Day 213: Good Class, Long Transportation, Good Nap

The title of this entry pretty much sums up my day.

As I do every Wednesday, I got up at 5:30 am, called at Didi at 6:30, and made it to Hongkou around 6:45. Today a VERY small bus pulled up (only a 20-seater), so I had to ask the driver if it was going to Songjiang. Crowded bus: I had a women sitting next to me, which is a bit rare for the ride to Songjiang. 100-minute ride there. I did a bit of grading in my office before class, and then met with my class at 10:05, as usual. We had a good class today: handed back response papers, finished discussion on The Scarlet Letter. I then did some lecturing on The Awakening.  After that, Irina (one of my best students) and Mavis led group discussion: wisely, they assigned groups and topics in advance via WeChat, so we had some good observations shared. I think I'm getting better at drawing these students out into the conversation. I notice that when I call on them directly, like "Irina, what do you think?", they are more likely to share. I think they're used to being called upon. However, if I just ask a general question to the class, that's more likely to be a disaster. Typically, Aleks is the only one who will answer. But it's getting better. I'm learning to communicate with them, and I'm sure they're learning from me, too. After class, two students asked to talk to me about how to improve their response papers. So it's clear to me that they want to learn.

After taking a 70-minute ride back, walking with Navin to the bus stop, waiting for another 10 minutes for the bus to show, riding the bus for 20 minutes, and walking home, I *finally* arrived home. Kerry was taking a nap before his tutoring session. He's tutoring 3-4 children in English three days a week now, just for an hour or so at a time: Wednesday night, Saturday morning, and Sunday afternoon. He seems to enjoy it! They are learning the alphabet and parts of the body from him. I had a salad when I came home, and then took a VERY long nap. Got up around 8 pm when Kerry came home, made some burgers, and then chilled out the rest of the evening.

Pics from the day:

The beautiful fountain (running) at the Hongkou campus. Music was playing!

My students doing group discussion, Short Novels class.