Remembering a beloved teacher: Tina Tefft, 1951 - 2020

Tina Tefft, a beloved special education teacher at High Point School in Ann Arbor, died on September 28th, 2020. She was a natural teacher and a great friend. 

Both my sons were in her class at one time or another. She touched other staff members and families with her love for her students.

Tina had a double lung transplant in 2013 that allowed her to enjoy her retirement with her family and friends. Before a transplant became available, she worked very hard to stabilize her condition. I used to see her at M-Fit, the exercise room at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube (well-known to hockey and ice skating fans), dragging around her oxygen machine while she exercised. Every time I saw her, as she was pausing to catch her breath and smiling through the whole ordeal, I always felt that she lifted the spirits of everyone around her, rather than the other way around.

Tina died of a recently diagnosed cancer. Here is her obituary from the Ann Arbor News:

https://obits.mlive.com/obituaries/annarbor/obituary.aspx?n=christina-price-tefft&pid=19692033

Too much sadness! 

Abelone Kelley October 16, 2020 0

Indian Matchmaking Causes a Stir in India

Indian Matchmaking is a Netflix TV show that has become a huge hit in India, but it has also stirred a heated debate about arranged marriages and the role of women in modern relationships.  Some people love the show, and they think it is "realistic and honest", while others find it  regressive and even "cringe-worthy".

Here you can read a BBC News article on the story, and below you will find the video report version of the story with Punjabi subtitles (4':30"), where you can listen to Indian an American accents, and three more YouTube video links. This story is recommended for C1 students.  

In the BBC News article, you will come across words like: cringe-worthy (informal), a [huge] hit,a  matchmaker, a [huge] buzz (informal), docuseries, to jet-set, bride, groom, a meme, to hate-watch (informal), in-your-face misogyny, casteism, colourism, [to cause] outrage, posh [hotels], closet, at stake, to leaf through [a database], to pull out, a [good] fit, to trawl through, a hunt, to come as a surprise, affluent, to rely on, a shopping list, an outsider, [an] alien [world], dating, [to suggest] condescendingly, insightful, hilarious, unaware, a [regressive] mindset, a caveat (formal), an astrologer, a face reader, auspicious, stubborn, to compromise, to adjust, to call out, picky [clients], to gloss over, to scar [women permanently], chattle, painful [memories], [bride viewing] demeaning, to put on display, to be sized up, to reveal, prejudice, a freaking [reality show], woke [people] (US informal).

If you want to find out more about Indian Matchmaking, here there is a short clip with the best moments of the show (2':46").

Here, you can find a link to one episode of Indian Matchmaking (40':21"). 

And, finally, here you can watch a Netflix programme where the creator of the show, Smriti Mundhra, and Sima Taparia, the Mumbai matchmaker, discuss "colourism, caste, religious prejudice and gender inequality in Indian society and on-screen".

Abelone Kelley October 15, 2020 0

Louise Glück: "Landscape" and Other Poems

Poet Louise Glück has just been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Poetry must be read out loud to appreciate its sound and its music, the unique sound and music of a language, in this case English, which cannot be faithfully translated into any other language.

Below you can watch a YouTube video of Louise Glück reading out loud several of her poems at a Lannan literary event.  After an introduction by Peter Streckfus, the poet reads "Mock Orange" (10:17), then two poems from her book "The Wild Iris" (10:29).  Next, two more poems from "Averno" (14:03): "Telescope" (14:27) and "Landscape", which is introduced at 15:50 and recited at 17:26.  Then, Ms Glück goes on to read two poems from "A Village Life" (29:24), and. finally, the poetic rendition ends with two texts form "Faithful & Virtous Night" (43:11).

You can read the words of "Landscape" while you listen to the poem on this link from "The Threepenny Review", you should listen to the poem several times before you can glimpse some kind of meaning.  Nevertheless, poetry is more than a factual message, poetry is the sound of words, poetry is tempo, so, you can enjoy, straightaway, the rhythmical patterns of English, the articulation of consonants, the quality and length of the vowels that the poet recites, slowly and carefully -which we tend to turn a deaf ear to, when we are engaged in our everyday communication exchanges- and that auditive perception is worthwhile in itself, even more so, if you are a mystified learner of a foreign language. After listening to the poet, you can try to recite the poem yourself, paying mindful attention to the pronunciation of phonemes, words and sentences -a pronunciation class in quest for poetic beauty! This poem is accessible to C1 students for the lexis is rather easy: [the sun] sets, bare, chestnut, quilt, damp, to trail, to rush, to strain the leash, path, sunset, precipice, to call out, faintly, twilight, to untie [his horse], to stir, to float, propitious [time], demure inviting [sounds], to vanish, to bleach, [an image] to fade, to set fire to [a field], wheat, tinder, for [the farmer's] sake, char, [a field] parched, failure, abiding, a memento, soil, a slot, complacent, harsh, obsolete, shallow, to soothe, the earth, to defeat, accurate, shelter, thickly, steadily, [sure] footing, a premonition.

If you want to read an introduction to the poetry of Louise Glück, you can follow this link to "The Poetry Foundation", where you will find an article with a dense collection of review extracts which is recommended for Experts, above C2 level.  Here you will find a lot of information about the recent Nobel Prize winner and about her poems.

One article that may strike you in "The Poetry Foundation" is this interview to Boston-based composer Harriett Staff, who has set the text of "Averno" to music. She describes the process of turning text into music in these terms: "To be set as music easily, the text needs to be concise. There has to be some sense of rhythm - even a single phrase that has a strong sense of long and short beats. And then the vowels need to be longer and the consonants leaning towards softer sounds, 'l', 'm', 'n', with fewer hard consonants. I don't think too much about meaning at the beginning. When I find a poem that seems to feel as if it could be music, I look for a single line that speaks to me musically, I memorise it, and I start saying it with various emphases and melodic lines. When something begins to emerge that sounds natural and musical, I write it down. Usually it is both melodic and rhythmic." This interview is suitable for C1 students.

Abelone Kelley October 09, 2020 0

Election Polls: the Swing States That Will Decide the Next President

On Tuesday November 3rd 2020, Americans will vote for the next President of the USA, but the battle between the two candidates, President Trump and Vice-President Biden is fought particularly fiercely in the "swing" states, where there race is very close. The reason is that the Presidential election is an indirect election: voters choose an Electoral College first, and then, the elected members of that Electoral College vote for the President, so the popular vote does not always decide the President, but the number of "electoral votes" -a minimum of 270-  that each candidate has won in each of the 50 states of the Union -the winner in each state carries all the votes from that constituency. Some states are clearly Republican, so they are called "red states", basically, the Mid-West and the South, other states usually vote for the Democrats, they are called "blue states", mainly on the West Coast and in New England, but there are "purple states", which "swing" or change sides in sucessive elections, like Florida (29 electoral votes), Ohio (18 votes), Iowa (6 votes), and, in the last two elections, Pennsylvania (20 votes), and they become the real battleground for Presidential elections. 

This article from the Los Angeles Times reports on the latest polls in the "battleground states" of the 2020 Presidential election. The vocabulary is rather technical, so, the reading is recommended for C1 students and above.  You will come across words like: polls, battleground states, a tight [race], former, to butt [heads], to bar, blue states, red states, a high-profile [event], too-close-to-call [states], a flurry [of polls], backdrop, to trail, worrisome, key states, the industrial belt, an aberration, a realignment, [non-college-educated] working-class [white] voters, [Republican]-leaning [Ohio], on a knife's edge, a dead heat, [his] edge, coveted [Pennsylvania], a lead, likely [voters], survey, a split, to beat, to trend for [Trump], [to remain] close, a snapshot, pollsters, to flip [for Biden].

If you want to follow election polls, The Guardian Polls Tracker collects reliable national and state polls results in 8 swing states and gives you the average in the last 14 days, or you may check the Politico US Election Forcast, with charts, the latest news and a map of the "solid", "likely" and the "lean" states, together with the "toss-up" states, which are the most undecided.

Abelone Kelley October 02, 2020 0

Michigan: How to vote early with an absentee ballot

This is yet another post about voting in the November 3rd, 2020 election. 

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This is based on an article from Bridge Michigan, Michigan's nonpartisan, nonprofit news source, “How to vote early in the November election in Michigan”, by Riley Beggin, 9/22/20

Voting by absentee ballot is already underway in Michigan. Jocelyn Benson, the Michigan Secretary of State, estimates that nearly 3 million Michiganders will vote absentee for the November 3rd, 2020 election, due in part to the expansion of voting rights put in place by a 2018 constitutional amendment that gave all Michiganders the right to vote by mail.

President Trump has been railing against early voting and claiming that if he loses, it will be because of voter fraud caused by mail-in voting. There is no basis for this claim and no one should give up their voting rights because of it. Voting on Election Day (with or without an absentee ballot dropped off at your local clerk’s office) is also an option, although the Covid-19 pandemic has made absentee voting more appealing to vulnerable populations.

You can find out your current status as a Michigan voter at the Secretary of State’s Voter information Website.

Here are excerpts from the Michigan Bridge article:

Step 1: Check your voter registration.  

“…All Michigan residents over the age of 18, who are U.S. citizens, who aren’t currently serving a sentence in jail or prison, and who will have lived in the state for at least 30 days by Election Day are eligible to vote. If you have a misdemeanor or felony conviction and have finished your sentence or are being held in jail awaiting trial, you are still eligible to vote. “

[Check to see if you are currently registered. If you are not, you can register to vote on-line until October 19, 2020.] 

…“To vote absentee in person, check the hours your local clerk’s office is open and go in. You can apply for an absentee ballot, fill it out and submit it all in one visit until 4 p.m. on Nov. 2. 

“If you’re registering for the first time, you can register and cast an in-person absentee ballot on Election Day, Nov. 3” 

Step 2: Apply for an absentee ballot.  

“Apply online for an absentee ballot to be sent to you in the mail any time before 5 p.m. Oct. 30. You can also download an application, fill it out and return it to your clerk by email, mail, fax or in person. “

[There may be delays in mail delivery, so apply for an absentee ballot in person and hand deliver it to your clerk’s office.] 

Step 3: Choose your candidates. 

“You don’t have to wait until you get your ballot to begin learning about who is running. See a full list of candidates by entering your voter information here. “

[Another source of voter information comes from the non-partisan League of Women Voters, Vote411 election Information Website. Read the directions on your absentee ballot carefully and make sure you look at the back of the ballot for more election choices.] 

Step 4: Sign your ballot envelope. 

“Put your ballot inside the secrecy sleeve. Then put that inside the larger envelope. If you forget to include the secrecy sleeve, it’s OK. Election officials will put it in a secrecy sleeve when they take it out to begin processing ballots. 

“Be sure to sign the outside of the envelope in the big box indicated for signatures. “

[Follow the instructions carefully] 

Step 5: Return your ballot to your clerk. 

“There are three options for getting your ballot back to your clerk:

• Drop it in a ballot drop box
• Mail it back
• Take it to your clerk’s office

“To drop your ballot in a drop box, first check to see whether your city has them. Visit this website, choose 'who is my clerk?' and enter your address under 'search for your city/township clerk.' Only drop your ballot in drop boxes belonging to the city you received a ballot from. For example, if you’re voting in Ann Arbor, don’t drop your ballot in a Detroit drop box.”

[Avoid mail delays and hand-deliver your ballot to your clerk’s office.] 

Step 6: Make sure your clerk received your ballot.  

"You can check whether your clerk received your voter application, whether they sent it, and whether they received it online here." 

Step 7: If you change your mind or made a mistake, spoil and recast your ballot. 

“If you made a mistake, changed your mind, or your ballot looks like it won’t reach your clerk in time, you may want to 'spoil' your ballot and cast a new one. Spoiling a ballot is the same as canceling the old one. “

...”The latest you can spoil a ballot is 4 p.m. on Nov. 2, the day before the election. If you spoil your ballot at the last minute, ask your clerk what your options are to cast your vote. “

Step 8: Celebrate  

"If you’ve made it through all of the above steps, it’s time to celebrate — you’ve voted in the 2020 general election."

Abelone Kelley October 01, 2020 0

The Teenage Inventor Who Wants to Help his Great Aunt

Freddie is a 14-year-old inventor who has developed two machines to help his 89-year-old great aunt, Pat, who has demetia. In this short BBC World Service video (4':46") you will hear him explaining his inventions.  The video can be seen with automatic subtitles, so it is accessible to B2 students and above.

Some of the new words you will find in the video are: an award-winning inventor, a facial recognition door entry system, random strangers, to scan my ID tag for authentification, a code club, a wearable sensor, to dispatch [a robot], to rope in [his family], to trigger [a false positive], thoroughly, to be over, for a second year running, to set him up, a former [winner], to showcase [your skills].

Abelone Kelley October 01, 2020 0

A founder of the National Council on Severe Autism perishes in an accidental house fire

I have been a follower and admirer of the people who founded  the National Council on Severe Autism  in May 2018. One of their founders, Feda Almaliti, died Saturday in a house fire with her beloved son Mu. This is a tribute to her and her son from her NCSA family.

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On the Passing of Feda Almaliti, 1977-2020

September 27, 2020

Yesterday was a day that rocked the autism community. Feda Almaliti, one of the founders of the National Council on Severe Autism and who was recognized nationally for her outspoken and often brash and hilarious advocacy for individuals and families impacted by autism, perished in an accidental house fire with her beloved son Muhammed. Feda was able to run out of the house along with her sister and niece but then went back in to bring out Mu. She could not carry him but kept fighting till she lost her breath due to heavy smoke. When the fire officials found the bodies, Feda was holding Muhammed.

Our hearts are broken....

...When we heard she had died trying to save Mu, a friend remarked, “Of course she did, she would not have been able to live with herself otherwise.”

Read the full post here.

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See also, Ways to Honor the Late Feda Almaliti and Her Son Muhammed

The NCSA Blog is full of posts that describe the hope and despair of severe autism and give voice to people who have been underrepresented and misrepresented by people presuming to speak for them.

Abelone Kelley September 29, 2020 0