On Monday began my first week at the Caledonian School! I was pretty nervous because of how disorganized everything was during Orientation, but things went very well! There were 17 of us (now we're down to 14) and we're split into two groups. In the morning we have two workshops...Lesson planning, speaking/writing activities, grammar, etc. We have an hour and 15 minutes for lunch then we have our Teaching Practice session. Teaching Practice is split into 3 groups, so the majority of my time is spent with Gina (my roommate) Simon, and Dean. Simon and Dean are in their thirties and they're both English. They've both lived in Prague for a while and both have Czech girlfriends. Dean is the quintessential English man...when I look at him in his little sweaters and glasses, I just picture him holding a cup of tea with his pinky up. Simon is like the Father of the whole TEFL course. He's always motivating and complimenting people. Simon and Dean both give me a good laugh.
The Czech students we are teaching get free English Classes, so they are basically our guinea pigs! We walked into the room and met our observer Kamila. Kamila is Czech who is obviously fluent in English, hardly has an accent anymore, and is really good at her job. She's scary in the "I really admire you" way. I think anything after Kamila will be easy! She taught the first lesson so that we could see how it is done, then we had feedback afterwards, which we do after all our Teaching Practice. The students are supposed to be upper-intermediate, but we have a wide spectrum of students. One is really strong, and one should be in the pre-inter. class. They are all really friendly and really willing to learn though. Sometimes I get a little choked up because I am truly moved by how motivated they are to learn our language. Afterwards, Kamila left and the four of us were to teach other something to kind of get in the groove of things. (We had to teach the next day!!) Simon taught us how to make honeycomb, Dean taught us how to play dice, Gina taught us how to draw something, and I taught them a theatre game. When that was done, Gina, Simon, and I went to a brewery next door for our first Czech beer (delicious!) and dinner. Gina and I really needed to do something because at this point we still felt like we weren't in a European city. (We're still working on this because we spend soooo much time at the school, then just go home to sleep.)
When we got home, we found out that David had moved out and in with two other girls. (There were housing issues, not because he didn't like us!)
Tuesday:
My activity with the students was "Change Places If..." It's sort of like musical chairs with what they have in common. It went really really well! They were all talking and laughing and there was a really comfortable vibe in the room. But then the one weaker student stood up and said "My parents are dead." The whole room got silent and THANK GOD for my improv classes because I quickly said, "How many children do you have?" She had to children and thank god someone else in the class also had two children! It's amazing how much my theatre training is helping with this. With being confident in front of them, thinking on the spot, certain activities, and feeling out the 'audience.'
Wednesday:
I got to sit back and relax because Simon and Gina had to teach. They both did really well and it was fun seeing what they came up with. I also liked being able to observe the students and seeing if they were confused, enlightened, excited, etc. There are some characters in the class, too! Simon asked if anyone likes ABBA. Teresa said "My daughter like ABBA." and Filip said "My mother likes ABBA." Now, when you picture a blonde buff guy who looks like he goes to techno clubs and has an accent say that...it's pretty hilarious :) I took some notes during our Feedback session that will help with my lesson. It was definitely really nice being able to see someone else go first because I was able to fix a lot of things for myself. After that, I spent the rest of the evening in the Teacher's Lounge preparing my lesson!
Thursday:
My lesson was about Perfectionists. How boring can you get?! Luckily I can modify the activities in the book which I did. All in all, it went really well! I felt really comfortable and the students seemed to get really into it as well. At the end they were to discuss if they know any perfectionists and how they feel about them. I asked them to use their new vocabulary words. Filip said, "There are other medical students who do well and so..I am...resentful." haha! I love it! Clearly the vocab word here was 'resentful.' :) There are a few things I need to work on of course, but she said it was a solid lesson for the first week!
Everyone in the TEFL course ended up in the school cafe afterwards to celebrate our first lessons being over and being a success. It cracks me up that they serve beer in this school! (All my teachers can be found chugging a beer with their lunch!) The cafe is really cute and cozy with brick walls and archways. After 6, they dim the lights and light candles. And of course people started to go home and it was me, Simon, and Gina again. Too funny! The Cafe guy Tomas brought us free beer and helped me with my Czech. I haven't seen Tomas around this week though...so sad!
And the BEST part of the day...My suitcase arrived! Everything is in tact and nothing exploded or broke! Hurrah!
Friday:
Since there are no English lessons on Fridays, we have Czech lessons with Kamila instead. It's amazng how different a lesson is here compared to in High school. In HS we just copied words from the board and how to memorize them. We spent very little time having conversations and practicing how to speak. (Which is the point of the English lessons at Caledonian...to get the student talking as much as possible.) Kamila walked in and right away started speaking Czech and had us repeat. She had color coded conversations on the board and we were to walk around having an introductory conversation with each other. Czech is hard! But I want to learn it so badly. I feel so lost, stupid, and rude when I'm out and about and can't speak it. Especially coming in and out of my building or at the grocery store. I say "No Cesky." And they say, "Oh, you are American." Gah.
Anyway, there was a Czech observer in the room and I actually got to do my conversation with her which was great! It made it so much more real. I need to find a Czech person who wants to meet up and that I can conversate with!
After class the majority of the group went out to dinner together. I, once again, had beef goulash and dumplings. But I can't get enough of it! I'm going to get fat, but I guess that means I just have to trek up
to the Prague Castle again to burn it all off! :) The only bad thing about the evening was that I was so darn exhausted, I couldn't really enjoy myself. I couldn't believe how much the first week had taken out of me and I was a real party pooper. But then we walked around the city a bit to another bar. The walk woke me up a bit and everything is just so beautiful at night and with the lighting!
I headed back home with Shelley and Heather because I found out they live near us, so that was really nice. We tried to speak Czech on the way home, but we had already forgotten a lot of it :(
Saturday:
Sleep in!! Yay! I got up at 9. Yes ladies and gentleman, 9:00 is now sleeping in to me! Did you ever think it would happen? Nope, I didn't either :)
This was a well deserved lazy day. I organized my room and went grocery shopping at the neighborhood store. It was nice because I felt like I really lived there. And the store wasn't commercialized like Tesco is. It was just pure Czech goodness. I did some work for the following week then got ready for my dinner party!
I arrived at Pavel's (Julien's friend who I've been writing for like 4 months now) to find out that he was not there! But I met his roommates and their friends and everyone was really nice and welcoming. Their apartment was really charming too. It was set up kind of like ours, but looked cozy and lived in and had things like wallpaper and paint. Ha. We ate a traditional Czeh dinner...beef goulash and dumplings hurrah! And also Spanish Birds (Salami, egg, cucumber, rice, and some other things I can't remember). Beth is going to have to teach me how to cook because it was absolutely delicious!
Then Pavel arrived! Hurray! We were finally able to meet! He was really nice and everything I pretty much imagined from the emails haha. After our chat, we all went out to a club called Vertigo. It. Was. Hilarious. It was all techno music with flashing lights and wasted people dancing like maniacs. It was like Jon Kearney at XS dancing. But everyone was doing it. I met some more great people and just had a really good time. Then we went to another club that was kind of the same, but had weird turns where you'd find a bar in a tiny little brick room. Weird!
It was a great, well-needed evening, and I hope that I will be able to hang out with all of them again soon!
Sunday:
Basically just spent doing my assignment and reading for Monday. Boring day of lots of work at the school. Caledonian School should just give us cots here to sleep on!
Monday:
Gina and Simon taught a listening lesson. They both did really, really well. I'm so proud of our Teaching Practice group! The rest of the evening for me was spent planning my lesson. It's about things people are "addicted to..." like, cleaning, a sport, the internet, etc.
Today:
For some reason I was really REALLY nervous about teaching the lesson. I think it was because I was a bit over-confident on Thursday, but then had a 4 day break from it all. And also, my eating habits have been a bit wacky. During the lesson, I didn't feel as good about it as I had with my first one. There was a weird energy in the room, so I felt like I wasn't "entertaining" them well enough. This is something I have to get over because my job isn't to entertain them, it's to teach them. But I know that this is the theatre major in me! Then my nerves got to me and I kept making stupid mistakes like saying "you guys." We can't say this because Czechs think we are saying "you gays." Ahh! Crazy!
I was really nervous for our Feedback session, but Kamila said that I did really well and that I have "fantastic classroom management." A few minor things like error correction and writing new vocabulary on the board that comes up during the lesson.
But now I must go plan for Thursday's grammar lesson! Ahh!! It's on "used to."
Things that Rock:
- The subway is soo efficient and clean! During rush hour I literally only wait for one minute until the next subway comes! The subways on each side of the track always show up at the same time, too! Incredible
- A lot of the lights in certain buildings are automatic so that we don't waste electricity!
- When you enter or leave the elevator you say "dobry den" or "na shladenou" (Hello or Goodbye.) A cute little boy said it too me once and I almost died of joy haha.
- My tattoo is healed! No more peeling!
- There are no microwaves. Anywhere. I thought it was just Caledonian being cheap, but apparently it's all of Europe. How am I supposed to reheat my leftovers?
- We have to light the stove with matches. Seriously, we do.
- A few places I've seen don't have shower curtains. Do Europeans sit in the tub? I guess so
- A lot of the toilets are in a separate room from the tub and sink
- I use a hot pot/kettle to heat my tea in the mornings!
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