100 Often Mispronounced Words

It’s no secret to those who know me that I am a bit of a stickler when it comes to spelling, grammar, and pronouncing words correctly.  I tend to think my reputation as a “corrector” exceeds my actions, but as my sociology professor told me, “things that are perceived as real are very real in their consequences.”  Whether I am as much of a Grammar Nazi as people perceive me to be is irrelevant.

My friend Adam is pretty similar to me when it comes to pronouncing words properly and I love it when he and I get to talk about words.  We both understand that when you correct someone else’s pronunciation of a word, it is an act of love and consideration for the other person.  It’s not a matter of trying to show off what you know, it’s trying to help the other person out.

This past week I came across this list of 100 often mispronounced words.  Here are some of the highlights for me:

Irregardless is not a word.  The word is “regardless.”

Alzheimere’s Disease is not “Old Timer’s Disease.”

You escape from a bad situation…you do not excape.

I especially hate it when people say exspecially, but find it much more annoying when people say supposably instead of supposedly.

 

Go read through the list to help yourself out and see what you did or didn’t already know.  I was actually surprised to find “spitting image” should be “spit and image.”

Wasting Education Money

Before we increase the education budget I think we need to deal with the massive amounts of waste.  In a state as large as California I have no doubt that there will always be some degree of waste.  We’ll never have a completely efficient educational system and that’s fine.  But too often I hear people clamoring for an increased educational budget (and therefore higher taxes to pay for it).  Many in that same camp suggest that those who oppose higher education spending are somehow against education, or children, or want to abandon our public schools.  This is certainly not the case. 

A study recently came out from Stanford (hardly a hotbed of financial conservatism) and here’s some info on it:

Every study of California's school dilemma, including the 1,700-page opus produced by a Stanford University team, has pointed out the correlation between socioeconomic status and academic success.

A new monograph by the Legislature's budget analyst points out that the state has more than 45 programs spending more than $9 billion in state and federal funds to help the 3 million "ED" kids to overcome academic problems. But as the report, released Tuesday, concludes, "We believe California's existing approach for helping these students fails on virtually every score."

$9 billion wasted.  This is what happens when you throw money at a problem and think that will solve it.  Lots of ineffective programs, staggering waste, and no help for the children who need it.  What’s worse is that these programs aren’t likely to be changed or done away with.  Such is the nature of government sprawl.

This study also confirmed what many teachers “on the ground” already know: a huge part of a student’s academic success is determined by their home circumstances.  For various reasons, some legitimate and some not, many parents are completely unengaged in their kids’ education and do nothing to encourage them.  Until that problem is dealt with you can throw all the money you want down the abyss of “helping the children” but it’s never going to do anything.  Truly caring for students doesn’t mean wasting your money in order to make yourself feel better.  That’s too easy.  Truly caring for students means finding out how to fix the real problems and putting the efforts there.

I say this as someone who is going to have an incredibly difficult time finding a job this next school year.  I’m finishing my credential program this year and the district I work in is losing millions of dollars and has already instituted a hiring freeze.  It will take a small miracle for me to get a job as a full time social science teacher this next year.  But I don’t want to raise taxes to increase California’s educational budget.

The money’s already there…it’s just being flushed down the toilet. 

Ethnocentrism is Good

There - did I get you to click on and read through my post? Haha.

I did this post as part of a discussion board assignment for my teaching credential program and figured I’d put it up here as well for your perusal.

Teacher Performance Expectation F: Developing as a Professional Educator - is important. Two of its subpoints are:
12.2 "Candidates are aware of their own personal values and biases and recognize ways in which these values and biases affect the teaching and learning of students.
12.3 "Candidates resist racism and acts of intolerance."
(Taken from http://pact.gse.uci.edu/tpe/)

These are important elements of becoming a great teacher, and they're related to a lot of what is mentioned in Johnson, et. al (2008) on page 96 under the heading "Ethnocentrism."

Johnson condemns ethnocentrism as the belief that your way of life is superior to others (2008, p. 96). He then condemns the beliefs and cultural values of some religious groups before misrepresenting them. Those religious people that believe the homosexual lifestyle is wrong are said to "not tolerate alternate beliefs" and "believe that their cultural values and lifestyle are the only correct ones" (Johnson, 2008, p. 96). Unfortunately for Johnson his declaration that ethnocentrism is wrong and that these religious people are incorrect is itself an ethnocentric notion. In Johnson's world he has no more right to criticize that (misrepresented) religious point of view than he says they have the right to consider the homosexual lifestyle incorrect.

To say they "do not tolerate alternate beliefs" is a misrepresentation, unless he is talking about those groups who perpetrate violence on others. Simply believing someone else is wrong is not an example of intolerance or ethnocentrism - it's an example of disagreement. Using Johnson's own definition of tolerance and ethnocentrism, he is an intolerant ethnocentrist.
I am not saying this because I don't believe ethnocentrism is a problem. I believe it is. Too many people (including teachers) consider their own point of view superior to others, and think any who disagree with them are fools. This point of view is not limited to religious people or Democrats or Republicans or Americans or Europeans; it is part of the human experience. Being aware of our own ethnocentric tendencies and taking care not to unfairly discriminate against or judge others is essential. It's important for a History teacher to be careful how they discuss/teach/treat the groups in their curriculum. It is also important, I think, to teach students that extreme cultural relativism (the point of view Johnson seems to be promoting) and extreme ethnocentrism are both problematic.

 

Teachers must all be aware of the perspectives they have and how it influences them and what they are teaching. I agree with Johnson when he says that all teachers "must confront their own ethnocentrism" (2008, p. 96). We must teach the differences between groups and empower students to make decisions with regard to what they want to accept, condemn, or praise. I don't want to produce students that are so enlightened and forward-thinking that they cannot find fault in anything in any culture.
A culture that thinks it is okay to put people into slavery is worthy of being condemned on that point. A culture that tries to exterminate an ethnic group is, I can confidently say, worthy of criticism and I am fine with referring to others cultures as superior in that regard. A culture that mutilates girls and women is worthy of being considered faulty on that point.

At the same time we must not paint every person in such a culture as an inferior person - they are a person in a culture with some messed up ideas. Why do they believe the way they do? They were likely socialized to believe it? How can we work toward a society where people are not socialized into bigotry or hatred? These questions cannot be asked from a point of view totally free from ethnocentrism. I know the ideas from these cultures are "messed up" from my point of view - but if it makes me ethnocentrist to condemn slavery, genocide, and the mutilation and forced servitude of women - I'm cool with that.

 

It's important for teachers to help students have the ability to make these kind of distinctions. In order for a teacher to do that they must be aware of their own prejudices and ethnocentric tendencies, and be very aware of how they're communicating with their students. And even if a culture is worthy of some kind of criticism - simply criticizing it and leaving it at that is not sufficient. The teacher should engage in the questions I mentioned above and more - help students think for themselves through the issues and reach their own conclusions. I think this is a worthy goal for any teacher.

English Language Development Futility

This week I’m subbing in an English Language Development (ELD) classroom.  These are the students who don’t know English, and they’re put into this class to learn it.  One of the classes, which I have for two class periods, has 20 students.  I’d say about 6-7 of them really want to learn and the rest are pretty unengaged.  Many of them don’t even understand the questions they’re supposed to be answering about the portion of The Jungle Book we read together yesterday.  In this one class there are several different languages represented.  Four or five speak Farsi, three or four Spanish, a couple Chinese (not sure if they’re the same dialect), and two different kinds of South Asian Indian languages.  There’s an aide who speaks Chinese and some English.  The usual teacher speaks only English.

I’m trying to get the kids to not copy one another’s work, to do what they’re asked, and it almost seems futile.  The ELD 2 class isn’t any better.  There are more students and no aide.  I really don’t see what chance these kids have to succeed.  The ones who want to succeed seem to have some kind of chance – but most of them aren’t really interested in learning English.  I’d like to see some studies or something on the success rates of programs like this because it can’t be high. 

I have each set of students for two periods.  For one period with each class we are watching a movie, which theoretically gives you a break.  But the teacher has chosen The Diary of Anne Frank and The Secret Garden (1940ish) as the movies.  They are both black-and-white and do not engage the students in the least.  I’ve already pre-filled some referral forms, because some heads are going to have to roll today.  I played “whack-a-mole” yesterday trying to get them to quiet down and it was too draining. 

Julius Caesar and reading aloud in class

Today I’m subbing a 10th grade English class and am helping the kids read through Julius Caesar.  As you may remember from your high school days, the students are assigned roles to read and we’re to go through the first two scenes of Act I.  As I listened to 1st period stumble through the words I’d pause periodically to ask them if the knew what was going on.  At almost every turn the kids had no idea what was happening.  Shakespeare may as well be gibberish to them.  I’d even re-read a short quote and they’d have trouble figuring out what the sentence meant.  I’m not sure if it was like this when I was in school…I think it was, considering what I remember of some of my classes…but this makes me glad I’m not an English teacher.  I want to work through primary sources with my History students and those can be as difficult as Shakespeare – but I’m glad this isn’t my primary assignment.  Although it was nice being able to sort of translate for them and see some of them actually get what was happening.

The Noob Teacher

 The Noob Teacher is a new blog I'm doing to try to focus my writing a little more.  Of course you will probably laugh, considering my total inability to regularly post here, but this other blog will be a place for me to put down things that will hopefully be helpful to me and other teachers and/or anybody interested in my adventures as a new teacher (or this summer, as someone looking for a teaching job).

I will post the other part of that paragraph post thingy this week, too.  Sorry.  Hah.

last week michael moore, this week...

Today I am subbing at Irvington High, Janelle's alma mater.  Last week you may remember me complaining about having to show Michael Moore's manipulative propaganda.  Right now I'm sitting in a science class watching The Day After Tomorrow.  At least some of the kids are playing PSP instead of watching.

i feel dirty

Today I'm subbing at Mission San Jose High School and my job today is to show videos to my classes.  Two classes will watch Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 and the rest will watch Bowling for Columbine.  These "documentaries" are little more than lame propaganda.  The students are watching them and taking it all in.  They say the teacher is having them watch it to learn about good documentaries. 

Before starting the DVD I told the kids they need to think for themselves and not just believe whatever they see or hear or read.  It made me feel a little better but I'm not really sure they're going to take it to heart.  It's much more likely they'll hear Michael Moore's idiocy and take that to heart.  We need to train our kids how to think, not just tell them what to think.  That's not happening here.