end of class one

so my first tl (english) class has officially ended.  the kids have moved on, i've made my money, and everything's great.  i meant to get  picture of everyone, but totally forgot for a few days and then it was too late =(

classes are going really well, sat is done on monday and they took their final diagnostics today.  i already got the grades back, there was at least a 200 point improvement for all but one student, most kids were up in the 300 range and i think my biggest improvement was almost 500. i think those are above average results, that's exciting. other than that, business as usual. they haven't told me what my schedule is looking like for the next month, if i cared about planning ahead that would really bother me, it means you have to save a lot of money because who knows how much you'll be making during the next pay period.  that should change if/when i become a regular employee.

i bought lots of things for my apartment, like a quilt, some art, throw pillows and blankets, etc.  i also bought things to make my own art because i wanted a big decoration to hang up on my wall downstairs, but that's expensive so i bought some cardboard, ikea fabric, and spray paint. how hard can art be, i majored in science.

in related news, i went to ikea! i've gotten over my whole "i want everything from ikea" kick, and have moved on to just wanting to live *in* ikea. they have food, places to sleep, fancy bathrooms, what else would i need?  work is only like a 15 minutes walk away too! it's a foolproof plan really.

other weird news: so i hadn't gone to the gym for a while. i walked past it a few days ago, and it was gutted. like nothing inside, walls torn down, even the stairs were gone, how does that even happed? turns out they moved a block closer to where i work, so that's nice.  they expanded their third floor facilities apparently. smart move, should save a lot on rent.  i should take pictures of that place one of these days.

i also think i'll upload pictures of my place soon, i rearranged all the furniture and like it more now.  i'll try to get on that this weekend if more exciting things don't happen. if they do though, i'll just write about those. win-win!

work: week 2

work is going so smoothly now! everything’s been getting easier and easier as the class builds a little bit of camaraderie and I figure out a teaching system that works for me. I’ve been on top of preparing my lessons, grading things and pretending I’m a real teacher! it’s been a really nice job so far, and everything’s going smoothly. I teach two classes this month, and we’ll see what happens in august. it’s also unclear what’s happening with the full time employment thing, but hey, I have a working visa and maybe an arc (alien resident card) soon, so that’s progress!

also, I just saw harry potter, it came out on the 14th here, so I got to see it like a day before everyone in america in addition to the 12 hour time lag they have. take that die hard fans. made a status, profile picture, and uploaded a photo album just to rub it in.  I’m not a jerk that often, but when I am it just feels so satisfying =p

my apartment is great, work is good, life is progressing nicely. people at work are cool too! making some friends, trying to be nice to people who will still be here when summer ends, potential long term friends.

I guess I’ll leave you with some harry potter pictures!

first day of teaching

alright, so here’s what’s up.

training: during sat training, I will flatter myself and say I was one of the best teachers who wasn’t already employed by tpr. we had a few people who were already trained in mkat or toefl or lsat or whatever, and they were all really comfortable in front of a classroom and did a really good job presenting material.  outside of those 2 people, I think I was the best of the nine, which I was totally happy with. when tl training (targeted learning, aka teaching english) started, people were more comfortable, and the lines started blurring. then on day 3 of training, I got a case of the nerves and didn’t prepare as well as I should have, and gave a sub-average teachback to the class. the trainer, who was scary, and my boss like 3 levels up, was brutally honest about how it wasn’t up to my usual standard.  that naturally made me more nervous the next day, so that one wasn’t great either. finally, I told myself to chill out, I knew how to do this, and things started to get better. I ended up getting ranked 5th in tl training, and put 3rd in line for a tl level a (which mean they’re already pretty good at english). I was a backup teacher, which means right now they didn’t have enough students enrolled to give me a class, but on that last weekend they were hoping enough might signup. I would come monday morning, sit around, and teach if they needed me.  so I might get one class (sat), might get two (sat and tl). two classes get you paid twice as much, and I want that.

I show up monday, and they were so close to the limit it wasn’t even funny. I end up getting a class with 7 kids in it. it’s usually like 15.  so now I have a tl class, and it’s really small! I spend more time getting to know my kids, personalizing the class, and have fewer essays to grade! this is perfect! 

so class monday didn’t go the smoothest, I didn’t have to do sat because they al took a diagnostic instead of learning, but tl I did teach, and I was a little nervous, but it went okay. the kids were really shy, nobody wanted to talk to each other or me, it was basically me talking for three hours.  after the first day though, they warmed up and got into it, mostly after I started telling embarrassing stories, which I have like a million of.  so tl is going great!

sat classes on tuesday I just felt terrible about, I was nervous, I had the second smartest or smartest group, and all class I kept getting looks like, “what, you’re teaching us this?” they’re good at math, and don’t buy into the tricks and tips I’m teaching, which I don’t really blame them for, I didn’t either at first.  things went better yesterday (wednesday), and I’m hoping today will go even smoother. just a matter of me getting more comfortable.