Back in the classroom

Today was my first class, the sophomore oral English class. It was a fun and relaxing first class, much of the time being spent getting familiar with each other. They responded well to my questions; many students spoke up in the class. Hopefully that isn't just a "first class" anomaly but will continue the whole semester. They seem like a great group of kids.

Calvin keeps eating, growing, and being more hyperactive. He discovered the glory of playing with a pen / pencil on the tile floor. It's quite entertaining to watch him. He prefers laying on the dirty floor instead of on his blanket, so sometimes he looks more gray than white.

I need to plan some literature lessons.

surprise

I'm back in good ole Hohhot now. The past summer was a splendid time, a time of seeing friends and family, riding my bike, reading, relaxing, and enjoying nice, little, American amenities.

I've seen a few students since being back, but not many. I will teach two classes of Senior Writing, one class of American Literature (also seniors), and one sophomore Oral English class. Right now is the second week of class, and the seniors don't start their classes until the fifth week because they have a teaching practicum up to that point. In other words, I only teach the one oral English class for the next three weeks, and then my full schedule begins. The literature class is packed into ten weeks, so it will end a few weeks before the other classes. Unfortunately that puts more pressure on me to try to cover all the essentials of American Literature in a short time. There's so much I want to teach them but so little time.

Since I don't have many classes right now I'm spending my time planning, trying to get ahead. I'm also taking time to ride my bicycle when the weather is nice - like today: clear, sunny, breezy, and 72.

Thanks to one of my students, I have a kitten now! I was planning on getting one, and the day I arrived in Hohhot one of my senior students called me and said she had bought a cat and wants me to take care of it. He's a little over one month old. The first few days I had him he was sick, always throwing up his food half an hour after eating. A student and I took him to the vet, where they gave him a shot. Since then he's been much better, improving every day. He recently started playing by himself; he's much more active. I named him Calvin. He better grow up to be a cool cat; otherwise, I'm definitely throwing him out. Just kidding.