Skip to main content

ELL students discuss Question 2 (Mass.) - November 2012


Greetings.

Today, I wanted to share some thoughts on the adolescent mind, and its ability to handle and discuss deep and serious topics among peers.  Today, in class, students asked some specific questions in regards to the current ballot questions, for this current election, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (November 2012, USA).  It’s amazing how even when English is not your first language, students’ oral language production skills come out and impress you.  We discussed Question 2 in depth.  For this current election (November 2012), Question 2 pertains to “doctor-assisted suicide,” and the “right to end one’s own life.”

Tomorrow (Nov. 6th, 2012), residents in Massachusetts will go to the polls and be asked whether you support or don’t support Question 2.  In short, it’s like this:  “Should an elderly (old) person who has lived a long life be allowed to take pills to take his/her own life (suicide); while being mindful that the individual may find himself/herself to be in great pain/ discomfort?”  My high school ELL students really impressed me today, and I had to acknowledge their honesty and thoughtful responses.  They engaged in a heated and passionate discussion, with some voices supporting Question 2, and others opposed.

Many thanks to my students for a great class today.
Signing off:  Mista Chocka

Comments

  1. its ability to handle and discuss deep and serious topics among peers.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

सुम्मेर अपडेट, फ्रॉम मर. छिओक्क

I'm happy to say that this year was my best yet. Combined with having more time to plan and prep for great units and lessons (now being post-Master's time), and with all the new knowledge and skills I learned from my M.A.T., it was a great year! You know... having those 4 years of teaching experience before doing my M.A.T., also, I think, really helped me to grow as an educator. We did some really exciting units this year. For example, building on some lessons I found in some Adult-ESL texts, I created a 3-week unit titled "Helping Your Family to Buy a Home!" Yes - so, we made "dream homes" out of cardboard boxes and materials. Students learned "Mr. Chiocca's 11 Steps to Buying a Home," and they made YouTube videos and Audio Recordings for the Final Project. The kids learned about mortgages, down payments, PITI - Principal, Interest, Taxes and Insurance; and how to work with real estate agents and brokers. In addition, students learned ...

My first clubhouse room!

I'm officially a moderator on Clubhouse! Yay! Have you gotten on the app?  It's still new, and in development, so it's only available on Apple iPhones, and iPads, etc.  It's still "invite only" and they did this on purpose, but I don't think it was meant to be exclusive, like a private club, rather because they are still in the "Beta" phase of growing, and developing, and didn't want to have millions join too fast, and thus overload the system.  Once you're on it, they you realize the value of it.  It's cool how the conversations in these "rooms" are generally based around a specific niche idea/ industry/ topic/ question.  There are rooms with thousands of listeners, and then there are smaller rooms which allow you to make new friends, and to be "brought up onto the stage," to speak.  It's audio only, and only Twitter and Instagram are linked in your profile, so it seems pretty clean and neat.  I like how there...

Updates from Adam's Unconventional Book Tour

Updates from Adam's Unconventional Book Tour!  First, though, let me share that in this picture, my wife, Muna is with Aaron, our younger son, when he was about three, I guess.  What a great pic, right?  Ok, so over the last month, January '21, I started a new, robust networking plan to try and reach out to new people, every day, over social media, because I need to tell the world about my new book.  I also started dm'-ing some celebrities, but didn't have any luck with that, so I realized that I can still make progress in building a bigger network by reaching out to amazing people who have at least 500 followers on ig.  Yes, I realized that if I could go "instagram live" with a new friend each day, through the Spring + Summer of '21, then I could tap into other people's networks.  Now... if you've been paying attention, I wrote that today, Feb. 1st was going to be the day I intended to "go public" with the big plans and grand mission in ...