Day 5 - Teaching

Azi, doi copii fericiţi că vine profa.
Cu inspiraţie de la Taylor Mali:

You want to know what I make? I make kids wonder,
I make them question.
I make them criticize.
I make them apologize and mean it.
I make them write.
I make them read, read, read.
I make them spell definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful
over and over and over again until they will never misspell
either one of those words again.

SOURCE: What Teachers Make, full text 

Şi pentru mai mult efect, Taylor Mali himself.

Bilbo Baggins, master of eloquence

"I don't know half of you as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve." - this was unexpected and rather difficult. There was some scattered clapping, but most of them were trying to work it out and see if it came to a compliment.

Bilbo Baggins in LOTR 1 - The Fellowship of the Ring, J. R. R. Tolkien

De ce nu îmi plac mie perdelele

Scriu repede ca să nu uit până mâine. Tocmai am realizat că "perdea" are aceeaşi etimologie cu "purdah"...

De unde vin linguritele...

Eu, în modul de professeur de francais, încercam să le explic copiilor de a 7-a diferența dintre cuillère (lingura ca obiect, din aceeași categorie cu furculițele și cuțitele) și cuillerée (conținutul unei linguri, ca în „adăugați două linguri de zahăr”).
Până să apuc eu să explic ceva, unul dintre copii, fericit că în sfârșit a înțeles și el cum e cu genul substantivelor, strigă din ultima bancă:
- Știu eu, Miss! Una e lingura masculină și cealaltă e lingura feminină!
Mă umflă râsul dar încerc să îi explic calm și academic că nu are sens ce a zis, că na, lingurile nu sunt ca pisicile și cățelușii, băieței și fetițe, că nu e nevoie de forme de masculin și feminin pentru tacâmuri. La care, una din puștoaice, zice:
- Păi cum, Miss, eu credeam că de-acolo vin lingurițele!

Soul of an engineer drenched in pur desir de pivoine

Today, I did good. No modesty intended.
Whatever Yoga I've been doing to myself recently, it's working.
I've been sharing and giving and forgiving and smiling a lot more.
Today, I've put my electrical engineering skills (ha!) to good use and fixed a kid's laser pointer by taking it appart, identifying and sticking the two loose wires together. To make it last, I even insulated my repair since I had a piece of insulation tape around. (I usually use it for crafts!). At the end, the kid, mesmerised to see his Romanian language teacher taking appart and putting back together an electronic device, told me in the most sincere tone:
"Miss, you have the soul of an engineer!"
And that made me proud! Having a father which has been fixing my stuff all my life and having been in love with at least two guys who were crazy about electronics, I must say I am living up to expectations, right? And you said I couldn't be an engineer! (kidding!)

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The second thing I am happy about today is that I looked for and found the English word for peony, and for a good cause. Today, peonies made a friend smile, and that's worth the world to me.