A no-longer incontinent dog no-longer in Plovdiv

Yesterday and today mom had to substitute for the vice principal in the English majors class. That's 12th graders. Remember what I said about 9th graders? The flowers, the attention, the interest, all those nice things? Good. Now think the opposite. Picture 20 17-year-olds (20 because the rest didn't bother to show up since their teacher was not there to take absences) with the "there's nothing you can say that will impress me" look on their faces. Fun!

Mom knew that many of these students have no interest in U.S. colleges, so she figured that she better do something that would be of interest to a wider audience. On the other hand, it had to be something she had *some* idea about. She decided that internet searching would be such a topic. Sometimes I don't know if she's just naive or it's just a librarian thing. Or both.

Anyway, she walked into class, and in the spirit democracy asked the students if they themselves want to propose a topic for discussion. Of course not. So she proceeded with her plan. She talked about internet searching, using examples that she thought would catch the students' attention: cell phones, contraception, STDs...to no avail. Deadly silence. By the end of the 2-hour class there was *some* interaction, if you can call it that...

Fortunately mom was not devastated by this failure. From the very first time she went to a 12-grade class she felt the atmosphere and knew that it's gonna be nothing like 9th grade. Is is just the age? Who knows. But later last night, she got an email from one of the students thanking her for the "great interactive class"! Who would've thought? The student went on to explain that students are not used to interactive classes. Usually they are just given in-class assignments for which they have to follow a formula. This was a very different experience for them, and most of them had trouble adjusting (or didn't care).

This made mom feel a little better. Today she had to teach the same class (different section) and she went prepared for battle. She started the class with a statement that she hates lecturing and that if people don't respond, she has no problem to wait for as long as it takes. To her surprise, the response of this class was completely different. Students got totally into the discussion, and often queued to express their opinions. Mom is perplexed. Was it the disclaimer at the beginning of the class? I doubt it. Is is just a different "class spirit"? Probably. Is there anything she could have done with the other class to make it more lively? Who knows...

Next week there will be an informal in-class debate. Students chose a topic that was of interest and they are supposed to search online, using mom's tips and website evaluation cheat-sheet, and gather information to support their arguments. We shall see...