la vida de Emily: work & fiestas

I have to confess I really hate writing, like really really hate it. It does not matter what I am writing about- it can be personal like this blog- even about things that I am really passionate about like bilingual education- or things that I know are healthy to reflect on like a journaling- or specific genres like formal research papers. I hate it, I always put it off as long as I can. I have to trick myself into doing it. I think I would have really enjoyed my first year of grad school immensely if I never had to write a paper. I had to get that off my chest. So you all know that it’s not that I don’t want to keep you all informed, or that I don’t love you- it’s just a very painful process to get things down on virtual paper- my poor mother can confirm this who has barred the brunt of having to proof pretty much everything that I have ever written English- and for which I am internally grateful.

Ok I’ll get to the point now- What am I am actually doing here so far work wise?

I am collaborating with the Universidad Autonama de Queretaro on the San Juan del Rio Campus. I am teaching conversational classes to undergraduate through doctoral students in the engineering department as well as one section of administrators. Students in the undergraduate degree programs are place in levels 1-8 depending on their TOFEL scores. Students in level 1-6 see me once a week for one 30 minute class. Students in level 7&8 have class we me twice a week, totally an hour. Masters, doctoral and administrators have class with me for an hour a week. Class size for undergraduates have anywhere from 2 to 5 students in them. Graduate level class sizes range from 2 to 7 students. I teach around 100 students a week. I am also supposed to start soon a academic writing course for graduate students in English for an hour weekly- oh the irony! We will see how that one goes. Students in the graduate program are required to get published in engineering journals and therefore need to submit proposals in English- hence the need for the course. There is also talk of me doing a course for instructors of English at the University from a variety of faculties- that would attached to some kind of certificate of completion. And or a monthly workshop for English teachers just in our department.

As for a secondary project I am also teaching at a local public elementary school on Mondays and Fridays. You know I have to work with the little ones to stay sane J I work with 6^th graders for a hour teaching basic English. There are 2 sections of 6^th graders 40 students per class. More on my impressions on the Mexican public education system later.

So that is the deal work wise for now…. As for the other side of life… in my first month in site I have had the opportunities to attend a variety of parties- birthday parties, Independence day party (September 15^th), 25th anniversary part of the a major in the department, New students welcome party for the engineering department. And yes I even danced once- gasp! And yes it went terribly ;)

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