I was asked by Kevin Hodgson at Kevin’s Meandering Mind to host today’s Day/Week In A Sentence feature.  It has a bit of  an international and ESL/EFL  “feel” to it this week — surprise, surprise.

I also invited my high school Intermediate English students to participate, and have included some of their sentences in this post.

Susana Canelo, an English teacher in Buenos Aries, Argentina, writes:

Out of school because we’ve got a new President, humm, but a party of Democracy.”

Illya Arnet-Clark, an English teacher and teacher trainer living in Switzerland, came up with this reflective comment:

“I’ve chosen Siddartha to accompany me this week, and am becoming a bit more thoughtful, slowing down in the Christmas rush, following him in his search before sleeping deeply in my soft bed.”

Nina Liakos, an ESL teacher in Maryland, shares:

“During this Hanukah week, I gave final exams (passed some students and failed others), hosted a great party, sang Handel’s Messiah at the Kennedy Center singalong, watched the Maryland Terrapins lose to Boston College by 3 lousy points, and one day spent 6 1/2 hours commuting to and from work by bus.”

Darby Patterson,  the creator of the great weekly ESL World News Report,  emailed this:

“I recognized this week that the upcoming Western-culture-centered holiday is very mysterious to many limited English speakers — particularly those from Asian countries — and that there is a great deal for them to grasp as the rest of us naturally rush into seasonal cheer and expect everyone to follow merrily along (Christmas bells are ringing?).”

Marian Thacher is the Director of OTAN, an amazing organization that provides technology support to ESL teachers and students, wrote a powerful, and lengthy, sentence:

“This week I learned that a friend whom I haven’t seen for a long time is quite ill and probably dying, which put into perspective the whole rest of my week, and made another comment I read stand out for me, which was that ultimately the only problem is isolation, and the only solution is connection, leading me to ask myself this week how each activity led to either connection or isolation, and to choose the ones that led to connection, and I have to say that the thing I (still) love most about being online is that it’s one vast complicated web of connection!”

And Katie from TEFL Logue, which is the ESL/EFL blog out there, got this sentence in on time:

“Being long-winded, I find it hard to summarize my week — which included writing about teaching, what should have been a three hour flight turning into a full-day transit experience, but not doing any teaching itself — in a sentence, but I will try anyhow because it’s great to be a part of Larry’s blog.”

That completes the comments from the ESL/EFL teachers.  Now for a few from my students:

Xeng: “This week I went to work as a cook, went to the market to buy a toy bear, and went to my friend’s birthday party.”

Chue: “This week I just stay home, but then I went outside and play basketball with my sister — it was a great day to us.”

Reyna: “This weekend I went to the church in the morning to sing the mananitas a la Virgen.”

Pao Choua: “This week I played volleyball, was a good student, got ready for the test next week, and also got ready for Hmong New Year in Fresno.”

Luis: “This week was my first week in this school and was interesting because Mr. Ferlazzo is great with me.” (Editor’s Note: It looks like someone wants to get an A!)

And now here are other fine contributors:

Cheryl Oakes from Maine, who writes for the TechLearning blog and also has a wonderful job title — “Collaborative Content Coach For Technology” — submitted this summary:

“As I created an online calendar as a gift for my mother last night I was reminded that I need to share this as school as PD (Professional Development), as it can lead to so many other things, PD should be fun.”

Troy Hicks, writes about “Digital Writing, Digital Teaching” (the name of his blog) from Central Michigan University.  He sent in this sentence:

“As we finish the semester, many of my students have chosen to make multimodal compositions and now comes that difficult question: how do I assess these projects?”

Matthew Needleman has a blog called “Creating Lifelong Learners” focusing on elementary school issues.  He’s got Winter Break on his mind:

“It’s not an easy week to concentrate with vacation looming but I am eagerly anticipating purchasing a new computer over the break and am looking forward to some relaxation with friends.”

This next sentence comes from Liza Lee Miller, an elementary teacher in Northern California.   Her blog is called “Mind The Teacher: What Works, What Does Not Work, And How I Feel About It All.”  She wrote:

“I am starting to feel better, thank goodness, but still every little thing feels like so much work and I have to be gone today at a Step-Up-To-Writing training and so I have to trust my little darlings not to be little hoodlums with a sub today and I’m a bit edgy about it.”

Ginny, a member of Seedlings,  wrote about her learnings this week:

“Learner support took on a new meaning this week as I explained to faculty staff how Moodle works; also, I completed a learning journey of my own as I created my first Voicethread.”

By the way, you can also check-out her VoiceThread.

Gail Desler, who teaches in my “neck-of-the-woods,” and who helped develop an excellent resource on the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II that I’ve posted about, sent this sentence in:

“I’ve been checking the http://www.CelebrateBlogging.com site and thinking about the impact of blogging on teaching and learning.”

Alice Mercer, another exceptional Sacramento-area educator, has been keeping a running-log of “Days In A Sentence.”  Here are three of them:

” I’ve discovered the perfect movie for quieting and calming a class.  I’m saving it for Christmas at home with my own kid.”  (Owl Moon and Other Stories movie and book).

“The world is upside down; easy classes are difficult; difficult classes are easy; easy tasks are complicated; complicated tasks are easy.”

“Reflecting on organizing the after-school tutoring program: I managed the paper very well, but the managing the people (students, outside tutors) was another story likely written by Rube Goldberg.”

Bonnie Kaplan is a leader of the Hudson Valley Writing Project. She put both Kevin and me to shame by how well she guest-hosted the Day/Week In A Sentence two weeks ago. Here’s her sentence:

“Snow is coming once again, but somehow life goes on and we are getting ready to see friends tonight, that’s in between guitar practice and delving deeper and deeper into new digital software…what’s life without a good post and comment?”

Last, but certainly not least, Kevin Hodgson himself contributed some sad news:

“The vet called to tell us that our dog, Bella — who has been with us for 11 years now and who has been a faithful protector of our children every single moment of every day — may not have much longer to live as the cancer moves forth ever more rapidly, but the memory of Bella will live on in this Web 2.0 world as the avatar and image of my online persona, Dogtrax.”

I think Kevin will be hosting this feature next week, so be sure to head over there to send in your contribution — another week, another sentence!

Thanks for letting me host it today, Kevin!