Nov 17
Most spelling errors will be fixed but I will leave any instance of 'teh' as a reminder to myself of what I need to fight.  BOO to teh OK plateau! (Damn it.  Already I have one.)
East West U's classes cancelled today so high school students can visit, and I think take another entrance test- this one specific to our university.
I am at a coffee shop and have some goals.  I hope to follow this schedule:
20 minutes Nanowrimo
15 Minutes class prep
5 minutes to look for birds
15 minutes KOTESOL mnemonics presentation
5 minutes to walk and look for birds
repeat.  Hopefully, in the second runthrough, teh non-Nano tasks will be completed.

I am at the Amisan lookout or 아미산정만대, which has great views of the Nakdong River delta.  It is a cloudy day and teh swans I saw the last time I was here are absent.  Lots of magpies, common as dirt but so beautiful, fly nearby and it is always fun to watch them from above.

My presentation is on using mnemonics to help students remember and understand some differences between synonyms. We will be looking at synonyms for 'see' (look, watch, view, study, observe, stare, glare, glance and etc up to maybe 13 examples) and tastes.  Tastes are not synonyms (bitter vs sweet, etc) but they are presented as a group to our students, so some effort in grouping them in the students' minds and also differentiating them is important. We might look at pedal travel: walk, limps, run, jog... and talk: say, ask, reply, assert, report, ...

In this presentation, I will use a number-picture-sentence menemonic but will also touch on Loci-of-place and others...

Hmm a crow just passed below - it had the 'finger-feathers' at teh end of its wings that, well, do something and look distinctive.

image from The Telegraph

Anyway, In his book, Moonwalking with Einstein, Foer discusses the OK Plateau, where most people feel they are good enough.  I can type pretty quickly even including the time it takes to back up and fi xthe spacing and transpose letters, but I could do better.  I want to be more than OK.