Hero Haikus

A 2.5 hour class from 5 to 7:30 requires some creativity to keep the students awake and my mouth from going dry. Today it was the first 30 minutes of the Jose Rizal movie and... HERO HAIKUS! Plus I had them do it in teams (called barangays, thanks PEP).

Lapu Lapu
He killed Magellan
Led resistance against Spain (my commentary: not really, that's revolutionary propaganda)
and wore a loincloth

Jose Rizal
Jose Rizal wow!
What a guy, freedom fighter
For Filipinos

Inspired to write
For the love of his country
Sacrificed his life

Lived as a hero
Rizal led nonviolently
Died as a martyr

Andres Bonifacio
Rizal follower
Founder of Katipunan
Led rebellion

I forgot to add the list of sheroes to their reading so gotta add it now.

Class Census
So my roster is finally set. I managed to scare away 10 students in the last two weeks but they were mostly replaced so I have a total of 39 students. Good number. It's a pretty diverse class--and not just racially. The trend of fewer and fewer Filipinos continues with 11 (I'll write about what this might mean later). There are 13 other Asians so the class is majority Asian. There's one African (Ethiopian), African American, American Indian, and Middle Easterner; 3 Latinos and the rest white.

Most of them found out about the class from the online catalog (the class fills their Core Diversity requirement and Social/Political History requirement). Only 2 have ever taken an Asian American studies course. About half are science and engineering majors. And one of the Filipinas is a dance major! I'm bummed the other dance major dropped. He was Asian too.

There are 21 men, and 8 students over 21. There are only 3 freshmen and 4 seniors. The average GPA is 3.03, which is the highest of any class I've taught. We'll see if it's a difference that makes a difference.