According to Shakespeare, a rose will always smell sweet no matter what you call it. I might have to argue him on that though, some of the roses the gypsies sell...well that don't smell so rosy. What do you expect though.
Today was my first day teaching real live Russians, and it went as only in Russia it could. I my lesson plan set, I had my first day of school activity (It was speed dating), I had enough materials for the students, the classroom set up, and I was in teacher mode. Thank god I had teacher mode, that's about all I can say. I was told there would be 7-8 students, even though 10 had signed up...there never is a full class. This wasn't much of a problem to me, I had a classroom the size of some janitors closets.
About 15 minutes before class, I was given the packets the students needed for the week, I got ten just in case. As students started to meander in, I had them make name tags, and checked them off the class roster. Wouldn't you know it, the 4th student to enter the room wasn't on the roster. I didn't mind, I figured someone else wasn't coming...and even if the rest did show I had enough materials. By 7:05 I had 12 twelve students, three of them not on the list and materials for 10. It took about another 5 minutes to get the class settled (the class supposedly started at 7).
Well it turns out, Russians don't know how to speed date, so I had to teach them. They took to it like ducks to water, or Russians to vodka. There were most certainly a couple hiccups before speed dating was flowing seamlessly, but that was my fault for not clarifying the rules enough. I'd compare teaching an Advanced English class to teaching 7th or 8th graders. The Russians loved speed-dating as a way to get to know one another, they even understood the harder questions "If you were a board game, what would you be? Why?" I heard a student explaining what board games were, it made me smile. I never did hear an answer to my favorite question "Describe your ideal partner, could it be an ostrich?" oh well, next time maybe. Speed-Dating makes a fantastic ice breaker, just for the record...as long as you make sure to preteach the rules. By the time we finished speed-dating, my lesson plan was useless, and I was two handouts short. My lesson ended up being alright even though I only got through 3/4 of the material.
I didn't think I'd enjoy teaching English, but you know what...I loved it, even with what did go wrong, I felt at home in front of those 12 Russian strangers. I must not have done that bad of a job either, a few asked me after class if I could teach them tomorrow, sadly I must move on and teach a different class. Word of the day: Flexibility
I didn't proofread this
Today was my first day teaching real live Russians, and it went as only in Russia it could. I my lesson plan set, I had my first day of school activity (It was speed dating), I had enough materials for the students, the classroom set up, and I was in teacher mode. Thank god I had teacher mode, that's about all I can say. I was told there would be 7-8 students, even though 10 had signed up...there never is a full class. This wasn't much of a problem to me, I had a classroom the size of some janitors closets.
About 15 minutes before class, I was given the packets the students needed for the week, I got ten just in case. As students started to meander in, I had them make name tags, and checked them off the class roster. Wouldn't you know it, the 4th student to enter the room wasn't on the roster. I didn't mind, I figured someone else wasn't coming...and even if the rest did show I had enough materials. By 7:05 I had 12 twelve students, three of them not on the list and materials for 10. It took about another 5 minutes to get the class settled (the class supposedly started at 7).
Well it turns out, Russians don't know how to speed date, so I had to teach them. They took to it like ducks to water, or Russians to vodka. There were most certainly a couple hiccups before speed dating was flowing seamlessly, but that was my fault for not clarifying the rules enough. I'd compare teaching an Advanced English class to teaching 7th or 8th graders. The Russians loved speed-dating as a way to get to know one another, they even understood the harder questions "If you were a board game, what would you be? Why?" I heard a student explaining what board games were, it made me smile. I never did hear an answer to my favorite question "Describe your ideal partner, could it be an ostrich?" oh well, next time maybe. Speed-Dating makes a fantastic ice breaker, just for the record...as long as you make sure to preteach the rules. By the time we finished speed-dating, my lesson plan was useless, and I was two handouts short. My lesson ended up being alright even though I only got through 3/4 of the material.
I didn't think I'd enjoy teaching English, but you know what...I loved it, even with what did go wrong, I felt at home in front of those 12 Russian strangers. I must not have done that bad of a job either, a few asked me after class if I could teach them tomorrow, sadly I must move on and teach a different class. Word of the day: Flexibility
I didn't proofread this
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