01.10.09: In several of my classes last week we didn’t get through all the material I had planned so for today’s classes I didn’t have to do a lot other than familiarize myself more with the material. While I was at the office the teacher trainer’s put a sign on their office door announcing that if anyone needed help and or advice they were there to give it. I had talked to both of them before about my elementary class and they had given me some pointers but I once again mentioned it and they decided to come out and observe a lesson. I was kind of nervous about this as I knew that my teaching methods would be criticized but what can you do... So at the beginning of the lesson the kids were pretty good, probably because she was there (as well as the Russian teacher whose room I use who had to fill out her class journal; she also didn’t want me to erase her German on the chalkboard so I was only able to use about half the board...). I think the children were a little nervous as at the beginning they made mistakes that they normally wouldn’t. After a while they were mostly back to their bratty selves. I was given the suggestion before class to institute a marks system whereby each student has four marks which will be erased as they misbehave. The only problem I have with this is that erasing these according to normal standards no one would be in the class after the first half an hour... The other problem was that as I was threatening to erase them and erasing them the children kept saying that nothing would happen when they were all erased. Towards the end of class the boys both had one left and both were acting up about the same amount so I was not quite sure what to do... But thankfully class was soon over... The teacher trainer went ahead and left after class and said we would talk the next day; I was surprised to hear that she thought I had a good lesson but there were just more suggestions on classroom control. My next lesson went pretty well; it was about fashion in a class with three high school/university girls but they weren’t quite as keen to talk about fashion as I thought they might be. In my evening class I had a trial student who I think will join the class so that should make the class work better as there will be pairs.
02.10.07: It’s getting harder and harder to get up in the morning as I know that once I do I have to start preparing for teaching that night... I looked over my lessons for today at my flat for most of the morning then went into the office to talk to the teacher I had observe my elementary class. She said my lesson was well planned (all I had done was follow the book) but that I didn’t move between the lessons points quick enough (because I have to remember what we’re supposed to be doing). She gave me more suggestions on discipline so hopefully they will work. I then prepared a little more for my other classes and listened once again to some people giving me suggestions on what to do with my teenage class that doesn’t like talking very much. The lesson today in that class was about the future and predictions that didn’t come true so I had found an outside discussion that I thought might be interesting. Class started out pretty well with a little game of taboo. When the one female student in the class shows up she’s usually about an hour late and today was not an exception. Now that she was there I could have them (in theory) discuss in pairs but they weren’t too keen on this; they would maybe say a few things and one group of them would start speaking Russian and the other one wouldn’t talk to each other... So I decided to crack down on Russian speaking as I had been pretty slack; the only problem is that there isn’t really any punishment...they don’t do their homework anyway so I can’t give them more homework. In the end when they didn’t want to talk to each other I resorted to asking them questions and trying to get everyone to say something which worked for a while... Once again I forgot that this group likes a break so they reminded me... After the break we had about 40 minutes in class but it was pretty obvious that no one wanted to be there anymore. The girl (who at that time had only been there about an hour and 15 or 20 minutes) thought the class ended at 6:45 so started complaining... I had them read an article that I thought was pretty interesting but they all seemed to think it was boring... I then tried to discuss a grammar section at which point I almost had anarchy so I let them go about ten minutes early... (Update: I realized that the class does end at 6:45...) My next class went pretty well as usual but I found out that one of the students isn’t going to be there for the next month - so now with only two people in the class I’m going to have to work a lot harder to prepare and find lots of outside material. Thankfully we got off topic and discussed various things, including our personal outlooks (we found out that we have one atheist, one christian and one orthodox...), so the lesson was stretched out a bit. The students in this class seem to be fit for a higher level class so I don’t feel like I’m really teaching them that much (and feel bad for the fact that I’m simply using the book which they could study on their own).
03.10.07: As I had all the materials I was going to use for class I stayed at the flat until it was time for work. I finally made it there with time left to stop in at the church which is right by the metro. I’m very glad I finally stopped in as it is a wonderful church. This is the one church I’ve seen so far where almost all the icons and mosaics match. True they were done in a 19th century style but not they are not the worst example of such iconography; there was one icon of St. Seraphim which I particularly liked. (Of course the the iconography is helped by the fact that many multitudes of faithful have prayed before them.) The girl in my elementary class was the first to show up today so I went over with her the homework. As she is a bit behind the others I hope this will help her. The next to show up was the boy who is the strongest student and to my surprise (and secret joy) the problem child did not appear today. So this was the best lesson we’ve had yet... They actually worked together and the boy explained things to the girl when she didn’t understand. My next class went pretty well but I had made a mistake when I had gone over the grammar point so that created several minutes of confusion. (I thought I had done really well explaining the point and then such a thing happened...) Once that was cleared up things went better (other than me feeling like a total fool and wondering what the students think of their “teacher” now). (Speaking of “quotation marks,” I explained the use thereof in a derogatory fashion; I don’t think they were amused). My next class went pretty well also. However, when I got to the metro with my fellow teacher the “fun” began... She realized that she had not her wallet (and was afraid that it had been stolen) so we went back to the school and tried to get in to no avail. She called our boss to see if we could get a hold of the security guard but was told that she would have to call in the morning. So back towards the metro when she got a call saying that the security guard would let us in; once inside the wallet was found in her classroom. So then it was back to the metro an hour later and more stressed on the part of my colleague. In other news a friend last weekend told me that I should try a higher percent kefir as it was better, sweeter. I told her that I had been told the opposite...so of course she was right; I bought some 3% and it is sweeter, however, I still like the 1% as well.
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