Well, the big day has finally arrived: I have finally tought my first class as an EFL/ESL/TESOL/Whatever-the-current-jargon-is teacher. The Taoyuan 8 Branch of Shane English School, located on Guoji (National) Road in Taoyuan, is finally a real school!
Four bright young moppets showed up this afternoon for the first lesson of CEI01, the name my school gives to its "extended" program for elementary-age beginners. In the course of about two hours, mostly of repetitive drilling, I managed to get through their heads, "How are you?" and "Fine, thanks," as well as the names of the various characters in our textbook and workbooks.
The lesson didn't go quite as planned, for a couple of reasons. One is that we lacked a phonics book that we were supposed to have for today. Another is that we bought the wrong kind of markers for use on our whiteboards, and so at one point my Chinese Teaching Assistant, Cecilia, had to spend 10 minutes washing the board off before it could be used again.
But nonetheless, I think things will be okay. The kids were a little nervous because it was the first day of classes and they didn't know what to expect from me, but I think I managed to win them over in the end. When we couldn't do the phonics section, I worked on reinforcing what I had taught by playing a bowling game where students had to produce the correct language before they took their turn.
Tomorrow will be a much busier day, as I am being sent to another branch to cover for a teacher who is sick. I will have three classes back to back, from 4:30 until 9:00 PM. Then the following day, I go to Hong Kong.
And so the adventure begins!
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