Update - It's been awhile

It's been awhile since I posted anything here. What happened? The end of term, and the end of the EVOnline sessions. I guess it was the end of my energy for awhile too.

The Mystery Guest project ended with a bit of a whimper. "Eve in Paradise" lost the password and couldn't post the final revelation of her identity. It was scheduled for the last week of class, so when I realized she'd "disappeared", so to speak, I put an explanation on the class blog. The students and I talked a bit about the ups and downs of blogging and Mystery Guests during the end of term lunch. Oh well, it was a good learning experience!

I've spent March trying to catch my breath and catch up on the stuff I missed during the EVOnline sessions (Becoming a Webhead and Blogging for ESL/EFL). Still a long way to go on the latter.

My main activity this month was supposed to be preparing a mixed classroom and online (blended) class which would start in April. It's the first time anything like it has been offered in the ESL division, and we thought a lot of students would jump at the chance. Unfortunately, we were wrong. Enrollment is still very low, and there's a good possibility the course won't run this term. Instead of working on getting the course ready, I seem to be spending 1/2 my time doing publicity to recruit students. But no students, no course, and I need to know what their hesitations are, in order to try and address them.

Mainly, I think it's just new and they don't want to mess around with their chances of passing the level. Understandable. If we'd thought, I'd have gone into their classes during computer time and let them have a look. Taken the course to them, rather than asking them to come to "Hands-on Introductory sessions" which are a good idea, but have been very poorly attended. Now it's too late for this term, as they're all writing exams. Can you tell I'm feeling a bit low today?