Saturday awakening

Shhh... the eyelids open up and the mortal daylight inevitably comes inside. What's the time? The right hand fell down to the floor, circled around twice and reached the mobile. It's not that late, 7:43. How come I feel so good? I get up with a rapid movement and feel the world reel in my head. 'I must have drunk something yesterday'. Yes.. probably yes.., and maybe this is why I feel this horrible, so much physical desire for a glass of water. Something is striving to tell me that I boiled some water ahead of going to bed. I won't believe in this until I can see it with my own eyes. How strange is this? I do not believe my own eyes. They saw the kettle yesterday, didn't they?. Were they the same eyes? There it is, waiting for me, waiting to be drunk, to flow into the depths of my alcohol dried throat. Sensation of life coming back to my body.

Fear and Loathing in Dębiec by Piotr Rogoża.

Ropelike tram terminus tightens around your neck, out of depth. Constellations of glittering lights spinning in your eyes. Whatever you say will sound stupid. One step further – railway; the barrier bows to the trains. The wagons drag through your brain with a deep rumble. Now's the time to walk.

On the other side of the street, stooped down, a hood, dynamic walk, hands in pockets. The church tower sticks out like a monstrous 'fuck you'. You pass blocks of flats, the fire brigade, you walk across the lawn. The scent of wet leaves, damn slippery. The staircase welcomes you unwillingly. You know you have to rush, though you do not realize why at the time, but but an unclear premonition hints it might deal with the bladder. You climb up the stairs, wrestle with the lock. The victory comes not easily. Not taking off muddy shoes you dash into the room, open the balcony door, look upwards and downwards. Stars and pavement. You wonder where it is closer and undo your fly.

Piotr Rogoża (I translated this from Polish to English),

To find out more, type in his name to google search engine and something will surely show up.

Bartoszyce

For those who do not know where I am from, I suggest visiting www.maps.google.com and typing in 'Bartoszyce' into the search field. There will come up my hometown, which for you is a place only, and for me is a way more than a place itself.

13 kms from the Russian border. Lots of illegal cigarrets and vodka, cheaper petrol. Lots of affluent people. Yet, there is the other side. Even more of destitute people. But this is not I am going to talk about. I 'd rather say something about the Bartoszyce that I see through my eyes. (take notice of the words say and tell, they do not sound the same but they mean the same; not like bow and bough - Monty Python. I really recommend some of scatches of theirs).


First of all, I wish to point out to the differences between the two words: home - house. My house is the very building where I was, sort of, brought up. My house is a part of my home, but not the opposite.

My home is all where I feel secure, my town is one of these places.

Bartoszyce is a town that gives me a sort of shelter. Lot's of nodding accquaittances. If you have a problem, there is always someone to turn to.

In my town, there are some special people, my family, mummy and daddy :-). My brothers moved out some long time ago. With my father, I often go angling. Nice thing to do, btw, there are lots of lakes and a river so you can enjoy yourself if you are a fishing fan.

OK, it's 9:44 PM. The right time to go on with the description.

It's really difficuly to verbalise the notion of my hometown, the one that I see trough my eyes. It's a bunch of feelings and emotiones that are attached to it and there seem to be no way of getting them across in writing. I'll try.

When I think of my hometown, I can see my girlfriend. Whenever I am home we meet.

To be continued, I have to read linguistic stuff.

Published on Teaching English | British Council | BBC (http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk)
Discipline problems
by Nina M. Koptyug, Ph.D., Associate Professor of English,
Lyceum # 130, Novosibirsk, Russia

In her article, the author examines the causes of discipline problems in class and possible solutions to them. She goes on to say that there are a few stages that must be followed when trying to deal with students' misbehaviour in class, the first of which is identifying the causes.

The author quote from someone anonymous, "For every person wishing to teach, there are thirty persons not wishing to be taught". Next, Nina M. Koptyug comments that different types of learners may depend on the their families' well-being. Besides, students may come to classanoxious about an upcoming test in another subject, which, by the author, will influencen establising good rapport with them.

As stated in the article, another reason for discipline problems occuring is students' inability to cope with the tasks.According to the article, the second stage is identyfing the ringleaders. The author goes on to say that it is vital to keep ringleaders busy. Whereas the third stage is varying traditional tasks. By the author, it is beneficial, in terms of discipline, to praise students' for their achievments and alternate tasks which cover skills that students have difficulty with. The author gives an example of working in a computer lab as a good means of enhancing students' writing and pronunciation abilities.

Another stage, mentioned by the author, is increasing students' motivation, which, according to her , can be attained in a variety of ways depending on the students' grade level.

The last stage, which is elaborated on in the article, is what the author calls establising the priorities. Nina M. Koptyung points to the role that the teacher play in a classroom. According to her, it is the teacher that is responsible for everything that goes on and who has the power to restore good rapport with students. Yet, the author claims that this cannot be achieved without the feeling of self-confidence.

My opinions,

Nina M. Koptyug gives an account for discipline problems, but in my opinion this explanation is too shallow. Apart from the family situation of a student and the timetable clashes, there are a few more causes of classroom problems, in my opinion.

One of these can be the peer pressure and the trends of the day. For some it can be undoable to work in class because of their feeling that no one should command them. Some students reject the notion of school as such as they do not want to feel subjected and this does not have to be any related with student's family's hardships.

As to keeping the ringleaders busy, I would like to say that this should be done with a possitive approach, meaning, not to treat learning a language as a tool of repression. I do believe that such motivation for working in class can lead to disastrous results. From psychological point of view, once external motivation seizes to exists people do not feel motivated at all. I think that this rule would apply to teaching just perfectly.

Talking about motivation, I am a supporter of the idea that students should find the point of learning languages only by themselves. Of course, teachers can help them do it, but this should not turn into a teacher's endless talking about the need for learning languages due to final exams coming up.

Finally, I would like to express my doubts about the role of teacher in class presented in the article. The author wrote that the teacher must be the boss and the students will feel it. In my opinion, what students need to feel foremost is that they are responsible for their learning, their achievments etc. What I mean by that is that it is much better to evoke internal motivation in students rather than the external one.

At last!

What could I be doing at 1:30 p.m. on Monday? Well, I should be listening to the lecturer attentively but I was not. Instead, at 1:30 p.m. I was already at the lake enticing the monsterous fish with my toys. To see a hunter at home, priceless. Wasn't it ?