1. Yesterday I needed a lot of help with my grammar lesson so I met with my observer. It was actually really good meeting with him. He told me I had good questions and he actually answered them instead of putting it back on me. So today I taught the Past Perfect verb tense. How difficult! I was freaking out because my last grammar lesson didn't go so well and these were pre-intermediate students, so would they understand it? I even had a nightmare about grammar timelines last night.
I found a love story in one of the books and rewrote it with two of the students names. (He brought her a rose yesterday!) Unfortunately, she wasn't there today, but everyone couldn't stop laughing. It was a really great way to start the class! Then, things started to go wrong. I explained the timeline, they did their own timeline, then they had to fill out the form of the past perfect (had + verb-ed) but they weren't getting it. So I had to stand at the board and explain a lot of the stuff. I thought I was going to get in trouble for "TTT" (teacher talk time). Then they all started talking about how they were confused and didn't know what a past participle was. They were thinking too hard and didn't have confidence. There are two very boistorous ladies and they are loud and don't stop talking! And you know it's bad when they're talking in Czech! They did some controlled worksheets and then at the end they had to write a story about a celebrity using the tense. I know that not all of them understood it, but a lot of them did. A few of their sentences were great "Beckham had played football before he met Victoria." haha.
After the lesson, I was terrified. We're getting down to the nitty gritty and I can't afford to have any major things go wrong. BUT, Paul had all good things to say, with minor corrections. He said that I should be very happy with the lesson :) Yay! I've realized that whenever I think something doesn't go well, it actually had, and when I think I've done well, I haven't. I also did better with my error corrections (correcting the students especially with pronunciation), so I know I'm actually really helping them, but when you're up there you just feel like you've been talking for ages. There are a lot of things to get used to. But overall, a successful day!
2. It's a lot easier to get out of bed in the morning when you feel like you have a purpose in life :)
3. Our one teacher Andrea the other day was explaining the importance of our job and stress in words. She said a sentence that sounded like this "My boss is a very impotent man who works at the semen factory." We all died!!! Here she meant, "My boss is a very important man who works at the cement factory." She said that what stands in the way of that woman not being embarassed or looking stupid, is us.
4. Simon and Dean both moved here to get away from London. They said the quality of life there has gone down and that it's really unsafe. I didn't understand this because all I've wanted to do for the past two years is move back there, especially because of how safe I had felt. When I told them that I had been studying abroad and living in South Kensington, they told me that it wouldn't be like that again. And even if I went back knowing it would be different, it would still probably be disappointing. Very interesting...
5. Prague is like Amsterdam...if you know what I mean...
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