Sunday, April 13, 2008

The End of Another Semester

Well, this is the end of another semester. I’m going to wait until tomorrow to read the last blog entries of all of my students as I gave them until midnight tonight to finish their blogs. I really can’t wait to read them tomorrow. Usually I really get a sense of satisfaction at the end of a semester reading the students blogs and seeing their growth from the beginning of the semester until the end. If I ever do another presentation on blogs, I’ll be really proud to show off what my students did this semester. When I was in New York, a lot of people were very impressed with the work of my students from past semesters, and I think I may have even inspired some people to start blogging with their students. It’s amazing to think that I have been blogging for over 4 years now. That’s a lot of words written by both me and all of my students. It’s even more amazing for me to think that I have had 100’s of students since I started blogging 4 years ago, and I got to know them all so much better because of the blogs. I’m sure I became closer to my students because of the ability the blogs gave me to see into their world.

I guess the biggest news for today’s blog is that the final exam for the EAP 3 writing and grammar class is already over. I haven’t even looked at the final exams yet for my class, but I have finished looking at the term papers, and I was pretty happy – much happier than with the first term papers. With the first term papers, I had to come up with an emergency solution to prevent most of the class from failing (I wonder if the class knew I was giving them a “free” chance to pass). However, for this term paper, the vast majority of the students did quite fine. That made me happy because it was real evidence that the students were growing as English writers. My next job is to finish marking all of the final exams, and then enter everything into blackboard so that I can calculate the final grades. I have to get all of the grades into the office by the end of next week, and then it is up to the registrar’s office to process all of the marks.

After all of that, I have to get ready for next semester. It is going to be my last semester of teaching for a while because I am taking a year off from teaching in order to finish up my PhD degree. The big surprise from the spring summer semester is that I’m not going to be teaching EAP 3!! Instead, I’m going to be teaching EAP 1. It’s too bad because I was really looking forward to teaching all of the EAP 2’s from this semester. However, I’m sure I’ll have a great time with the new EAP 1’s. Also, Murray is going to be teaching EAP 2, and Regina is moving to EAP 3 instead. Oh well . . . they say change is a good thing!

Anyway, I want to wish the best of luck to this semester’s students. I’m sure you are going to take the campus by storm next semester!

18 comments:

Natallia said...

Hi Scott! Thank you for your warm wishes! During the semester I was wondering how you can find enough time to read all our blogs and respond to them. I wish all EAP students have such an enthusiastic instructor to inspire them to blog. I wish you good luck in work at your PhD degree!

Jason said...

Thank for your wishes.
I am so glad I am in EAP 3 right now instead of EAP 2. as you said, that means you are going to teach EAP 1, but you know what, that can be more challenging than teaching EAP 3.
anyway, Have fun with PhD.
:)

Osman said...
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Osman said...

Best of luck in your PhD degree and have a good summer..

Peace,

Amin said...

I am happy for this whole blogging thing. It also helped us to know each other better, along with improving our English. When you said your class in you blog, did you include lecture 2 as well or not [like usuall!! ;)] ? Wish you the best and thanks for everything.

Li said...

thanks for teaching us this half semester
have fun with eap1 students

eap 2 is so lucky, they have murray..
the upcoming eap3 is also lucky~they still have Regina, what a great woman~

Nahid said...
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Nahid said...
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Helen said...

Dear Dear Scott:
I had never seen a perfect teacher before I met you. I really learned a lots from your classes, and I enjoy your positive attitude so much. I know I will miss you in the future and you have to miss us!!!!!
Finally,I just want to tell you I am very glad to meet you.
Thank you so much!

Helen

We will,we will rock U!! said...

I really, really, really, really, really appreciate these days with you!!!! You're a such a good instructor that I'll never forget!! I bet you'll absolutely get your PhD Degree!!!
Hope everything's gonna be fine when you in eap1!! Wherever you are doesn't really matter, as long as you're good instructor!!!

Lisa said...

hi Scott
thank u for ur wishes
though u just taught us for a short time but i am so appreciated that we had u
i will miss u~~
Good luck and have fun :-)

Sharon said...

Hi, Scott:
Thank you for teaching us in the last half of this semester.
We appreciate your teaching.
Have a good holiday~

Sam said...

""It is going to be my last semester of teaching for a while because I am taking a year off from teaching in order to finish up my PhD degree.""

It's a big news!!!and a bad news for the following students`````hope you can finish his degree as quicklylyly as you can

And,Scott, thank you for your hard work for us

Nahid said...
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Yolanda said...

Dear Scott,
You're really a good teacher!! We all enjoy your class this semester. Thank you for your lively teaching...

Helen said...

I tried Beaver's Tails!!! That is so sweet~~~I enjoy banana chocolate~~~
Enjoy your vacation!!!

Metalmaster said...

DEAR SCOTT!!! Thank you very much for this awesome semester full of fun and seriousness and the same time! Thank you for your wishes!!!
You are a great teacher!!! Good luck with the next semester and EAP 1!

Unknown said...

This is a great post. I just had one of the ‘Doh!’ moments and ran back to correct my own site before publishing my comment. You see my own comment form did not match what I’m about to advice. I get less comment than you, so never noticed any problem. I’ve changed it now anyway so here goes.

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