Thursday and Friday saw me teaching people in a formal setting for the first time since my 7th grade science teacher made Andrew and I teach ‘How to find specific gravity’ to our class because we had done all the work for the term.  This time went way better than it did in the 7th grade.

Thursday before class was incredibly nerve-wracking.  I’m glad I went to meditation at Cornell, doing it for the last 10 minutes before we debuted calmed me down tremendously.  After the AH Director spoke for several minutes, we performed a skit wherein the AH found a Time Machine and used it to find teachers from across the 20th century.  This fits incredibly well with our room themes as they are ‘Decades of the 20th century.’  I decorated the roaring 20’s so I did a little swing for my portion of the skit.

After the skits we started our first class (70 minutes = 90 – the skit).  I nearly ran out of time because my first class already knew the grammar point I was teaching for the evening.  We ended up talking about lifestyles for a really long time, comparing the 20’s to now.  It didn’t go so well, but then again they weren’t supposed to know that grammar.

My second class on Thursday went much smoother.  The second skit went that way too.  I felt about 100 lbs lighter and a thousand times more confident after my very first class.  My second group is older and thinks they know more about the AH than I.  They didn’t know what I taught them, so it all worked out.  Adults are much easier to get talking than students, mostly because they really want to be in class and try new and complicated sentences.  Also, the theme of ‘lifestyles’ works better for people who’ve lived a little and might be interested in discussing lifestyles with others.  With students getting anything more than “I like to go walking with my friends” is like pulling teeth.

Friday was uneventful, 3 more skits, 2 more classes.  I taught my lower level class, all new students to the AH, so no expectations.  It went well and I think I might have actually spoken too slow.  Today is work on lesson plans day and wait for it to stop raining so I can go home.

Ugh.  Enough transcribing of the events. I bought a new phone Friday, its shiney.