Wednesday, March 24, 2004

TRIREDETEAMATION

Triredeteamed.  That’s a tough one, eh?  But we can take it on one piece at a time and make sense out of it.  You already know how.  Come on:

Let’s start with finding the part that you know you know: “team,” t-e-a-m, with an “-ed” at the end - that’s an ending you see all the time.  So it’s just team with an -ed at the end; it sounds like it has something to do with a team being formed, made, created: “teamed.” That’s the basic word right there.

Then, just in front of that: “de.” That can make a word mean “not” or “down,” or turns it into its negative or its opposite.  Examples include “depress” or “declassify” or “deviate.” So “deteamed” means “unteamed,” or “took a team apart.”

Okay: next, right in front of that, “re.” That means “again,” like in “revise” or “review.” If you re-deteam, you are breaking up a team again - not just for the first time.  Finally, the whole word starts with “tri” - that means “three,” like for “triplets” or “triangle.” When you put it at the beginning of this word, it means that it has happened three times. 

So you figured it out: “triredeteamed” is the condition of breaking up a team again for the third time.

I heard from Project Read yesterday that my learner had not responded well to some gentle admonitions from staff about her study habits.  My staff contact had called me to strategize, and we decided that I should conclude my sessions with my learner at our regularly scheduled meeting that night.  She has been seeing another tutor as well and we thought it best for the learner to continue with the other tutor exclusively, with a more rigorous program of study and greater accountability for doing her assignments - or, alternatively, she will be asked to exit the program.  I’ll get reassigned.  Again.

My first teaming at Project Read lasted four sessions, but my learner was unable to commit the necessary time.  My second and third teamings only lasted one session in one case, none in the other.  When I got this last team assignment I was really tickled, though - I was her fourth assigned tutor, she was my fourth assigned learner, and we were both ready to get some work done. 

It didn’t work out that way.  I was supposed to see her last night at six for a basic lesson but instead I was going to terminate the relationship.  Project Read staff were on board, alert to the situation, ready to intervene if necessary.  (My learner could probably lay me out cold with a single punch if she felt like it, but she never would.  We get along great.  Got along great.)

Anyway, I got there 10 minutes early and had a quick conference with the project staffer on duty, and then retreated to a small private room to organize my thoughts for the meeting I had so dreaded as to have avoided thinking about it concretely till that very moment.  I thought about the meeting for 15 minutes, by which time it was 6:10 - time for me to leave: if the student is more than 10 minutes late without calling, the session is cancelled.  My learner was always late, by 10 or 15 minutes.  Last night, she eventually showed up 20 minutes past six - missing almost 25% of our scheduled time together. 

I could have kept waiting but I chickened out, asked Brian to handle my learner if she eventually showed up; Heather could manage the case and do damage control as necessary when she got back to her desk the next morning.  I left.  I didn’t even stick around to say goodbye to a woman with whom I’ve spent 90 minutes at the library every week for eight months. 

Maybe I’ll call her tomorrow to wrap things up.  Triredeteamation isn’t something you like to go through alone.

SO funny that I couldn’t even make the damned thing sound right in my head until you broke it down. Where do you get this shit anyway???

I’m working on the chai still. Cardamom pods must be extinct in these here parts, ya’ll. I freakin’ hate TN.

"learner”?

what the hell happened to “student”?

Do you mind if I copy this post and use it for comprehension?  I hate waiting for my pupils when I have individual lessons. Do your learners ever got to read your blog, I wonder.....

bob - i teach english for a private company in france, and we are expressly told not to call the person before us a “student.” instead, he or she is a “trainee.” (ugh.)

dan, i have a STUDENT like that too.  he comes late, leaves early, cancels often at the last minute, and retains nothing from previous lessons.  he has no time to do the homework we give him, and very limited listening skills.  he has reached a plateau where the only thing that will make him progress beyond his current level is actually going to england for a good long time, and of course he can’t do that.  it’s frustrating for him and for his teachers, and he’s been shuffled around between us a fair amount.  it would be tempting to end his contract if he weren’t so motivated to learn.  a bizarre mix indeed.

anyway, good luck with the (quinta?) quadraredeteamatory process.

Look at it like this, how often do you get the opportunity to actually use the word triredeteamed in a sentence?

yes, we’ve been told that “student” can be demeaning, disempowering - and many of the participants in the program have had bad school experiences so we try to avoid that whole nomenclature.  Anyone can print this out and use it to his or her heart’s content, within the bounds of propriety and western ethics, such as they are.  And Romy, I think I’m heading into my quadrareteamation, I hope there’s no more deteaming on the horizon…

i love coming here for the comments almost as much as for your life commentary, dan.

It takes two to tango.  I’m sort of burnt out on volunteering for similar scenarios as you describe, although you seem entirely unfazed.  You’re a better man than I--or, at the very least, a more verbally limber one.