Autumn Life

It's funny because all the locals I have met and taught here have referred to this season as "autumn" and we (ie my colleagues and I) noticed this and we have been trying to teach them to call it "fall", not "autumn" since that's how people say it back home.  Nonetheless, here I am using that word in the title of my newest blog post.  Language has a funny way of tripping people up.  Daily life here has become much more routine and orderly than it was at the beginning.  In the first two months, I was constantly working under rapidly changing schedules which reflected fluctuating student enrollment numbers, as well as an unpredictable administration.  This is moreso a reflection on cultural differences here when it comes to organizations - service and organization are not held to the same standards here as they are in the west.  However, we have finally seemed to settle in to the job and the thick of things here this past month or so.  October was a very hectic month, what with being switched to a new school (which I incidentally enjoy teaching at more than I did at the previous one), an additional college class, and a change in middle school students.  The change has been positive.  It has given me the chance to challenge my flexibility and my time management skills.
Recently, my business students have been showing extremely positive changes in their learning.  I happen to co-teach this class with my roommate and we love it because we get to really have a lot of fun learning and teaching about things going on in the world of business.  We taught them what words like debt, loan, bankruptcy, responsibility, monopoly, scandal, shareholders, stock, and philanthropy mean.  I worked hard to create engaging and stimulating powerpoints for them and I could tell they were fascinated by our lessons when their eyes looked wide and bright as we talked and gave examples of corporate failures and successes.  Some even asked me for permission to allow them to copy the powerpoints onto their USBs.  I asked them what they would like to learn about in the future and many of them replied with "Obama".  I compiled a list of words for them such as conservative, liberal, republican, democrat, and centrist or moderate.  They eagerly jotted the words down and actually took some notes.
I feel like I have grown a lot in the past three weeks.  One of my supervisors came up to me after I taught a class of about 8 students in grade 6.  Most of my students were late that day, something that was becoming increasingly problematic for me.  At the beginning of this job I did not care about this as much since I had more trouble compiling lesson plans for them.  If they showed up late, I would play jeopardy with them, a game they love.  My colleagues and I downloaded a kind of software which allows you to display five categories of your choosing, each with 100, 200, 300, or 400 question options, which of course you make up.  This is a powerpoint file, which is really convenient as well, as when it is in full screen display you can actually click whichever question the candidate chooses and it will automatically switch it to that slide with the question on it.  There is a button at the corner which you can click to take you back to the question display.  The colours are bright and pleasing to the eye, and the questions are always a lot of fun.  The students learn, but this is a game that doesn't take up enough time for a whole class.  When I had designed real lessons for them and they continued showing up late, each class a little later than the one before, it was troubling to me.  I spent time creating lessons for them and I did not want to rush through them just to play jeopardy.  My supervisor urged me to simply play jeopardy with them but I refused, and I told them that they must show up at the beginning of class, on time, from now on if they wish to play jeopardy.  The students looked a little bit shellshocked at the news but I stood by my decision firmly.  We went through the whole lesson without a hitch and I taught my students a short story and some new words.  I used up the entire classroom time without playing jeopardy.  My supervisor approached me and told me that I had progressed and improved a great deal considering the time I have been here.  She praised my decisions as a teacher and told me that I am doing a good job.  This was a really great compliment coming from her since at the beginning she was not afraid to give me constructive criticisms (and she did.)  I am curious to see in two days if my students show up on time for jeopardy or if they will underestimate my firmness.  I'll end the post with some photos of the beautiful colours in the neighbourhood

The long treed pathway that connects my complex to the main road and university.

Every day people sweep the streets and clean up the leaves on the university campus as well as in the neighbourhood.

My apartment building.