Monday, Monday

Here it is... the big final week. I'm not sure how much I've written about this class... probably avoided it at all costs. All day I think to myself "why am I putting myself through this???"!!! BUT this is me accomplishing a big part of my dream. I have to remind myself that & push through. There are so many moments that I think I'd rather be back in college in the worst part of my finals... I'd do anything to go back to that. BUT it is good to be pushed and stretched. I just never knew how much taking the TEFL class could do that. There have been numerous moments that students have been in tears & I'm thanking my past soccer coaches Armando & coach Evans for teaching me about mental toughness...or else I'd be crying too! But with hardship comes a sense of accomplishment and on Saturday when this is all said and done I will feel accomplishment like never before.

When we got here we went through a briefing and they warned us that we couldn't imagine what we'd be put through... they were right. You walk around Cuzco and meet people that are from here or any of the 1,000 English learners that are part of this institute and there first question is what are you doing here? Of course I answer ¨TEFL¨and the look on their face says it all! Everyone in this city knows who the ¨teflers¨ are and has sympathy on us... it is a commonly known thing that we are being TORTURED! Eh... it isn´t that bad, just draining in every form of the word.

Mini-lessons.... Monday was my last one. The title sounds so harmless. NOT! A mini lesson is where I´ve had to prepare a class curriculum & they bring in a group of English learners and I do my class with these ¨guinea pigs¨(although I certainly don´t call them that here in Peru- bad connotation) who I teach. Pretty simple eh? Yeah.... if I didn´t have 20 people observing my teaching. Not just my lesson plan, but techniques and methods- which this school is very strict on. There is a right way to teach (according to this school) and NO OTHER WAY. I´m learning but it is a LOT of pressure as you are thinking about 300 methods, strageties that you HAVE to follow along with all the do´s and don´ts.... all the while trying to remember exactly what you have planned & following the steps. It is a lot of pressure. But good. My last one was a teaching on song lyrics... ¨where is the love¨by black eyed peas. It was a listening class & we had a bit of fun with it. The students looked at me like I was crazy when they heard how fast the song was.. but I ended up pulling them through it a bit and it turned out quite well. The hardest part for me is that I can´t do any of the talking. The students have to come up with EVERYTHING. My only job is to stand up there and try to pull EVERYTHING from them. It can be tough when you have words like I had in my class today...¨sustainable¨. That is a hard word for them to get without me being able to tell them anything about the word.

Practical teaching! Today was my first day of practical teaching. I took over a class at Maximo Nivel.. the institute that I´m studying through. My class is a Intermediate 1-2 class, which means they are on their second year of English classes. They are great. They were a little intimidated when a new teacher walked in but I got them going and my first day of officially teaching went well! I was being observed in this class as well- but only one supervisor so it is a little less pressure. This school has VERY high standards of their teachers and for them to hand over a class for a week is a huge responsibility. In this class I have to come up with my own lesson plans but the curriculum that we have to cover is provided.

My class is covering a reading on the ¨mysteries of the lost civilization¨about the Minoan culture and the people of Crete. We have to work on reading aloud and then understanding all the vocabulary. WOW! Let me just tell you some of the vocab I had to get through in my class today... ash, Tsunami, shores, crescent, ruined. Magma, active.... about 20 similar words. It would be easy if I could just translate the words... but NO!!!! Big no. I used to be intimidated to teach an hour class but now I wish I was teaching for about 4 hours.... after the vocabulary I have to do a comprehension check activity where they answer some form of questions and then I have to have them do an interactive activity. I am sweating by the time it is all over trying to get through all of my material. It is HARD work. BUT my class is fun and they try hard and we try to have some fun while learning about how the Minoan civilization disappeared.

One day down and four more to go... it has been hard work. It makes for a long day when I have class all day and am thinking in my class and feel drained but have to get the energy to go teach a class & then my body and mind want to crash.... but then it is time to plan for tomorrow. Haven´t slept much lately.... I guess that will be for the plane ride home.