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Date of Class: 2/11/2014
Day of Class: Tuesday
MC: Jacob
DJ: N/A
Assistants: N/A
Module: Telephone Etiquette
How Many Learners: 3
Score:
What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific):
Two of the same students from last class, plus a “new” student who has been to several other sites before.Interesting class. The first student, L, came 5 minutes late, and I had prepared for us to listen to a phone menu and write down what was being said. She blew through what I figured would take the normal 3 students about 15 minutes to write down, and for awhile I thought she’d be the only one there, so I was thinking of ways that I could challenge her.
As this was happening, I had two other students come in, who are much lower level than L, so I adjusted by working with J and helping her catch up, and having L help P, which was the way the rest of the class went as I went through the lesson I had planned. I felt a little down in that I had a chance to push L’s learning, but at the same time, helping out P was nice for her as well, I think.
Date of Class: 2/11/2014
Day of Class: Tuesday
MC: Jacob
DJ: N/A
Assistants: Robert
Module: Small Talk
How Many Learners: 5
Score:
What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific):
Pretty good class. Low attendance, likely due to the 2 hour late arrival announcement and the snow, but we had one new student, and all was well.I actually had a lesson plan designed to talk about the recently snowstorm we had, but I didn’t have enough for a full class, and I knew I was probably going to have to improvise a little. Fortunately, I was lent a hand by an announcement over the intercom that the children were having all recesses inside today, and so they were going to be in the gym, and that teachers should not send students with their coats. So I stopped what I was doing and have everyone write this down and then say it out loud. This, plus the plan I already had, ended us at exactly 11:30. What providence!
I’m still very much enjoying Robert’s company, and I look forward to his dress rehearsal soon!
Date of Class: 02/05/14
Day of Class: Wednesday
MC: Jacob
DJ: N/A
Assistants: N/A
Module: Measurement
How Many Learners: 11
Score:
What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific):
Pretty good class today. I could feel a cold coming on during last night’s class, but I don’t think it impacted things too much.I tried a new activity today – I had been dictating works and phrases themed on time, and I had shown pictures of things like clocks and watches to the class. So, with the last ten minutes, I had everyone stand up, and I had one person look at the clock, and I asked him to show me 7 o’clock with his hands. He pointed one hand up and one to his right. I got everyone else to do the same thing.
It’s kind of like listen and do, but a little different. I had people show me 12 o’clock, 6:30, 1 o’clock, and so on. They all seemed to get a kick out of it. This is something I’ll be using again, I think.
Date of Class: 2/4/2014
Day of Class: Tuesday
MC: Jacob
DJ: N/A
Assistants: Robert
Module: Small Talk
How Many Learners: 9
Score:
What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific):
I’m having a bit of a difficult time with Small Talk. I know there are activities I could be using to change things up, but today I just did a lot of dictation, words, phrases, and a lot of dialogues that we did round robin. However, there was quite a bit of laughter, I got Robert involved, and overall, it went pretty well!I look forward to working with Robert in the future, for sure, if he shows more interest.
Date of Class: 2/4/2014
Day of Class: Tuesday
MC: Jacob
DJ: N/A
Assistants: N/A
Module: Telephone Etiquette
How Many Learners: 3
Score:
What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific):
It was quite nice to see Amber and the folks at Lynch Wood again. That’s where I started… almost two years ago.Anyway, the class itself went okay. With only three people, one of them high level, I actually blew through my lesson plan pretty quickly, but I was able to improvise by grabbing some pictures of things related to using the telephone off my phone. Hooray technology!
Date of Class: 02/03/2014
Day of Class: Monday
MC: Jacob
DJ: N/A
Assistants: N/A
Module: Money
How Many Learners: 15 (!)
Score:
What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific):
Wow! What an evening! F came about 10 minutes early, and for a moment, I thought he might be the only one… but I made use of the time! I asked him a little about himself, and found out that he has been practicing his English at work, because he does support for a nursing home. Before that, he worked at a place with a bunch of other Spanish speakers, so he has only been recently practicing his English.But, within 15 minutes of class starting, we had a packed house! I did my best to support the newcomers, while not leaving anyone else out… that is very difficult when you’re by yourself! I still could have done a better job of moving people around to get that ideal placement, but obviously that’s always a work in progress.
There was a lot of laughter today, again, because when I do “this is an apple,” I tend to do a very accentuated slapping of my forehead when I say “ohhh, an apple!” and people will mime this sometimes and laugh. But one of my students asked me if she had to do it, too, and I decided that yes, for today, everyone has to do this as part of the activity. Everyone laughed just about every time they did it, because they were doing it about as over the top as I was. Pretty great class overall.
Date of Class: 01/29/2014
Day of Class: Wednesday
MC: Jacob
DJ: N/A
Assistants: Joshua
Module: Measurement
How Many Learners: 9
Score:
What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific):
Got there 25 minutes early – a big plus over Monday. Talked with Laura, met up with Joshua, made sure they got introduced.I did my best to keep Joshua engaged while also engaging newcomers – we did have a couple of new faces in tonight’s class. Unfortunately, I did wind up with two unbalanced tables… I wasn’t sure who to move to best balance them, and other things kept coming up in my mind, though that should have been foremost. But, I think everyone had fun, there was LOTS of laughter, and I feel like it was a pretty good class overall.
Date of Class: 1/28/14
Day of Class: Tuesday
MC: Jacob
DJ: N/A
Assistants N/A:
Module: Small Talk
How Many Learners: 12
Score:
What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific):Whew! Got there on time today, which is a plus from yesterday. Nice big class; a few new faces, but mostly returning ones. Knowing most of the class was a huge help in figuring out how to position people so that newer, lower level learners got the support they needed. We still struggled a little bit (could have done a slightly better job scaffolding), but I think we got through okay.
This was a chance for me to use my recent injury as a talking point for the class. Not only do I get to address it with the students, but asking someone what happened when they are obviously injured is a pretty common way of making small talk, so it served a dual purpose. Hooray!
Date of Class: 1/27/2014
Day of Class: Monday
MC: Jacob
DJ: Sheila
Assistants: N/A
Module: Money
How Many Learners: 10
Score:
What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific):
Wow! Well, we didn’t get off without a hitch, unfortunately, but we did get everything done that we set out to do! Todd’s van overheated on the way there, so I had to call my mom to get a ride. I was a little late, but Sheila was there to help me out, and Laura was a big help as well.We started with 1 student, and quickly grew to a total of 10. Everyone was responsive and looked engaged, and we had quite a few people back from last term. Despite the hitches, I think things went pretty well, but I definitely need to be better prepared next time.