I iz uh teechr

TAG - Mango.


I had my first class today, it was a private lesson, just two students. In CELTA terms it was far below standard... like horrible...but in terms of my first real class, it went just fine.

Part of the problem was that I didn't really know where to start. There were notes from the previous session, but it only said that they had done page 72- and a page from the workbook. It didn't say how far past page 72 they had gotten. I wasn't sure if they'd finished out the module, or had just done that one page. I did my best to prep the next few pages and the beginning of the next chapter, but honestly I had no clue what I was going to do. In the end, we just went right through the exercises in the book... did a listening activity and a role play. We finished up those activities a little early so we played a game. My students were two men who work together, so they were willing to have a little fun and went along with whatever I asked them to do. One of the students is much more advanced, so I'll have to figure out a way to even out the class a bit so the other student gets as much practice as he needs. It'll work out somehow.


Tomorrow will be a 3 hour long business English class... and now that I think of it, I don't think I have the right books at home, so I'll have to go in and do some lesson planning tomorrow morning. Then today's guys again on Wednesday, and another private lesson on Friday. A pretty easy first week actually - only 10 hours of teaching. It's already kind of overwhelming though... trying to keep the different classes & levels straight. But I'll get into the swing soon enough.


After class I was chatting with people and mentioned that I was hungry, but the restaurant next door was closed. One of the teachers said she was heading over to Tesco's to get some food and I asked if I could come along. "Sure - if you don't mind riding on the back of my motorbike." LOL... no problem. Again, I met this woman in passing just a few hours previously and now she's giving me a ride to the market. It turns out we weren't going into Tesco's but to a street market in the parking lot. It also turns out that she's only got about 2 weeks riding a motorbike, so it was a bit scary - she had helmets though. =) Anyway we got there and the first food I saw was fried chicken & french fries and I pounced. I'm getting a bit sick of rice. Ms. Canada was all "oh, sure do the stereotypical western thing." but I was like "I've had nothing but fried rice for 3 days straight - give me a break!" Besides, I was starving. After I chowed down (it was a small portion) I picked up some chow mein looking stuff, along with some mango-rice stuff, and more of those surprise pastries for breakfast. Ms. Canada dropped me back off near the school and I just stopped in here for my internet fix before going home.


I think I got screwed with regard to my apartment, both Ms. Canada and the Bald teacher have nicer places with cable TV and internet etc. for not much more rent. Oh well, I'll get it all sorted out eventually. For now mai bpen rai.