January 8, 2010

I woke up early to go to Starbucks to use their internet. When I got there, their machine was down but they said I might be able to pick up another network. I couldn’t. I remembered talking to someone about MacDonald’s having internet so I asked where the nearest one was. They directed me there. MacDonald’s said only the one by the touristy stuff had internet. By that time, I didn’t have time to try to go all of the way there so I went to school early.

Our first lesson of the day was on mistakes that teachers make in their teacher language-- things like being unclear or not direct enough. Then we learned about a big project we have to do with a one-on-one lesson. To me, it sounds like the hardest part will be finding a victim to be my student.

After lunch, we had a job guidance session. For TEFL, you have to put a picture on your resume, state you nationality, and keep it to one page. Some of those things would NOT be allowed in the US.

Then I had time to work on my lesson planning. I was bad and continued to work on my planning through Dalia’s lesson. My lesson was on when to use “Have you ever” vs. “How often do you?” I only got through about 2 of my planned exercises. After class, the students said I did a good job but that they have a hard time understanding my accent. The teacher who watched said I need to work on clarity in giving directions, doing more modeling, and improving my confidence. I agree with all of those points and I actually appreciated the feedback. Initially, I thought I might not like to hear what I’d done wrong.

After class, I went home and changed my outfit. Then I took the subway to Mikaela and Steph’s. We had pasta and then Charlie from class and his 3 Swedish friends came over. We all sat around and chatted until it was late enough to go out. In Spain they don’t eat dinner until 9 or 10 so they can’t go out before about midnight. We followed the Swedish girl walking for blocks and blocks and found out the club she wanted to go to didn’t really exist. We went to a little bar/club and danced for a bit. When it closed, we went to the main club area. I’m not sure I want to go back there, really. It cost 20Euros to get in and wasn’t THAT much fun. The music was all techno-y. I couldn’t tell one song from another. We got taxis home at the end of the night.