First Observation

Yesterday, I taught for the first hour or so.  I went through the book, but tried to adapt some of the activities to make them more interesting for the students.  When I was planning, Katie gave me a chart to use.  It had the activity (including page number), dynamic (pairs, whole class, or individual), the instructions I would give, and the number of minutes it would take.  I like that idea--I might use it again in the future.

I still felt a little rushed, though.  I didn't have time to ask the students how their weekends were, do a warm-up, or anything like that.  Because of time, I didn't have the discussion of how to become good at something that's initially hard.  Katie and my advisor, who observed me, said I did well.  The vocabulary in the book was difficult for the class, but I defined some new words and gave the students strategies to take notes, deal with a hard assignment, etc.  I hope they can use those strategies in other subject areas, too.

After my lesson, Katie worked with the students on pronunciation.  The students had fun, I think.  She gave them some chants to repeat, then listened to each one individually for the rhythm of English.  Some of them faltered at first, but they all got each sentence right in the end.