All Good Things Must Come to an End

I've been so busy over the last few weeks that it has been hard to get to everybody's blog to leave a comment but I'll try again today! I'm finished with the first group (5 weeks) of summer students. We had a banquet last night with salmon and beef and samba dancers.(But we didn't eat the dancers!) It was fun. One of my students gave me some chocolates!

Now we get a new group on Monday and we start all over again. It seems odd to have them for only a short time.

I hope everybody in the LEAP program is getting lots of sleep and preparing well for those final exams. I wish you all good health and a positive attitude so that you can do your best. Please let me know when your graduation is. It would be such a pleasure for me to see you graduate!

Making friends with Canadians

Jamie gave me to good idea of writing on this topic because I really do have a few things to say.

First of all, it is hard for our LEAP students to make Canadian friends because you take all your classes with other foreigners. I know that the friendships you make with your classmates are special and some of them will last for the rest of your life. I love to see how you tease each other through your comments on everyone's blog. I think one of the great joys of life is in the friends we make.

What might be some of the reasons you are shy to make friends with Canadians? Perhaps you think they don't want to make friends with foreigners. In some cases you would be right. Some don't. Too bad for them. They are missing out on the terrific friend you could be to them. Don't worry about that. Many people on campus and in your neighborhoods or dorms would love to get to know you. Be friendly and say yes when people invite you do do something - even something simple like going out for coffee.

Perhaps you think your English is not good enough. Oh.... bullshit! All of you have English far better than you realize. Anyway, what people value in friends is not their perfect English. It is the quality contents of their personality. If you know yourself to be a good person... then get out there and make friends.

Do you think that you don't have time? What nonsense. A good Canadian friend will help you learn English so fast that your head will spin. They might also be kind enough to advise you on your assignments.

When you finish LEAP 4 and go into your faculties, your classes will all be with a wide variety of students. Many of them will also feel shy. If you insist on sticking together with a group of friends from your first language and speaking that language together in the hearing of the others, the Canadians will think you don't want to have anything to do with them and they will leave you alone. In that case, you can't blame them for not making friends with you!

Now, this is just my personal opinion but I think that going out of your "comfort zone" once in awhile is a good thing. When I first went to China, I made friends with a lady named Xiao Shuang (morning frost). My classmates and teachers were amazed at the amount of vocabulary I was able to learn in a short time but it was because I spent a lot of time with my friend and her family and friends. None of them, except my friend, spoke English so I had to speak Chinese all the time. The other day I had an e-mail from her. She and her family now live in Miami and we are planning a visit together. She wrote, "I really want to see you, old friend." I would like to think that 25 years from now you, too, will have an "old friend" in Canada. It is my wish for all of you.

Making friends with Canadians

Jamie gave me to good idea of writing on this topic because I really do have a few things to say.

First of all, it is hard for our LEAP students to make Canadian friends because you take all your classes with other foreigners. I know that the friendships you make with your classmates are special and some of them will last for the rest of your life. I love to see how you tease each other through your comments on everyone's blog. I think one of the great joys of life is in the friends we make.

What might be some of the reasons you are shy to make friends with Canadians? Perhaps you think they don't want to make friends with foreigners. In some cases you would be right. Some don't. Too bad for them. They are missing out on the terrific friend you could be to them. Don't worry about that. Many people on campus and in your neighborhoods or dorms would love to get to know you. Be friendly and say yes when people invite you do do something - even something simple like going out for coffee.

Perhaps you think your English is not good enough. Oh.... bullshit! All of you have English far better than you realize. Anyway, what people value in friends is not their perfect English. It is the quality contents of their personality. If you know yourself to be a good person... then get out there and make friends.

Do you think that you don't have time? What nonsense. A good Canadian friend will help you learn English so fast that your head will spin. They might also be kind enough to advise you on your assignments.

When you finish LEAP 4 and go into your faculties, your classes will all be with a wide variety of students. Many of them will also feel shy. If you insist on sticking together with a group of friends from your first language and speaking that language together in the hearing of the others, the Canadians will think you don't want to have anything to do with them and they will leave you alone. In that case, you can't blame them for not making friends with you!

Now, this is just my personal opinion but I think that going out of your "comfort zone" once in awhile is a good thing. When I first went to China, I made friends with a lady named Xiao Shuang (morning frost). My classmates and teachers were amazed at the amount of vocabulary I was able to learn in a short time but it was because I spent a lot of time with my friend and her family and friends. None of them, except my friend, spoke English so I had to speak Chinese all the time. The other day I had an e-mail from her. She and her family now live in Miami and we are planning a visit together. She wrote, "I really want to see you, old friend." I would like to think that 25 years from now you, too, will have an "old friend" in Canada. It is my wish for all of you.

Favouritism

Sorry, I haven’t written for a while… I’m not lazy! Really! I’ve been very busy teaching in the international program in Continuing Education. We have two five-week courses where international students (including many Quebec students) try to improve their listening and speaking skills. There is some grammar and writing involved, of course!

I’ve been having some thoughts about favouritism and I thought I’d share them here and see what you all think about this subject. (And thanks, everybody, for making so many nice comments to my blog.)

Teachers are always accused of having favourites. Perhaps it is often true because teachers are human beings and naturally respond to some people more than others. Students always seem to have favourite teachers and not care at all for other teachers. I suppose the difference is the implication that of unfairness – that teachers may give better marks to the students they like and mark down the students they don’t. I guess that happens, too, sometimes and I agree that it isn’t right.

So I spent some time thinking about favouritism in my own life. If you ask my own children, each of them will say that I favour the other one. Of course, I love them equally but I don’t treat them the same. I shouldn’t treat them the same. They are different. My daughter is older and more capable. She will complain that she needs more freedom and independence. So I require her to earn this by taking on extra chores at home. While she accepts the freedom with gladness, she complains that I don’t make her brother do as much around the house. On the other hand, her brother is younger and just likes to be babied. His perception is that I make him do too much around the house. Sigh… what’s a mother to do? The fact is that I love them both and sometimes it seems like one gets more freedom and one gets more personal attention. But in my judgment, it is what they need at this time and it is my job to give them what they need… not necessarily what they want!

Now in terms of students, I would say that it is very easy for students to become jealous of other students. Perhaps a shy student is jealous that a more outgoing student gets more attention and more help from the teacher. It’s true. “The squeaky wheel gets the grease!” Students who are passive will not get as much help because the teacher can’t and won’t force you to learn if you don’t want to. Students who ask for extra help are helped. Students who smile find people smiling back at them. Students who open up their hearts find other people becoming their friends. I don’t think this is unfair.

Nonetheless, teachers need to be careful in how they treat students – always fairly and with respect. I’m sure you will agree with that! We teachers need to know exactly what we are looking for when we mark something. While my opinion about a student’s performance might be different from another teacher’s opinion, the my judgment should be consistent from one student to another. Some students do perform better than others. They should be acknowledged for this. Some students do not do as well. Their marks should help them discover where they need to put more effort.

Well, it’s all just my opinion. What do you think? I’d love to read some longer responses in your blogs!