What to do with 5 hours

, a photo by cathy.ikeda on Flickr.

I'm at the airport again, faced with another five hour layover. Here's what I learned:

• A one day pass for the lounge is worth it if you have a lot of time. It keeps you away from the chaos of the terminal and you usually get free wi fi, drinks and snacks.

• The Delta sky lounge in Atlanta, concourse E has a shower.

• Hawaii has no exchange site to exchange South African rands. Perhaps it's because there are no direct flights to South Africa.

• After the first two hours and a 1/2 hour nap, things get really slow. Buy a book that you're willing to donate to the plane or hotel room.

• Use the slow time to actually go over the work you brought. Perhaps, like me you will find out that the large article I brought called "Working with Second Language Learners: Answers to Teachers' Top Ten Questions" only has 8 answers. Doh! Not only that, but when I actually read it I had a "duh?!" rather than an "aha" moment. Bummer.

• Spending one hour trying to post a pic on the blog and type with fat fingers and small keys does not make you any more proficient. Practice does not make perfect.

That's a good segue for today's mana'o. "Practice makes permanent"-Rick Wormelli
What that means for us as educators is that we can't give homework that students can't practice independently, otherwise the mistaken thinking of a child who is not ready to master the concepts independently will result in permanent damage that we then need to catch and reteach. If we don't reteach, the teachers that come after us will blame the child's errors on us, and it may actually be true. "practice makes permanent"

Comments

Tamara said…

Cathy Ikeda: the stand up and sit down comedian?
Love when your humor runs rampant. Agree about
practice makes permanent. Got sixth-graders that
have practiced writing "dose" for "does" because
their former teacher spells it that way; impossible
to retrain them. LWP going great. Lots of awesome,
fluent writers. Jeannine still nauseaus. Safe travels
to you. MUCH ALOHA, Tamara.

June 23, 2011 at 9:27 AM

Cathy Ikeda said…

I also hate loose for lose. The loosers!

June 23, 2011 at 9:30 PM

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