Fourth of July and Writing Workshops
I actually had more down time than usual this past week. I had both of my conversation clubs like usual, but other than that, my Monday and Wednesday were free to work on my masters class and run some errands. Tuesday, however was a big day of planning and teaching. In the afternoon, Alexa and I hung out at her apartment to work on a lesson plan to teach that night. We had worked on it before, but we were touching it up and also working on our Independence Day workshop for later that week. We then took the bus to school and got ready to teach from 7:10 until 10:30. We were asked by one of the professors to do an academic writing workshop with the third and fourth year students. They have to turn in a thesis paper at the end of their fourth year, but they start working on it during their third year. We worked on the structure of a five paragraph essay and then how to expand that to meet the goals of the paper like detail and length. I couldn't tell if everyone was bored, confused, or tired, but we later got feedback from some students that they enjoyed the workshop and found it very useful. After going over structure, we gave the students a half hour break to get dinner, get some coffee, and get ready for the last half of the lesson. We only had a few people come back after the break, but we worked on citing sources: how to cite, different ways to quote or paraphrase, and when citing is necessary. It was a long class and everyone was tired afterwards, but I hope it is useful for the students as they continue working on their papers.
On Wednesday, I had my conversation club and then Alexa and I went out with a few friends and got burgers to celebrate the fourth of July. It was one of the best burgers I've had and I finally got some onion rings. It was a lot of fun and a good way to celebrate the holiday.
Thursday and Friday were also pretty relaxing days and I had class with the professors at night. On Thursday, the third year class finished presenting parodies that they had made. All of the presentations were very funny and I enjoyed that part of the class. For the second part of class, I facilitated a workshop over the Fourth of July. I did a mini-presentation over the history of how the US got their independence and then I had three stations for the students to go to and learn more about certain topics. One station was just a station to write questions about the holiday or the US in general. The second station asked students to write their own amendment to the constitution just to get them thinking about the constitution and why it is such an important US document. The third station had pictures of 10 famous Americans from US history around the time of the Declaration and war. Underneath each picture were a few facts about each person and the students had to read through each person and then pick out their favorite fact overall. At the end, I answered their questions and then headed home after class.
On Friday, I had class with the fourth year students. They were each given a chapter to read out of a book that had a bunch of different non-fiction essays about the American Dream. It was cool to hear their summaries and then talk about how they would teach each chapter in their classrooms. This coming week, I will do the Independence Workshop with these students.
Saturday was a working day for my Master's Class. I have one week left and a few projects and assignments left to do, so I have to just keep working away until it's all done. At 8, I went out with two of the professors and their families. We got pizza at a great Italian place and it was rodizio style. Every few minutes, a server would bring around a new pizza or lasagne for us to try and even the sodas were served this way as well. I got to try a bunch of different pizzas, but my favorite is always waiting for the dessert pizza. They have chocolate, banana creme, chocolate with sprinkles, chocolate with strawberries, chocolate with coconut, you get the point. It's literally dessert heaven and I definitely enjoyed the night and the company.
Sunday was a relaxing day at home and I ordered in food with some of my roommates and watched Netflix.
Today is pretty cold and windy. It's been about 58 degrees all day but the wind makes it feel a bit colder. I have my little heater, so I'm fine and I do enjoy when it's a little bit cold. I have to leave for conversation club soon, so good thing I finished this blog! Thanks for reading!