Middle of the week

Our first lesson was on teaching with listening exercises. The second one was on the verb tenses I've been teaching in my classes. Then we had lunch and then I put together the rest of my stuff for my one-on-one (aka found a tape recorder). Rosa came right on time. First, we had a conversation. She seems to like talking and had a lot to say. She misunderstood one of my questions, thinking I was asking about EngLAND not EngLISH. Then we worked on a reading exercise. Once she knew the word contestant, she was fine. After that, we did a listening exercise. The school doesn't have the tape for the book I was using so I read it (something we were told NOT to do in our morning lesson). Rosa had more trouble with the listening because she mistinterpreted questions and couldn't find the whole answers. I had thought she was a really good student, but was starting to learn her level wasn't as high as I thought. To her benefit, she's been taking a break from English for 5 years while she worked. Now she's unemployed looking for a new job as a lawyer. We chose Monday for our next lesson. That means I have to prepare something big for everyday from now until then. Also, I'm not sure she knows we're only having 2 lessons.

After the one-on-one I went home to get my laptop. I transcribed our conversation and found out that she stuttered a lot and used the wrong form of words. In conversation, you're generally listening for the gist of what they're saying so you can respond. Now that I was taking a critical ear to the lesson, I found I'd overlooked a lot.

I worked a bit on my lesson for tomorrow and chatted with Steph. She's having a tough time with the wallet business and was sure her lesson for the day wasn't good.
I went to the foccaceria for dinner and then worked on school for the rest of the night. Wooph.