SDAIE Classes and the English Language

My fourth period is a mixed class; about half are native speakers,
high-performing. The other half are foreign-born SDAIE* kids. The thing
about teaching SDAIE classes is that when you grade their essays, you know
they have good reasons their English is so horribly, horribly broken.

Unfortunately, that does little to lessen the pain. From now on I'm
stacking the papers so I get a good essay or two in between the bad English.




*SDAIE: Specially-Designed Academic Instruction in English, wherein
non-native Intermediate level English speakers are mainstreamed.

I am not Kuan Yin's messenger.

In most things, I believe in mercy, and I am generally against the death
penalty. But people who hurt or kill children--especially their own--get no
mercy from me. I don't even consider them human anymore; they are apes
pretending to humanity. It's a good thing I'm not in charge, or the
genepool would get regularly weeded of these filth.