Saturday, December 06, 2003
One Down
There it goes. The first semester of grad school and teaching is very nearly over. Thursday was the last day of teaching, on Monday I turn in all my grades, and by Wednesday all of my own exams and projects are turned in. Whoo-hoo!
The past week was very full. On Wednesday, I had to attend my morning SLA class, then had two hours of downtime where it wasn't worth going home and coming back, in which I wrote my last post, then I administered two exams to my students, (the listening exam was watching "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and answering questions, the grammar exam was 7 pages, 100 questions which I so enjoyed writing,) then I went home until 6, at which point I had to go back to campus to do my mock interview/practicum final, which in turn was immediately followed by going to the ELC talent show.
The talent show was funny, of course. Nigel's Level 3 drama class had written 3 original plays, "Frankenstein's Two Monsters" (a love story, oddly enough,) "A Modern Cinderella" (complete with cross-dressing!,) and "Black Out" (about a bunch of students studying for the TOEFL while the lights were going on and off.) The effort was impressive for the ELC students, but I think my students at the intensive English camp (February 15, 2003) in Japan were better actors. After all, my group got second place with their rendition of "The Pied Piper."
There was also a Korean rapper, who unfortunately had to perform without a microphone, due to technical difficulties. The judo teacher from my class was also supposed to perform, but the gym apparently didn't have any appropriate mats, so that was cancelled. The grand finale of the show was most of the teachers performing Nigel's very own "Snow White and the Seven Parts of Speech." Snow White was played by my co-teacher in Level 1, Amy, and was always referred to as having "enormous... knowledge of English grammar!" The plot was that an evil teacher had taken over the ELC and turned it from the English Language Center to the Evil Language Center. Snow White was an enthusiastic and dedicated teacher who could save them all. She was sent to hide in the ELC library with the Seven Parts of Speech. Each part of speech, of course, could only say a word corresponding to its name, so all 7 parts had to be on stage in order to complete a sentence. This was the biggest hit of the show, mostly because I think all the students liked seeing their teachers act ridiculous.
Thursday was the last day of classes for the ELC. I let my students off easy with filling out evaluations and then making Christmas cards and paper snowflakes. After class, we all walked over to the Marriott, where the ELC final party was happening at 3:15. It was an odd time to have a party with a meal, but there were lots of desserts, so I think everyone found something to eat, even if they didn't want a whole lot. The party mostly consisted of giving out attendance awards and outstanding student awards. Then there was a slide show that Alissa had put together from all the various classes' trips to Holt schools (October 2), to teach the elementary school kids about their cultures. After that, there was a lot, and I do mean a lot, of picture taking with students, as they all wanted to get their pictures taken with their teachers, individually, in groups, both, etc, etc. I wonder how many of them will be in my class next semester. Probably not many of the Level 1 students, since I think most of them were here on exchange programs. A lot of them thanked me for teaching them, especially for grammar, which I thought was kind of amusing, since they were never terribly enthusiastic about that class. It'll be interesting to see their evaluations of the class.
Now, though, I have to go grade their exams. *cackle*
There it goes. The first semester of grad school and teaching is very nearly over. Thursday was the last day of teaching, on Monday I turn in all my grades, and by Wednesday all of my own exams and projects are turned in. Whoo-hoo!
The past week was very full. On Wednesday, I had to attend my morning SLA class, then had two hours of downtime where it wasn't worth going home and coming back, in which I wrote my last post, then I administered two exams to my students, (the listening exam was watching "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and answering questions, the grammar exam was 7 pages, 100 questions which I so enjoyed writing,) then I went home until 6, at which point I had to go back to campus to do my mock interview/practicum final, which in turn was immediately followed by going to the ELC talent show.
The talent show was funny, of course. Nigel's Level 3 drama class had written 3 original plays, "Frankenstein's Two Monsters" (a love story, oddly enough,) "A Modern Cinderella" (complete with cross-dressing!,) and "Black Out" (about a bunch of students studying for the TOEFL while the lights were going on and off.) The effort was impressive for the ELC students, but I think my students at the intensive English camp (February 15, 2003) in Japan were better actors. After all, my group got second place with their rendition of "The Pied Piper."
There was also a Korean rapper, who unfortunately had to perform without a microphone, due to technical difficulties. The judo teacher from my class was also supposed to perform, but the gym apparently didn't have any appropriate mats, so that was cancelled. The grand finale of the show was most of the teachers performing Nigel's very own "Snow White and the Seven Parts of Speech." Snow White was played by my co-teacher in Level 1, Amy, and was always referred to as having "enormous... knowledge of English grammar!" The plot was that an evil teacher had taken over the ELC and turned it from the English Language Center to the Evil Language Center. Snow White was an enthusiastic and dedicated teacher who could save them all. She was sent to hide in the ELC library with the Seven Parts of Speech. Each part of speech, of course, could only say a word corresponding to its name, so all 7 parts had to be on stage in order to complete a sentence. This was the biggest hit of the show, mostly because I think all the students liked seeing their teachers act ridiculous.
Thursday was the last day of classes for the ELC. I let my students off easy with filling out evaluations and then making Christmas cards and paper snowflakes. After class, we all walked over to the Marriott, where the ELC final party was happening at 3:15. It was an odd time to have a party with a meal, but there were lots of desserts, so I think everyone found something to eat, even if they didn't want a whole lot. The party mostly consisted of giving out attendance awards and outstanding student awards. Then there was a slide show that Alissa had put together from all the various classes' trips to Holt schools (October 2), to teach the elementary school kids about their cultures. After that, there was a lot, and I do mean a lot, of picture taking with students, as they all wanted to get their pictures taken with their teachers, individually, in groups, both, etc, etc. I wonder how many of them will be in my class next semester. Probably not many of the Level 1 students, since I think most of them were here on exchange programs. A lot of them thanked me for teaching them, especially for grammar, which I thought was kind of amusing, since they were never terribly enthusiastic about that class. It'll be interesting to see their evaluations of the class.
Now, though, I have to go grade their exams. *cackle*
