Read my latest story, "A Tale of Two Birthdays", at 52|250.

1) In grading the midterms from my movie classes, I’ve found numerous nearly identical answers despite taking precautions in seating students with spaces between them and not allowing them to have anything on their desks but pens. I knew right away that this was because the students had found essays about the films we watched and memorized them. Unfortunately, the essays most of them memorized weren’t really relevant to the questions asked.

I’ve tried to explain to them why this is an inefficient way to study. I hope that those who scored poorly because of it listen to me when it’s time for the final instead of just deciding that they should memorize more.

2) Professional grade fireworks are available for sale right in Longhu. My main question on seeing that another teacher had bought a box of them was how much they had payed so that I could decide if I wanted to spend the cash to set off sky flowers from the road myself.

3) On a much sadder and more serious note, I knew exactly what one of my students meant when she asked me if there were “baby police” in the US. I responded that no, in the US, women can generally have as many or as few babies as they want. (The reality of that is more complicated, of course, but even just saying there’s more reproductive freedom would be to understate the difference.)

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