teaching

Reconciling differences. How to work in an environment where I am forced to cover certain things in the book. To discuss issues such as intolerance and stereotypes, what i wear.. of filling out paperwork. (paperwork? bleh)
I still don´t dress very formal. i have been sneaking in with jeans, and occaisonally have come from the gym in a t-shirt and waiting for my boss to harass me. But i give classes on the third floor, the bosses are on the second.. muahawaw.
the difficulty i have had lately is sharing a class with other teachers. who need me to cover certain things in the book because they will be doing part two. In classes i do on my own it allows for more creativity. To use the book as a guide and bring in supplemental materials. But to have to do every single excercise from the book or risk the other teachers being rude to me? (which just happened last friday... she claimed it took her two hours to do a ten minute grammar excercise...)
yeah yeah...
My classes: i have tended to have a lot more discussions than me talking. Right now i lack being able to teach grammar in a creative way. I will have to work on that. I like our discussions though. I sometimes wonder if they are learning anything though. With beginners it is much easier to show their improvement. With advanced? Or perhaps i am just projecting my own frustrations with learning lanugages onto my students. Is my spanish even improving? I have almost given up. Perhaps switch to chinese. i think it would be easier.

Thoughts on "Kite Runner" (If you are planning to read the book, don´t read this) When i started this book i was very impressed. It is about the childhood of a young afghan, along with his sevant Hassan, and the Russian invasion, and later he moves to America with his father. It brought up many issues about the clashes of poverty vs. wealth. as Hassan is more courageus, often smarter even though he can´t read, a better person overall than Amir. Hassan is raped and Amir watches with out intervening. Later in the book he is able to rescue Hassan´s son Sohrab. I think this shoudn´t have happened. I think it would have been more powerfull to not have a chance to undo the wrongs. also he gets beat up very badly by the Taliban. And through this mutilation of his body he is healed at last from his wounds. Why is the cycle of violence used as a symbol of healing. "of getting what you deservered" as if an eye for an eye is the only way to peace. America was never criticized in this book. I view this as disgusting. It was written for an American audience and fails to ask the question... those who were moved by the horrible violence and terrors of the book not need look to their country´s policies and wonder how they are responsible. But America was the land of the free, of opportunities.... who did not apparently plant land mines that killed Hassans father.... more later.