Thursday Oral English class and a surprise birthday cake for a student.

Thursday was a full day with the Oral English Exam part A first thing in the morning.  Then the rest of the class period we covered the remaining unit in our English textbook.  It was an interesting reading section about "Brat Camp" and how some teenagers headed for trouble in their personal lives, were sent to a rigorous training camp in the wilderness to develop some personal discipline and break away from some old habits.  This reading introduced some challenging English words, so you will see some English words and also Chinese words beside them, to make sure the class understood these words. Right after class, we walked to the cafeteria to have lunch.    


Over lunch, one student joined us and asked if the class could have a short, surprise birthday event at the beginning of Embedded Systems Technology class.  That was OK with us and more importantly Lilian gave permission with some qualifications.  It was a surprise and the class sang "Happy Birthday" to their classmate, then took the cake away to eat after class.  Rod then got right into his EST class.  Last class of the day and week can make for sleepy, distracted students.  This Thursday was no different.  But Rod has learned that requiring the students to take notes and turn them in for a grade, motivates them to be more engaged with the material.

After class and after we returned to our hotel room, we enjoyed taking a neighborhood walk and discovered a new, path that followed a river.  It was a delightful discovery.  We have really enjoyed our evening walks here!