Sitting

Back blip

Lots of sitting around, chatting and waiting goes on outside this stretch of little shops next to the hotel.

Today was the first day of teaching practice for our trainee teachers and so everyone's always a little nervous on the first day. The trainees because some of them are giving their first class on the course and are observed by their colleagues and their trainer. The trainers are a bit nervous until we see the practice students arrive - these are the adult students who come to be taught by the trainee teachers. They're a vital part of the course and we need to maintain regular attendance throughout the course for Cambridge regulations. And the practice students are nervous as it's the first day of class and they don't know what to expect! Everything went well though and the day flew past.

This morning I did the foreign language input session and I do it in either Hungarian or Portuguese.. Today it was Hungarian. It's always a fun session in which I teach about 40 mins of Hungarian totally in Hungarian and there's a real buzz at the end of the class when they're all on their feet having very simple, but real conversations in Hungarian! It's a really useful part of the course as they experience what it's like to be students in a beginner's class and then reflect on the role of the teacher, the language taught (too much, just right or not enough) and some of the techniques used. Without fail, they always say that they couldn't have handled any more language and we only do very basic greetings with lots of repetition and practice. It shows them just how far a ittle can go!