Send you back to schoolin'.

A week of TEFL class has felt about like a month.  In the mornings we have methodology (how to teach) lessons with Chris.  He teaches us how to teach in the way we'll be teaching.  ....Or maybe how we'll be teaching is in the same way he teaches us?  Anyway.  He does teaching lessons in the style we'll be doing English lessons.  No pointing at students!, for one.  Also to keep teacher talking time down and student talking time up.  How to get them talking in the first place, breaking the ice, etc.

In the afternoons somebody else comes in (different instructor every day) and we've gone over how to make lesson plans, how to make a good resume (CV) for over here, and some Czech lessons!  We aren't going to get just a ton out of the lessons, even though anything is good.  It's mostly to know what it's like to be a foreign language student so we have empathy for the people we'll be teaching. 

Monday night they took us out to eat, (twas very good food) and sprung an assignment on us for the next day.  Yay!  We had to do a 15 minute instructional presentation to our class.  Anything about how to do something.  (I'm pretty sure they really just wanted to see if we could stand up and say words in front of people.)  I used some brochures I'd picked up around town to talk about advertising and design.  Elements of good compositions, use of logos, design tips everyday people can know to make their garage sale stand out, etc.  It went well, we all did about the same.  Like I said, no grade just having to get up and talk. 

Thursday we had to do an "ice-breaker" in front of an actual English class of Czech speakers. Yeah, fourth day of class.  I wound up with the Intermediate class.  It was nice since they already know a lot of English already. I had to go 15 minutes (went about 9 actually), and then observed the real teacher do the lesson.  He was also my observer and gave me feedback afterwords. 

I'm pretty excited about the class material so far.  I knew you could go to some countries and teach English without any training or experience but I also knew that wasn't for me.  I can't imagine just jumping into this.  There is much more to learn though.  We only just started getting into grammar today and my brain hurts.  Monday we have to do an actual 45 minute lesson dealing with lexis/vocabulary.  :P  But it's Friday and I'm not going to think about that this second. 

Busy week!  But I've been planning my own personal day in Prague since Wednesday and tomorrow, this city is mine.