Bringing the World Closer

Our students (the students' students) :)

Hi everyone,

I had posted the post below in the wrong place I think.
If you have any notes about students, or the missing names, please let me know
elke.
- - - - - -
Here are some of my notes about our students. I'd appreciate it if you could post some, too, especially about the students I didn't get a chance to talk to.
Thanks!
elke

Chloe, age 26, from Korea, studies nursing at Lehmann college, arrived in the US in Dec 2010, likes "movie music," lives in the Bronx

Chrystal, age "almost 40", Chloe's roommate, also studies nursing, likes traveling (China, safari) and fast music

Yulia (or Yuliet?) age 27, from Belarus, works in a restaurant, arrived two years ago. She wants to learn English in order to find a better job and to be able to communicate better. She likes drawing and rollerblading.

Alejandra, age 35, from Ecuador. She's a secretary in a travel agency, in the US since 2008, and would like to become a teacher herself. She likes basketball, mountain climbing, Michael Jackson and Christina Aguilera.

Timur, age 39, from Kazakhstan, arrived in the US in Jan 2010, and spent the first two months in Texas. He will stay in NY for another four months.

Andrea from Brazil...

Eliana...

And one more student, I didn't get his name

and...

Thanks,
see you tonight (or Saturday)!
elke

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Barry De Saw on March 31, 2011 at 4:40pm

Elke:
It is great that you're reminding us the particulars about these students of English. We certainly want to build rapport with them, but have, it seems, so very little time. I have often wanted dearly to just have a 30 minute class discussion about something political, social, environmental, pop cultural, cultural (specific, respective), ideological, scientific, etc., and get to know them better in this way, but I do not see any opportunity. They come in, and we start the teaching.
I have eschewed, and will continue to eschew, any sort of elogated rapport-building conversation in my lesson. There is no space for such a WCFB discussion, especially a long one of 20 or 30 minutes; all that we do is structured, as you know, toward a specific style or method of teaching to which we're obliged to adhere.
But we simply have to try, however awkwardly, to get to know our students better. They are great people!!

Sincerely,
Barry De Saw