oh...ummm...hello

i walked into what i thought was going to be my first class with a group of adult students only to discover that i was wrong. it was my second class with the same group of adults i had met just a couple of days before. i was not informed that i would have them twice a week and i had made the assumption that i would have two different first year adult classes (a healthy assumption because i have not met one person who sees the same class twice in one week). so i guess i am the first. but it was ok. we were kicked out of the classroom because the department double booked it and thus wandered for about five minutes. this gave me time to make up a lesson plan out of thin air for a class of 20 very limited english speakers. luckily i had three students from my second year class who wanted to also come to this class so i decided i would split the class into groups and have my second year students help lead the groups. this would have worked out splendidly, but they aren't my strongest students. so instead i am running around helping them discuss topics WAY over their level. no worries, new plan of attack. just talk and write down whatever comes out of my mouth and then define it. this worked for a little while, but got old quick. another plan-go to break and dig through your notebook to find something you did last semester that would work. perfect! found some pronunciation activities which, after i defined pronunciation, worked splendidly.

it was good though, you see, the chinese are all about face. about not losing face to be more specific. so for example they would have acted like nothing was wrong when they saw it was the same class and they didn't have a lesson plan and they would have had them bust out their books and read from them (i suppose they don't need lesson plans because they do that anyway. hmmm). but me, nope, not concerned about that at all. i taught the class a new word-surprise! i explained the situation to them-i am pretty sure they didn't comprehend. but it made me feel better about stammering and stalling my way through the entire class because i am too stubborn to have them mindlessly read through their books and put forth no effort whatsoever. the makeshift lesson plan went alright. it wasn't too painful at all. and i think they enjoyed it even. but the problem now is that my lesson planning time for this class just doubled. thats alright, i think they will be a lot of fun. its nice to have them early in their learning, now they can pick up michigan accents and learn to laugh at my jokes. anyway, just another random story about the beauty of cultural differences in communication and just going with it. gotta watch out for those assumptions.

so that's what's new. other than the fact that the march madness bracket just came out and MSU is a 5 seed in a pretty easy regional and have a great chance of coming out of it if they can play like they are capable of (a huge if, BUT they have done it in the past-2004 (?) when they got to the final four and of course in the late 90's through 01 when they hung out in the final four quite often. so i'm hopeful, just as i am every march. let's just hope they don't lose in the first round). so keep your eyes on the tourney. i haven't seen a single game this season and i actually didn't follow most of the season because i was traveling, but i think i am picking ucla. collison is just really good and love is a monster inside. and they play defense. but they are a 1 seed. i hate going chalk. i just feel like it means i wasted any time that i did put into watching/following the season. but then again, that's been very few hours this year like i said, so i suppose i am justified. well that's enough rambling about all of that.

oh and happy st. patrick's day.