The end of the beginning

I've now been to all of my classes and started to get things organized for the semester. So far, I feel like I'm off to a good start. For those of you interested in the details, I'll go in chronological order.

Monday morning: we got up early (compared to the summer) and were on our way to school by 8am. I was actually feeling really nervous beforehand, but once I got into the class I calmed down a bit. Overall, my classes went well. The students are always a little quiet on the first day, since they don't know anyone yet. For most of my 9am students, it was their first class at UA! Most of my students are freshmen, and I have a lot of pre-business majors. Also, most of my international students are from China or Taiwan. I have my work cut out for me learning their names; I really have trouble with the Chinese ones. I talked an awful lot explaining the syllabus, but the students also introduced themselves and did a short in-class writing. Tomorrow's class should be really interesting. Our first unit is about "home," so I've asked them to write about and bring in an object that symbolizes home to them. We'll have a little show-and-tell, which will help us keep getting to know each other (and give me another round of practice with names). I haven't decided yet what object I'll bring... Anyway, it really was fun to be teaching again, and I'm eager to be working with so many ESL students this time.

Monday midday: I was invited to come to the orientation for new EL/L students and share a little about EGU (since I'm a rep now). It was fun to see all the professors again and to meet (and re-meet in some cases) the new EL/L students. They all seem really nice, and I even ran into a few of them later in the day and got to visit a little. We also got a free lunch at the orientation (not nearly as many of those at UA as there were at H-town!).

Monday afternoon: I went to my first class, Cultural Dimensions of Second Language Acquisition. The professor seems really cool. He had something about him that was kind of calming. I think the content will be very interesting, and it doesn't seem like it'll be too stressful. In fact, if I really get disciplined, I think I could finish all the work (various in-class presentations and a final paper) in the first half of the semester.

Monday evening: We still managed to get out for a walk, but Mark and I were both exhausted!

Tuesday morning: Another early start so Mark could be there for percussion ensemble. I had a couple of hours to get some things done in the office. I had a million emails! (Including some very silly ones from my students :-)

Tuesday midday: My other two classes are back to back starting at 11 and ending at 2. First was Second Language Acquisition (SLA) Theory, followed by another grammar class with Dr. Troike. It was nice going in that I knew both professors and many of the students in each class. I think the SLA Theory class will be really interesting. The Troike class is essentially a continuation of the one from last semester, but I'm much less intimidated this time around!

So, overall, things have started well. I wasn't as exited as usual to start school again, but now that I have, I feel much more enthusiastic. This semester will be a little heavy on the theoretical side, while I prefer a more pedagogical focus, but I think it'll still be good. Mark and I are definitely tired, and it will take a couple of weeks to get used to our much more demanding school schedule. Once we adjust, though, the semester will probably fly by!