Here we go again

1st meeting - 4 out of 6 attended. Most of them were new and had joined to meet to new people more so than practicing English which I found interesting. One of them had a higher proficiency in spoken English and expected me to nitpick her every 'mistake' during our conservation. Learning from past sessions, I quickly hesitated and clarified the policy of chat cafe in a bid to prevent my members from assuming this as an actual class.

2nd meeting - 2 out of 6 attended. Unlike last time, I did not throw a fit given the turnout but rather had an engaging conversation with the two that attended. We talked about things to do around Ann Arbor that eventually transitioned to talking about roommate problems. The session lasted an hour past the end time which I guess could be a sign that they wanted to be there.

Lets see how the future sessions turn out.

Chat Cafe Pt. II!!!

This past Monday, I had my first chat cafe session of the semester and I'm happy to say it went very well. 4 out of my 6 people attended, which I was satisfied with, and most of the members seemed to either know each other from class or from Chat Cafe last year, so the atmosphere was quite relaxed from the very beginning. We talked a bit about where we're from and what our majors are, the usual preliminary getting-to-know-you information, and from there the conversation continued organically; it was really gratifying to see everyone get comfortable with each other in the first session, something that took a bit longer last semester.

My group seemed super enthusiastic about the idea of going on field trips and trying new restaurants together. I didn't get the chance to do that type of thing much last semester, so I'm really looking forward to getting to know my group better as we do cool stuff together and talk about our lives! So yeah, basically Chat Cafe still rocks and I can't wait to bond with my members over the next couple weeks.

The Chat Cafe Facilitators Blog

Welcome back, Chat Cafe facilitators!  New semester, new Chat Cafe groups, new bitter cold to contend with -- but we'll keep using this same old blog site from Writing 302 last semester to keep up with each other about challenges, questions, grand ideas, and general updates on how things are going.  I look forward to hearing more from you all soon.