School has started again, which explains my electronic silence for the past week. Let's just say I've been busy trying to get my act together, making my syllabis and deciding how I would set up my class. I think this semester will be a lot better than Fall as far as teaching goes; last semester my kids WOULD NOT talk to me! I would ask them questions about the readings, and they would sit there and look at me; I would make jokes, draw on the board, anything I could think of! I tried talking to them as one big group, I tried breaking them up into little groups, but nothing really worked. It was difficult because the lab was discussion based. In the end, I had to do all sorts of things to get them to read and learn and I think it turned out well; they got pretty good grades, and 28-35 evaluated me as the best TA ever (hee hee). This semester though, I had a headstart on making all the materials to give to my students and designing the course (so I am better prepared than before) and on the first day of class they actually smiled and laughed with me... I feel like because I am more comfortable, they are too :P Hopefully, we can all keep talking to one another (instead of me just lecturing). This picture is of a wild orchid I found at Hoomaluhia Botanical Gardens on Oahu; because it's wild, it looks a little different than those orchids you can buy at the garden shop.
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