Back in the Saddle

This week, like the last one, has flown by like a rocket!  CELTA has kept me busy, as is to be expected.  I've taught twice this week and both classes have gone well.  Each time we have to plan more of the lesson on our own, with less and less information from our tutors.  Compare: in week one, this is the planning information they gave us for each lesson.

Reading, page 70.  Lead-in to topic - exercise 1.  Speak in pairs.  Feedback on content.  Gist task - exercise 2.  Demonstrate.  Check instructions.  Read alone.  Check in pairs.  Check as class.  Specific info task 1 - exercise 3.  Demonstrate.  Check instructions.  Read alone.  Check in pairs.  Check as class.  Specific info task 2 - exercise 4.  Demonstrate.  Check instructions.  Read individually.  Check answers in pairs.  Check answers as class.  Follow-up speaking - create some questions on topic.  Prepare individually.  Speak in pairs.  Feedback on content.  Feedback on language.

 In week two, this is what we get:

Grammar, page 89.  Continue context from yesterday.  Use guided discovery handout and sentences from text to clarify meaning, pronunciation, and form.  Exercise 1 - noticing language.  Exercise 2 - controlled practice.  Exercise 3 - less controlled practice.  Exercise 4 - freer practice (and/or speaking).  Feedback on content and language.

Much less helpful, right?  And here's what we have for next week:

Vocab, pages 114-115.

Ha.  Talk about weaning us.  I'm glad they do it this way (and in week four they don't tell us anything at all, so we generate the lesson completely on our own), but it makes for a lot more work every night you have to plan a lesson.  I've been consistently staying up until 1:30 or 2 in the morning finishing my plan and all the supplementary material we have to hand in before we teach, and then getting up early to get to school an hour early so I can print off student handouts and make any last-minute preparations.  You could say I'm a wee bit tired.  Throwback to my college days, when this was a pretty normal routine.  I'm a college grad now, though, which means I'm an old lady and keep an appropriately old-lady-like schedule..."early to bed and early to rise...".  At least, that's what I was (mostly) doing before I got back in the student saddle.

Despite that I may seem to be complaining (I'm not...that much), I'm still really enjoying the course and all the people in it.  We've started to develop good relationships with our students as we learn more about each other, but next week my teaching group will move to a different class where the students are at a higher level.  I'm not sure if I clarified this before, but there are a total of 12 of us who are taking the CELTA course, and we've been split into two teaching practice (TP) groups of 6 people each.  Within each group, three people teach per day, so we alternate teaching days.  My TP group has been working with students at a pre-intermediate level, while the other group is working with upper intermediate students.  Next week, we switch groups of students for the remaining two weeks of the course, so we all have the opportunity to work with learners at a couple of different skill levels.  Cool.

So today was my last lesson with our pre-int group...kinda sad, in a way.  I'm just about halfway through the course overall, and over halfway done with my teaching practice (I've done 5 of 9).  It's nice not to have to plan a lesson for tomorrow...now I just have to plan one for Monday, as well as doing a four-page little written assignment over the weekend.  Lots of work?  Yes.  Will I work all weekend?  Nope.  Three things are on my radar:

1. My friend Robin (also from Salida, lives here and has started a biking business with his college roomie)'s roomie (the one he started the business with) is leaving BA on Monday for a few weeks, so we're all working on some kind of get together before he takes off.  [P.S. How was that explanation for confusing?  I have to remember to be clear and concise for my students, so I have to get my unintelligible ya-yas out somewhere.  You lucky guinea pigs, you.]
2. On Sunday night there's a fútbol match between Boca and Racing, two national teams who are apparently pretty intense rivals.  My friend Greta (Argentine, in CELTA) and I are talking about going, because it would be a lot of fun with a properly crazy crowd.  We're still trying to find out about tickets and all that jazz, and this is still assuming we haven't totally procrastinated on our work come Sunday.
3. I haven't done any exercise besides walking to and from the subway station since I've been here (although I have started walking up and down the stairs at school instead of taking the elevator and everyone else is dong it too, because they feel lazy if they don't...haha!).  I could come up with all kinds of excuses if you like, but the fact of the matter is I've been lazy and I'm getting rather stir-crazy and I've decided to go for a run this weekend.  Here's hoping that it doesn't hurt my knee.

Other than that, my life is boring.  CELTA domintates.  Although I did still manage to find time to go watch the fútbol match between Argentina and Colombia (World Cup qualifiers) with some classmates in a bar near school.  Argentina won 2-1, but they didn't start really trying until the second half.  Both their goals were from deflected balls that the Colombian keeper couldn't hold on to, so they were rolling around in front of the net like early Christmas presents.  Apparently the Argentine team likes these presents.

Another fun little tidbit!  I met a teacher named Rebecca earlier this week who is from...guess where...Grand Junction!  She's been here in BA for about three years teaching English, after she took the CELTA (same as mine) and got a work visa.  Funny small world.  I love it.

I'll sign off this rambling post with two things I don't love about Argentina.  It's only fair, since last time I talked about all the good things.  So here's your food for thought:

• Inflation.  Even since we've been here, prices for some things at the supermarket have gone up, and even more so in the little fruit stands and places where they don't have set, tagged prices.  Some things (like cheese) are more expensive here than back home!  Ugh (stamps foot and rolls eyes).
• Spicy does not exist here.  Neither do black beans, tortillas, or a variety of veggies you can find at home.  This makes eating out somewhat monotonous...empanadas (delicious, but not for every day), pasta, pizza, paninis, etc.  Are you seeing the carbo loading going on here?  No wonder I'm stir crazy...my body wants to use all the bread I've been eating.  For the lack of spicy and a shortage of otherwise non-Italian food, I wish I was in Perú, or even better, in Oaxaca :)