Beyond Samarkand

Well, the first session went well enough, but the Berlitz director was overloading me with classes. So last month I taught the men's section. That went well enough. I found it very frustrating though. They would attend one week, or one session, and not the next. The students were not correctly leveled - some were very advanced, others needed to build their confidence and their abilities. Not an ideal teaching situation, but typical of language schools. The upside of delaying the women's class is I'm better prepared. I know the book better and I got fired up to turn it into a "blended learning" type class. That is, I made a website with Moodle and such (http://elearning-cafe.net/arabia/). Since I'm teaching them remotely, this also got me excited to resume my masters program. My plan now is to run one four week session of the women's toefl prep, take a month off to revise it, then run it again if there is interest. Around that time, I'll the next class

I had my first experience teaching remotely last night. I had a video camera and a mike, while my students were in another room with a mike. It was frustrating not to be able to see my students. I found myself hamming it up for the camera at times. Being more expressive than I might have been otherwise. The students were Saudi women ages 20 to 27, at least for the ones that mentioned their age in their self-introduction. Most had big ambitions for the use of their English. Doctors, computer science, or hotel management. All big clears. The younger student just wanting to take the TOEFL and see what that will open up for her. Neat group. I'll working with them for a month or so. Anyway, fun night of teaching. Hopefully the course will go well.