Alice Renouf - China Colorado Council
I FINALLY get to meet Alice for lunch at 11:30 (with the other CCC teachers)! Alice, no not Arlo's Alice - though during
our late night new lobby initiation, we did sing a few choruses of
Alice's Restaurant, with five part harmony and four part orchestration,
but that's not what I came here to talk about. I came to talk
about ...
Oh, Alice, that's right, she lives in Boulder and found a place for me to teach in China - teaching Economics and Finance IN ENGLISH! So I just had to meet her. Now to have lunch with Alice meant the usual tight fit of scheduling for me, don't ask me why, it just is! I had to invigilate one of my finance classes - the other finance class had their final at the same time, which I TOTALLY love, as it prevents one class from telling the other that the final is IMPOSSIBLE!!! Laughing - of course it is, this is finance! Oh, ... sorry about that!
The final was at 8:15 am in Zha Bei of course since THAT'S where my students ARE! And realize that I am NOT complaining as I only had to invigilate two finals but taught four courses (although one class did not have a final as the course continues this next term, just with a different teacher). So I hop on the 6:45 am university bus, just like any other Monday this past term and get to Zha Bei at 7:55 am - Catherine had already said I should just leave the final early, the Chinese invigilator will finish up, no problems (they are the Chief invigilator so I feel totally comfortable with this).
So I arrived at the office and the two Chinese invigilators for my classes (Clara and Linda) are there along with Peter Fu, Peter is the Business Manager (I believe that I heard yesterday through the rumour mill that Catherine is learning his job and will take over eventually - they are both such a great help to us, the foreign teachers that is, and SILC as well). Peter echoed Catherine, that I needed to get on the 10 am bus to make lunch with Alice at 11:30 - Clara said no worries as well, she was the Chief invigilator for the class that I was to help invigilate - and she is always a great help!
I have come to know most of the English teachers down in Zha Bei as well as here in Jia Ding since I spend at least two days a week on the Yan Chang campus (the Zha Bei campus is more often known as Yan Chang - you see, Yan Chang Lu or Yan Chang Road, is the main road on which the campus is located, Zha Bei is the district in which the campus is located, just like Jia Ding is the District in which I live and the other campus I teach at is located. The new campus for Shanghai University is located in Bao Shan district and thus often referred to as the Bao Shan campus. You may actually have heard of Bao Shan as there is a HUGE infamous Steel Works call Bao Shan Steel - so that tells you immediately that Bao Shan is one of the industrial districts for Shanghai).
The teachers at Zha Bei are all great and very hard working - I know because they teach my finance students as well. Sometimes it is a thankless job. The students get upset because some of the work is REALLY tough - realize that these students know English fairly well, it is the ACADEMIC english they are now trying to understand! However, just like all students (and men in the US), they don't like to read directions!!! Funny, both invigilators of the two classes I did, complained about a question from the students - they just pointed to the directions and said READ!!! Their question was silly and the answer was right in the directions! (Sorry but it is true - I'm saying this to my former students, often you don't read the directions - now *I*, as a card carrying Amercian white male, would NEVER read directions if you paid me, or I got SOOO frustrated with not figuring it out that I actually HAD to read the directions!!!)
So the test was extremely difficult, yes - those of you who have had me as a professor know that, I haven't changed. Students STILL need to understand what I want them to understand and these students haven't had my classes ever before. So as Meghan has said numerous times (and thus I feel that I can quote her), "I almost dropped your Intermediate Macroeconomics class after that first test. IT WAS SOOOO HARD!" Thanks for the quote Meghan! The final in my class is not the determination of the class grade, you have to show up and do the work during the semester too. I also believe the final and every other piece of work in the class needs to be part of the learning experience.
OK - so why the diatribe? Because those who had missed class (and there was one guy who showed up for the final and had made only 6 of the 20 classes), turned in their finals early! Laughing - how you expect to miss so much class and still pass is beyond me! The fellow behind him was laughing when Clara would come up to him and prod him as he tried to nap!!! (They all take the same classes together - Organizational Behaviour, Marketing, Acoounting and my class this term - so they know each other very well!!) OK - so over half the class had finished when I left and I made sure that the administrators would send the final test papers up on the next SILC van to Jia Ding.
AT LAST, the point: I got to meet Alice! We hugged, I got a fantastic lunch with the rest of the CCC teachers - we all live on the 7th floor so regularly see each other and often do things together. Dean Sally Gong and Brad Hughes, the Associate Dean for Languages, were there along with Catherine and Peter and ... we had an excellent lunch. The teachers and Alice also talked about some of the other CCC teachers in China - Alice puts on a Summer Institute for those without certification and places teachers all over China. In addition to certification, some initial Chinese language and orientation is included. So they chatted about those teachers as well. SILC is the best employer, by far - most likely because of the Australian connection but Shanghai University also seems to do a beter job than other universities too.
So - yesterday was quite eventful! Oh, yes and then I finally got to begin grading finals!! The English finals must be in by Wednesday at noon and the Finance finals by Friday. I have the National Ballet and a Thanksgiving Dinner to go to Thursday and Edward Prescott, 2004 Nobel Prize winner in Economics, will be here on Friday. So I have a busy week still ahead! Luckily classes don't start until Thursday, Nov. 29 ... no break, WAIT - WHAT'S UP WIT' DAT???
Oh, Alice, that's right, she lives in Boulder and found a place for me to teach in China - teaching Economics and Finance IN ENGLISH! So I just had to meet her. Now to have lunch with Alice meant the usual tight fit of scheduling for me, don't ask me why, it just is! I had to invigilate one of my finance classes - the other finance class had their final at the same time, which I TOTALLY love, as it prevents one class from telling the other that the final is IMPOSSIBLE!!! Laughing - of course it is, this is finance! Oh, ... sorry about that!
The final was at 8:15 am in Zha Bei of course since THAT'S where my students ARE! And realize that I am NOT complaining as I only had to invigilate two finals but taught four courses (although one class did not have a final as the course continues this next term, just with a different teacher). So I hop on the 6:45 am university bus, just like any other Monday this past term and get to Zha Bei at 7:55 am - Catherine had already said I should just leave the final early, the Chinese invigilator will finish up, no problems (they are the Chief invigilator so I feel totally comfortable with this).
So I arrived at the office and the two Chinese invigilators for my classes (Clara and Linda) are there along with Peter Fu, Peter is the Business Manager (I believe that I heard yesterday through the rumour mill that Catherine is learning his job and will take over eventually - they are both such a great help to us, the foreign teachers that is, and SILC as well). Peter echoed Catherine, that I needed to get on the 10 am bus to make lunch with Alice at 11:30 - Clara said no worries as well, she was the Chief invigilator for the class that I was to help invigilate - and she is always a great help!
I have come to know most of the English teachers down in Zha Bei as well as here in Jia Ding since I spend at least two days a week on the Yan Chang campus (the Zha Bei campus is more often known as Yan Chang - you see, Yan Chang Lu or Yan Chang Road, is the main road on which the campus is located, Zha Bei is the district in which the campus is located, just like Jia Ding is the District in which I live and the other campus I teach at is located. The new campus for Shanghai University is located in Bao Shan district and thus often referred to as the Bao Shan campus. You may actually have heard of Bao Shan as there is a HUGE infamous Steel Works call Bao Shan Steel - so that tells you immediately that Bao Shan is one of the industrial districts for Shanghai).
The teachers at Zha Bei are all great and very hard working - I know because they teach my finance students as well. Sometimes it is a thankless job. The students get upset because some of the work is REALLY tough - realize that these students know English fairly well, it is the ACADEMIC english they are now trying to understand! However, just like all students (and men in the US), they don't like to read directions!!! Funny, both invigilators of the two classes I did, complained about a question from the students - they just pointed to the directions and said READ!!! Their question was silly and the answer was right in the directions! (Sorry but it is true - I'm saying this to my former students, often you don't read the directions - now *I*, as a card carrying Amercian white male, would NEVER read directions if you paid me, or I got SOOO frustrated with not figuring it out that I actually HAD to read the directions!!!)
So the test was extremely difficult, yes - those of you who have had me as a professor know that, I haven't changed. Students STILL need to understand what I want them to understand and these students haven't had my classes ever before. So as Meghan has said numerous times (and thus I feel that I can quote her), "I almost dropped your Intermediate Macroeconomics class after that first test. IT WAS SOOOO HARD!" Thanks for the quote Meghan! The final in my class is not the determination of the class grade, you have to show up and do the work during the semester too. I also believe the final and every other piece of work in the class needs to be part of the learning experience.
OK - so why the diatribe? Because those who had missed class (and there was one guy who showed up for the final and had made only 6 of the 20 classes), turned in their finals early! Laughing - how you expect to miss so much class and still pass is beyond me! The fellow behind him was laughing when Clara would come up to him and prod him as he tried to nap!!! (They all take the same classes together - Organizational Behaviour, Marketing, Acoounting and my class this term - so they know each other very well!!) OK - so over half the class had finished when I left and I made sure that the administrators would send the final test papers up on the next SILC van to Jia Ding.
AT LAST, the point: I got to meet Alice! We hugged, I got a fantastic lunch with the rest of the CCC teachers - we all live on the 7th floor so regularly see each other and often do things together. Dean Sally Gong and Brad Hughes, the Associate Dean for Languages, were there along with Catherine and Peter and ... we had an excellent lunch. The teachers and Alice also talked about some of the other CCC teachers in China - Alice puts on a Summer Institute for those without certification and places teachers all over China. In addition to certification, some initial Chinese language and orientation is included. So they chatted about those teachers as well. SILC is the best employer, by far - most likely because of the Australian connection but Shanghai University also seems to do a beter job than other universities too.
So - yesterday was quite eventful! Oh, yes and then I finally got to begin grading finals!! The English finals must be in by Wednesday at noon and the Finance finals by Friday. I have the National Ballet and a Thanksgiving Dinner to go to Thursday and Edward Prescott, 2004 Nobel Prize winner in Economics, will be here on Friday. So I have a busy week still ahead! Luckily classes don't start until Thursday, Nov. 29 ... no break, WAIT - WHAT'S UP WIT' DAT???
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