Category Archives: Work

Sharing the Joy of Bad Movies

Today, I finally got around to watching a movie with my eighth graders. I usually manage to squeeze in a movie in the last lesson before the holidays, but due to the testing schedule there was no time before the … Continue reading

Posted in Film, Work | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Back from Yorkshire – and a Linkdump

I’m back from Yorkshire. Well, actually I got back yesterday, but I was too tired to blog or do more than catch up with my e-mails. There will be photos in the next few days, but for now here are … Continue reading

Posted in Links, TV, Work | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

No blog tonight, dear – I’ve got a headache

Yes, I’ve really got a headache, thanks to the continuing high air pressure, which does not agree with me at all. And the very noisy and very energetic fifth-graders I had to teach yesterday afternoon didn’t help either. One of … Continue reading

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Call me Popeye – Kids, character identification and self-insertion into movies

Today, I watched a film with my afternoon class, one of those Scary Movie No. Whatever horror film parodies (the students wanted to watch it – shrug – and since it’s a parody it’s acceptable), and I noticed a very … Continue reading

Posted in Work | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

More gender discussion, this time grammatical

Aliette de Bodard, Keyan Bowes and Juliette Wade all respond to this study about how grammatical gender supposedly influences perception. I must confess that when I first read the National Public Radio article (since the actual study doesn’t seem to … Continue reading

Posted in General, Work | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Teen drama, some housekeeping and ruminations on Mad Men

My afternoon class today descended into a mess of teen drama complete with kids sulking, running from the classroom, swearing to hate each other forever and so on. No tears at least – thank heavens for small mercies. The initiating … Continue reading

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Bilingual Children and the Challenges for Non-Western Readers and Writers

I’m still busy with a bigger translation job, plus I have to go to a family function on Saturday which will inevitably wear me out, even though I’d rather be anywhere else. On the plus side, just one more day … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Links, Work | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Curse of the Eraser

Why, oh why do our fifth grade English textbooks insist on teaching kids that this is called a “rubber”? Now “rubber” is not wrong, but “eraser” is the far more common term for the object in question. Nor is “eraser” … Continue reading

Posted in Work | Tagged , | 12 Comments

Dentist woes, Star Wars hide and seek and big Amazon news

Even though the dentist assured me yesterday that yes, my Dad would be able to drive again this morning, he was still too woozy to drive. I suspect that there is a genetic quirk in my family that makes us … Continue reading

Posted in Personal, Work | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Out of gas or where do ideas come from?

I’ve been feeling very out of sorts and worn out these past two weeks. Partly this is because of a translation job, which mainly requires translating a lot of e-mails sent back and forth at every time of the day … Continue reading

Posted in Work, Writing | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment