Teaching Day

Thursday is my busiest teaching day, with my "Free Speech in Contemporary Democracies" class in the morning. I have 16 students registered in this one.

This is the room for the morning class. Thank goodness the tables and chairs are not bolted to the floor.

This is the Soltésovej building, where I teach my afternoon class on "Increasing Intercultural Awareness in English Language Teaching." It is just around the corner from the Moskovská building. A graduate student in my department said this street and building are named after a much-revered female writer, Elena Maróthy-Šoltésová. (I'm trying to think of streets named after revered female writers in the U.S. -- Susan Sontag? Lillian Hellman? Emily Dickinson?)

This is a huge building, with a beautifully landscaped garden in the center. Smoking is not allowed in the classroom buildings, but you can find plenty of ashtrays in the outdoor areas. (And you thought that was only in California!)

My afternoon class meets in this classroom, with a lovely view of the garden. Thirteen students are registered for this one. I am grateful the tables and chairs are not bolted down in this room either.

My Monday aesthetics class has 15 students registered. All of my classes are much bigger than the 5-7 students I was expecting in each. I know many students have shied away from registering because I lecture in English, but many others have told me they are eager to improve their English with a native speaker.

I set up a simple Web site for my students here: http://www.csulb.edu/~jvancamp/UK/
Students all have excellent Internet access, but the University does not have such luxuries as Blackboard that we use at CSU Long Beach. The web site will be a way for me to disseminate the syllabus, PowerPoint files, and other class materials this fall.

NOTE: Click on any image in this blog to see it full-size.