Native Americans protesting the oil pipelines through their lands... So... the second week of the new school year is over, eh?
It went OK. This time I did better in the culture class and worse in the first year introduction to culture and literature class because I could take my time more in the former and tried to do too much too fast in the latter. That is almost always my worst flaw: I try to cover too much too fast, especially in the last fifteen or so minutes, so the kids must have great difficulty following my lecture. In this case, I was introducing Native American history to them, beginning with the two big images of Indians in American culture (evil demons or ideal nature models), moving onto their terrible treatment by white Americans and the USA (disease, massacre, trains, land grabbing, etc.), and finishing with their still vibrant presence in America today (including some things on the recent pipeline troubles, as shown in the above photo). But I didn't leave enough time for the last part, alas... Culture class was about Easter, including the Christian and pagan meanings and symbols and features, etc. Interestingly, although Christmas has been big in Japan for a long time, and Halloween has recently become popular (though not as far as trick-or-treating), Easter is still mostly absent... Other classes went OK I suppose... I like my seminar (we added two new girls who last year were in Toronto, Canada, learning English and working etc., and they'll be great participants, and the regular members are fine and funny. The only problem might be students being absent for job hunting. Oh, and the small detail of most of the class (about ten people) wanting to write graduation theses, when usually I have just one or two ... I like my graduate school classes of course (my PhD student is shifting from Gothic to fairy tales plus Gothic, I think). And my two Eikaiwa type classes are mostly going OK. It's still early, but I like this school year a lot so far!
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Back to school!
Last week we just had our first classes of the new school year. It's shocking but great to be back on the campus and in the classroom. Wednesday is my easy day this year: just one class, period 2, Freshman English for Economics majors (and the 21 boys and 7 girls seem fine, nice and lively). (Of course, then Wednesday is also the day of dread meetings...) Thursday is a bit challenging: period 1 English Conversation for (mostly) second year English majors. I'm worried about it because there are too many students for a conversation class, 30, and because about seven of them are students I failed in another class last year because they missed too many days.... period 3 graduate school class for my PhD student Sheryl. This will be fine because Sheryl is so interested and interesting in so many things, focusing this year on Gothic, horror, and fairy tales. period 4 American culture for (mostly) third year English majors. This will be fine, too, probably, though it has 76 students, about twenty more than I've ever had for the class before, so I'll have to get used to the large size... (they are in the photo at the top of this page.) Friday is a nice way to end the week: period 1 Introduction to American Culture and Literature for (mostly) first-year English majors. I always love this class because it's such a great chance to introduce some great poems and stories and culture points to about 100 fresh freshmen. They seem very lively after one day! period 2 graduate school seminar for MA students. There will be four students (two first years, one second year, and one third year) plus my TA Sheryl, and we'll be reading various kinds of children's and YA adventure stories/novels. period 3 seminar for (mostly) fourth-year English majors. This will be fine! It is our second year together, and we're adding two interesting and lively students who spent last year in Canada learning English and working and so on. My only fear right now is that apparently nine or ten of the thirteen students are going to write graduation theses! In my past fourth-year seminars I've had four, three, four, two, one, one, and none do this... I think I may have succeeded too well in encouraging them to challenge it! Really it should be OK, but fall semester will be very busy with editing nine or ten different 20 page theses, each about some different topic... So classes should be OK, really... but it will be a lot of preparation for eight classes (every one different except in spring term the English conversation will overlap with the Freshman English class a lot). I'm also a Nyushi-in this year, in a sub-position... so although I won't have to write my own question this time, I'll have to help the chief supervise the writing of all of the English department questions, which becomes time-consuming in fall term and very stressful. I'll also be helping my friend and colleague Mariko work with the PR department on our University book and brochures and so on, which involves some sticky translations of Japanese terms into English... I'll do my best! |
Jefferson Peters (JP)
Can you find me in the picture above? Archives
December 2023
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