It's the Final Countdown

Yup, listen to the song while you read this.  G'head.

Man, that is a whole lot of hair .  I'm jealous.  And I forgot how epic this song is.  But it's been in my head since we listened to it last night at Aminah's place.  We got together with Brian, Alec, Kate, and Nick and had a mellow sangria night.  At one point our music taste went retro and we were listening to some classic 80s hits (like this one).  Fun.

But actually, the title of this song is pretty accurate right about now: it's the final countdown to the end of my CELTA course.  Friday is that last day of the course, but my next and last day to teach is Thursday, so I've got four days to push through.  Woo!  This weekend we've been given a fair bit of work, but luckily tomorrow is some new national holiday created last year (Día de la Soberanía Nacional, or National Sovereignty Day, which commemorates the Battle of Vuelta de Obligado, where some fiercely patriotic Argentine troops stood up to the Brits and the French, who wanted to colonize the newly-independent Argentina) and we have the day off.  The battle actually took place on November 20th of 1845, not the 28th, but hey, I'll take the day off without complaint.  God knows I need the extra time to work on my assignments for the weekend.

The biggest one is what they're calling our Skills Assignment, where we have to come up with an authentic and original lesson plan to work on our students' receptive (listening or reading) and productive (writing or speaking) skills.  We have to find the text that they'll read or listen to and the come up with three activities to do with it, two for the receptive skill and one for the productive.  We have to justify all our choices, of course, and outline how we'd teach the lesson in 60 minutes.  They've told us that we can use these lessons for our last TP, which just happens to be 60 minutes long, so I'm using a song for mine, since my final class needs to include a listening segment.  I've chosen the song, so now it's just a matter of coming up with the activities and justifying it all in less than 1,000 words.  For those of you who know how I write (which is all of you because you're reading my blog), the word limit is a joke...I tend to be pretty prolific writer and always write way more than necessary.  At least the word limit will help keep me more concise (in theory).  So here's the song (called "Not on the Test" by Tom Chapin):

I like this song because it will give me a good, hopefully controversial topic to discuss with my students once they're done listening to and understanding what it says.  This upper-intermediate group really like talking, and they definitely have opinions to share, so I think that getting them going on the education system in Argentina should be right up their alley, after we bash the U.S. public education system when we talk about the song itself.  It's not too hard to understand what's being sung, and while the students will understand most of the words, I'll still have to teach them things like "No Child Left Behind", so there will be a good new vocab element to the lesson as well.  Or at least that's my intention.  We'll see, as I wrestle with the lesson plan and then actually teach the lesson, if it turns out that way.  Stay tuned.

Admittedly, I'm putting a good amount of pressure on myself to finish strong.  My eighth lesson, which I gave on Friday, earned me another "above standard" mark, and I can tell that both tutors are rooting for me to make this last lesson count as well.  Of course, I also just want to get an "above standard" grade one last time, because I just want to.  Duh.  (coughperfectionistcough)  So stay tuned.  I do have to finish the assignment by Tuesday but then, the nice thing is that everything will be almost planned, and I'll have two days to solidify it all.  Timing worked out rather well, don't you think?

Our second assignment for the weekend is entitled Lessons from the Classroom, and we just get to write about our feelings.  Yay!  Kind of, anyway: we're supposed to pick three or four of our strengths and weaknesses as teachers and describe them, backing up our choices with quotes from all the feedback we've gotten from our tutors during our TPs, and then speculate on how we'll either maintain or work on improving them.  Beyond that, we have to add some notes about what we've observed in other experienced teachers or in our fellow students that we'd like to incorporate into our own teaching repertoires, and comment on the resources we've used throughout the class (like the grammar books we used, etc).  It shouldn't take too much time or effort, but it still has to be done.  I should be getting to work...

But on a totally different note, let's talk about weather for a second.  Remember how I said in the last post that I was glad it was nice and sunny?  Well, I still am, but I would kill for a big chunk of snow in my bed right now.  Or a fan could work too.  Point being, my room is a stuffy sauna without the steam, even though I have the only window as open as it can be.  I'm wearing a tank top and running shorts and still sweating...I get up and wherever I was just sitting is slightly damp.  Ick.  I kinda miss winter, now that I don't have it (funny, I always want what I don't have...).  OK, no, I'm being dramatic.  I do miss winter in some ways because snowball fights and crunching ice on the sidewalk and snowboarding would be fun.  However, I'm glad that it's bordering on summer here and I get to be in the sunshine.  I will be thankful to be moving farther south into Patagonia as the height of summer comes...should be similar to summer in Colorado, and that I can definitely deal with.  But you all enjoy your snow and your ice and your soups and your sweaters and your boots and your scarves and your hats and your... (enough?  Yeah, ok.)

And this is what procrastination looks like.  Bam.

Sending love from the sweat puddle on my chair.

A Thanksgiving Picture Essay

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  It's sunny and warm, we got out of class an hour and a half early today, Brian lent me his guitar for the afternoon, and I've got a decent start on my lesson plan for tomorrow.  I'm thankful for who and what I have around me, both physically here and at a distance, so things are good!  Now if only I had a nice big feast to look forward to...



...with this...
(for those of you who don't have the pleasure of knowing this dish, it's called baked corn and it's sunshine in a casserole)
(also I was thinking of making some of this here but alas, I have no oven)

...and this... (the real stuff, maybe with a little orange zest in it, unlike the poor little canned version.  compare the one on the left with the one on the right.  which one would you go for?  that's what I thought.)

...and this...

(goodness gracious am I giving myself a monstrous and unfortunate Thanksgiving craving)

...and it just wouldn't be complete without this!

although admittedly, my portion would look something more like this.  gotta get those proportions right:

[chorus of angels singing]

Unfortunately, they don't make these things in Argentina.  I'm especially bummed about the pumpkin pie.  But I did make myself a different little feast:

Garlic-and-onion rice, sauteed broccoli, squash, onion, and red pepper in tomato basil sauce, and a pan-fried soy milanesa with (rare) grated cheese.  Not too shabby, eh?  It's time to get back to my lesson plan (#8 of 9!) but in the holiday spirit, I'll leave you with three little après dinner thoughts (two nice and appropriate and one not so serious).

"Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action."  ~W.J. Cameron

AND why does this seem like a bad idea?  Actually why did it ever seem like a good idea?  I can already see it being the destructive tool of a jealous lover somewhere in the world.  Oopsies...

(from a side banner on Grooveshark; text reads: Enter the phone number of the friend you'd like to locate.) 

Haha sheesh.  Sending love from Argentina!  Cheers xx

and upward!

It's day thirteen of my CELTA course, as Neil reminded us today.  Only a week and a half left!  I'm exhausted at this point, but the end is in sight, so I push on.  My pillow is calling my name, saying we have a date for a little siesta, but two things I have to impart to you first.

One.  I rose to the challenge from my tutors today and my lesson got an 'above standard' mark!  It's what I was aiming for (what else would you expect) and I was pretty confident when I finished that I'd achieved my goal.  Nice to have the Fran reinforce that with her grading.  Only two more lessons left for me to teach...say what?

Two.  Here's how you know CELTA has taken over: you dream about teaching, in the few hours of sleep you scrape up every night.  So you go to bed thinking about your lesson, your brain carries on that train of thought while your body enjoys the short reprieve, and then you wake up knowing that you can't get teaching out of your brain and it's time to go back to school.  My future?  We'll see.

Onward

Another weekend come and gone since my last post.  This one was similar to the last one, except that I both a written assignment and a lesson plan to get done.  Friday afternoon, of course, was filled with lazing about, continuing my run of watching Star Wars all the way through, starting with the newer releases and saving the best (old ones) for last.  I intended to go for a run, but by the time I felt I had the energy, it was getting dark.  Guess I had to put that one off.

Friday night I met up with Alec, Brian, and a couple of Alec's Swedish friends to play music and hang out on Alec's balcony.  We had a good time, and this continued when we went to another of Alec's friend's apartment (she's also from Sweden, coincidentally).  Her building had a rooftop terrace, which we quickly occupied, and we stayed there for a good part of the evening (again, playing guitar and talking).  We started to play songs that everyone knew, generated good ole' sing-a-longs.  Super fun.  Alec worked for a small indie record label back in England, scouting out and signing worthy new bands.  At one point, he told me that he really liked my style of singing and playing guitar, and that he would sign me.  GAH best compliment ever!  This guy really knows his music, so I was pretty flattered.  He is obsessed with making a cappella trumpet sounds, which a couple girlies in Ellement, my group at CC, can do rather well, so I've also showed him one of our videos.  Again, the seal of approval (Sammi, your mouth trumpet is legendary now, and Marina, he digs your voice and thinks you're very pretty :) )!  But enough of that for now.

When we finally motivated ourselves to leave the Swedish girls' apartment, it was about 2 am, a good time to head to a bar or a club.  We tried to get into the same place we'd gone last weekend, Ferona, but it was full and the doorman said we would've had to wait a couple hours to get in.  It just so happened that right as we were about to walk away, Aminah and Jess (two more CELTees) walked out, a happy coincidence since we had gone to Ferona to find them.  We absorbed them into our group as we wandered to a different part of town looking for a good spot.  By the time we decided on a club and found it, Jess had decided to go home, but the rest of us went inside and danced away for a few hours.  At first, the DJ would play the beginning of well-known songs until the chorus arrived, at which point he'd cut the music (expecting people to shout-sing) and then switch to a different song.  Not the best idea, buddy.  Finally he either got the hint or got booted from the chair, but all the sudden we were listening to complete, uninterrupted songs!  And this new DJ (I think it must've been a new person) also knew how to layer one track over another, making for some cool mixes and smooth transitions.  This won't matter to most of the world, but I was in a dancing mood, so it made a difference to me.  Ha.

We lost track of time dancing, what with all the darkness and flashing lights that make it feel like eternal nighttime.  When we finally left the club, we were all surprised to emerge into daylight.  Oops.  None of us had intended to stay out that late, but we succeeded in staying up until 6 (or at least, that's what time I got back home).  Given the large amount of work I had to do, I only let myself sleep for a few hours before getting up to start powering through my lesson plan.  Of course, my work was laced with Star Wars and food breaks, but by mid-evening I had finished my lesson plan.  Woo!  I opted for an early bedtime and an early morning, so that I could get some rest and get a good amount of time on Sunday to work on my written assignment.  Turned out to be a good call.

I got up early and went for a short run, which felt so great until my knee started hurting.  Boo!  I even wore the knee brace I bought in Perú, so I'll bet that helped lessen the pain and the impact of the run.  HOWEVER this is bad bad news because it means that I've actually really done something bad to my knee that won't go away in a couple weeks.  Travis and I talked about this when I had so much trouble hiking in Perú...he told me about how he had strained his meniscus a few years ago and had to spend a good two and a half months doing nothing before it (mostly) healed.  I'm not sure if I have a meniscus problem or something else, but my pain seems similar to his, so it's a definite possibility.  Crap.  That means running is out of the question.  Wish I could teleport my trusty bicycle and ride it around here.

Anyway.  The run was good for all parts of me except for my knee, and I needed the exercise to get my ya-yas out.  I got an early start on my written assignment, worked all day with random breaks here and there, and finished at a reasonable time on Sunday evening.  Then early to bed, early to rise to get to school early for lesson prep.  Today we switched classes with the other TP group, so it was our first day with the upper-intermediate students.  We were flying blind today, because we hadn't gotten a chance to observe these students or even talk to the other teaching group about the students' strengths and weaknesses (apparently we were supposed to be given this time, but we weren't...c'est la vie).  This made planning a little tricky, because we had to completely guess how long certain activities would take and whether or not the students would be able to do them.  We were all pleasantly surprised, I think.  This group of students is smaller and more obedient, shall we say, so they're not always talking over each other in the middle of instructions and they pick up on things quickly.  I didn't expect such a marked difference between the skill levels, but it is really noticeable.  Our challenge with this group is not gonna be having enough authority and giving the simplest clearest instructions possible, like it was with the pre-int students; no, it's going to be getting them energized and enthusiastic about what we're doing.  Granted, today's lesson topics weren't the most exciting in the world (international cooperation and communication through means like the internet and the World Student Games, which apparently do exist), but the students didn't have any real enthusiasm or energy.  It's my personal challenge to change that now (*grin).

We also got our halfway-point progress reports today, and I did well, as I expected.  One nice thing about this course is that there are no surprises...you know when you did poorly, and you know when you're doing well.  With regular feedback after every teaching session, we all have consistent benchmarks for our progress and what we need to work on.  So it wasn't a surprise for me to see that Fran gave me all satisfactory, to-standard marks, plus a few above-standard marks in certain categories (for the record, we have something like 40 or 50 evaluation criteria, so getting a few above-standard grades isn't that special or unusual).  What did surprise me was that she said she wants to see more above-standard work out of me in my lesson plans, because she's confident that I'm capable of doing it. Of course, knowing me (little miss A student, disappointed with a B), I would love to get above-standard marks every time, and I told her that that's what I'm aiming for.  We agreed that I've shown good examples of all the teaching things they want us to learn, but it's just a matter of me consolidating them into one lesson, and doing so consistently.  Challenge acknowledged, master.  Now it's time to rise to the occasion.

This week will be an intense one for me, partly because of this new, higher bar, and also just because of the sheer volume of work I have to do.  I got one lesson out of the way today, but I have two more to do, on Wednesday and Friday, and now that our lessons plans are more a product of our own creativity and ideas, they take a lot longer to complete.  I'm not kidding when I say that each one will require eight or nine hours of work, minimum.  If I haven't done that much, I haven't thought of everything that I should've.  I'm seeing this week as the big hump to get over, because next week will be more low-key for me and then the course will be over.  So here's to hoping I have what it takes (I mean, I know I do, but hopefully I don't have to kill myself getting everything done).  Onward, ho!

A little bit more.

Three little tidbits to add to yesterday´s post.

1. Another thing I don´t like here is the subway.  I have a sort of love/hate relationship with it.  The subte proves super useful for getting around, but it´s so noisy!  Squeaking brakes and such.  Gives a me a wee headache every day.
2. I´ve reached 1,000 views for my blog!  Thanks to all of you.  Keep reading!
3. Today after our last class with the group of pre-intermediate students, they told us (or rather, Octavio told us) that we were the best teachers they´d had, and they all gave us kisses on the cheek, thanked us, and wished us luck.  I´ll miss this group, and it´s nice to know that we did actually connect with them during the two weeks we taught them.  A nice warm fuzzy feeling to add to the joy of Friday.