Picked up a coffee at Open Book, with its welcoming marquee, before catching a bus to school. The route passed the second marquee in Cedar-Riverside (“Little Mogadishu”). In my first class, I worked with Somali-American women studying to be Certified Nursing Assistants. In the final class, students marked the end of the semester by bringing an abundance of delicious Somali food, including, of course, the obligatory sambusas.
Category: In This Together
The American Dream lives on in the classroom
It was a morning of Certified Nursing Assistant and English Language Learning with mainly Somali immigrants. These word choices by learners demonstrate the classroom as a safe space. Their attitudes were remarkable, especially given the appalling statements made by the POTUS this week. The fear of arbitrary race-based detention and deportation is a disturbing reality in Minneapolis today.
Not just books at the library
I noticed this today at the Franklin Library, where I work with an adult learner. I occasionally see someone passed out by the path while cycling, which is why I’ve been carrying two doses of Naloxone in my daypack. It’s a sobering reality, especially when considering the Sackler family has made billions from the opioid epidemic.
Celebrating love under a political cloud
Marked our 5th wedding anniversary (and nearly 40 years together) with Indigenous cuisine at Owamni by The Sioux Chef. Today we’re reminded that we rushed to marry, fearing the 2020 election and the overturning of our rights. The actions of the current Administration and Supreme Court renew those fears.
Focusing on core objectives
Over the years, I’ve learned it’s important to avoid over-correcting English Language Learners and focus on the primary learning objective. When marking sentences today, the goal was semantic comprehension: using vocabulary words correctly in sentences. It took effort to assess their grasp of meaning and context while being lenient on other mistakes. The impulse to correct everything is powerful.
Raindrops and runners and crisp social commentary
On my walk, I was distracted by the sound of raindrops on corrugated iron coming from the ruins of what was once the world’s largest flour mill. Behind me, a Halloween fun run was underway, following the Mississippi before crossing Stone Arch Bridge. Some runners were wearing fanciful costumes, and a bystander carried a handwritten sign: “You’re running better than the government.”
Codifying instinct
As is often the case, I learned something about English in the classroom today that I only knew intuitively. A few specific verbs, like stop, remember, and quit, change their meaning when followed by an infinitive versus a gerund. ‘Stopped to go’ and ‘stopped going’ have different meanings. In fact, that difference might even make the bathroom gerund example in the photo nonsensical.
No kings
Joined a huge crowd in downtown Minneapolis to assert government is for the people and must adhere to the law. (Over 100,000 attended the Minneapolis rally. Nationwide there were more than 2,700 rallies with over 7 million attendees.)
From IKEA to art
Saw the “Jessi Reaves: process invented the mirror” exhibition at the Walker today, featuring impractical furniture built from found objects. I couldn’t stop remembering a day when Dwight and I were a great source of amusement for my father-in-law as we struggled to assemble an IKEA storage unit for him. This exhibition really took the idea of “furniture as a challenge” to the next level.
Harvest moon setting over Minneapolis
This was my view from bed this morning: sipping coffee, reading the news (the NYT and the Minnesota Star Tribune), and doing a side of doomscrolling where I like to challenge misinformation.