A young fellow emailing me to say that due to family matters, he'd have to participate in our Reading & Listening class from aboard a train, so he wouldn't be able to answer questions etc.
Looking at the digital clock under my computer and seeing it was 32.9 degrees in the room where I do the only classes. Getting so hot and tired after one day of classes that I felt a little dizzy and light headed and headachy. Realizing as a result that I'd better start letting the poor kids go a bit early and spare them and myself some wear and tear. Enjoying my graduate school classes very much! Hearing from our university that the plan for the university to vaccinate all teachers, staff, and students in the gymnasium was indefinitely delayed due to lack of supply. Hearing from our university that we could instead go to Hakata Station Cruise Center to get the Moderna vaccination. Hearing from two students in my university seminar that they'd gotten the Moderna vaccine the day before and were feeling poorly (one student missed our class, the other student came and did fine). Continuing to be amazed by a handful of students in Reading & Listening, Reading & Writing, and American Culture doing poorly on my Google Forms quizzes, which means that they 1) didn't read the homework material and 2) didn't pay attention in class. (And being gratified that the majority are able to do well on such quizzes.) Wondering just when this semester will end. It was extended two weeks until the end of July because we missed about two weeks earlier when the university transitioned from the in person classes we began the year doing to the online classes we're doing now. Usually we'd be doing last classes next week, but as it is, I'll be teaching until July 28, 29, and 30. Can I make it? Realizing that The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill might be too difficult to use in a university class, even in my seminar for fourth-year English majors. I do love the novel, but the narrative strategies and vocabulary are very challenging, so I kind of feel sorry for my poor kids as they struggle to make sense of it all (though I continue to have faith that the Simply Tiny Dragon Fyrian, who believes he is a Simply Enormous Dragon and who has been stuck about five years old for five hundred years, will charm the kids enough to pull them through the novel, along with the moving memories and relationships of the other main characters, like Luna and Xan and the madwoman). Confirming that Ursula K. Le Guin is one of my very favorite writers, because here I am reading A Wizard of Earthsea with a graduate school class for the fourth time or so and still being impressed and moved by her characters, fantasy world, magic, story, and writing. Wondering what the heck I'm doing teaching Interactive English (English Conversation), not for the first or last times. . . It would, in truth, be easier to do this class in person, and more effective, too. Last Thursday we were using some Calvin and Hobbes comics to practice some structures, but although most of the students were fine doing their versions of one, the other one we tried was very hard for them, and, as usual, I hadn't left enough time but tried to jam it into the last part of class anyway, so I failed to explain how to do it or to confirm that they could do it or to have any students do their examples with me, so I felt regret after class (not for the first or last time). ANYWAY. We continue online and will continue that way till the end of July, I imagine. I will continue watching the temperature rise in this study room, continue getting plenty of lemon flavored water to drink during classes, and continue turning on two fans in this room (that has no air conditioner). And will continue hoping to survive until July 30!
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Jefferson Peters (JP)
Can you find me in the picture above? Archives
December 2023
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