First year Friday

"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its troubles; it empties today of its strength." 

I'd been a lot and a little worried about today for several days. Today was my first day teaching speaking to two classes of first year students (there are so many English majors they've been split into two groups). I had wanted to observe the teacher today so that I wouldn't be jumping in clueless, but the teacher insisted that he had meetings during class and so I had to teach today. To be honest, from last semester I know that asking to observe usually just resulted in me teaching anyway, so I tried not to get too upset. Still, I was worried about several things. 
1. I am to use the same textbook I used with second years last semester, but spend six periods on each topic, instead of two. This concerned me because, even though my first years will probably need more time to fully understand the material, triple the time seems like too much. It also concerned me because today's unit was Telepathy, which is an odd and sort of abstract thing to try and teach.
2. Because the teacher wasn't going to be there, I worried that the students wouldn't be able to understand my directions, and there would be no one there to help me clarify or translate if necessary.
3. The teacher asked me to correct my students more, because they aren't advanced enough to identify their own mistakes. While this is valid, repeatedly interrupting a student to correct his or her grammar is counter to my main goal of increasing confidence.
Then I decided that since I had what felt like too much time per unit and the teacher wasn't going to be there, I was going to do my own thing.


So, today's lesson was one big getting to know you for me and my students, with some learning folded in. First students made name cards and I took pictures of all of them with their name cards. Then they had to introduce themselves, paying special attention to pronouncing "My name iS" and "yearS old." Then I gave each person a word and they had to tell the class, "my word iS." As they each shared their word with the class, I could address some more specific pronunciation problems and, when relevant, gave them a word to contrast the critical pronunciation issue (e.g. eyes v. ice). After that we went outside and the students had to get in alphabetical order based on their words. Staying in that order, they got in a circle and we played the name game, where the first person says their name and a word that starts with the same letter, then the second person says the first person's and their own, and so on until the last person has to remember everyone. It took a long time and it was hot outside, but it helped me with their names and it helped them with vocabulary. We went back inside and I talked to them about my expectations for their behavior in my class by way of 'happy teacher, happy student' that I came up with last semester. Then class was over and I had to do it all all over again with the next set of students.

Alphabetized!

Name game circle

Overall, both classes went well and most of my worries were unfounded. The students are not as beginner as I feared, and I think we'll be able to communicate well enough on our own. They seem predisposed to student-centered teaching, so it looks like they'll have less adjusting to do to mesh with my teaching style, which is good since I only have three months with them. As for the amount of time I'm supposed to spend on each topic, I've got a plan. I'll teach the topic, and then I'll do whatever I want. As long as I cover the required material, I'm not obligated to spend three weeks talking about telepathy. Ultimately, I'm hoping this will result in a lot of freedom for me and a lot of general improvement for my students. This is a good phase in their education to curtail bad habits, and I dare dream I'll set them up to be the most articulate class in the college. Big dreams, but what does one accomplish without them?

Last night I got another text message from my mysterious paramour. It said "I am drem of teacher adaline tonight:) g9". Though my first class today was all women, there were four guys in the second group. I tried not to spend too much mental energy playing detective. Nobody was overtly besotted, so as long as I don't get any more and whomever's infatuation doesn't interfere with classroom dynamics I guess I'll take it as one more odd tale from my experience in Vietnam.