On your mark, get set ....

Go! I am pretty much ready ... excited and anxious ... to go to my first class for this semester. I start at ten o'clock in the morning and my first class is Class 070122, which I had last term. Lunch break would follow the end of the class then at quarter past three in the afternoon, I'll be meeting a new class, 070125.

Oh-seven-oh-one-two-five used to be Lenny Miller's and he seemed pretty proud of that class so I'd have to wait and see how they are.

My Tuesdays are free, and I only have one morning class on Wednesdays. Zero-six-triple-one is also a highly recommended class. It will be my first time to be teaching this juniors but I have been acquainted with a few of the students from the English Corner. Thursdays and Fridays are the English-Korean bi-lingual classes I taught last semester. There's no surprises there; only familiarities.

For the first week, I will explain to my classes the importance of email, and the proper way of utilizing email to their advantage. I will outline a few guidelines, and instruct them to answer a few questions and send them by email to me. Naturally I would have to reply to most, if not all, of them. But that's okay, I do not mind the extra work. Besides, it will be a requisite for this term. In addition, I will add small points to anyone who might follow up on my replies.

Then there's my Reading English Corner. It is a subset of Ms. Kathy Mueller's English Corner but I like to think of it as something with style. Naturally, I will invite any students who might like to attend but I will not tell them that they will earn extra points for their involvement in this activity. My Reading English Corners will be held every Thursdays, starting from the second week of the term, from 6:16 to 7:45 PMat the J3 Building, Room 117.

The following are the details of the Reading English Corner.

"The Reading English Corner is a subset to Kathy Mueller's English Corner with the purpose of developing the participants' reading styles. Eloquence in artistry is a prepotent addition to the skills the participants can understand and master.

The reading materials include contemporary classics such as C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter, etc.

As an extra-curricular activity, preassigned readers prepare their materials in advance, and will be alloted ten to fifteen minutes to articulate. There will be a maximum of three readers in each gathering. The rest of the listeners would congregate around the readers, listening and understanding the stories being told.

There will be fresh selection of readers every meeting, and the group will try and accommodate all the members to read.

After thirty to forty-five minutes of reading, everyone may discuss the stories, ask questions, state their opinions, comment on the readers' performances, etc. Teacher involvement is limited to inspire a flow of curiosity, at the same time dealing with facts. The discussions, derived from personal experience, may veer off to other topics, and it is the teacher's job to decide whether to allow the change or bring the talk back on its course.

Often times, the students who wanted involvement are usually the more serious in their selected majors and have already made up their minds on what they wanted after their college graduation. In effect, the Reading English Corner is an enhancement to their developing communication skills. Additionally, the interactions with others can also be an excellent educational tool.

Indirectly, we are trying to achieve the Harkness Teaching, in which a teacher and a group of students work together, exchanging ideas and information, similar to the Aristotelian method of antiquity."

Then there is this blog. I would inform them to monitor this blog for any revelations that I might write, giving the readers a headstart on lessons and activities in forthcoming classes. I will also inform them of the two other blogs I maintain - PCLinuxOS User's Memoirs and Life in the ...chun.

I will also solicit their ideas and expectations for the full term, explain to them the process of my grading system and give them an overview of their final exams. Finally, I would use the remaining time for free talk and possibly some sort of improvised reactions from the students.

Well, to sum it all up, I'm ready.