To infinity...and beyond!

I recently switched operating systems from Fedora to Ubuntu, and have been particularly happy that with the new OS. It’s almost like I upgraded my graphics card; video and 3D rendering is much smoother. The main result has been that I find myself visiting Google Earth more often. So, when after a conversation with overseas grandparents, I had to explain to my soon-to-be 5 year-old why his grandparents in the states wouldn’t be able to visit Japan for his birthday, I turned to Google Earth to show him just where we are and where they are.

And I was greeted by a refrain I’ve become used to by now. "Can I have that one on my computer?"

So after a little bit of searching I had Google Earth running on his computer, which still uses Fedora, but has the benefit of a dedicated graphics card to make things run more smoothly. I turned my back for a minute or so then heard, "Can I print this one?" Looking at the picture Jonah wanted to print, I had no idea where in the world he was.

Because he wasn’t on this world.

He had gone to Mars.

After getting his computer’s printer going and once Mars rover pictures started pouring out, I wondered at the implications this experience could have for the future. After all, if you visited Mars in pictures at the age of four, then it would seem a reasonable jump to expect to be able to visit the red planet in person as an adult. Or perhaps it would be better to put it this way; after having visited the red planet and explored it in detail at the age of four, it would be particularly disappointing to at the age of 24 not be able to go there in person.

I think of that day as one where I lost quite a bit of printer ink and paper but gained a little more hope for the future.

There's more to my classroom than what I can see

Yesterday I had a class with a student who has been out of school long enough that he's one of the few true beginners for studying English. He tries to communicate by first writing what he wants to say in Japanese then laboriously translating each word into English. I've been teaching long enough that I can generally infer what he wants to say, but this has been going on for more than a year now, and his progress in spoken English remains excruciatingly slow.
Despite this, his company has decided to transfer him to Hong Kong to work in April, and in our lesson last week he asked how to introduce himself in English to his new co-workers. After covering that topic for about half the class, I asked what other concerns he had regarding navigating life in Hong Kong. We finished the class with homework for him to prepare his self-introduction and to think about other questions/concerns he had regarding his move.
He came to class yesterday with a prepared letter, translated from Japanese to English as usual, that explained he hadn't had time to prepare his self-introduction homework because he was busy each day consecutively. He went on to read that his concerns regarding Hong Kong include the fact that his son will be looking for employment from this year, his daughter is handicapped and looking for employment, his parents are past 80 and in and out of the hospital, he's worried that his wife isn't strong enough to deal with all of these problems, and finally he's concerned about paying his house loan while he's away. English didn't even make the list.
His story reminded me that what I see in my classroom is just a small slice of the life my students live, and that in many cases issues outside of my knowledge or control can influence how much time and energy they have to devote to their studies.