One Week Down!

I cannot believe how quickly time is flying on this course.

One week down already?!

And I am loving EVERY SECOND of it! 

I taught two lessons this week and even though one of them was a complete train wreck, my detailed lesson plan saved me and I ended up being very generously assessed by the trainer.

GET IN!!

I have to admit that I was expecting to be launched in head first straightaway, but I think it's beenm a pretty easy first week. I was told by so many people to kiss goodbye to any kind of social life, but I've been out drinking every other day and it hasn't hindered my lesson planning or reading. It seems like it's all down to effective time management. I know it's going to get harder, but that's OK. I'm mentally prepared, so in a way, it's good that I had a very sociable first week because then it won't seem like a big deal when I won't be able to go drinking in the weeks to come.

So, what's the course like?

The first big shock I had was that there are SO MANY  very experienced teachers on the course. Of course, there are a few people that have never taught before, but the bulk seem to be active teachers or people that were teaching before, travelling and then decided to get their qualification to fund their travels in the future. A huge range of ages and nationalities - my particular group has some wicked personalities in it and I have already established tight relationships with a few of them. Something that I was not expecting to happen. Everyone's story is so different and I feel lucky to be working with some really great people.

So the morning sessions are all input. I think the reason that a few of us are really enjoying them more than others is because the information is not new for us. It's more of a reinforcement of teaching skills that we have learned before and then probably haven't used for a while. We all admit that we have fallen into bad habits so it's a nice refresher. I have seen people get overwhelmed and slightly panicky - luckily I'm not one of them!

The afternoon sessions is the teaching practice. The group is split into 6 - 3 people each teach a 40 minute lesson and then other 3 observe. It's one day on and one day off. I was really pleased with my first lesson and like I said, even though I thought my second lesson was one of the worst that I've taught in my whole teaching career, I didn't focus on the positive points, so even though I may have struggled, I did really well in the areas that the trainer was looking for. Good enough for me!

We were given our first assignment on the first day. That's due in on Monday - it's not too taxing but we were warned that most people normally end up resubmitting the first assignment. I REALLY don't want to be one of them, so our group are meeting up today so that we can compare the notes that we've been taking troughout the obs in the week. I'm hoping to get all the info and spend all of tomorrow writing and finishing up my lesson plan for Monday. Then it'll be straight to work on the second assignment which is due next Friday.

Busy, busy, busy.

But it's all good.

xoxo