Teaching Begins

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Two classes, 15 students each; 6 hours daily of teaching. There are a total of 240 undergraduates; 14 teachers. The students are the top performers in each major at the university. Their Honor’s program involves many multi-disciplinary programs including this required 3-week conversational English program. My class is made up of Food Science, Polymer, Modeling (yes, strangely, Modeling is a major), Industrial Design, Industrial Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Secondary Education and a number of other majors. Their English level is mixed, but generally good since every student had to get a minimum score on the English portion of their university entrance exam. Most universities look only at the overall score.

I’ve repurposed many lessons from previous summers, with some classes added and others dropped.

Just as in past summers, these students are highly motivated but need to be coaxed into participating in a way that’s unfamiliar to them. Their regular courses are primarily lectures with most students spending an average of 30-40 hours a week listening to professors. My classes are all about interactivity.

While my students are all in the Honor’s Program, most don’t know each other, so one strong motivator for them is meeting other students and having some fun. Those are key ingredients in early classes.

The 3-week program also includes social activities for the students, including an Independence Day party, complete with hot dogs, watermelon and dancing (?). Exactly how dancing became a part of an Independence Day party is a little unclear, but the students aren’t shy, as long as the dancing is kept to line dances and Zumba. In fact, I’m amazed how quickly they’re into it, something unlikely to happen at a US university.

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