Back to School

Tuesday was bring a parent-to-school day, so I brought two.

Having parents in school was quite interesting. My students' enthusiasm about meeting my parents ranged from extreme apathy (is apathy gradable?) to utter joy.

The picture on the right captured my absent-mindedness in the classroom. I tend to not remember my trains of thought and what I actually want to do with a class on a given day. When my parents first arrived at school, they said they thought I was organized. I would say scatterbrained would be a better word to describe me and easy to get off track.

My parents shared a word or two about their occupations and about life in the United States. Afterward, the class asked them a variety of questions such as "what was Professor Lichtenberger like as a child?"

Each of my classes had a grammar quiz, so I made my parents take some of the quizzes as well. My parents did fairly well; however, my mother didn't do so well on relative pronouns. I haven't yet taught her like she should be taught.

As my parents were leaving the school, two of the students ran up to my dad and said, "Are you the professor's father?" These students were not mine. I've been told I'm fairly popular with the first years (too bad my own students don't love me that much). So these students were quite excited to meet my parents.

To get my parents' thoughts on the school and the students, you'll have to ask them. I can say they were impressed with the students' ability and desire to speak English. They're smart kids. They must have a good teacher. Hint. Hint.