Oh the horror Tuesday

Wow, so young learners AND beginners are pretty difficult to get used to! Yesterday the horror was the beginner class of Saudi guys who I couldn't get to listen, understand or do anything. The lesson went to shit, basically. Today was heaps better! I think I can handle it with a bit of practice. Yesterday young learners was great, enjoyable in fact. However, I've gotten myself a reputation as the teacher who can handle any last minute change you care to throw at her, so today, they switched me to a pre-intermediate young learner class just for the one morning and it was horrible!! I quickly prepared all this great stuff in the 15 mins between being told I was changing classes and 9am when class starts, but they wouldn't talk. At ALL. They wouldn't do any discussion topics, or call out any answers. they just did their work sheets and looked bored. If I was a better teacher I could have played some sort of awesome English warmer game that got them all enthused and talking, but I had no ideas at all. Hopefully tomorrow will be back to normal.

1) While the reputation as the teacher who handles last minute changes calmly and with good organisation means more work for me, I'm also kind of proud of it. Richard said it's a really good thing and that it means I'll cope well in the esl world. So, yeah, I'm proud that I'm flexible and that peoplehave noticed I can handle things :)

2) I'm listening to 'Jerusalem's Lot' by Stephen King on my MP3 player on the bus. It's pretty good so far and makes the bus trip feel really fast.

3) The most annoying guy in my beginners class left halfway through the lesson today. I'm sure, again, that if I was a better teacher I'd have found a way to make him stay and enjoy himself, but as it was, the class was much better and we got more learning done without him. He's quite disruptive, often refuses to speak English, and is a general pain in the bum. I think even the other Saudi guys find him a bit annoying. He told me he was going to leave, and I think he wanted me to go all sweet and easy on him and get him to stay, but I just told him that was fine. It's his money, if he wants to leave, it's less work for me. I'm not going to play games with them - they want to leave, no worries. The rest of the guys were very sweet and tried really hard, and we learned to tell the time pretty well :)

4) I checked on my tracking number for my couriered Apostille documents, and they got delivered to the department of internal affairs today. Sometime in the next week, I should have all my documents ready!

5) Best of all, Brook has promised me a shoulder massage tonight :) My shoulders are pretty tense and sore, so I'm really looking forward to it. And my hot water bottle.