the sea lah!!! :D i feel like i'm constantly swimming in this never ending waterin hold. i see others here. these others are the many things that i need to accomplish. unfortunately, i can't swim. so the current in the watering hole (i'm aware that watering holes don't have currents) is just pulling me into greater problems. trouble flow in like water gushing out from a leaked bottle. sometimes it explodes on me like the niagara falls. i've never been to the niagara falls before. luckily, there is a constant reminder of how nice it is to be relaxing under cool refreshing water.... my shower!!! water explosions are fun. i remember throwing plastic bags of toilet water with toothpaste from my fourth floor flat.....i remember my dad throwing me in the sea, hoping miraculously that i would learn to swim. i think i need water bombs thrown at me this very instant........i need to awake from this dry depressing state......wouldn't it be nice if i had a water bed? i like water, i need water yet still i get afraid of it. sometimes. i'm kinda watery now, all i need is reaching that freezing point where my molecules would stop vibrating and my mind and soul would be...hopefully....as hard as rock ice!!!

okay okay guys, i wrote this when we in our first creative writing class...

hope u guys are inspired to drink more water!

Hear Ye Omniscribblers!

Please don't forget to turn in your questionaires tomorrow by 5pm. E-mail them to me at:

gjika@missioncollege.edu

Also, I won't be able to have all your first drafts (on the 5 senses' experiment) ready with comments by tomorrow so I will bring them to you in class on Tuesday and you can turn in the final drafts the following Tuesday (it's Festival of Faith this week so I thought I'll give you a little extra time).

I haven't seen many journal entries in here lately. Reflections, reveries, dreams, wild imaginings, nonsensical sense, mental agitations, provocations, hallucinations, word cravings and word carvings, what have you and have you nots. Knotted thoughts and lose memories. Ah, the fun I've deprived myself of. Let's start over. Maybe you'll be inspired by next week's speeches too. I know you'll be busy but spend a few minutes here also, make a little time for this little space also.

Have a great, refreshed, and blessed week,
Ani