So busy and exhausting has this semester been, preparing and giving online classes, that again two (or is it three?) weeks have gone by since my last post here, and I've already forgotten most of what happened, as my classes, especially the three similar conversation type ones, tend to blur into one another...
Here are some highlights though! Again, a bizarre (almost miraculous) chance conjunction occurred when a boy gave a self-introduction speech to the class (on Webex) in which he revealed that he has a pet turtle, and then the girl I chose from the class basically at random to ask him a question, turned out to have a turtle for a pet, too! His pet is called "Kamechan," hers "Kametan." He washes his turtle once a week, she washes hers once a month. both said their turtles go crazy when they wash them. (I had not known that when you keep a turtle, you need to wash them once in a while.) Anyway, it was a neat moment of serendipity. In another class, a student finished giving a speech, and I called basically at random on another student to ask him a question, but there was no response from the guy I chose, even though his icon had him present in the class. I had just given up and was going to choose another when he turned his mic on and said, "Toire iteimashita" (I was going to the toilet). That gave me a nice big laugh. Another boy who said his English was bad but gave a really OK speech, demonstrated in the Q&A after that indeed his English is not so great. He had trouble understanding what I wanted him to do or what other students were asking him, etc., and got an almost hostile, belligerently defensive tone in his voice and started using Japanese when, because in his self-introduction speech he said that he likes creatures, especially reptiles, because they have cute eyes, another boy asked him what other creatures he likes, and when he finally understood the question and answered "insects," I laughed because most students would say something like cats or dogs or maybe birds, but few would say reptiles and even fewer would say insects. The problem was that he thought I was laughing at him for misunderstanding the question and making a stupid answer! At least that's how I interpreted his tone and behavior after, when he switched to sullen Japanese and asked his question asker to say what he'd asked him in Japanese. I tried to say, "Yura, you are fine! You're doing fine! You're understanding and answering fine! I was just surprised that you like reptiles AND insects." Trying to calm him down and reassure him... Anyway, the episode made me think I'd better be careful when laughing at something a student says. So far I am sure that when they say funny things and I laugh, they know I'm laughing with them or sometimes at what they say but never at them personally because they made a mistake (because after all I never do laugh at students for making mistakes). There was a neat moment when one boy gave a speech saying his favorite book was Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? So I could ask him if he's seen the Bladerunner movies or if he's read any other books by PKD, and when he said he hadn't, I could recommend The Man in the High Castle, etc. etc. Another nice thing, I think, is that I believe that about a third of the Introduction to American Culture and Literature students are enjoying what we do: Native Americans, Puritans, Anne Bradstreet, Romanticism, Thoreau, poetry (including rhyme and stanzas), and so on, judging by the posts about a third of them have been making on our class blog. I wish we could be meeting in person, of course, but I think some of the students may be learning from my painstakingly prepared PowerPoint slide shows. Most of them are doing pretty well on my five point quizzes given at the end of each class, the class average being lately about 4.15 out of 5. There are about 25 who have not posted any comments or questions on our blog, and about ten who regularly get only about 2 points on the quizzes... My seminar is going OK, I think, but I am sensing that some students are not trying hard enough to prepare topics about the picture books we're watching YouTube videos of people reading, in that when their turn comes, they don't say enough about their topics...... Some are doing fine and are also posting good comments on our facebook group. Overall I'm happy with them! but I hope that more will try harder to get ready to make little reports about their topics in class, and write more regularly on our group. I finally after about six weeks have finished having the conversation class students make self-introduction speeches. I dragged it out to make them practice listening, asking questions, asking follow questions, and asking return questions and also to avoid finally dealing with having to do a conversation class when you can't see anyone in the class (student and teacher videos being turned off) and when you can't put them in small groups cause our Webex contract doesn't permit that. This week we'll practice prounciation of r/l, b/v, and th/s/v. Good luck to us! Anyway, the semester is now about a bit over half over. If we can make it through to the end of this semester in one piece, then maybe we can somehow meet in person on campus for classes in Fall Semester (I hope and pray).
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Jefferson Peters (JP)
Can you find me in the picture above? Archives
December 2023
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