I felt like a good teacher AGAIN yesterday! Actually, I guess I should clarify; I felt like a good teacher at precisely 2:28. But that's a moment for sure!
English is a hard class because you have to teach grammar, writing, reading, and everything that comes with those things. Grammar is usually the hardest. I teach grammar every other day (alternating with vocabulary) in two week blocks. We work with one sentence for 5 days and do different work with that sentence each day. It's really very easy, but it's like pulling teeth with the students.
Basically, the first 4 days introduce or re-teach different grammar rules and on the 5th day we do practice, where they will apply any of the rules (very often comma rules) that we have learned thus far. The 5th day is usually god awful, so around halfway through the year I try to come up with ways to make it go faster or make it more fun. I tried three different things with my first three classes yesterday, and they didn't work.
Finally, what I did with my last class, which we completed at 2:28, went really well. I won't explain except to say that I felt like an idiot for not trying it a little earlier and that it basically consists of them teaching the class how they got the answer, and if it's wrong, the class helps them get the right answer. I felt like an idiot because I know better than anyone that the easiest way to learn something is to teach it. I'm the perfect exam
ple; I was terrible at grammar before I had to teach it. I could tell you where a comma went but not why. Now I know why. And I'm kind of crazy about making sure it's right.
Genius.
On a related note, I really hope I don't make too many mistakes in these posts. I don't usually read them again before I post them.
On another related note, this is from the plane Mom and I were on when we went to see Renee in Paris. I've still never figured out what it means.
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