3rd hour

Monday was my third hour as a teacher. The class went from 3 to 4 pm. It was hot, the kids were unfocused and it was hard to get their attention. Plus the session wasn't the most entertaining one!
I gave them another photocopy with an email I wrote. It was informal, dealing with what we introduced the session before: possessive adjectives, pronouns and contractions.
They had to read it and then identify those different things. I wrote them down on the blackboard, in three separate columns (my tutor told me that by doing it like this, it would be easier for them to understand and have a clear image).

I think they more or less control the structure and are able to identify these 3 different things. I asked them to write an email using an specific situation that I made based on individual preferences. Some of the students had to go to a party, others were about to travel and some were going to a concert. They have to send an email to a partner and both resend them to me, so I can grade them. I made them to send the emails because I wanted to be the more realistic as possible. Oriol told us that if you are going to do something, like writing an email, why don't you do it "for good/real". So I gave them an email adress where before wednesday 9pm I should have all their emails.

Well, to be honest I have none yet. I hope this afternoon I'll get some of them. Otherwise I'll be really disappointed, plus I said that I was going to use that to grade them. They had more than 2 days to write 5 sentences, I don't know if it's too much, but I don't think so. I thought I was being reasonable asking for this deadline.

During the class, some of them were doing what I asked them for, but some of them were really messing around. It's hard to talk when they constantly interrupt you. We were doing the sentences exercise and this student kept asking word for word to write his sentences. I told him to use vocabulary they already control, but he kept going. I like this kid. He is smart and funny, but doesn't shut up for more than a minute. I had to give him a negative already. If tomorrow he still behaves like this, maybe I should talk directly to him after class. He mocks the rest of the classmates, talks, makes jokes...

It is really curious how by teaching at different hours you can see different behaviours. I have the feeling I'm trying to do my best, preparing original material, rehearsing at home, making suitable exercises for every student, trying to use what I saw during the observation period...but at the end of the class you realized you forgot to say this or that, or that you could have improved this...There are so many things going on at once!!!!

What I see is that I'm running out of time and some of the coolest activities I had prepared I wouldn't be able to do them.

In that class, we also worked some vocabulary and went over the grammar again, writing and reading sentences with the "going to" and "will+inf" structures. I think they more or less understand pretty much the differences between both structures.

I'm supposed to make an exam out of all what I'm teaching. I don't know if I'm not giving them too much, but on the other hand I know I only have 6 hours and I can't do anymore with it.

Now I'm thinking whether to change the computer session that I've designed for tomorrow, so I can do the cool video exercise. The thing is that I promise the kids we were going to the computer class one day, and I wanna stick with what I say!

Maybe I'll have to supress the video thing, and just grade them based in that writing, then the collective writing of the Simpsons wiki, plus the listening and speaking of the video I made and I'm playing on Friday.
Probably on Monday I should do some reviewing and the 7th hour, on Thursday, do the test. I don't know!! I had so many good ideas, but I can't make the practicuum longer, not because my tutor hadn't said so (she already offered me more hours), but because I'm starting to work and have my finals.

We'll see!