esl ::: emily's so luscious

Practicum, Day Seven

We had eleven students tonight - what a difference from last week! For Genia's last night, the students threw her a surprise party with food and presents. She was very touched, and came very close to crying. I thanked her for guiding me into the class, and told her I appreciate having the opportunity to work with her. This was not a lie, b/c I learned a lot about what not to do ... and tonight I realized that she is very good at working from the book, while I am NOT. I tried doing some book exercises with them and it was dismal. Is it the materials, or is it me? It just seems so pointless to drill the nuances of asking and answering "where am I, where are you, where is he" when the answer has to be in the form of a contraction, but they don't understand how to make contractions. I want to leave the book for a while, at least till I can design some interactive exercises around it. Since it was her last night, I felt it was important to let Genia drive the train. She wanted to make sure I knew where all the students were in the book, and how to set up the computers, and how to do the ever-present paperwork. The students were very hyper and chattery, so it was hard to do anything as a group. I don't know if Genia was waiting for me to quiet them down, or if she just didn't know how ... I didn't worry about it. I just kept interrupting them to ask what they were saying, so they'd say it in English. Five seconds later, they were back to speaking in Spanish. I guess I'll start attacking that problem next week.

posted by E.M @ 9:28 PM