October 10, 2009

• The work I’m doing brings me such pleasure and on many levels.  I’m teaching the way I would have loved to learn.  It’s a small enough class that I am getting to know how each of them thinks; how they hear and write what I read.  And I am marking some of my own material so they have something wonderful to think about to boot. 

  You know how people say they are surprised by the sound of their voice if they hear it recorded?  I listened to a tape I’d made the other day, in order to grade a test.  I read two tests each day, one at 80 words a minute and then one at 60.  That’s slow.  So you have to elongate the words, pause here and there, use inflection to tip them off about punctuation and for the most part jazz up a sentence.  It is such fun and I have to say I was pleased with the result.  Which was a relief as there is a woman who grades all the tests and listens to my voice over and over.  I was also relieved to hear my rhythm was steady.  She’s probably not using her stopwatch to time me anymore but you can bet she was at first.

  The best part about this work is teaching them my briefs.  At first some of the students were resistant, wanting purely to write to sound.  Their theory teacher is against the idea of briefs.  But as they move up in speed it becomes such a timesaver to learn this form of shorthand  called briefing.  I was the queen of briefs in school and somehow, ten years later, I still remember them.  To be able to pass on many of these I made up myself is such a joy.

  The director took me in her office last night (I replaced the gal who trained me and she moved to days) and asked if I’d be willing to work Tues and Thurs morning with some of the theory teacher’s students, teaching them briefs.  It would mean driving there twice a day, two times a week, but I said yes. I don’t imagine that will go over well with the theory teacher but it will be the best thing for the school.

  • 12:59 am
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