Posts Tagged ‘card’
It’s funny how much the stupid little things matter.
For four straight days, work sucked. I was worried, tired and at least a little stressed. Am I just new, or am I genuinely developing a reputation as a bit of a screwup? Maybe I should go back to substitute teaching — I know how to do that. I wasn’t sure I was cut out for this job, or that I enjoyed it.
That was before I found a $5 Jamba Juice gift card in my box. All wounds healed, by a stupid little gift card. How laughably easily I’m motivated will be something I’ll think about later, while I gulp down my power-sized Razzmatazz and its equally complimentary femme boost.
Immunity boost, I mean. Immunity boost.
I had half an hour to pick up a replacement social security card. There was no way I had enough time, so I went straight to office and confronted my boss.
There’s one right by the airport, nearby. I’ll go during lunch.
Thanks for offering.
I almost wish I hadn’t. As soon as the words slipped out of my mouth, I remembered that this particular office is notorious for long lines and slow service, even among social security administration offices. It’s practically at the level of an inner-city DMV. At the fastest, requesting a card is a 45-minute chore of a errand mostly made up of time spent reading your book and turning off your cellphone.
The last time I lost my card, I went to a dingy office in a San Jose strip mall, complete with 1973-quality interior decorating. It lasted a lot more than the 45 minutes the guard said it would, and I just knew I’d get the same uncomfortable chairs and wasted hour of my life this time around.
Imagine my disappointment that I was in and out just as soon as the social security card lady got back from her lunch. The blandly disinterested clerk from my last visit at the other office had been replaced at this office by an attentive clerk who, if I remember correctly, even smiled at me. More than once.
She didn’t disappear behind the counter for minutes at a time as she asked around her superiors about exactly how she was supposed to fill out the paperwork, and she wasn’t the 20-something answering my questions while busily texting her boyfriend. She started doing what she needed to do, and without blinking.
As I told her just before I turned to leave:
Whatever people usually say about the Social Security Administration, I had a very positive experience today. Please: Keep it up.
If only consistency weren’t completely out of the question.
My sophomores had to learn, and quickly, about Chinese history. The year’s winding down, and they need to know at least the basics for our next unit, on Tibetan protest and the 2008 Olympics.
I didn’t have the time or inclination to put together representative jigsaws, or make copies. What we did have: textbooks and index cards.
There was also a leftover transparency of that photo of a guy standing in front of the tanks at Tiananmen Square from an earlier period’s presentation. I used it as a set induction, and I asked my students to, without talking, write about all that they saw in the picture.
When we were done, we talked for a time about how this photo came to symbolize, in the minds of the West, how the PRC responds to protest, and how that’s different from American responses. Now that they were riled up and more-or-less interested, it was time to look at China’s side of the case.
On each of about 20 index cards, I wrote a page number in the upper right corner.
Each of these page numbers correlated with a page in their textbook that talks about the history of China. With a partner, they were required to write on their card what happened on their page, how Chinese people lived, how China viewed the West and how Chinese people viewed their government. Not all pages were able to answer all questions.
After 20 mins., they presented. In both classes, we didn’t finish, but we would have had more than enough time to do so had we cut down on the Tiananmen Square discussion.
Quick and dirty. More importantly, effective.
