The first session ... five tasks! whew!

No matter how much experience i have built up over the years that i have been teaching, i always find myself having a moment of dread as i start my first class every semester. It does not matter if the students are familiar to me. At least, for first meetings, the one today was pretty straight forward, still with the usual anxiety on my part though. I gave them a brief introduction on the reference material and how the class will be administered (in general).

There are five tasks that the classes i'm handling will have to accomplish this week.

Task #1 - Creat a class blog

Each class will have to create its own class blog. We will then link up the class blogs to "The Bamboo Grove", which will serve as the blog hub for our subject. Everyone is encouraged to participate in the class blog. They can write on their class blog, create their own blogs and link those to the main blog/s - whatever they choose to do as long as they are able to contribute to the "blog output" of the class.

Task #2 - Which is more important in a doughnut, the "hole" or the "dough"

For their first post, students are asked to answer the question above. Answers may range from the smart ass to the philosophical. But their answers must be "answers" in the true sense of the word i.e. their must be a thinking process behind it.

Task #3 - Focus Groups and what they are supposed to do

I will be dividing each class into focus groups. Each group will handle one of the following specific topic areas: India, China, Japan-Korea, Southeast Asia. The rationale for this "arbitrary" division will become apparent as we move along in the semester.

The group assigned to a topic will be responsible for formulating goals for the class when it comes to their specific topic area. For example: The China group will go through the first ten chapters of our reference book, focusing only on discussions that are relevant to China. They will then come up with learning goals for the class on China.

Task #4 - Show and tell Asia!

They are going to bring something to class (next meeting) that is uniquely Asian. From chopsticks to "yaya's" (nursemaids) - the item, photo, audio clip, etc. must be something that is undeniably Asian. Bringing it to class is only half the task though. The other half is for them to do a little research about that "something" that they are going to bring so that they can explain to the class why it is Asian.

The class will decide whether to accomplish this task as a group or as individuals. They can do it through the group, but as individuals they are also encouraged to do the task.

For this task and class activity, everyone is encouraged to bring cameras, video recorders, etc. or whatever their preferred technology for documenting our "Show and Tell Asia!" classroom activity.

Task #5 - The Bamboo Grove

Finally, students are supposed to visit this blog and find out why it is called "The Bamboo Grove".