First Class

Waking up at 4 again helped me to prepare for my first class. The class, from 11:30 to 1:30 (is it a mystery why I skipped lunch?), was almost unnecessary. Since it was only advertised by word of mouth, and because apparently many students don't even show up during the first week, I had four students in attendance, a 5th year, 4th year, and two 2nd years (all majoring in Ukrainian Studies).

My slapdash preparation (knowing that I would still need to do introductions the following week) was a class on the VMAs, Miley Cyrus, Robin Thicke, and the new Robin Thicke parody "Defined Lines."  Discussing this recent topic and parody as a response to the increasingly over-the-top popular culture offerings was a good way to fill the class time. For next week they can actually do reading before class and hopefully have a good discussion.

I was pleasantly surprised at how good their English is-- even though they are in Ukrainian Studies.

After class I headed to my first curriculum development meeting-- there were five of us in the room-- four administrators and me (I was also the only woman). We discussed (in Korean of course) how to recruit more students for the program from overseas, what sort of additional teaching staff I'll need, the transfer of the Korean Language program to our campus (next year), the need for students in our program to study in Korean, not just English (my point, not theirs) and so on. It was just a broad overview of discussions to come.

I will have an office next week, and should have a department assistant shortly after that.