1. Over the past year, I've often been greeted by clumps of feces on my walk to work. It's a fifteen-ish minute walk to work, through a couple alleys, past a big apartment complex, across a few main streets, but I can almost always count on a few clumps of feces. Of course there's bird feces, but sometimes I see unusually large clumps that look altogether too familiar --- maybe a dog, maybe (oh God I hope not)..human? It happens with such regularity, and I can almost always see these steaming piles of dung sitting by a bag of rotten kimchi. Together, it might be the grossest smell I've ever come across. And it might be days (one time almost a week!) before the poop gets cleaned up -- so day after day it's a like an old friend greeting me on my way to work. There are no dumpsters here in Korea -- people leave their garbage in bags on the side of the street for the garbage collectors to take away.
2. Doug Lemov's 49 Technique to become a champion teacher is a great read. He has spent years studying what actually makes great teachers great, and his findings show that teaching is not an innate gift that some people have and other don't, but it's a craft that takes years of practice to learn. I like his approach, one that always asks the simple questions: "What do you do when a student says 'I don't know'? What's the best course of action to take?"
3. It's that time of the year again! Well year no, maybe month. The middle school students are in for yet another months of intense prepping to get ready for yet another epic national test at the end of the month. SO my middle school classes have been transformed into test prep classes. My job? Help students memorize passages out of their textbook, passages that will appear on the big test. The idea? If the students have the passage memorized, they will be able to answer the questions and/or translate whatever is given to them without even thinking.
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