Well, hello, folks!
This will be brief, as I am still pressed for time, but I wanted to finally write something here again. It has been a busy stretch of time, as most of my stretches of time here have been. That's not a bad thing because it keeps me from being bored, but it also doesn't seem like a real reflection of life and goodness. So, I am hoping that after our retreat to Xi'an in a little over a week, I can try to be a little ahead of schedule and not have to go so day-to-day to make things work for me.
Coming to you soon will be my first newsletter. It is brief, as it's hard to say a lot in only one sheet of paper, but it gives a nice update of some things. I hope you'll enjoy it. In the meantime, I thought I'd write to say how my new teaching method is going.
This last week, I decided to change my teaching method a bit. Previously, I lectured directly on the textbook material, but I incorporated many games and challenging activities to get the students to think of the material in new ways. I wanted to see how well they could work with foreign ideas (many Chinese students do not spend much time working on problem solving skills). So, with this new approach, I have placed a lot of the learning responsibility back on the students.
Now, for each new concept we come across in our text, I decide if the concept adds value to their knowledge of understanding business, and potentially life as well. If I deem it worthy of discussion, then I have the students discuss the topic in one of several ways. Sometimes it involves acting out different situations. Sometimes they have to be the "teacher" for a little while and prepare a small discussion for the other students. Sometimes I have them take opposing sides of an argument and make them defend their side. Sometimes I have one team present an idea, and other teams can agree or disagree with their ideas. All-in-all, it really provides for some very intriguing discussions. You can truly see how their thought processes are different from our own, as they do not often go about problem solving in the way we do. It's very intriguing. And I'll be interested to see how this continues to go after more weeks of this approach.
But for now I must go play tennis with some students. But keep me accountable. I have 24 tests to finish grading before tomorrow, on top of my usual Sunday activities. Ah! Always so busy. But having a great time, too. How are you?
