I'm going to share an email I recently received and my attempt to answer it. I have referred the questioner to this web page, so if you have some additional advice to offer just leave a comment below. The recent email I received:
hey I happen to come across your site, and I had some questions of my own. My parents have just adopted a sister for me and I want to teach her English. I just finished freshmen class and I really don't know how to teach her English I guess I am not the teaching type . I need some quick lessons that she would understand. I take about two hour out of my time to teach her, she is a real fast learner and a great student but I guess I am a tutor. so please reply and if you can make up some easy lessons for me. Thanks!I don't teach one on one so I don't have any lessons for you, but I am positive that you can find worksheets and discussion topics online. I would ahve your sister do worksheets on her own time and then give them to you for feedback (not traditional corrections like right and wrong necessarily but a discussion of why each answer was chosen and if there's a choice that would occur more naturally to a native speaker) and handle discussion topics in your two hour class sessions. During the discussion you would try to help your sister express herself by offering to teach her useful vocabulary and grammatical structures (useful being what she needs to convey her message). And good luck!
So the class that I'm really thinking about now is Intercultural Communication - I need to choose a text that matches my overall strategy (having students roleplay conversations with different cultural factors being considered).
I recently got an email from a student who wants her grade lowered from a B+ to a C+. A B+ stays on your academic record forever, but a C+ can be replaced when you retake the course.
However, the university makes changing a grade extraordinarily difficult after a day or two. This semester grades were due Friday. Then Monday grades could be changed easily. After Monday, changing grades means submitting all the student work and signing a paper that says the teacher made a bad mistake and promises never to do it again or something like that.