I TAUGHT MY FIRST CLASS!!!

I come to you with sweaty armpits and a big smile :)

But I have to start from the beginning. The morning started a little slower. I was realllllly lagging and tired for some reason. I didn't have a cup of coffee - eek, I hope I'm not already addicted!

Made it to school, thinking about my lesson for tonight. Sat through class, was really tired. Sometimes I think he drags on our group work b/c since we're half the size, we'll finish way early if not. Everyone was a little nervous. Got out for lunch, and stuck around, printed out my stuff. Eammon said he thought my exercises might be a little too difficult, but in my head I was thinking, pues, just means it'll take up more time! I was really nervous about the time limit. He told us we could bail at 45 if needed.

I headed home, and proceeded to heat up leftovers from Deli Natural. Not sure if I procrastinated after lunch b/c I was tired or nervous. Rewrote my lesson, and added a picture response piece, and some word games (Foreshadowing: thank my stars I did that).

Martin and I chatted, and although he his own English class tonight, he said he would tell everyone to go to our classes tomorrow night! I also have to do a one-to-one interview, where I see what a non-native English speaker wants to learn and I prepare 6 lesson plans for them. I'm hopefully going to use Martin. haha, the final goal will be: Get to New York!

Headed back to the Center, and the jittery nerves started. Aka stomach in throat. But I arrived, met the night worker receptionist, who was really cheeky, found out I had five students, and tried to relaxed. Then all of a sudden I was in (turns out I had 8 students). I introduced myself, then fumbled through asking them for introductions.

Here's the Play-by-Play:

First was a guy about my age, whose English was poor, but he was eager. Then a really shy girl about my age who I could barely hear. Then two lovely, smiling, articulate women (around 45?), then another quieter woman (45?). There was a couple that spoke quite well for the beginning class (maybe late 30s?). Finally, hidden in the corner, a lady, most likely in her 60s, who spoke English very well. Whew, intros done. They all can pronounce "Hello, my name is...". Not too bad!



And then I tripped and knocked over the whiteboard.


EMBARASS.


Thankfully the young guy helped me pick it up, and I just laughed nervously as my face burned brightly. We got started with the vocab, which they picked up quite easily. It didn't take as long as I thought it would. I wasn't sure what to do about a few students who wouldn't repeat the words. Good question for Eammon tomorrow. It was great, because I couldn't speak Spanish, but there was one lady who also said the word in Spanish when she figured it out, so I knew when they got it correctly.

Drizzling was a class favorite.

Write as Eammon came in to observe, we began the written exercise. So he sat there for the first five minutes while they filled in the worksheet, and I tried to sit and chill, but mentally was like "ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhh." And at this point I could feel the heat from my face.

We went through it, and I rushed it a bit I think, but for the most part it went well. Then they each wrote a paragraph about weather somewhere, which I had difficulty explaining the task b/c I let myself get nervous. But we got through that. They read their paragraphs Superbly!

My favorite part was playing word games with the vocab. Then, around 650, I was finished, so I gave them a bonus word: rainbow :)
And then I told them I was done b/c I didn't want to stretch it and lose momentum. So we talked about me for a few minutes, and once I left the room I talked to a few of them in Spanish for a bit. They were all thankful, and their feedback makes me think they definitely got something out of it!

So I walked back on Cloud Nine. And was cold. With sweaty armpits.


Now I'm working on tomorrow's lesson plan: less exciting: and waiting for dinner!

Thanks for all the love about my first lesson!!!


Besos!


p.s. For those who are interested - Outfit was carefully selected:

*Black pants and shoes & grey sweater - makes me look more professional, as well as Argentines like dark, black outfits
*Black socks with hersheys - to remind myself to not take myself to seriously
*Hair straight and down, but with headband to keep bangs from being a bother
*Hippo necklace - for good luck!