New Class Announced! There's a rumor going around that some (I hope most) of Mary's students will be "joining Will's class" next Monday. This rumor is completely false!

Next Monday, Mary's students and Will's students will be forming a new class. I know that my current students are excited about this development, as am I.

Nobody will be stepping into an ongoing curriculum and catching up. We'll take some time to sort out where everybody is with the language, and we'll work on things that are helpful to everyone. Clean slate!

To give us some common ground to work around, we'll be working with one of those page-turner written-for-adult-learners books. In fact, the blurb from the back cover is on the back of this sheet, and the homework for next week is to take a stab at translating that.

I honestly believe that just about everyone in Mary's class could be quite comfortable in this new class, so give it a try!

Here are a few tips and rules of the game:

● Patience! It will take us a little while to see where we all are and what we need, so no one should expect the new class to fit like a glove after two weeks! While you always have the option of jumping to Wes's class at any time, I'd like to see people plan on spending the fall term with this new class, to give us time to develop a curriculum that serves everyone.

● Honest feedback from students about how things are going is crucial! If you don't say anything when I ask how people are doing, everybody suffers. If things are going too fast, too slow, or too weird, let me know!

● If I explain something and it doesn't make sense to you, ask a question. If the answer to that question doesn't fix things, ask it again! It's my job to find a way to make the language make sense to you, and everyone in class welcomes repetition, or multiple explanations from different angles. You won't be holding anyone back if you ask for a second explanation. You'll be helping your classmates get a deeper understanding (and you'll probably be asking a question someone else is too shy to ask, anyway).

● Always come back! If you miss a couple of weeks in a row, don't hide, come back. I'll be maintaining a synopsis of the book, in English, on the web site, so you can always catch up with the story without having to translate everything you have missed.

● Different people know different things. You tend to notice it when someone is good at some grammar topic that gives you fits. But you ignore it when you know something that they don't. It isn't about knowing "more" and "less", it is about different people tending to pick up different things. That means that together, we're pretty smart, much smarter than we are individually.

● Your dictionary is your friend, so bring it along. Looking a lot of stuff up as we go is not a weakness, it is a sign of a good student.

● E-mail me at will@gaelminn.org if you have any questions, suggestions, or apprehensions.

By the way, we'll probably meet in Mary's room to start, while she is off doing Intro.

See you next week!

Cru ba na Cinniu na

This is the book we'll be working with for the fall term, at least. It is written specifically for adult learners, is full of evildoers, and is very much in the style of An Tobar or Dúnmharú ar an Dart.

I've ordered copies, with shipping the cost will be $10. Let me know privately if that's a problem for anyone.

Homework for next time is to translate the back of the book, which is the typical publisher's blurb, with some background about the author, and about how this book came about (in a competition). Do what you can: get the gist of it first, then if you have time, you can do a more thorough translation.