a blog for students going to ecuador with ASB 2006

hi folks........thanks to dhriti for being the first one to post to the blog!! i think this can be a great space to share information about the trip. feel free to share this blog address with your family and friends, so they can see the students [and leaders] you will be traveling with, and feel like they are part of the adventure too. in fact, they [and anyone else] can leave comments after each post. finally, we can write as much as we want on this blog, even when we are in ecuador, to update anyone in the "audience"...and when we return, it will be very easy to share photos this way, and stay in touch.

okay, to introduce myself.....here is a photo of me and a nice guy who worked at the hotel i stayed at last summer in beijing. i really liked his hat and he let me wear it. ha! anyway, i teach in the college of education. since 1993, i have mainly taught english 110...i sometimes taught 109 or 367, but mostly first-year composition. for the last 3 years though, i have also started teaching English as a Second Language and now that is almost exclusively what i teach. sometimes i teach to undergraduate international students, but most of the time i teach international graduate students. i teach both composition and spoken english, which means i teach your international teaching assistants [ITAs] how to have better pronunciation and how to relate to you in the classroom!! any help you can give me in this regard would be greatly appreciated. we will have plenty of time over spring break to talk and i'd love to hear any stories you have about ITAs and any [constructive!!] suggestions you have for making your experience as a student in their class, and their experience as a teacher, more rewarding.

that's all for now. i'll look forward to reading your introductions as well!!
sincerely, bob