Speech Writing & Mixology

I was working with a student this week to help him improve his writing. He and I wrote from speech prompts to strengthen his ability to write off the cuff.  He wrote a speech about being in a drumline, I wrote a speech about making a drink. Let me know what you think!

As a bartender, I've been trained to make drinks. Any bartender will tell you that making drinks is easy, you simply follow the specific steps and serve the beverage to the customer. A gin and tonic, for example: fill a collins glass with ice, pour in two ounces of gin, fill the rest of the glass with tonic water. Put a lime garnish on the rim. simple. However, the showmanship, presentation and service are what truly make a great cocktail.

I like to make martinis. It's a simple drink that has become synonymous with high class and good taste. Even though its origin is disputed, most historians agree the Prohibition Era is the reason the drink became so popular. During the 1920s the illegal manufacturing of gin was so popular that gin-based drinks were the choice of most underground bars. The simplicity of the beverage only added to its fame and I think James Bond did the rest when he first asked for one "shaken, not stirred."

Making the drink is not difficult. You start with a shaker filled half way with ice. Then, you add an ounce and a half of gin and a half ounce to an ounce of dry vermouth. Here's where the service comes in. Double check with your customer because people like varying degrees of vermouth in their martini. The less vermouth, the "dryer" the martini. Next, cap the shaker and shake (or stir) it up! You want to be able to feel  some of the chill of the ice through the shaker. Then, you pour the mixed concoction into a martini glass. I like to drop the necessary olives in the bottom of the martini glass prior to the pour so that the drink fills up around the garnish. I feel doing that adds to the level of showmanship. I also move the shaker up and down and in a circular motion as I pour to give the sense of an "even pour."

That is how I make a martini to not only create the drink for the customer, but to also make a demonstration of its creation which adds to the overall presentation of the drink.

On teaching or The second time around

I feel like I've been suffering from deja vu recently. Around this time, last year, I met a high school student who needed help improving his writing so that he could apply to college. I wrote about it on my other blog.

Now, here I am again, working with  a high student on her college apps. Perhaps this is a chance to fully succeed where I fell short initially. Let me explain.

My first student had his heart set on Northeastern University. One of the programs in their various schools was the kind of field he wanted to go into as a career. However, NU was a bit of a "reach," according to his grades and test scores.

Despite this, I felt confident that with a great set of essays on his app he could turn heads and earn a spot in the program. He and I worked diligently together over the span of several weeks to perfect his essays. In the end, we both felt confident in his chances.

We finished our work and he submitted his app for the November deadline. Fast forward to January and I found out he was not accepted to NU, but had been accepted to his second choice, Suffolk University.

I was happy for him and excited at the idea that I had helped him get into college. Even with all of that, I was crestfallen because I promised him NU and he didn't get in.

My current student wants to to go to the University of Texas in Austin. I haven't been sold bold as to promise her I'll get her in, but I'm aware of the stakes, both for her and for me.

It's a second chance, a do-over. I intend to make the most of it for all our sakes.

On Education, or Getting back in the Saddle

Later this evening I will be sitting face to face with a high school student, attempting to explain why she can't do a compare and contrast on her college essay. Having read the essay in question I'm a little daunted by the task...

This student will be the first person I've tutored in several months, and honestly, I'm a little concerned as to whether I'll be able to communicate the issues in her essay so that she is able to understand what mistake she made, how to correct it and how to avoid it in the future. Less than a year ago, I used to complain and lament with my friend and fellow tutor, Gage, about how much I disliked dealing with the same students and errors day in and day out.

Now, I'd relish that consistency because it would mean that I was so much in the zone of teaching others about writing that I required a new challenge. Well, I've taken some time off. Sure, I've been using my writing skills in the time between but have my teaching skills gone to rot? I don't know, and I won't find out until tonight. Let us all hope that my student and her parents are patient with me. I'm assuming that the teaching skill is in the same set of those skills like bike riding. It'll come back to me as soon as I start doing it again.

In truth, I  suspect it will be like that. I was working with my one of cousin's children last week on a geography assignment. As he and I worked our way through a bunch of different world maps, filling in countries, rivers, and mountains, I felt a thrum in my pulse. It was the sense of excitement I get when working with a student and they begin to comprehend what I'm telling them.

It was that, or the beginning of a headache because he couldn't remember that the countries of Saudi Arabia,  Iraq, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Oman and some others were often referred to as the "Middle East."

Either way, I'm looking forward to doing it again, to sitting with a student and working through the written language to help them come to a better understanding. I'm looking forward to that thrum of excitement... Or maybe just the headache. Either one lets me know that I'm back in the field of education. That I'm teaching again.