How are you both doing? I saw the recent family pictures you posted to the website and I've been catching up on the home news -- great work, Dad.

Well, I guess you want to know how the "face to face" on campus teaching is going. It has been exciting, tasking, time consuming, a big responsibility, 80% psychology, a great experience and so much more. It will be hard to describe the whole experience in a single word -- there are so many aspects to it.

Communication-wise, my accent isn't a problem (some even say it's all gone, which I'm not sure I like). Some of the students at first  didn't know what to call me but as soon as I explained to them that "bunmi¨ is like taking the "du¨ out of "dummy¨ and replacing it with a "boo¨ they grasp the pronunciation better. For the last 5 years that I have been here, it would have been so easy to go with "John¨ but I detest the whole notion that I have to replace a name because some people can't pronounce it; I don't have a problem if they mispronounce it just as long as they try. Most of the students just go with "professor bunmi¨ and leave it at that.

I started out with 5 students on campus (and 7 online) but they've been adding new students. For the second week, the school moved my class to a classroom with a video projector and smart podium because we designed the course to include students watching a lot of streamed media and clips of films. Nothing explains a communication theory better than to see it at work in a film or documentary.

The class is structured as a hybrid, which means the students only do 40% of their work in class, the rest of the 60% they have to make up on-line by taking the weekly quizzes already set and loaded online and they have to answer discussion questions within their assigned on line groups and also on a weekly basis. So now, I have to be on-line everyday replying general questions and replying to discussion postings. The amount of time I spend in front of a computer screen is long. Well, we are now in week 4, which means there is only 4 weeks left -- Regent undergrad is only 8 intense weeks per course.

The other class I'm teaching is also going on well; last night, I made sure they got all the feedback I owed them, updated their grade book, and that they have all they need to the end of the semester.

Final papers for my own courses are coming up soon and so I'm just trying to clear my desk so I can start preparing. Well, so far all is well, I just have a lot of work ahead. I'll be able to paint a clearer picture of things like the writing of my dissertation etc, by the end of this semester - but for now things are fine and, hopefully, will get better.