OSU-PNU 2006

today was the last day of the course, so instead of having class, we planned a common gathering of all three classes, p, n and u, in p's classroom, because it had the best a/c and sound system of all three, for a potluck and performance. it was a really nice ending to a pretty tumultuous month. several students in all three classes prepared something entertaining, mostly in the form of a role play, the content of which highlighted what the students had learned during the past month as well as the distinct teaching styles of the four of us. it was really neat to see how the students displayed all they learned in such a creative way. many of the students incorporated the slang they learned from the simpson's episodes we watched in class and talked about or the o-h-i-o cheer that i taught them. they also imitated all of the teachers. their imitation of me included "hey guys" and "ja, ja", two expressions that i commonly use. the first reflecting my chicago accent; the second reflecting the influence of my second language (can you guess what that might be?!? ;)) on my first language. surprisingly, one of the students gave a presentation on her own. the others were done either with a partner or as a group. she is a briliant sketch artist and took time to draw each of the teachers. her presentation of her sketches was a kind of guessing game which she designed using powerpoint. she set it up so that only some parts of each person were displayed first and the audience had to guess who. after this, a full black and white was shown and then a color. it was so well done. the presentations took up most of the morning, although stuart had a part where he gave prizes to the students who had the highest scores on the final presentations in his classes. around noon, we had lunch, which consisted mostly of cakes, snacks and drinks. we took a lot of photos and ended up spending the rest of the time talking with students and finally saying our goodbyes. we left feeling pretty positive and were glad that the final day of the program ended on a good note. it was almost surreal that we were finally finished with the course. it was hard to believe that it was over. for some reasons, it seemed like the course lasted years; however, for other reasons, it seemed like it lasted only a couple days. i think it's still too soon to say how things went over all. i need a bit more time to process all that happened in the past month. during the party, i talked briefly with dr. h about the future of the program. it seems like there is a future for it for both osu and pnu. :) he also said that osu is extending the invitation for teachers beyond doctoral students in the department of second and foreign language. i was surprised to hear that. i think it's a great idea to open it up to others who may want the opportunity to spend time teaching in korea.