July 4th!

Typically, living outside of the US, July 4th is just another day wherever I am.  But this year it fell on a Saturday, and the Allisons hosted us for some hamburgers and hotdogs in honor of Independence Day.  The Allisons (from Arkansas) and I were the only actual Americans, but we also included Ralph and Twyla Williams, who are Canadians, but lived in the US for thirty years, and Tizo, Beth's husband, who is married to an American and so we have accepted as one of us.  Besides, with Beth being in the US right now, Twyla wanted to invite him because she thought he might be lonely and would enjoy a meal he didn't have to prepare.  Happy Fourth of July to all of you in the US, and I hope you enjoyed your own hamburgers and hotdogs! 

 

Happy Valentines!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! 

Students here in Tanzania are not allowed to date while still in secondary school, so we don't do much as a school to celebrate a holiday about romance, but the students remember anyhow.

I have been wished a happy Valentine's by many of my students today, and a couple have even brought me flowers they've picked somewhere or other on campus (I hope the idea doesn't spread too much, or the bushes will look quite sad; we don't have that many flowering things about.) :)  This only-slightly-squashed pink hibiscus my form 1 (first year) student Shadhili brought me is brightening up the library quite nicely.  Shyrose (another first-year student) brought me a little red flower, but I didn't get a photo of it. 

Both Shadhili and Shyrose are going to be part of my 'student family'.  At our recent teacher in-service, the visiting trainers from Mwenge University suggested that boarding schools have "families" with small groups of students, each assigned to one teacher.  The idea is somewhat like Hogwarts houses, if you're familiar with Harry Potter, except we'll have twelve of them with twelve-thirteen students in each.  Since there are twelve, Lewis wants to name them after the twelve tribes of Israel (sigh).  We just organized the groups this week, and we haven't done any activities yet, so we'll see how it goes.  I think we might break up evening devo one night a week into our small groups, but we're still thinking of other ideas.  The point is that with the small family groups each teacher will get to know these few students well and pay attention to how they are doing so that no one gets lost in the shuffle either academically or emotionally. Also, each student will theoretically have one teacher they are close to that they can go to when they have any problems.  I hope that I can use this to encourage these students and be a positive influence for them! 

"Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree..."

And now that Thanksgiving is over, I can decorate for Christmas!  Last Sunday after our morning meeting, I tagged along with Micah when he said he was craving ice cream.  We went to the Dairy Queen near Walmart, and of course, being a southern woman, I can't be that close to a Walmart and not go in.  And right inside the door, Christmas decorations!  Of course, Christmas isn't a holiday here, but it sounds like fun to those Chinese people who know about it, and it's starting to catch on--at least, the Santa Claus and snow men part.  No nativity scenes...I'd kind of like one to display, just as a
conversation starter.

Anyhow, the decorations here are dollar-store quality at best, but at least they are colorful and festive. I grabbed a basket and dived into the Christmas decor.  Micah looked around a bit with mild interest and then wandered off, but I was trying to find colored lights under the piles of white lights by then.  Now, in the states, I'm not much on tinsel; there are other less plastic ways of decorating.  But here, bring on the metallic green, gold, and red! I found some colorful balls, some felt ornaments, and one actually cute little Santa Claus.

I already had a good start on Christmas stuff; Carrie, the teacher who lived here before me, had left some stuff--a two-foot (ish, I didn't measure it) silver aluminum tree and some white lights and ornaments.  Here's a picture of my cute little tree (thanks, Carrie!) with the ornaments I bought.  I hung up white lights on the window and scattered Santa hats, but as I did all of the above with knock-off scotch tape, it's all falling down and looks tacky at the moment, so I'll take pictures of all that when I've got time to redo itproperly--with MORE scotch tape!

 In the meantime, here's my tree lighting up the room:

Thanksgiving in Wuhan

Since a few people had to work on Thursday, we had our big feast today (Saturday). I got up early this morning (well, relatively, at eight...but I didn't go to bed until two, so it felt really early...) to get started cooking. Micah came over mid-morning to bake his pumpkin pie; he doesn't have an oven.  Meanwhile, I got the carrots going and mashed my sweet potatoes.  We were about twenty minutes later leaving than we meant to be, and then had trouble getting a taxi, but we still ended up being some of the first ones there.

The Myers and the Lus hosted--they live across the hall from each other, so we could use both of their kitchens and living rooms.  We split the cost of the turkey--they are quite expensive here; chinese people don't eat turkey, so it's a specialty item at Metro (a bit like Sam's club; caters to foreigners).  The side dishes we brought potluck; I took glazed carrots with bacon and sweet potato casserole.  They both turned out even better than I expected; you never know because sometimes ingredients are a bit different here.  I have a few carrots left, but the sweet potatoes were cleared out fast.  I should get some more pecans while they have them and freeze them so that I can make more later, maybe for Christmas.

There was so much good food...two or three kinds of dressing, green bean casserole, bread, turkey, ham, tacos, deviled eggs (which I'd never eaten much of before, but am starting to like), sweet potatos, and plenty of other stuff. I had a piece of Micah's pumpkin pie for dessert--I love pumpkin pie. :)  Later, I snacked on a bit of Eric's no-bake cookies.

There were probably thirty to forty people there; of course the best part of Thanksgiving is spending time with family and friends.  While I am far away from family, I did get to talk to my grandparents and to my mother over skype, and having such a big party today with friends made it truly seem like a holiday.  I got to spend quite a while catching up with Ron, who I worked with in Jingzhou, who is visiting in China this month.  I also spent time with several of the workers who live at nearby campuses; we really need to get together more often to shop or play games.

After we ate, several people started up a big game of the card game golf (ask my mom or Sue if you're curious--they're experts.  Well, you could ask Dad or Doug, too, but you're more likely to get a good explanation from the first two :) )  I didn't play this time, but I watched the game as I spent some time talking with others.

It was a wonderful day.  The only problem is that now I just want to curl up with a blanket and look at my Christmas tree--but I need to get busy writing exam questions for the final for my writing class.


Edit: Alright, sorry for the rather haphazard placement of pictures.  The internet is being cantankerous tonight, and if you only knew how long it's taken me to get them on here at all...

Week 15: Definition Paragraphs

And finally...drum roll please...the last paragraph lesson!  This final type of paragraph organization is definition.  I thought this one might be a bit boring, but, as it turns out, I found some quite good material online to supplement what the book taught; I think this is the most thorough and well-thought-out explanation of the concepts that I've done yet.  Which means, it probably was boring.  But anyways...

I won't bore you with all the details of the lesson.  The main gist is to practice writing paragraph that explain the meaning of something: a concept, a holiday, a ceremony, a type of person, an occupation or role.  Objects usually end up just being a description.

Anyhow, the fun part of class was, as usual, after the main lesson.  I made a rather weak tie-in: "I am defining the meaning of a holiday: Thanksgiving."  Really, it was more of just a description...

The students, having already studied English for about eight years now, have of course already heard of Thanksgiving and know the basic idea, so I didn't repeat the whole Pilgrim and Indian story; they heard it last year.  I focused more on what we do on the actual day.  I showed them pictures from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade; they were really impressed with the humongous balloons. I also showed them how to trace your hand and make a turkey drawing, which they thought was cute.

Food is always a popular point of discussion; Thanksgiving food especially so, because they don't eat turkey here.  None of my students have ever seen or tasted a turkey.  Also, food here (since you're going to have to eat it with chopsticks) comes to the table already cut into bite-sized pieces. I think the photo I've gotten the biggest reaction out of both in Jingzhou and here is the photo of the whole roasted turkey on the table from Thanksgiving 2009.

I also explained the wishbone tradition, which they thought was just a bit gross, really--pulling on a slimy bone. Probably, I haven't done it myself in years.

Then, of course, it's always good to try to focus minds on the important things in life.  I taught them the phrase "count your blessings,"  and gave them a few minutes to think of things they were thankful for, then I had them take turns telling the things they are thankful for.  You do have to specify that you can't just say "I'm thankful for my family and friends," but intead should be specific.  What about your friend are you thankful for? What does your mother do that makes you thankful for her?  They did really well, though; my students in Jingzhou needed prodding to say more than two or three words, but my students here I more often have to try to cut off; they'll talk and talk.  One students did try to butter me up by saying he was thankful for me and for the English parties I've been organizing.

And one last picture for you...Thanksgiving 2001.  Is 2001 really eleven years ago already?

Anyways, happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Halloween in Class

The twelth class just happened to fall the week of Halloween--and we ESL teachers rarely miss the chance to work in some American culture by enthusiastically celebrating a holiday.  And isn't the power point background I found online cute?

The lesson itself was pretty straight-forward; writing about cause and effect.  The normal power point, vocabulary, lecture, examples, etc.  However, I rushed through the lesson.  "Anybodygotanyquestions?No?Okay,nextthing..." On to the fun part!

First, because I am an English professor, I introduced them to Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven".  I love it.  "While I pondered, weak and weary, over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore..."  I had to memorize the first stanza in the sixth grade, and I still remember bits of it.  However, the poem is extremely long, and the old-fashioned English way beyond their level.  So, while in general I don't find the Simpsons to be very academically helpful, they did the Raven in the first Treehouse of Horror episode years ago.  I think I remember watching it when I was in high school, even.  I hoped that by showing "The Raven" acted out as a story, at least my students would get the gist of it, even if they didn't get the full impact.  I did read the first stanza out loud to them, and even though they didn't know all the words, they could appreciate the alliteration and rhythm of the words.  Amazingly, however, I couldn't find the video on youtube; here's the link I used: The Simpsons' "The Raven."

When I lived in Jingzhou, I found an small but appropriate pumpking to carve, and took a jack-o-lantern to class.  Unfortunately, I didn't find one this year.  Still, I wore my fortune teller costume to class (although, still not locating anything to serve as a crystal ball, I mostly just looked unidentifiably weird). Although several of my students took pictures of me, somehow I never took one, so no pictures, sorry.

I showed a slide show of pictures; we talked about pumpkins and costumes; I tried to explain Trunk or Treat to them, but I don't think they quite got the point of that.  I also explained bobbing for apples, and at the end I played "Monster Mash" for them.

Finally, their journal for the week was a bit different: instead of something practicing the skills I'd just taught (like a responsible teacher would assign, and I normally do), I gave them this story starter, and told them to finish it:

One Halloween my friends and I were going trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. Down the street from us was an old deserted house that everyone thought was haunted. My mother said, "Don't you dare go near that house!" Naturally, her warning made us even more curious. We went to the house and rang the bell. There was no answer. We tried the door. It was unlocked, so we entered the house. The door slammed behind us and...

I found it online somewhere; I don't remember where now; so, no copyright infringement intended...I'm really looking forward to reading their stories; they seemed more excited about this journal assignment that usual, too.  At least they shouldn't all be the same thing!  

Finally, one of my example pictures: my Halloween costume from 2006, at a party at the Bible School in Florence:

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween, everyone!  To tell you the truth, it doesn't feel much like Halloween today; I'm celebrating plenty this year but not on the actual day.  The Halloween get-together was last weekend; I'm dressing up and showing pictures in my writing classes, but that's on Monday and Thursday.  However, it's a beautiful, sunny, pleasantly cool day; I even got to spend a few hours of it outside talking to a Chinese friend, Jay.  I didn't want to come back inside, but I had a lot I needed to get done. (I might as well have stayed out, I still didn't get anything done.)

Another good point of the day: I finally found postcards with pictures of this campus!  I haven't been to any of the major tourist sights in Wuhan, so I've been having trouble finding any, but there they were--right in the display case of just by the entrance to the grocery store I go to all the time.  Had they always been there??  So, I'm writing postcards and hope to get them sent off soon, so those of you who I promised postcards to can watch your mailbox.  Well, don't start just yet; it might take a couple of weeks for them to make it over there.