Second Week of School

Things are starting to settle down with my schedule - finally!

I have met with both my Econ and International Relations (IR) freshman for eight classes, and I am starting to build a relationship with them.  The IR class continues to be "genki" (full of energy) and will do what I tell them with enthusiasm.  All I have to do is remind them that they are going to America in a short time or start speaking with them at a normal American speed, and they are filled with motivation.  The Econ class is still a little tough.  However, I am learning how to motivate them and best work with them.

The Sohphmore English class is good.  I barely remembered them because I only met them once on Tuesday and had seen a boatload of other students since then.  This class's high level will make it easy and fun to teach.

The Freshman English Repeater class...  Well, I can appreciate the idea, but as an affective way to teach English...

My Comm L class of extremely high level students has been interesting.  The lower level students who showed up on the sign up day did not return, which made it much easier.  On the second meeting, we talked about their English needs and desires and hit upon the idea of each student creating their own blog as the vehicle for their writing, as well as teaching them a potentially useful skill.  They, and I, are pretty excited about the project.  If the students are willing, I will post their blog links on this blog, and perhaps you can read them and make comments about their writing (postive and constructive, please!).  I think they would appreciate the international feedback.

For my Comm A class, on the first I had over 70 students sign up!  So, as per my plan, I only chose Freshman IR students going to America, starting at the bottom level and going up till I had enough students.  From level 11 (16 being the lowest), I made it to level 6 by the time I chose 27 students.  The second meeting went well, with more genki students and lots of English.

Overall, I have a good schedule.  I only have two early morning classes, and the rest of the days have nice blocks of time free between classes to get organized, run to the gym, or go shopping.  On Friday, I only have one class at midday, so that opens up some good opportunities for early starts on weekend trips.

I'll try to keep you updated on teaching stuff, but it is very quickly becoming mundane.  I will try to keep the fresh stuff coming!