Welcome to our Gray 106 Blog! Introduction

I named this blog after the colors of our great school OSU - Scarlet and Gray. On this blog, you will practice writing on many different topics related to our course and academic writing. This first blog will be an introduction of yourself to our class.

My name is Eric Benson. I am the lecturer for this section of EDU T&L 106. I have taught this class every quarter for the last several years and I like the content which is focused on differences in writing across cultures as well as the digital story project we will work on throughout the quarter. I have taught in the composition program since AU 2003 and have also taught in the Spoken English program and 1 quarter in ALP.

I got my start teaching in China. I taught over a summer in Beijing and for 1 year in Dalian (University of Technology) from 2002-2003. When I returned to the US, I took this position as a lecturer at OSU and pursued my MA in TESOL (the degree for English teachers of speakers of other languages). I can say that I enjoy teaching and traveling to various places and learning about other cultures. I have also visited Hong Kong and Peru and spent a vacation with my family this past June on a cruise to the Caribbean and Mexico.

My family consists of my wife(a Korean-born American). We met here in our church in Columbus. She speaks perfect English as she came here when she was 10. I am blessed with two sons, Joe and Dan. Joe just graduated this past June and is a freshman here. My wife and I have enjoyed attending their high school extra-curricular activities, including cross-country running and band and look forward to seeing them continue to develop in college.

Our family is a cross-cultural one but we use English primarily, though we have all studied and learned some conversational Chinese and Korean. I also enjoy Jazz music and play the trumpet and some guitar. I enjoy exercising and watching the Buckeyes in the stadium and on TV. In the future, I hope to further my training and career as a teacher although I am still deciding on the area. We never stop learning and growing.

Blog #1 - Introduction. Now, please tell us a little about yourself and your family. What is your family culture like? Where are you from and where are you going? What are some of your interests, your future plans and goals? Please use paragraphing, capitalization and punctuation and always save all of your written work in a wordfile before posting (3-4 paragraphs, 300 words) Please also put your name in the title line of the blog so I can quickly identify you.