The weather continues to get colder and colder. As I write this the temperature outside is just 9 degrees Celsius. Kuniko is off to work and I am reading through the introductions and outlines of my new classes. The two classes that I am taking are “Language Testing” and “Online Learning Environments”.
Of all the aspects of learning a foreign language, testing that knowledge holds the least amount of interest for me. Every time that I have taken a test in Japanese or Spanish it was a stressful time, and not exactly a fond memory. When I was creating tests for my high school students at Takasago Minami they tended to be fairly simple affairs that tested only the expressions learned in my class, and even after dreaming up a test you still had the unpleasant burden of grading all those papers. This class is a compulsory course in order to graduate, so I’ve just got to get through it. Come to think of it, the last two courses that I took also fell into the “I have to take this class” rather than “I want to take this class” category.
In contrast to these, and as a kind of reward for grinding through those last two tough courses, I’m taking “Online and Distributed Learning” this term. It looks like an interesting course that is closely aligned with my interests – online and computer assisted learning.
This week will see me getting acquainted with the requirements and environments of the courses. It is also a short week since Friday is a national holiday. Kuniko and I will probably go out to dinner that night to celebrate our 2nd anniversary. The plan is to go back to Tapas – the same place we celebrated last year.
