The opening ceremony of the sports meet. The 3rd flagpole is the one that fell over; it fell in the direction the wind is blowing (go figure). I'm taking a picture from the section where my students are sitting.











The tire race. Rollin' rollin' rollin'....keep them tires rollin'...






The designer styling her model's hair.






You can't see them all, but designers are on the left, models on the right.

another 'nother week

A lot has happened in a week. First, my college had its annual sports meet. My teammates and I went to the opening ceremony. It lasts two days, so the next day I dropped by as well, but I came right as they were letting out for lunch; I did happen to catch the tire push race, though. That was cool. On Thursday it was so windy one of the flagpoles got blown over. I wasn't there, but my students were sitting near the pole; it didn't fall on anyone, but came close.
I used those two days off - Thursday and Friday - to shop for a bike. I finally bought one. I've been long overdue for having a bike. I'll probably only have time to ride twice a week - maybe three times if I'm lucky - but that's better than nothing. I bought my bike at a tiny little place near several other bike stores. A little ways down the road from the shop where I bought my bike, however, is the town's nicest bike shop - they have nice parts, components, clothing, and other accessories. So the day after I bought my bike I rode it to the nice bike shop and bought some necessities - pump, helmet, computer, etc. - and by the time the shoes and pedals I ordered arrive I'll have spent more money on bike accessories than on the bike itself. Funny how that happens.
On Sunday the school had a fashion show of sorts. It was cool but long. There were fifteen models - three sets of five. Two sets modeled shirts designed by students, the other dresses. After the initial modeling, the designers had twenty minutes to cosmeticize their model - put on make-up, style their hair, etc... After the models showed off their new and improved look, the designers had to answer two questions. Then the designer and model came out together for one last showing. I liked around four of the fifteen models / designs. Some were pretty crazy.

This week in literature class we're doing my favorite - George Herbert. Unfortunately, I don't think I did a stellar job explaining one of the poems I had my students read - "Redemption." Later this week we'll do another Herbert poem and begin Paradise Lost. Good stuff.

My senior students have three days to turn in their research paper. One of them turned in her second draft today, so I need to finish reading that as quickly as I can and give it back to her. Another student gave me her draft last Friday, so I read it over and discussed it with her today. Then tonight she handed me her final draft! She wanted to get it done so she can go home for a while before returning to give her oral presentation in mid-June.

It rained here today! I think that might be the third or fourth time since I returned from winter vacation. I'm not exactly sure.

Try the link to the cat story. I think I fixed it.

Another week

I guess another week has passed. Funny how that happens. It's been more of the same here. On Saturday my friend Jed (he teaches at the Teacher's University down the street) and I threw the frisbee around on my university's soccer field. It was a lot of fun, but quite challenging, considering the wind was around 15-25mph. There were a lot of students there practicing a performance for the upcoming sports meet (it's this Thursday and Friday), so while they were taking a break some of them came over, intrigued by the strange flying discs we were throwing. We threw the frisbees around with them for a while, though I use the term "threw" loosely. It can take some people a while to get the hang of it.

As I mentioned, the sports meeting is this week, so we don't have classes on those days. We don't have to make up the classes either, which can be good and bad. We don't have that many weeks of class left.

This week in literature we're doing John Donne's "The Flea" and "Holy Sonnet 10." Most of the students got it today. It's hard to explain the complex metaphors and paradoxes.

I need to look over one of my seniors' research papers.

KTV

at KTV







sing it






two sweet pairs of shoes, if I may say so

in the classroom

just look at how studious they are!
writing a test for Romeo and Juliet








think!

Has it been a month?

Wow. I don't know what has happened in the last month.
Romeo and Juliet. We did the play in my literature classes. The students had to perform some sections of the play. Some groups did an amazing, hilarious, creative, and wonderful job. It was fun to watch.

This next week we'll be doing John Donne and George Herbert. I'm so excited!!

We had this past week off of school for China's Labor Day. I didn't do much except grading. I had all my classes turn in papers the Thursday and Friday before our break, so I had about 95 papers (all essays - one class of writing essays and two classes of literature essays) to grade. I finally finished them last night (it took about 5 days in all). Now I just have to look at the research paper my senior students recently gave me. I'm advising three seniors as they write their research paper; the papers are about 16-20 pages long, so I need to get started on those now. Fun fun fun (it actually is; I enjoy grading - it's just that it's a little time consuming. But hey, I'll do anything for the kids).

I did do some sight-seeing yesterday with some sophomore students (though I don't teach them this semester). My teammate and I also went to KTV to sing songs with some of our junior students. That was a lot of fun. I love doing that; I love trying to sing the Chinese songs. I honestly don't know a lot of the American songs. The selection is slightly random.

I recently discovered that I can now view my own blog! I'll try to do better about updating it.

take care,
.....marty