ESL, education, tutoring

ESL (English as a Second Language), Lethbridge College, EDDT (Engineering Design and Drafting Technologies), going to school, learning, teaching, and everything else is covered here.

spring begins, as do corrections

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It’s sunny, warm, pleasant.  Yesterday I met TB & RH (my bamboo research group) to talk about our submission to the ASET Capstone project.  We all wrote blurbs about ourselves, and TB will organize it all and submit it.  I trust Ty to catch all the goofinesses such as font sizes, placement of images, etc.

I worked on the Architectural class group project.  CE, a teammate in the Stan’s Stuff – Auto Parts and More, said he could meet up and work on it with me.  It’d be a good portfolio item.  It turns out he was too busy with flooding in his house and preparing to travel.  Se, the other teammate, rarely shows up for any length of time to help.  Very helpful when he does, but it’s rather seldom.  So I’ll continue to work until it’s absolutely time to wipe the drives on the computer.  Work on what?  Corrections to assignments.  All those red marks on assigments – I’ve paid for them.  I paid money to have the instructor put red all over my paper.  I’ll be damned if I’m gonna let that go to waste.

All students’ computer drives need to be wiped at the end of this course.  They have software on them that’s only licensed to the college.  We get a deposit back when we allow this.  I forget how much – like a hundred dollars or so.  No wipe, no deposit back.  So, we’re all told repeatedly to back up our stuff and save anything we want to save on another drive.  I’ve got my server (the one you’re reading this on) to store my stuff.

In case you’re wondering, I rarely use real names here on the ongoing letter.  I don’t imagine people would want their names, faces, etc. online.  So, rather than names, I use initials.  Are they real?  Who knows!  Ha!

perspective

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As I’m finishing my education and getting ready to search for jobs, I know there is so much for me to learn still.  We all come out of our course thinking that we’re qualified, have got the knowledge, will run out and do great things.

I saw a video tour of New York City from 1911 on YouTube.  They had traffic management with electric, petroleum, and horse powered vehicles intermingling.  They had trains being driven several storeys over the street, buildings so high that an engineer these days would take seemingly forever to design and build.  They had so much already back then.  We think we’re doing something new – and we probably are – but we may be forgetting that these things have all been done without the technological help that we have today.  Damn amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aohXOpKtns0   Keeps it all in perspective.

EDDT is done (pretty much)

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Yesterday was my last class in the Engineering Design and Drafting Technology program.  I handed in my last project at 10pm yesterday evening and went home.  (I made this a bigger font ’cause it’s been a pretty major thing in my life for the past few years.)

I’m sitting at 75.63% (unofficial) in my weakest subject, Process Design, but the Final Project is not marked yet.  We designed oil & gas vessels and pipelines and studied how these systems work.

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Mark found mark

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My instructor Mark from a year ago found my final exam!  He gave me a zero for the final in his steel construction class because he could not find it.  Long story short – I put my work in one pile and the exam paper in the other on his desk.  I asked, and he looked twice before, but he said he couldn’t find it.  Finally, a few days ago, I asked him if taking his current class will erase my old mark.  He said it wouldn’t but that he’d look again for it.  “I remember now that you took the exam with the other section group,” he said, and that he’d look for the exam again.  He found it, graded it, and submitted the grade and documentation to the registrar’s office.  I’m waiting to hear back to confirm that my mark has changed.  I will get a B- in that class.

EDDT and Earthships

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I have yet to attend Environmental Systems class.  I’ve had two days of classes at the college in the EDDT course so far, with Process Design II, the designing of pressure vessels and their connections; Applied Research, the second class in a series including statistics that builds toward a final presentation to peers and instructors; Architectural Design III, actually the fourth in a series of residential and commercial architecture training; and Civil Design and Drafting, a continuation of topographic, mapping, drainage, landscaping, and all things considered in developing land for habitation, industry, or business.  It’s the weekend now, and I’m looking forward to next week to see what the environmental class has to offer.

I woke up this morning to an Earthship blog from New Zealand as a result of somewhat randomly clicking links online.  YouTube – Healthy Homes – Te Timatanga Earthship New Zealand  Also, Earthship NZ  I also saw an Earthship created here in Southern Alberta.  Alberta’s First Earthship  If I am to go in any direction that I choose, this would be it – sustainable building.

One of my instructors hit on something I lack – confidence.  He wrote on the board a list of characteristics a cook and a chef might have.  I spouted off the first characteristic – creativity vs. following.  It seems odd that I would be the first to offer an entry to his list, which in fact takes leadership, because I seriously lack the confidence needed in planning, creating, building, etc.  (I offered another, which he moved to the top of the list – communication.  I do have that, being an English teacher.)

So this is a personal skill I must work on during this last term in school – confidence in leadership.

calm after the storm

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Things are settling down now.  I’ve been on my ulcer meds for about two weeks.  Only one somewhat nasty attack during that time.  I’m happy for that.  The doc said the third time I get this there’d be some major s*** to deal with.  I’m hoping this is not the case.

There’s a kind of calm these days.  I can feel it about here and there.  Instructors are not as go-go-go as in the past, no work stress to deal with, no wondering how Father is doing, Mom is doing better these days (made gravy for Sunday’s turkey dinner), Floyd has no issues to speak of, friends (most) are understanding of the various things that have gone down, and the yearly Hell is gone (Pete knows all about this).  Calm before the storm?  No, after.  Feels good.  (Knock on wood.)

I’m not as behind in classes as I was.  I’m actually ahead in one but behind in another.  The rest are good.

I fixed my stereo.  …  Ha!  They don’t call them stereos anymore, do they?  My home entertainment system.

The fan had been making noise, so I cut it out with some metal snips.  In the process, I ended up destroying it.  I just wanted to squirt some WD40 into it.  So much for that.  So I duct-taped a computer fan with a limiter to it.  It seems to work just fine.  A bit overkill, but it is quieter than before.

My little Fujitsu also developed a problem.  A ribbon cable controlling the power supply broke.  I ordered a new used one online and put it in.  It took some monkeying, but it’s working now.  It’s now 12 years old, so it doesn’t compete with today’s computers, but it does make a good background music player.  “Ghibli” on “Study jazz” on YouTube.  Kevin introduced this to me during our final week of last term’s studying.  Look it up – unless you’re allergic to jazz.

playing catch-up

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I’ve been at classes for about a week now but missed a week of classes while in BC.  With T’s help I’ve managed to get caught up in one class (Process Design) but have more to go.  There’s an exam in Fluid Mechanics tomorrow morning.  I’ll try my best to get caught up before then.

I’ve got Process Design, Fluid Mechanics, Architectural Design II, and Statistics / Applied Research I this term.

back at school

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First day back at school today.  Two classes – Pressure Vessels and Statistics.  Lots to do for projects in both classes.  My two teammates in Stats are good guys.  Hopefully all will work well.

Still earache, vertigo, ringing in the ear.  Wish it would go away anytime soon.

Technologies and Trades building

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Mom, Floyd, and I saw the new Technologies and Trades building at Lethbridge College last week.  Mom got a bit tired near the end – it just creeps up on her suddenly.  But we saw enough of it.

This will be my first year in this new building.  All those who did the course in the normal two years will not have the chance to be in this new building.  Luckily, doing it in 3 years, I’ll spend my final year in there.

I brought a list of my classroom numbers, published a month ago.  I’m thinking they have since changed the numbers of rooms from a month ago.  Why do I say that?  One of my classes, Fluid Dynamics I think, was in room TT1933.  What’s the problem with that?  TT1933 is now a men’s restroom.  I saw my newly numbered classrooms today – TT1939, TT1940, TT1941, TT1942, and TT1981.  I guess I’m not having classroom in any restrooms.

quips

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I renewed my license today.  It expires in a week (my birthday).  I just happened to notice the expiry date while doing some other paperwork.  Good thing – otherwise, I’d have never noticed.  There were about 20 people in line.  A woman said, after small talk about the lineup, “I thought I’d chosen a day that there wouldn’t be a crowd.”  I replied, “Maybe you did!”

This is the kind of thing I’d normally have an English lesson on, if I were still teaching ESL.

The true meaning of the end comment was:

  1. You came here before when there wasn’t a crowd, and now you’re back.
  2. There really aren’t many people here today.  This isn’t such a big crowd.
  3. I had no idea what to say, so I said something that makes no sense.  My bad!
  4. There may be not as many people today as on other days; this could be a slow day, comparatively.