Another teacher in the Fall?

It seems they have hired another teacher for the fall. She has experience teaching English, and her major is something in the math and sciences which will be VERY beneficial for us here at the university. She is due to arrive in October, so we will do without her until then.

The frustration with the students continues. It seems that they are having trouble contextualizing the information and vocabulary they learn, so I have to teach them to do so. The way I am teaching them now is not working! Hmmm....what to attempt next? I had a make-up exam today for the students. I went over the vocabulary to make sure they knew it, I did it via dialogue so they could hear it in context. I asked them for definitions; I tried what I knew to make sure that they did in fact understand the words..they did. Yet, on the test most of the students got most of these questions wrong....hmmm talk about shaking the foundations of confidence in one's teaching abilities. I think it is time to employ other teachers: the students in the class who are doing well on this section (none are doing really well on the whole, but some are getting the vocab). I have yet to use the students as teachers (and as this is how one learns most, perhaps I should have done it previously). They already sit in pairs, I may have to move them again to assure the best matching based on ability (strong-weak pair), it can probably be done with minimal effort.

Other than that, I am almost out of ideas. I know I need to teach them study skills, as most have never learned them. I think I will have to redo the who writing sentences for vocabulary words. If they are able to do this, then they should be able to put the word into the context on a test (fill in the blank). The readings should do more with what we are studying in the lessons (hopefully I won't have to write them myself), and they need to do creative writing with these things as well (perhaps a group creative writing to start, if I can get them to do it).

I feel that my teaching is not so good at the moment for another reason; I am trying to work with the teacher who is teaching the higher class. I need to stop attempting to do what she is doing (which is what the dean wants) because the students need different things. I need to work with the students more on their retention of information; she doesn't have this problem. So, I have to tell her that I am doing something and she has to either do it too, or come up with something else knowing that it is different. We shall see what happens.

Yesterday my internet was out for a long time. I hate when this whole thing starts going. At first it was because of the connection; then it was because of something with my computer. Luckily it was fixed. Anyway, nothing new really to report. The rain has cleared away most of the 'dust', so I am happy with that, but it is still a little difficult to breath...