Monthly Archives: June 2007

Supplemental Entertainment for Spurs basketball

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First, to follow-up on the disclaimer, I’d like to add that was the emoticon face for “snore”.

If you are keeping up with the NBA Finals this year, you will have witnessed 3 very long games so far between the Spurs and Cavs, that have led to the general consensus in the sports world that this has been the lowest TV ratings in NBA Finals history.

I just found it funny that recently some NBA coaches who are not in the playoffs this year were on the pre-game show “Inside the NBA” and they were talking about possibly enlarging the size of the basket by half an inch so teams can score in the 100′s. Now if this were to happen, teams like the Suns and Mavericks would be scoring potentially double what they do now if not more, seemingly defeating the idea for more entertaining basketball. With all that said, I guess these theories and discussions are prone to arise after watching such an awe-inspiring series such as this.

Here is some supplemental entertainment for those who are having a hard time staying awake during this series.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4vL-ajp8sU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tXEEZE0rqM&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpTXjxU3WLQ&mode

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaJ4FU-dlRM&mode

Day 6 is slang for “Teachers are inherently uncool but we can still make an impact”

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Here’s a sampling of the flashcards (from knockknock.biz) that we had to decode as language learners in SEI:

Here’s the drastic result:

And then I had to make a flashcard about…yep! Informal assessment! For a hint, check his feet:

I had to photograph the bumpin’ party (don’t be hatin’):

‘Hit’, ‘dank’, and ‘mos def’ were at my table, but when I worked with another group they asked what ‘newb’ meant. (Yes, I ascertain the irony.)

Day 4 and Prop 203

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Prop 203 banned bilingual education in Arizona and if a teacher speaks in Spanish, they may get in serious trouble. Every teacher is required to take SEI courses to cover the state’s bases for reaching new speakers of English. In a class of 30 (x however many classes) English-speaking students, we are now considered good enough in the books to teach English from the ground up…in one year.

You can’t renew your certificate until you become SEI certified.

SEI is:

“SHELTERED ENGLISH IMMERSION” OR “STRUCTURED ENGLISH IMMERSION” MEANS AN ENGLISH LANGUAGE ACQUISITION PROCESS FOR YOUNG CHILDREN IN WHICH NEARLY ALL CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION IS IN ENGLISH BUT WITH THE CURRICULUM AND PRESENTATION DESIGNED FOR CHILDREN WHO ARE LEARNING THE LANGUAGE. BOOKS AND INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS ARE IN ENGLISH AND ALL READING, WRITING, AND SUBJECT MATTER ARE TAUGHT IN ENGLISH. ALTHOUGH TEACHERS MAY USE A MINIMAL AMOUNT OF THE CHILD’S NATIVE LANGUAGE WHEN NECESSARY, NO SUBJECT MATTER SHALL BE TAUGHT IN ANY LANGUAGE OTHER THAN ENGLISH, AND CHILDREN IN THIS PROGRAM LEARN TO READ AND WRITE SOLELY IN ENGLISH. THIS EDUCATIONAL METHODOLOGY REPRESENTS THE STANDARD DEFINITION OF “SHELTERED ENGLISH” OR “STRUCTURED ENGLISH” FOUND IN EDUCATIONAL LITERATURE.

If English-speakers can’t take bilingual education and learn Spanish from the ground up in context, why do the universities require two credits of modern language?