It's still pretty quiet on my end. The instructional part of my TEFL course is complete. The bad news is that now I have 2 weeks of observed teaching ahead of me. My first lesson plan looks good, my teacher tells me. This is a problem. I mean, really? No harsh criticism? No glaring omissions on my part, or gross timing miscalculation? If anything, I have "more than enough material" and will have to end early. My prognosis? Like all beginning teachers, I'll be sitting there done with the lesson plan half way through class. I guess I'll have my laptop, so we can always listen to Christopher Walken read Poe's "The Raven." That's 8.5 minutes right there, lots of repetition (vocab!), and it'll take me at least 10 minutes to explain "nevermore" to the kids.
The good news is that these will be 4 to 6 motivated Thai girls, so there shouldn't be much in the way of behavior problems. The bad news is that they're not paying, so there is a real chance they won't come back Tuesday. The second week will be harder, because it's pair tutoring. The good news is that it's the girls who work in the apartment office, so I know they'll be back no matter how bad I am. Here's to a captive audience!
If I don't post for a few days, just assume my class has cannibalized me. That, or things went so well that I've gone outside to play. Do you think my teacher would stand aside as I was eaten raw? Probably.