Whew! I made it to Saturday after the first week of classes in the new school year--barely. We returned from our trip around the world (eight cities and seven countries and three continents) on the night of Monday April 8, and the very next day I had to go to school for a meeting, and the very next day after that my classes started.
That first Wednesday was difficult. Three classes (periods 1, 3, and 4) and then two meetings lasting until around 8:00 pm. I was jet lagged and still somewhat sick with the cold I caught in Cairo two weeks or so earlier. However, I did enjoy meeting the first year students for Introduction to American Culture and Literature! This year there are about 90 first-year English majors, and they seemed responsive and fresh. I introduced our class to them and tried to communicate the fun and usefulness of studying literature to learn culture and language and the human heart etc. from my point of view as a learner of Japanese by showing them two different examples of introductions in Japanese, one in a Japanese textbook called Japanese for Busy People (Tanaka san introduces Smith san to Hayashi san) and one in the Slam Dunk manga by Takehiko Inoue (the Shohoku High School basketball manager Aya introduces the new manager Haruko chan to the team). I think it was an effective contrast: Tanaka san and company are just names on a textbook page without any personalities or stories etc., whereas Haruko chan is an important character in Slam Dunk who reveals her nervousness on the occasion by hear heart going "doki doki" and her cheeks blushing. The manga situation also reveals Japanese culture (boys sports teams usually have girl managers) and moves the reader (because it comes at the end of the 31st and last volume of Slam Dunk and reveals Haruko chan's growth from little sister and fan to manager). The only problem was that now that I think of it I bet many maybe most of the students didn't get the relation of my learning Japanese that way to their learning English that way! Sigh... Anyway--they seem like a promising group of young people, and I'm looking forward to teaching them about American culture and literature and English for one year. Other classes went OK, I suppose, but it was only the first week. . . There was weird stuff in my Interactive English class for engineering freshmen Wednesday period 4. First, it's in the horrible Building A on the top 8th floor, so it's hard to get to on time from my Introduction to American Culture and Literature class in building 8 on the first floor. To get to that next classroom, then, I must gather all my scattered Culture and Literature materials (like the Japanese text book and Slam Dunk manga and iPad and left over handouts and so on) hustle across campus to Building A, go up the escalators to the 4th floor, and then walk up stairs to the 8th (the brilliant architects who designed Building A didn't put in enough elevators for the amount of people who'd be using them to get to and from classes, so unless you get there or leave there 15-20 minutes early or late, you can't get on an elevator), and I just hopped into the classroom as the last of the period 4 starting chime ended. I needed a few minutes to catch my breath and gather myself. And then I discovered that instead of the 29 students on my class list there were 32! As I called roll, two of them realized they'd made a mistake and left to go to their proper class, but I still ended up with 30. One boy whose name was not on the roll insisted he was in the right class and showed me on his smart phone his schedule that listed my class as being where he should be then. Anyway, all that made the class start on a false step... And Interactive English is never my favorite class to teach. the problem is largely with me: I have not changed how I teach the class in probably 20 years or so! I keep doing the same things in the same order and so I've become bored with it and know I'm not doing a good job but am too lazy to try a new approach. To be sure, I usually after all enjoy spending time with the students doing what we do, and they (mostly) with me. But... I had another Interactive English class, one with Commerce freshmen, on Thursday, and that went better because there were no people in the wrong place then and they were more lively in asking questions when I gave them a chance to. I also had what I think is a promising start to American Culture class Friday period 2, for about 35 third-year students and a dozen fourth-year ones. Although I did probably bite off more than I could chew and regurgitate for them at the end of class by introducing the idea of Disney-Mickey as a Monster intent on devouring the world of media! Anyway, the students stayed rather attentive for the whole 90 minutes, which is a good sign. English conversation for first-year English majors went well, too, because many of them volunteered to ask questions for the last 25 minutes of class (way more than usually volunteer to do that), so that was a good sign. I mean they seem active and lively and not too shy, compared to usual Japanese students. A core of six boys sat together in the very front, which is unusual, too, because usually boys sit in the back. As for graduate school, I still haven't decided even after the first week just how to manage things. I have four students all together, more than I've ever had at one time. One PhD student (Super Sheryl), one second-year Master's student (Earnest Aki), and two first-year Master's students (Shu-san and Hui). I am pretty sure I'll have to reduce the number of times I meet Sheryl, who is starting her extension year, and manage carefully how I arrange to meet my other three students, or else I'll run out of energy pretty quickly. On the plus side, all my graduate students are diligent and capable and concerned for my well-being, so I think we should be OK. The graduate school seminar for any students has more than any class I've ever had in graduate school before: nine! That includes the TA, Sheryl, three unofficially attending students who've taken my class in the past, all four first year new students, plus one student who left the program a couple years ago and has returned. So we can't meet in my office, which can only accommodate six people at most, and so are meeting in the graduate school seminar room ("practice room") C in the library. I hope it will be OK! I might for the first time have to put the students in small groups of three a lot so they can talk enough each class... Hmm.... Right, so I made it through that first week somehow! I do feel exhausted though. Partly it's because of the trip, partly because of my cold, and partly because of my age. At 57 I do find that I have less energy to expend and need more time to regain it on the weekends. Good luck to me this year!
2 Comments
cute shu-san
4/14/2019 01:19:23 am
Can’t believe you had such a busy week and so many meetings to participate in!!! Thursday Period 3 and Friday period 2’s students were very concentrate on classes, I think.
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JP
4/14/2019 10:51:47 am
Hey, Cute Shu-San--
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Jefferson Peters (JP)
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May 2024
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