Spring 2016, 3rd prize winner
Blog Post 1
The disconnect between the 欧美口爆视频 migrant staff and the 欧美口爆视频 students is more than blatantly apparent when you stop to pay attention once in a while. Most kids I see don't even acknowledge their presence in a dorm hall or when their giving them food or whatever it may be. Being treated this way, combined with not being able to communicate with the students very well, if at all, must be a terrible feeling. I feel like an ungrateful punk if i don't acknowledge them when serving me, or cleaning up disgusting messes in the dorm, or whatever they have to do for the day. To be ignored and not acknowledged must make one feel subhuman. This, and the added LING1900 credit, is what made me sign up for SWAP, and so far it has been extremely rewarding.
I have met with Sharmilla only twice so far, but we plan to meet twice a week on Tuesday's and Thursday's in Sewall dining hall, where she works. Our first meeting I didn't plan anything whatsoever. I just wanted to introduce myself & what I am going to school for, my interests, etc etc. I also just wanted to see where she was with her English and just take it easy and not have a pace for our fist time meeting. This is exactly what I did. I got to know her a little for an hour and then I told her same time next Thursday. On thursday, we outlined some goals and objectives for our semester together using the form provided by SWAP. This took some time, as the concept didn't come too easily. We are going to finish outlining her goals on Tuesday, and I look forward to it. I am very blessed to live in America and speak fluent English and I have a beneficial feeling in my heart when I think I may be helping out an adult with skills she needs for the rest of her life, that I can easily provide and assist with.
Blog post 2
My time with my SWAP partner Sharmila has been great. We are plowing right through the 6A book with relative ease. She is a wonderful student that I am happy to teach. She is always very appreciative and progressive in our sessions. Often times we will go off on a completely unrelated tangent that we stumbled on during our workbook activities. Sharmila is extremely hellbent on learning English verb tenses in a proficient manor so she is able to talk fluently to native speakers on English. This is her main goal that she outlined at our very first class. So a lot of the time we will read a verb tense in the workbook that doesn't make very much sense to her, and then for the rest of the class we will disregard the rest of the workbook (we can always come back to it) and focus of this verb tense and how/when to use it. The way I see it, the workbook is great and extremely helpful. But what Sharmila personally goes out of her way to ask questions about and understand is what I want to focus on. The book is a fantastic template but she seems to like to go off of the rails often and explore and learn through taking to me and asking questions on things I say that don't make sense to her. Once, I made the grave mistake of saying "He drank yesterday" as an example... This was completely unintelligible nonsense to her. So for most of the rest of that class we discussed odd verbs that change in the past tense. All in all, I am having so much fun with Sharmila and I think she is learning a mountain more than I even thought I could teach someone.
Blog Post 3
I cannot believe this semester of SWAP is coming to a close, much less the whole school year! I have had a great time this semester with Sharmila and can't wait for the possibility of another semester. At first, I was extremely frightful, afraid, and nervous about my meet ups with Sharmila. But now we have gotten to know each other pretty well and now I look forward to our meetings. We are both busy as can be but when we can just sit down together for an hour and talk and learn it's a nice and peaceful relaxation of sorts. I have, over the course of the semester, became significantly better at being able to teach her in ways she understands and can build on. Now I understand what queues are ones to use that grasp her attention and make clear sense to her. She also has become much better at asking questions on things and concepts she doesn't understand. These two things combined are why Sharmila and I have grown to like each other so much and improve on our learning each and every session. All in all, I have had a great time with SWAP and Sharmila. It has taught me a lot.