I love my job!!

I have had two weeks of class! So far, it is going well. I teach five sections of English 300, and one section of 401. Each section has students from a different department in it, and of course its own personality. 300 is grammar and speaking and 401 is mostly about presenting opinions and making arguments.

Most of the 300 sections are very engaged and active and talkative. I have given them activities to do that demand some creativity and the results have been awesome. Lots of jokes and witty reponses, which I love. For example, this week we learned about imperative so I had the students get into pairs and teach each other how to do something, and then teach the class. They were doing origami, dances, songs, magic. It was hilarious and very interactive! The only section I am having trouble with is management; they are so quiet and serious, it's like pulling teeth sometimes. Hopefully they'll loosen up a bit.

401 is a bit more tedious...it's hard to get them to think outside of the box. For example, we read an article where the writer was responding to a town banning smoking in public. The whole thing was completely sarcastic, claiming that we may as well ban eating unhealthy food and etc. They all took it so seriously...it's in their book so they assume it is serious. It took an hour and a half, paragraph by paragraph, asking lots of questions, to get them to understand. They understood the content, just completely missed the tone. They were all amused in the end of course.

I've also had a few students come to my office to talk and ask questions, which has been nice. I definitely seem to be building a relationship with them, and faster than I expected! I'm learning as I go....