My First Day of School

I started teaching English today. What a day!!!

As a new teacher, it's tough to know how long activities will take in class, especially when you don't know the language level of your students before you arrive. While I made tentative schedules to follow for each class, I had to make adjustments and improvise throughout the day. Luckily, I'm fairly good at thinking on my feet when I need to!!!

The biggest adjustment was at my last class from 5-8pm. I arrived WAY early and talked to the students who walked in a few minutes before 5, but didn't notice until just after 5 that none of the students had books, so I had to make copies...quickly! I thought they'd take it out on me for not having their materials ready (which I had nothing to do with), but they didn't mind once I handed them the copies. We actually had a great three-hour class and I was able to share my MBA knowledge to teach them about entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.

The language levels here are as follows from the least amount of knowledge to native speaker: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2. My classes range from A2 to B2, so there's quite a difference in the vocabulary they know and the grammar rules they are familiar with. It's tough to switch from one class to another in the mornings when I have a B2 group from 8-9:30, an A2 group from 9:30-11 and an A1 group from 11-12:30. I have to slow down my pace as the day goes, which is harder than getting faster as the day progresses.

Another tough thing is that some students learn faster than others. As the teacher, it's important for me to keep the faster learners from getting bored, while not overwhelming the students who need more time. That's my objective for two of my classes, as the knowledge gap is quite large from one student to another.

Finally, I have always known that a lot of work goes on behind the scenes with teachers, but never realized how difficult it truly is to prepare for classes and be ready to take any questions that are likely to arise. As the "expert" in the room, I feel like I should be able to answer any question, but today an A2 students asked "what's the difference between 'do you have some money' and 'do you have any money?'" I know when to use each one, but it's hard to explain on the spot! I know experience will help me with this one!

Almost forgot...the icing on the cake of the day was when I pulled out of the last company (it was dark), I thought the two lanes were for left turns and right turns. WRONG! It was for travel going in two different directions, so I was sitting in the lane of oncoming traffic. Luckily no one was turning into the company since it was late, but all my students saw me pull into an imaginary lane trying to turn where I wasn't supposed to. I hope they forget that happened before our next class on Monday!!!