First Class

I had my first class this morning at 8a.m. We walked over to the buildings, they handed me the book at 7:56 and I walked into class at 7:58. Woah. Fun time. It was quite the experience. He showed up and helped keep me calm and the students active. In an introduction activity to help promote students to start talking again, I put up 8 things on the board that described me and let them guess what they meant. Example: S (for Superman fan), Mountain Lion (for Concord University), I - 3 (for Isaac my brother is 3 years older than I am), Bug (for my VW Bug), etc. One student guessed that I kept a mountain lion in my house as a pet - so I was much more dangerous than I thought. Then I went over two rows and one girl said, "We all know that girls are scared of little crawly things like insects, and I know that you are a guy, but I think you might be scared like a little girl." hahahahaha. I said, "Well, alright. Good guess." They were pretty impressed with the picture of Isaac and of the Bug.

My class was about 33 girls and 2 guys. It was two 45-min sections with a 10 minute break in-between sections. In an activity called "Summer Surprise", student shared things they did this summer that might surprise their classmates. I had students share everything from going to Beijing, to winning the lottery and going to America to take a shower, to one girl even put that her ex-boyfriend got married and she was driven mad by the alcohol. I decided not to read that one allowed in class. I had each of the students answer a few more in-depth "about me" questions at the end of class that I look forward to reading and learning about them. I'll have that class next Monday also, then there teacher will get here Monday evening and take over.

I did get my books for my Freshman English classes. I'll teach 5 classes in the English Department and 1 class in the Bilingual Department. (The only difference is the type of student I'll have, the lesson will be the same.) I got my office today and share it with 3 other ladies who seemed very nice. Once the English Department gives me my schedule (hopefully tomorrow and not in 2 weeks), then I can tell the Bilingual Department and get the other class I teach. I'll also be teaching 2 English Corners that start next week (I'll tell you what those are later, when I find out what they are.)

Another positive for the day, I successfully ordered lunch in the cafe (which is all characters). It was the same thing as last night, but I got it down. Also, the sun is shining here! It's a perfect day at about 75 degrees with blue skies and white puffy clouds. It's amazing, (except the part where I think about this is the head of summer... it's gonna be cold soon.) I think we're going to go explore and find out more of campus and I'll try to take some pictures and share them soon. I also have pictures of our apartments which are very nice. Thank you for all of your thoughts and encouragement.