Hello,
I haven't been very active here lately (altho' I have been keeping up
with most of what's been happening in the echo.)
For what it's worth in regard to the invented spelling issue...I seem to
remember being told in some university pedagogy class that it takes an
average of only two to three repetitions to learn something, but it
takes an average of 27-30 reps to UNlearn something incorrectly learned.
As a student, I was never corrected on certain words & STILL have
problems remembering how to spell responsi/responsability.  I KNOW it's
responsi, but I WANT to spell it responsa, because that's the way I
**always** did it & I never got it marked wrong.  Oh, well.
As far as how I've been keeping busy the past week (which is all I can
really remember well enough to relate,)
Monday, a newschannel came to my classroom & 7th Period & I were on
Phoenix TV news at 6 pm.  The channel was covering a story about the
state mandated foreign language requirement for elementary schools
(districts here are trying to get it rescinded because they [lying scum]
claim that it costs $300,000 to implement a program & that they can't
find qualified teachers.
Tuesday, I spent researching WHY there aren't enough qualified teachers
(the universities encourage language majors to get secondary ed degrees
rather than elementary ed degrees & those pursuing ed degrees would find
that the course necessary to give them elementary foreign language
certification isn't offered by the universities.)  I also need to find
out how much my district is spending because I'll bet a buck it ain't
any $300,000.
Wednesday, I found out that I was getting two new students from Africa
who don't speak English & I spent Thursday trying to obtain information
about their country as well as explaining to the Powers-That-Be in
administration that, since 2 years ago the district decided Leona is not
a bilingual educator (in spite of speaking three languages,) Leona would
not be qualified to offer ESL services to these students, nor would she
be translating anything unless the same arrangement extended to the
Spanish translator would be available.  The Powers didn't bite.
Today, the two girls showed up, 13 & 14 years old.  They are from Togo.
They speak no English whatsoever, only French.  They were really nervous
& practically every African-American student in the school was trying to
meet them, as well as a goodly number of the other ethnic groups.  This
was difficult because of the no English thing.  These poor girls have
only been in the States for a week.  We had to explain what pizza,
hamburgers, corn dogs & the salad bar are for their lunch choices
because they hadn't ever before experienced those foods.  I had a
feeling they weren't really impressed with the pizza & hamburgers they
chose.
Now to my point.  Are there any educators out there, most especially
Canadian ones, who can help me obtain materials/curricula for teaching
English to French speaking students?  I will not be teaching them myself
as I teach French as a foreign language, but our ESL & bilingual
teachers do not speak French (or at least speak very little) & they will
be starting at ground zero with these two babies.
Help.
Leona Payne
... Graduate of the Uncle Fester School of Etiquette.
--- Via Silver Xpress V4.3P SW12194
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