What I Teach: Musics!

I mentioned a while ago that my favorite way to teach is through music. The students enjoy it, I like it, everyone stays quiet, and they are really engaged in what they're learning. The only tricky part is that the lyrics have to be sung clear enough that the students have a chance at understanding them, and the words/phrases can't be too familiar or "slangy." This eliminates a lot of songs. But with the right song, there is opportunity to teach language and culture. Here are some excerpts from the best examples of songs I've used to teach:

1. Secret Heart by Feist

Secret Heart
What are you made of?
What are you so afraid of?
Could it be three simple words,
Or the fear of being overheard?
What's wrong?

Lesson enforced: Forming questions
Vocabularly: Overheard, sacred, tough, conceal, reveal, lonliness, bear (as in grin and bear it), admit, "go through it" and "something to do with"

2. Homeward Bound by Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel

I'm sitting in the railway station.
Got a ticket for my destination.
On a tour of one-night stands, my suitcase and guitar in hand.
And every stop is neatly planned for a poet and a one-man band.

Every day's an endless stream
of cigarettes and magazines.
And each town looks the same to me, the movies and the factories
And every stranger's face I see reminds me that I long to be,

Tonight I'll sing my songs again,
I'll play the game and pretend.
But all my words come back to me in shades of mediocrity
Like emptiness in harmony I need someone to comfort me.

Lesson enforced: Contractions (I'm sitting, every day's, I'll play)
Vocabulary: railway, one-night stands (hey, if I'm going to teach it, it might as well be in this context), neatly planned, endless stream, long, pretend, shades, emptiness, thoughts, escaping

3. The Devil Went Down to Georgia by The Charlie Daniels Band

Now you play a pretty good fiddle, boy
But give the devil his due
I'll bet a fiddle of gold
Against your soul
'Cause I think I'm better than you

The boy said, "My name's Johnny
And it might be a sin
But I'll take your bet
And you're gonna regret
'Cause I'm the best there's ever been"

This song is all about a story - as the title says, the devil goes to Georgia looking for a "soul to steal" and bets a boy named Johnny that he can play better fiddle. If the devil loses, Johnny gets a golden fiddle and if he wins, he gets to take Johnny's soul. My main goal with this is not vocabulary (the word "hickory" as in "hickory stump" doesn't even exist in French) but culture. Most students don't know what a fiddle is or what it sounds like, so it's new and fun for that reason. I also just want them to get the main idea of the story and know who wins in the end, the Devil or Johnny.

What I Teach: Recent Engineering Feats

One of my classes studies the design of industrial parts. My M.O. for this class is to select a text on a recent invention, and we simply read it aloud in class. We break down the sentence structure, go over vocabulary, and check for understanding. Then we usually have a short discussion at the end of what they think of this invention - whether it's practical, what the pros and cons are, etc. It's pretty straight forward. Here are the things we've discussed:

AirPod - A car even smaller than a Smart Car, this tiny vehicle is electric, and is operated by a joystick in place of a foot pedal. It can fit 3 adults and 1 child. Paris has apparently requested a bunch of these vehicles for its 3,000 car AutoLib fleet - Autolib is a program which I believe runs similarly to its city-wide bike rental program. Think environmentally friendly ZipCar.


Martin Jetpack - Yeah, it's a jetpack. It's hard to know what else to say, except that it runs on gasoline, can fly about 30 minutes on a full tank, reaches an altitude of 8,000 ft and a speed of 60 mph. It was developed in Australia, and apparently should be now available to consumers (even without a pilot's license) at a cost of about 100k.



eLEGS - Designed for paraplegics, this exoskeleton system allows those with mobility disorders to stand and even walk. "This collaboration between UC Berkeley and Berkeley Bionics is a successful model of industry-university work to bring critical technologies to end users. Under medical supervision, eLEGS will initially be used in rehabilitation centers. Clinical trials will begin early 2011 with a limited release scheduled for mid-2011."

What I Teach: Food Deserts

Time to bring this blog back down to earth. I started with the intention of sharing what I learn and teach. I've had the opportunity to teach about some pretty cool stuff. I wanted to teach high school because I wanted to be able to teach content, and not just vocabulary and grammar rules. Some of my classes have been able to engage at a high level, and those are my favorite teaching moments.

One of my favorite lessons has been on Food Deserts, which is a place where it is difficult to find affordable nutritious foods such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and dairy products. This is actually a huge problem in the United States, and something that Michelle Obama has been particularly focused on. Food Deserts exist in both urban and rural communities, and are in important contributor to obesity problems.

I love this lesson because it challenges students to think in ways they may not have before. For instance, the United States is incomprehensibly large to a lot my students. Texas alone is bigger than France and Alaska is about 3x its size. When we talk about how some people have to travel 30 miles (50km) to a grocery store, it's absurd to them. If that were the case here, the closest grocery store would be in Geneva.

It also gets them thinking about poverty. The United States is seen as a money hungry country where most people are wealthy. The reality is that wealth is concentrated heavily in the top 1-5% of the nation's richest (as the graph shows, not even most Americans know how large the gap is). This lesson has the intention of making kids aware of how deep America's poverty problem runs and how that, in turn, affects so much else (money to afford food, transportation to access food, obesity and therefore healthcare costs, etc.).

At the end of the lesson, I ask what are the most important factors are for why people don't eat well. The top answers have been as follows:

Poverty: Eating costs money. Eating well costs even more money.

Accessibility: If you have money (or food stamps from the government), the question becomes, what do I have access to?

Knowledge: Okay, I have money and access. How do I know what I should eat? Do I know how to cook healthily? Did my family teach me that or did I learn it in school?

Culture: I've got money, access, and knowledge. Do I have time? In America, maybe not. The culture always seems pressed for time. This is instilled in children very young, when you only have 20-30 minutes for a lunch wave.

Preference and Habit: You just like the taste and you don't want to change your habits

Tradition: Your subculture has certain cooking traditions that may be unhealthy

As I'm always interested in getting feedback, I'd really love to get your thoughts on this. Have you heard about food deserts? How big of a problem do you think they are? Is there something else I could have added to make this lesson better? Post comments!

Just Do It

Well, after an eventful two weeks back in the US, I am back to teaching in France. I started writing this post about how overwhelming the past couple weeks have been, but it's more than that. The past year has been really overwhelming for me. In fact, I was told the other day by someone really close to me that they were beginning to associate me with the word "overwhelmed." I guess that's just the word I use when I have so many emotions going on and I don't feel like pinpointing what they are.

A lot of changes have happened in the past year or so. At the beginning of 2010, I was in a long-term and long-distance relationship. It became clear that our lives were taking us on different paths and it ended. By the end of 2010, I had another long distance relationship (seriously, what's with that?), which I am happy to report is just dandy despite cross-Atlantic communication.

But of course the biggest source of this overwhelmed feeling was moving to France. Doing this meant leaving a secure job I was happy with in Chicago, IL, one of the best cities in the world. I gave up most of my possessions, gave my cat to a very compassionate friend, broke my lease, and couch hopped for about 6 weeks before making the leap across the pond. After voluntarily doing all a lot of things that (tragically) happen to those who are forcefully displaced from their homes, I have to ask myself, (a) "Am I crazy?" and (b) "Was it worth it?" I think we all know the answer to (a) so moving on to (b)...

I am lucky enough to have lots of very wise people giving me advice. My dad has also been a pillar of logic, giving me much-needed practical counseling at times. My sister sees my dilemmas with unusual clarity, and my mom has always believe I could do whatever I want. My oldest brother, a family member who shares my wanderlust, told me that if I want to have an experience like this, it will only get harder as time goes on. Other bits of wisdom I have been lucky enough to hear along the way are, "You have at least 40 years of your life to work, no need to rush to a decision," "You can always make more money, you can never make more time," and "Start a Roth IRA." All good pieces of advice.

I didn't go into this experience expecting too much, but I have enjoyed the ups and the downs so far. And there have definitely plenty. I am looking forward to the next seven weeks here, and then continuing the roller coaster of life back in the states. After all, I have my best friend's wedding and my expecting sister waiting for me in New England, a storage locker and a cat in Chicago, and an apartment in Florida with my name on it. I guess life rarely gets simpler. But why wait for a storm to pass when you can dance in the rain - or better yet, get a wind turbine to turn that storm into green energy :o

I guess my point to this post is, yes, it is worth it. I have been lonely, isolated, missed the hell out of my friends and family, and got hit in the face with language and cultural barriers. BUT, I have skied in the Alps, bathed in thermal baths in Budapest, seen the Lights of Lyon, been to the top of the Eiffel Tower and the basement of a Czech bar. I've also made really great friends. These are experiences that I will probably never have again but will never forget. So if you're a student and can study abroad, do it! If you have vacation time and can spend it doing something new and exciting, do it! And keep in my mind this all coming from someone who has always loved roller coasters; if you're thinking of making a life change that seems "crazy," JUST DO IT! I really believe it when they say, "you will regret the things you don't do more than the ones you do." Et moi, je ne regrette rien.

Edith Piaf, "Je ne regrette rien"

(There is a lovely movie about this woman's life called La Vie en Rose. You should watch it!)