Happy Halloween, everybody! (Do you like that Mutts newspaper comic??)
Well... I guess... I think that the freshness of their first semester at Fukuoka University has worn off the first year English major students half way through their second semester: in yesterday's first period Introduction to American Culture and Literature class, 13 students came late, and 19 student were absent (out of about 120 people). Sigh. I wish, of course, that they would all want to spend 90 minutes together learning what I'd like to teach them and generally enjoying our time together, but the reality is that about a quarter of the students don't care enough about what we do to come to class on time. On the plus side, nearly three quarters of the students are usually on time and ready to go and try to stay awake and listen and learn. ANYWAY, setting aside my complaints, I did enjoy introducing them to children's play and literature! And my other classes were mostly fine. I have a great time with the sports majors for English conversation class (even though most of them do no homework and don't try to speak English with each other). They are funny and healthy and cheerful, and we laugh a lot together. (I try not to think that I'm not teaching them anything...) My seminar was OK--I just wish more of the students in the class would post comments on our Facebook group. English conversation for second-year English majors was OK--I just wish they would speak more English to each other in their small groups when I'm not right next to them. My American culture class for third year English majors was OK--a few of them actually raised their hands to ask questions about Halloween, and the ones I chose by random chance to do that could do it. And my graduate school classes were fine. We're reading Charlotte's Web in one of them, and working on Gothic matters in another and gender in The Aeneid and Le Guin's Lavinia in another. So. We're getting close to the half-way point of the semester, and I'm starting to think I might survive another year. Fifteen more until I must retire at age 70! Hard to believe how fast the time has passed... See you next week!
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Jefferson Peters (JP)
Can you find me in the picture above? Archives
May 2024
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