Late at night

Not much time to see the sun today ... at least enjoying a bit of night light.


The first day was so exhausting that I could not write more than a few words. It took a good night sleep to realise what "hit me". The night is a good adviser says an old Romanian saying ... it looks like it is.

I kept wondering why a bunch of lovely 9-10 year olds scared me so much. I taught adults before, I taught two 4 year olds individually before, so what is so scary about this kids?

This morning I woke up having in mind the image of them entering the class ... and then it hit me. It was the look on their eyes that petrified me in the first place and then the feeling intensified throughout the rest of the lesson I was observing. Need I say that watching the experienced teacher working with them was an endless succesion of "wow moments"?

So, were they good and well behaved? They certainly were. Were they good at English, active and responsive? Yes, they were. Were they in any way bad or hard to manage students? No, they weren't. So what is the problem? Well, that is exactly the problem. When they entered the class for the first time and their eyes met ours there was so much enthusiasm on their faces that it scared me. They are so eager to be here, to play and learn with us! They are also absolutely confident that we can and will offer them this experience. And this is were I freak out!

Thinking more about it I remember the first time I had to be in front of a group of adults. I really wanted it to be perfect so I first gathered a bunch of friends and subjected them to a short version of the training before I got the courage to start the real thing. In this case unfortunately (or not) I cannot afford this luxury. I am teaching for 45 minutes today and that is final!

But than again being able to identify the problem is really helpful and I am already more confident knowing what I am up against. Since the only issue is not to dissapoint them, than all I have to do is prepare and deliver a knockout lesson.