(no subject)
Saturday, 9 October 2010 07:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eighthphaseBit of a disjointed post, here, but. First, Reasoning With Vampires is pretty funny, I've found.
Also, I've learned that I can never really sleep very late on Saturdays, just late enough to miss Pokémon. It's a little annoying, because the other show I watch on Saturdays (mainly because my lazy ass can't seem to stay up until 8:30 to watch it on Fridays... which means I also miss Supernatural :C) isn't on until like nine.
My cat is trying to eat me and I don't know why.
Yesterday was not a day for outlining, though I did get some done. It was, actually, a day for reading! I bought three books on Thursday: that night I got about a quarter of the way through one, which I'm about halfway through now; I started and finished another yesterday, and I'm a few chapters into the third. My list of things to read is actually pretty long, but I feel like I'm making headway, sort of!
Also I dyed my hair yesterday. I think it looks pretty nice, although of course it smells like hair dye now, even though I was extra careful to wash it all out. (Kind of ironic, because earlier in the day someone was smelling my hair and commenting on how it smelled so nice, "like Mexican candy!" It sure doesn't smell like that now.)
Also yesterday, I started helping out my English teacher. Once she remembered what I was actually there for (I'd told her in the morning, but I guess she'd forgotten) she was all, "Okay, normally I wouldn't have a TA do this, but I think you're up for the task," and handed me a stack of essays her freshman class had written. She explained the criteria I was supposed to be grading them on, told me to ask if I had any questions, and left me to it.
Those essays were terrible. I know I was in an honours class freshman year (and every year, actually) but goddamn I do not remember writing that badly. Maybe in third grade I did, but certainly not ninth. Are students not learning about grammar any more? Does Mrs Haynes need to teach English to every student ever before they get to high school? I mean, I could mostly understand what they were trying to say, so I guess in that respect the English they do have hasn't failed them, but ridiculous run-on sentences? Comma splices, or sentence fragments all over the place? Capitalising random words? Shifting verb tenses all over the damn place? (Although our AP teachers last year kept reminding my class that, when writing an essay, one should pick a verb tense and stick with it, so I'm really not sure whether to be appalled or resigned at that one.)
I learned something important in doing that, and that is that I could never ever ever do my English teacher's job. And I told her that several times, and also that she was amazing and awesome and incredible for doing it herself. I respect her so much more now, after just one day of grading essays.
Also, I've learned that I can never really sleep very late on Saturdays, just late enough to miss Pokémon. It's a little annoying, because the other show I watch on Saturdays (mainly because my lazy ass can't seem to stay up until 8:30 to watch it on Fridays... which means I also miss Supernatural :C) isn't on until like nine.
My cat is trying to eat me and I don't know why.
Yesterday was not a day for outlining, though I did get some done. It was, actually, a day for reading! I bought three books on Thursday: that night I got about a quarter of the way through one, which I'm about halfway through now; I started and finished another yesterday, and I'm a few chapters into the third. My list of things to read is actually pretty long, but I feel like I'm making headway, sort of!
Also I dyed my hair yesterday. I think it looks pretty nice, although of course it smells like hair dye now, even though I was extra careful to wash it all out. (Kind of ironic, because earlier in the day someone was smelling my hair and commenting on how it smelled so nice, "like Mexican candy!" It sure doesn't smell like that now.)
Also yesterday, I started helping out my English teacher. Once she remembered what I was actually there for (I'd told her in the morning, but I guess she'd forgotten) she was all, "Okay, normally I wouldn't have a TA do this, but I think you're up for the task," and handed me a stack of essays her freshman class had written. She explained the criteria I was supposed to be grading them on, told me to ask if I had any questions, and left me to it.
Those essays were terrible. I know I was in an honours class freshman year (and every year, actually) but goddamn I do not remember writing that badly. Maybe in third grade I did, but certainly not ninth. Are students not learning about grammar any more? Does Mrs Haynes need to teach English to every student ever before they get to high school? I mean, I could mostly understand what they were trying to say, so I guess in that respect the English they do have hasn't failed them, but ridiculous run-on sentences? Comma splices, or sentence fragments all over the place? Capitalising random words? Shifting verb tenses all over the damn place? (Although our AP teachers last year kept reminding my class that, when writing an essay, one should pick a verb tense and stick with it, so I'm really not sure whether to be appalled or resigned at that one.)
I learned something important in doing that, and that is that I could never ever ever do my English teacher's job. And I told her that several times, and also that she was amazing and awesome and incredible for doing it herself. I respect her so much more now, after just one day of grading essays.
