Weekend Update: This is What Boring Looks Like

... and I may never make plans again.

Who am I kidding? This is definitely not true. I am notoriously overextended when it comes to weekends, but most of the time this makes me the happiest. I have to have things to look forward to, opportunities to see friends, and the chance to get out of my house, or even zip code. Let's just say I become a huge pain in the ass for myself and others if I don't. 

That being said, this weekend I canceled our plans on the basis of possible inclement weather and the gut feeling that I should just lay low. And so we did, and it was perfect. I was able to feel productive in most areas of my life which is a rarity these days. My husband got up with our little early bird on Saturday which meant I slept in until 8:30, which was a Christmas miracle. I graded papers, read blogs and commented on them (for once), played with Sawyer, walked the dogs, cleaned the house, ran errands, watched Room with Scott (I cried during half of it; having a kid now makes the whole story so much harder for me, plus maybe my beverage of choice made me sappier? Who knows... I'm a movie crier no matter what), did some yoga, and read about a third of Claire Messud's The Woman Upstairs (loving it). 

These are admittedly super boring, mundane, typical tasks for most people, I know. But the idea of not having to rush out the door was really nice. I was also able to spend over half the time in sweatpants with my hair piled on my head, which is an obvious win. 

And while I think getting Sawyer out in the world and experiencing things is incredibly important, so is the feeling of being cooped up and even bored at home sometimes. It's a rite of passage to have to wander around your house and figure out how to entertain yourself! We colored, read many stories, lined up his cars seven million times, went out on three or four walks when it wasn't raining, and busted out the bathtub markers (why did I not have these when I was a kid?). 

I decided I wanted to pick up a few Don DeLillo books from Barnes and Noble, so we made quick stop. I made the poor kid go to the bookstore, Ulta, Anthropologie, Bath and Body Works, Starbucks, and the bakery in a 90 minute window. He took it like a champ, so he may have gotten his first Thomas train ever, which he insisted on holding for the rest of the night. By the way, do parents just sell their kidneys for the tables and all the trains that you need for it? Jesus (prediction: I will eat my words in the next year or so... hello dialysis). 

[I promise, he doesn't have three noses, I just keep his face off the blog]

I finished up today with my first attempt at a lemon meringue pie, and while I was worried about the meringue setting up right it ended up being the custard I wasn't thrilled with, which was irritating because I've made custard many times before. I blame Alton Brown and his crappy recipe (he's kind of douchey, in general, right? A smart guy, but still, I got an ass-hat vibe from his podcast).

So, yes, my weekend was incredibly boring, but knowing that I'm back to status quo starting next week made me so appreciative. 

Have a good week, guys!  

Grammar is Really Effing Boring

[source]

I don't teach grammar. Maybe that's is a little misleading. I do teach grammar, but I generally don't believe in teaching it in isolation. My opinion is very simple. 

Students learn grammar by:

1. Reading a lot, whether it's magazine articles, books, TMZ posts, etc...

2. Writing. And then writing some more

3. Engaging in academic conversation and discussion (at home and school)

I don't believe grammar is effectively taught by:

1. Diagramming sentences

2. Worksheets

3. Multiple choice activities

Grammar is really effing boring. And I'm an English teacher and have my degree in the topic. And I love to write. And read. But I can't stand grammar.

An article published last year in The Atlantic confirmed my way of thinking, citing over 250 studies over the past few decades that show the typical "drill and kill" style of teaching used in the past ("What's the predicate, Sally?") is useless. One large, very interesting study focused three groups of students, one taught traditionally, one taught through alternative lessons, and one just given literature and writing assignments. There was no difference in their acquisition and utilization of correct grammar, although the traditional group was shown to develop an "antipathy" towards the subject of English.

Writing, including the fundamentals like grammar, is best taught by, well, writing. In order to become a better writer you write more. 

This isn't to say I never teach skills in isolation, because sometimes I do. Maybe not quite as much now that I teach IB, but when I taught the traditional English classes I would a few times a semester review skills I saw the whole class struggling with (apostrophe usage, subject-verb agreement, etc...), especially since I work with a high percentage of English learners. 

What I do do is assign a lot of writing and a lot of reading. When I grade essays I don't edit them- I fill out a rubric for content (the bulk of their grades) a checklist for grammar/mechanical issues. Then I allow them to rewrite some of them for better grades. They're encouraged to read their essays aloud, have their peers edit for them, and to sit down with me (although that is tough in terms of time). We read six texts during the year with various supporting articles and references. They have to read 700 pages of academic literature or non-fiction writing each semester. Exposure is key.

I also try to give students a lot of opportunity to engage in academic conversation, whether it's talking to a partner about answers to a question, working with a group to analyze something, or having a whole class discussion on the larger issues of a text. They hear examples of both good grammar and bad grammar from their classmates, as well as what I model too (and I confess, sometimes I do speak casually with them, but when we're focused and getting down to business I try to stay academic). 

Think about learning a foreign language- it's widely believed that immersion is far more advantageous than classroom learning. Living in Italy for a year is going to result in far better skills than just sitting in a classroom filling out worksheets. 

I'm sure that there are some awesome teachers that make grammar fresh and hip and cool. Maybe they dress up in costumes and rap. Or maybe their students create interpretive dances that show the different sentences types. But while that's all fine and dandy, that's just not how I roll. 

Students do better when they're engaged; they are in classes almost six hours a day, five days a week. Boring lesson after boring lesson after boring lesson does not make them want to get out of bed in the morning and come to school. Not that my class is always amazingly fascinating, but I try to avoid monotonous things like diagramming sentences. 

I remember spending hundreds of hours going through a grammar text book page by page in fifth grade. We had to do every single exercise and couldn't move on until we got most of them right.

I hated that teacher. 

 

 

On Boredom

[source; by the way, arson is not a recommended boredom buster]

When I was a kid, my mom had a rule during summer breaks: if we said we were bored we were given a chore. Her point was twofold; we had a room full of toys and friends down the street, and she quite simply didn't want to hear us whine. This meant that we had to be inventive. Blocks were turned into cities, our toys became merchandise in the store we set up, and scraps of old material became a new fashion line for our Barbies. Our boredom catalyzed our imaginations and motivated us to find new things to do with the old things we had.

Finding myself once again in a position where I have summer breaks, I think about this idea of boredom quite often. There are different types of boredom we experience. There's the "this meeting has been dragging on forever and I could care less about what he's talking about" boredom, as well as the "I have been scrubbing this grout for thirty minutes and it's still not white enough" drag. We also have the "I'm bored with my life" conundrum that comes as result of a stagnant career, relationship, or social life. And then the most common boredom that results from not having "anything to do" (the "do" being said at an octave higher). At the root of every single one of these problems is a lack of stimulation, a lack of fascination, a lack of energy. And this is why boredom can be good.

When you're bored you really have two choices: you can continue to be bored or you can do something about it. If you're content to linger in the abyss of boredom than I'm not really sure what to tell you- as my grandmother would say, "God helps those who help themselves." But for the rest of us who aren't willing to waste hours, days, weeks, or years under the pressure of lost time, boredom can be incredibly motivating. Boredom forces you to take action, whether if it's as simple as ordering a new book to read or braving Linkedin for a new job opportunity. The desire to escape boredom churns the creative juices and forces the brain to consider other options. Boredom makes a person think outside the box- this is why it's good.

But who really is bored in the era of smart phones, tablets, a million television channels, and social media? Or do these options make us more bored? As a society are we harder to stimulate because we're used to such a high level of excitement and sensory bombardment? The short answer: I don't know. I'm inclined to say that for some people the abundance of options in this world keeps them perfectly occupied, while some people want more. Some people get burnt out on watching YouTube and refreshing their Twitter feed. Those are the people that become the innovators and creators, I suppose. Bottom line- in moderation technology is a great way to enjoy yourself and sometimes even challenge your brain (like when you watching a TED Talk... not The Bachelor), but I think it shouldn't be a crutch. Sometimes you need to let boredom happen so that you can consider doing things you may not necessarily be used to doing (find a new guy to date! go to a museum! try a new recipe!). 

It bothers me that so many kids aren't experiencing boredom the way we did when we were younger (cue return to "when I was a kid" speech). Kids need to spend days at home without preplanned activities so that they're forced to use their imagination and invent new games and projects. They need to experience what it feels like to lay on their beds during the summer heat staring at the ceiling racking their brains for things to do. That's when they'll have the best daydreams and create the best stories. Boredom is not only a right of passage, but the way in which it's handled says so much about a kid (or any person, for that matter).

Personally, I don't experience boredom often, since I'm so proactive about combating it. During the school year the only time it pops up is during meetings or after I've graded thirty or forty papers on the same subject. I just don't have time! During the summer I welcome it. For me boredom means I have free time, which is then filled with friends, outings to random places I generally don't have time to visit, books, and working out. Some of the best, most fun things in my life are the product of boredom- this blog, the Coursera classes I've dabbled in, yoga after I tired of running, attending readings and museums in LA, and developing better friendships. It's about how we use our time. 

Embrace boredom. It can be a really great thing.