Back In The Saddle

I started teaching four new classes this week! Well, so far I've only taught two, and I'm teaching two more tomorrow. I'm so excited this semester. I feel like I have more confidence and am more willing to be creative with my lessons.

On Wednesday, we had orientation, which was less chaotic than the first time, but a bit ridiculous. About 35 students had shown up to be split into two classes, and all but about seven had already sat through orientation earlier in the week. The rest sat there and groaned that they had to hear the same speech repeated. By the time orientation was finished, we only had about 40 minutes left of my normally two-hour vocabulary class. I spent the time having the students introduce themselves and then tested them on their memory of names. My goal this semester is for all of the students to really get to know each other. This is particularly important for the non-Polish students who make up a small percentage of the class.

I have one Thai student who seems very shy, although he did seem to warm up to my Ukrainian student when I paired them together for course #2 - Conversational English. I had the students pair up and conduct interviews and then introduce their partner to the class. We all learned a little about each other and of course, they were required to utilize their knowledge of English.

We also played the "Name Game," in which one person would say his name along with a fact about himself. Then the next person would say that person's name and fact and then introduce herself. And then the next person would say the names and facts of the first two and so on and so forth around the room. By the time we get to the last person, it was pretty amusing, even though a few people cheated by taking notes. Oh well...what can you do? Some of the "facts" were: I play basketball; I like fast cars; I've always wanted an older brother; and I can't live without water (my person fave).

It was a game we played in one of my grad school teaching classes as an example of a first-day icebreaker, and I'd always wanted to try it with a class. Last semester, I was afraid they'd think it way babyish, but this semester I figured, what the heck. It's a fun way to learn everyone's names, and I think it works for all age groups.

Anyway, this class should be interesting. While the other classes have more formally designed curricula and books for students to work through, this class is new, bookless, and open to my creative control. I've decided to do a conversational theme each night, and use video clips, music and articles to accompany the class. It should be a fun semester!