Tom S——

Tea.

Warm tea.

Went shopping for breakfasts. I need to work on budgeting. I haven’t been paid yet, (which should be in the next few days) and I have a few steps to take before I can get assistance covering the rent.

That comes to, today, $30.23.

Teaching: planning

L’épistémologie (du grec ancien ἐπιστήμη / epistếmê « connaissance vraie, science » et λόγος / lógos « discours ») peut désigner deux concepts :

• dans le monde francophone : l’étude critique des sciences¹ et de la connaissance scientifique ;
• dans le monde anglo-saxon : l’étude de la connaissance en général².

I’ve been given some indications as to the instruction of the classes I am to assist in.

Some of the classes will be split into groups, so that I can work with small groups at a time.

Two weeks in

The classes have been something like what I expected. Most of my classes are split so that I only have a few students at a time (usually between eight and twelve). The first couple³ were mostly introduction, so I had the whole class for a time and answered questions they had. One class has gotten my Kentucky accent, the rest have a “standard” American accent.

I know that, given my epistemological experience, I have little ground on which to build a curriculum. The classes I’m teaching focus mostly on practising using the language. The one thing that I can give my students that their other teachers cannot is a native ear. I can correct and improve accent, pronunciation, grammar, and diction. What I would like to help the upper level classes with is improving their confidence speaking in public (regardless of the context) and to help them write compellingly and be able to argue a written thesis.

Axes of instruction and introduction

Thanksgiving

With one teacher, I’ve been introducing a series on Thanksgiving. The history, the traditions, the modern reality.

Politically private

The American interest in the private lives of our leaders. The effect of scandal and media representation.

Apparently, most French people are not much concerned with the personal live of their leaders. Presidents who go through marital problems, have affairs, get divorces and remarried, &c. are of no worry. The import is in the record of a politician’s actions. What they do and say holds water based on their political history.

It’s a place where I don’t know what the right answer is. Rumour and hearsay are as likely to influence an American voter as fact. Television and ease of access to unverified information and unweighed speculation make it quite easy to build political frameworks that suit how I want to see the current political climate⁴. I wonder if there’s a way to make a politician’s voting record not just easily available, but the primary lens through which we see them. I want to listen to a politician and know immediately if what (s)he is saying is aligned with the views (s)he has claimed to support in the past and far more importantly how they have cast their votes on previous bills related to the issue. (As well as whether or not there are obvious mitigating factors for those votes that might seem out of character)⁵. Sure it’s not always feasible to do all the research for the several hundred representatives and senators, but it should be simple enough to do so for those in whose term I have a role in deciding. I can be informed about those senators and representatives who are supposed to represent me.

Skit

One of my classes is going to be taking a rather important test in January. They will need to present orally on a subject. I do not know how it will be graded yet; I will have access to the grading scale soon enough.

In the meantime we’ll practice just speaking. I started the class on Friday by putting each the students on the spot. I asked them to tell me one of their talents, and to show me if possible. It was a lot of fun just going over them, but that’s not where it ended. We are going to build on their talents by creating a skit, ideally a comedy, based on their talents. We have everything from horseback riding to liking sports. One student can put her fingers under her ribs, another can do a Stitch voice, another’s talent is to annoy those around him.

So one of the tasks that we’re going to work on over the semester is a skit that we’ll present to the other group. They’ll be writing it and performing it entirely in English.

Debate

One of my younger classes has been asked to run a short debate and mock election based on two American political candidates. The class went over two short clips (about 30 seconds long) over each candidate, which they’ll get to argue about for as long as they’d like. Then we’ll run a quick round of voting to see which candidate has won.