One Week Down, Three More To Go

I cannot believe I have been here for over a week already. - time has really flown by! Not sure if its b/c I’m in class all day or the fact we’re kept busy with homework and activities non stop. Every night I am left exhausted, so tired I haven’t even the energy to update my blog (lack of internet poses as a problem as well) - I promise to make a better attempt at updating - hence my double entry today.

Well…I am officially a student again. We are in class from 9am - 5:30pm Monday - Friday.
Thankfully there are many breaks and we are divided into two groups to help manage time - this is the biggest class Language Corps has ever taught (thank you economic crisis). Basically my day consists of breakfast, note taking, warmers/role playing/dialogues, lunch, classroom presentations, more note taking, dinner, homework and bed - it makes for a long day. Not sure how these youngings manage to go out every night (they must be use to this lifestyle as most of them are fresh out of college). They probably think I am the lamest 26 year old there is, but I am okay with it J

Classes, although long and sometimes rather boring, have been informative and I believe they are truly helping me gain a better idea of what it will be like to teach English as a foreign language. After our first full day of class we were told we would be presenting our own warmers and dialogues to our classmates the following day. For those of you who know me and remember my most embarrassing moment, you know speaking in front of people is one of my biggest fears (aside from clowns of course). To my surprise, this task was fairly easy for me - yay! Now that I have presented 4 or 5 times, its no big deal anymore. Just wait until my interview or first day of teaching though - yikes!

Unfortunately classes don’t end with note taking and presentations. There are tests…go figure. I may dislike speaking in front of people, but I HATE, I repeat, HATE taking tests even more. I don’t know what it is, but even when it’s an open book test, I freak out and feel as though I know nothing! We had two tests this past Friday. I talked to my teacher and told him about my insanely crazy test anxiety and he assured me “I’d be fine, it’s really easy” (great, now if I don‘t pass, I‘m REALLY stupid), “plus there’s no time limit” (except there was b/c the bus left for Siem Reap - our weekend destination, at 1pm). The first test was easy (I got a 98%) and the other…well, not so sure about that one. Honestly, I think I failed. I don’t find out until I’m in Thailand, so I have to wait out this anxiety even longer - ugh! If I did fail, I get another chance to pass, if I don’t pass that one, then I’m screwed. The pressure is on.

This week in class we are learning about classroom management, early childhood development, lesson planning and teaching with songs and dance - should be a good week.