New Log Cabin Quilt

A teacher I work with, who is otherwise an exceptional teacher, never uses the word 'an.' Instead he talks about, "a apple, a A on a exam." Drives me nuts.

Linda PATCHogue, NY

akkk! I am busy teaching my kids about *an* which is more complicated as most of the English they know I taught them in the first place and they speak Dutch at school. one would expect people to do better especially teachers however all the things I have read in this thread have made me cringe. I did once correct my English teacher when he said something wrong and then said: "that's right isn't it jessamy" I told the truth and said no and ended up with an angry teacher so I walked out of the class and headed to the principals office , complained and refused to take anymore English lessons telling him that my English was miles better than the teachers despite me being dyslexic. 6 weeks of no English later the teacher came and apologised to me in public :-D and he never asked me if he was right again HAHAHA

Howdy!

I grew up down on the border w/ Mexico. The Hispanic migrant workers' children (or migrant working students) usually didn't show up to school until late in October; missing the first 2 months of school makes for too much work to catch up. The hardest subject to catch up on was (usually) "language arts." It just goes too fast. And we take it for granted when we grow up in English-speaking homes that the subject will be taught at our level. I still admire those non-English speakers who do put up w/ all the weirdness involved in learning "English." Which makes it all the more irritating to hear those who have had all the advantages of a "U.S. English" education speaking it so poorly. Some of the ignorance is a choice.

I ain't no expert, either. ;-)

If "it goes without saying", why say it anyway? ;-P

Ragmop/Sandy--ready to Finish another quilt but the beauty of the outdoors is calling, calling me...

Howdy!

BobDole syndrome: Mr.Dole is a U.S. politician with a habit of speaking of himself in the 3rd person. Reporter: "Mr.Dole, do you have a plan for dealing with the lack of health care for children?" Mr.Dole: "Bob Dole has a plan. Bob Dole wants to count those children and find out how many don't have insurance. That's what Bob Dole will do." Might me a hangover from Mr.Nixon who used a similar technique: "You won't have Richard Nixon to kick around any more."

Megan: "just for the s> Sandy Ellis>> Howdy!

Good for you, Jessamy! My elder DD once had a middle school English teacher (by no stretch of the imagination was he either an English teacher or any kind of teacher) who gave a test and graded it incorrectly. When DD brought it home, I just about had apoplexy (isn't that a wonderful word? ) and corrected his corrections, explaining in writing why his corrections were wrong. DD took the test back to school, as required, and the teacher was so "threatened" that he never again sent any papers home. Needless to say, I complained to the administration. This was a teacher who had been bounced around from one school to another because of his incompetence, but no one could fire him. :( The children paid the penalty, sadly.

I'm with you on that one, Piglet! Aaaarrrrgghhh!

And it's really a French word.... ;)

Ginger, I ended up teaching a lot of English when I was teaching French

-- purely accidentally. It was always odd to me to hear one of my Spanish-speaking students ask why something was said in a certain way in French, when it didn't translate that way into English. My stock response was to ask them how to say a similar thing in Spanish, which was almost always a direct parallel to the French. Then I'd say it was

Boy, does that bring back memories! :)

My middle school English teacher (who also wasn't a teacher of any kind) used to make us do book reports. No problem there. We had to start out saying what kind of book it was -- novel, history, etc. One of the books I read was called "Words of the Myths", which is a book about words that derive from Greek and Roman myths. I asked my mom what kind of book it was and she suggested "philology". I looked the word up and agreed.

I hand in my paper, and it's returned with philology marked as misspelled. I marched over to the teacher and complained that I knew the word was *not* misspelled, as I had copied the spelling directly from the dictionary when I looked it up. The teacher shrugged and said "Oh, I didn't know what it meant so I marked it misspelled." What an inspiration she was to the young people of Sacramento.

The one good thing to come from the incident is that I will never forget the meaning or spelling of philology. *evil grin*

While I'm not guilty of that particular crime, I did often (used intentionally) mispronounce words as a child. Why? Because I had learned them from reading. I'd look up the meaning, but the pronunciation guides in dictionaries mystified me, so I didn't always have the correct pronunciation stuck in my head.

I was also guilty of learning a lot of words just by context, without looking them up. A local hospital had a sign that read "Permission to pass over revocable at any time." For years I wondered exactly what type of cable a revo-cable was, and why the hospital felt the need to post a sign saying it was okay to pass over it.

On Fri, 23 Feb 2007 15:35:01 -0600, Kathy Applebaum wrote (in article ):

I guess all kids have something like that. I never could figure out how a hickory stick could play a tune. And David didn't understand why "never" was a seldom heard word.

Maureen

On Fri, 23 Feb 2007 15:29:17 -0600, Kathy Applebaum wrote (in article ):

I hate teachers like that. I had a high school English teacher for 2 years that graded me down because I knew more than she did. It was a big fight to get me into the honors English track because this teacher kept refusing to sign the papers for me.

Maureen

They are "teachers" with a job, not a profession or a "calling". Sadly there are all too many of them everywhere today. I loved teaching (adult training courses) but I would not work in the current school systems and I fear many who would make inspirational school teachers - the kind we really need - feel the same.

It is sad to meet a child with a real hunger to learn and to realise that they are being stifled in their school (or home) environment. I know a couple who live near me, and when you take the time to talk to them and to push them to think and consider you can see the light in their eyes as they realise what they are capable of.

Thanks John I only just logged on to Google to try to catch up on the posts I have missed recently and I even missed you reply.

Love the LC quilt.

My sister got into teaching, for a few years, and was constantly frustrated by the other teachers attitude to only working to the minimum required. She was also one of those people who tried doing things "differently" than the other teachers would. She was so successful, she received one of those $25,000 special Mentor Award grants, that California hands out to outstanding teachers in their field. The other teachers were so jealous, they shunned her in all the interchanges they would have, such as the teachers break room. She finally got fed up with it and bailed out, with much bad feeling on her part and sense of loss from the administration and her students. It is very lonely when you challenge the group, and only works if you are strong enough to be self fulfilled.

John

How sad for her. I hope she found a challenge for her obvious talents elsewhere and that she is now appreciated by her dedication and enthusiasm.

Florida is not known for it's excellence in its schools. It does better in the weather/beach department though. (please exclude hurricanes)

That is also a pet hate of mine. Also the pronounciatioin of ask being pronounced as axed. ACK!

that would make for an interesting conversation with the police: oh yes! I axed him too! (meant as: I asked him as well)