First Day of Class

Successful!

I am always shocked at the difference between the language levels of freshmen and seniors. Four years of English nurtures students' creativity, thinking, and confidence in being able to express themselves. It is kind of hard switching gears from seniors in the morning to freshmen in the evening.

With seniors, we can discuss philosophical questions about morals, universal human characteristics versus cultural characteristics, the historical origins of the differences in western and eastern ways of thinking.

With freshmen, we are discussing what did you do during Spring Festival, what kinds of foods did you eat, what is the difference between a firecracker and a firework.

I believe I spoke too fast and taught too high this afternoon with the freshmen. I need a gimmick to remind myself to slow down, to use shorter sentences, and to repeat more often. Any suggestions?

In Africa because the class sizes were so huge and because students were too afraid to ask questions or to tell the teacher to slow down I had always toyed with the idea of having bell ringers or flag wavers as the representatives of the class to chime in when I was speaking too fast or when students didn't understand what was going on. I just never implemented it. I wonder if it would actually work.