Tuesday night . . .

Just a last post to procrastinate my homework a little. I guess it doesn´t matter how much I procrastinate it, seeing as the computers that print are full, so there´s no point in my doing work here only to not be able to print it, and risk having it disappear like it did last time. My two lesson plans for tomorrow are pretty much figured out. We´re doing headline/photo relation in my intermediate class tomorrow. The only thing I have left to do is take a photo of my own and do a sample news story and headline. They dont´do well with spoken instruction, so i have to write them all down, which is fine, but time consuming. For my one on one lesson with Emma tomorrow I have just about everything figured out. She´s a fluent English speaker, but has some problems confusing prepositions and with pronounciation, which is typical for Catalan speakers. I´ll play that lesson by ear. This is part of the learners profile that I have to do. I´m required to pick one student here at the school, get a sample of her writing, a reading comprehension sample, and a speaking sample. then I analyze it according to her use of grammar (tense, verbs, appropriate word order, etc. What she does wrong, why she might do it wrong, what´s wrong about it - example, using present perfect continuous instead of present simple) vocab (range, whether it´s appropriate, etc), phonology (stress, intonation, pronounciation, etc). those require one to two pages written each. With samples. THEN I have to do a half page each on her speaking, writing, listening, reading skills. THEN, I have to plan this one on one lesson, and carry it out. Reflect on that, and then plan ten more lessons with materials, justifying my reason for why I´m teaching her what and how it will be usefull to her, based on her interest and plan for using English. In addition, I have to take a transcribed section of our speaking sample and write it out using the phonetic alphabet, which is quite confusing. I´ll educate anyone who wants me to when I get home. Overall it should be 10 to 15 pages long. And it will take a long time.

So, that´s my homework for this week. it´s due Friday. Friday is also the day that I conduct my Materials lesson. Which means that I plan, make and use my own materials for the entire lesson, carrying out two specific aims (such as enhancing listening skills, introducing and applying passive voice, etc.) with justification for each material, analysis of how it went and a reflection on how it could have been better. This is on top of observing other teachers (I think I´m required to observe 3 other teachers, in addition to the 3 that are in my peer teaching group) as well as observing different class levels, each observation requiring it´s own reflection. All due this week.
I´m taking it extremely well. I´m not feeling stressed, I have a bulleted list for each day pointing out what needs to be done, and when it needs to be done by, and I´m following that pretty closely. I´m not shooting for that "A" grade though, because they are very specific. My last assignment I got a "B" on because I had one paragraph in one section that would have fit better in another, and I said ¨choral response¨ instead of ¨choral drilling¨ - So, screw the A, I´m not going to be that anal. I´d drive myself crazy! So, a C would be fine for all I care, just so long as I get a C or above I pass the course, and over all it´s a pass/fail course.

well, I was hoping by the time I finished this one of the computers would have opened up, but it didn´t. So, I guess I´ll head home to outline and do as much on paper as I can before I type it up. It might help me organize my thoughts anyway. I´ll let you know how things turn out. Friday i probably wont´write. I´ll be at the pub celebrating successfully making it thru this week :)

Then next week is the exam - well, I´ll deal with that when it comes . . .