Things in motion

Things in motion stay in motion...and boy is the ball rolling. Everything has started moving and I am so excited to see what I am going to be doing over the next eight of months. I've had several meetings with my colleagues as the department of philology, the staff at the American Corner and the Embassy. I now know what I am going to be doing, but I am still trying to figure out how I'm going to be doing it. buildings downtown

I have one course that I will be teaching at the University, Essay and Conversation, which entails teaching writing, conversation and dictation. I have around 190 third year students that are split into six groups. I see each group once a week for a 90 minute class. I sat in on some oral exams today, and it was very inspiring. I will tell you more about it in a later blog.

Then I will also be teaching several courses at the American Corner: conversation for high schoolers, conversation for elementary students, idioms and slang, play acting for kids and story hour. I want to offer something for elementary and secondary English teachers, but I might have to do that in their classroom. The American Corner is just too busy. street signs

Besides the American Corner in Belgrade, there are six others throughout Serbia that I will be going to and speaking at as an additional resource. It will be a great way to see other parts of Serbia and meet more people. I hope to be doing this on Mondays. After all the papers that I think I will be checking, I might have bit off more than I can chew....but I love to be busy so maybe it will be just the right amount.

And from a technological point of view, I have come to terms with my hardware and software. I realized that I have to look at technology like learning a new language; you need to practice it to learn it. I want to do all of these great things for my class and for you guys, but I don't want to actually do it myself because I don't know how to. So after sitting in my wicker lounge chair with my computer on my lap for 6 hours every night this last week, I feel like I am half way to where I want to be. Good thing I have another week to reach my goal. I guess the best motivators for me are time constraints and wanting to make my life and my students' lives better by having some coursework on the Internet. That, and one shouldn't let technology get too far ahead of them, especially in my profession. English is an international language, so I should be familiar with the tools that are available to me to make it more international in my classroom. park

It will be a whirlwind year and I can't wait! I'll keep you all informed, unless I am so busy that I'm too tired to post any information. You might get some one-liners that state, "I'm still alive" just so you don't panic. outdoor cafe

With my new attitude towards technology, here are some pictures that I have taken of downtown Belgrade. I hope you enjoy them. I will take more to post later. Belgrade is a small and lovely European city where people wear what they want, talk on cellphones, window shop, sit at street cafes and live their lives.

Below are some pictures of some downtown architecture that I love to look at when I am walking from here to there. The first picture, the glass building, is the newly remodeled theater which is playing Les Miserables in October. The sign is an example of the street signs that are posted on the sides of buildings....makes it a little hard to navigate around without asking for help.