Dressy Black Shoes
It’s March and it’s hot!!! Honestly I don’t feel as suffocated as I used to feel though. I feel my body is finally starting to accommodate. And to be honest, just a cold breeze feels slightly chilly. I’m becoming a wuss when it comes to cold! I’m going to freeze when I go back to Ohio in the winter!
So school is in full swing now. I have taught 6 weeks at the university and have only 4 left (one is the final exam). My class is quickly coming to an end, not that I had much time in the first place. It’s still crazy to think that I’m a university professor. I still get those looks in the office like “who is that girl?” and the students when they see me walk in the classroom always take a second look thinking “can that really be my professor.” So I’ve been making sure to dress a little nicer than the average student. At least to send the message that I’m professional. I even went out and bought another pair of black shoes that scream “dressy.” Lol. But it hasn’t been a problem with my Saturday class so far. The students still respect me and treat me like their teacher, after they find out that’s who I am. Now I get “hello profe” around campus and in the office. It’s kind of nice. I like it. I have to start the cycle all over again here soon because my diario (daily) class – Phonetics – starts next week. Well at least the “first day” is next week, March 21st. From my experience with Sabatino, I’m not expecting too many students to show up on day one. We’ll see…
I’m super excited about Phonetics really. At first it scared me, A LOT. I had no clue how we make the sounds we do and had even less of an idea how to explain those sounds to someone else. But I’ve been studying. And it’s actually quite interesting. There is a little rule to the madness. Judy Gilbert’s book “Clear Speech” has been very useful. Another Peace Corps’ volunteer recommended it to my and lent me her copy for a few weeks. Now my big task is trying to figure out the activities I would like to mix into my classroom so that it’s not boring. Here I will fight my biggest battle = lack of resources + photocopies. What games can we play? What speaking exercises should we do? What projects can I give them? How much note copying is sufficient / too much? So many questions to tackle this week…
On a better note… I have my plane ticket home on April 27th!!!! I’ll be in California from April 27th – May 4th spending my birthday with the family + going (and being part of) Melissa’s wedding. She better feel pretty dang special!!! I’m excited!
I took a phonetics class in university. The first few weeks we just learned the IPA. It was hard but really helpful… we did lots of exercises transcribing words. Perhaps something to consider (though I’m sure you have already!)