Impact Topics

We started the new book in the adult class today. Grace insisted that it was too difficult, and I insisted right back that it was at a good level for them. There's a lot more listening, but they all can use that, especially Grace. If she's not challenged, then she's not going to get any better. There is, however, a danger that she'll get frustrated and give up, so unfortunately I'll have to give her extra encouragement to keep her going. (Or let her give up--hmm....) I was going to start with chapter 1, but the book can be used in any order, so to show them that, I started with chapter 25. Of course they freaked out about that--after all, you're supposed to use a book from front to back, right?! I explained that each of the chapters was at the same level and independent of each other, so we'd be skipping around. That way I can pick topics that I like or that I think will work best for them, and more importantly, they won't know what chapter we're doing next. That way we can do the "get ready" part, read the question, and listen to the CD once to see if they can answer the question. If they knew what chapter was coming next, they would probably start on it ahead of time and read the passage before listening to it, which would give me no indication of their listening abilities.

Matt is just a little too curious about my blog. Yes, I know, solution is to not blog at work. But I have so much time between the morning and afternoon classes! I'm careful to clear the history off the computer after I use it, but he might eventually stumble upon it on the net—oh well.

The air conditioner in Pineapple classroom wasn't working again this afternoon. Luckily I only had 2 students at 5 PM, but it was still sweltering. By the 7 PM class I have in that classroom (with 13 students) it was working again—excellent!

Mistakes in English today: at 6 when I asked Tom to describe the picture, he said, "A woman bite a crab." Really? "Yes, really, teacher!" I don't think that's what you mean! I explained how "A woman is biting a crab" and "A crab is biting a woman" mean very different things. When Cleo came in to class, several of the boys asked him, "Why are you late?" before I got the chance to. He replied, "Math-uh." Harry screamed, "HE SPOKE KOREAN!!" I replied, "No, that's English." Harry said, "NO! 'Math' is English; 'Math-uh' is Korean." Don't worry about it, Harry!! I'll decide if someone needs to stand in the corner! Cleo, speak correctly!

In the next class we read a dialogue between two boys—one pretending to be Superman. I was sitting, half listening and half out-in-space when I heard, "I'm having a baby" from the student reading Superman's lines. WHAT?! I looked at my book and saw, "I'm helping a baby." Be careful with pronunciation, kids!

I tried a little jogging this morning-perhaps a bad idea. I usually do around 50 minutes/3 miles of walking. With the little bit of jogging added in, it was the same distance and 45 minutes. My face was red, red, red, and sweat was dripping off of me. Great picture, huh? I drank a small glass of water before starting, but maybe should have had more? I was still sweating (profusely), but felt ill. I grabbed some water to drink and used the shower head to spray myself down, then just sat in the bathroom sipping water for the next 10 minutes or so. I think I must have gotten overheated or something—it was only in the mid-80s, but with around 90% humidity, it was hot. I'm going to have to wear a hat, and maybe drape a wet hand towel over my head like about half of the people out walking had done. (What's the reason behind that, exactly?) I guess it's also not a bad idea to get some sports drink to drink after I finish.