Does did me in

Today’s class was PACKED again; more new students, more awkward roll calls, more examples of why getting them to point to the attendance sheet makes more sense. The class list has 27 students enrolled, but the actual class seats only 14 (all seats were full last night with 13 students absent). I wonder what we’ll do if they all show up one day, on the same day? Wait.. I wonder what *I’ll* do.

Today we went over Perfect Past (have/has) and Simple Past (did/do/does). Did you know it is now acceptable to write a sentence as “My boss’s gone skiing in the Swiss Alps”, instead of “My boss has been skiing…”. It’s acceptable to triple s it up, I had no idea. Thanks Will for being my phone a friend at break when I wanted to clarify it was NOT ok, but we could find no definite proof of right or wrong for either side. After class I asked the Director who said it is, in fact, acceptable now to apostrophe the left, AND the right of the s. Rivetting I know, but I was surprised!

So we move passed ’s', and ‘does’ ends up doing me in. A few students had trouble with do/does in terms of the correct pronouns. Explaining “does is the present third singular of do” to myself was hard enough, trying to explain it to an ESL class causes confusion with “slow down!” yelled out by Elena (who is very smitten with her looks and makes comments about coming into a lot of money and that’s why she looks like this…). It seems it really *is* Canadian to talk fast, and even faster when your flustered, I was happy I could illustrate this stereotype ;p

The rest of the class was a free for all, and I was happy that the students were speaking English and getting to know one another. At the end of class, I said goodbye, thanks for coming, and I’ll try and slow it down next time. Lisbeth (new student) asked if I was teaching again tomorrow, I said no, it will be another teacher, she said “oh no. I wish you were teaching both classes”. .

WOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO FINALLY!!! I always wanted to know if they liked me better lolol , it really *is* like high school all over again..

myPhone (from May)

I put a skin on the front and back, was enjoying the fruits of my nerdy labour: jail breaking, hacking, etc. I got myPhone to do everything in my adopted hands, as its biological siblings could do back home in the states. Then I noticed the skin was getting a bit worn, hmmm... kinda coming up at the corners. And so I did what everyone is tempted to do, peel it off. And I peeled the old skin of the front. Ooohhh...and peeled the old skin off the back so it was even. It was like a brand new phone again, so shiny and new. Hello you, I coo'd, so new..

It was garbage day 2 days later. I had a hoodie on. I had precious myPhone in the front pocket of the hoodie. I emptied the garbage, about to take it outside, and remembered i had to get the upstairs bathroom garbage too. So as I leaned over to grab the garbage can, the phone slipped out of the front pocket. Yes. Yes, it slipped out of the pocket and into. the. toilet.

(**sidenote**No, there was no business in the toilet, and yes that is how it actually ended up in there. Most people do the "ohh sure you were grabbing the garbage" but I assure you, I don’t want to hear someone peeing while I talk, nor do I inflict that on others).

SOOOOOo... as soon as I saw it sink beneath the surface of the water, in s l o w m o t i o n i panicked, and grabbed it out and CLUNG to it, PRAYING for its safe recovery. I immediately started googling, what to do, what not to do.. Short story made long, I saved it. It came back to me in full working order. And I rejoiced!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This phone needs me as much as I need her!! We were made for each other!! It’s not giving up!!! myPhone and me were meant to be!!

2 days after that, it slipped out of my hands and fell on my tile floor. And spider webbed the screen. I put a skin on the front of it to keep it in tact, but its starting to bubble up and come apart. Oh life. . . what are you telling me??

*update* it was telling me to replace her with a newer myPhone. And buy a proper case. At least, thats what I did anyway..

teaching recklessly

OK, so today is not as bad as I thought, nor as bad as I worked it up to be. I know what my issue is...sometimes I cannot gauge the feel of the class. Do they understand? Are they enjoying it? I think this is a cultural thing and less a "me" thing; I do like that, I'll continue thinking most things are less "me" more "is".

Hector has found a new friend, Claudia. i have never seen anyone voluntarily talk to him, let alone spend a break with him. This term is starting off well it looks like, but I wonder why they are whispering..?

We are on break right now, I am going to talk to the students sitting in here instead of leaving them in silence..or silencio. Ah DM, you're always applicable.

I just tightened my ponytail and stretched. Oh a yawn, nice touch.. no comments to the class? nicely done English teacher, a month off really did you in..

Yep so... we are still sitting in silence.. I've not said anything..what am I waiting for? eye contact? jeeze.. its their first day, make it easy! C'mon..ask them where they are from, how long they've been here.. what they do. They are here to speak English after all... YES!!!!!!!!!!! Claudia made eye contact, here I go!

New students present today are: Deuse (Rwanda). He chose his sister as the person he admired. Fatima (Zimbabwe) chose her sister as well (fatima is also very funny). Claudia (Mexico) chose her son; Aura (Columbia) her daughter; Hector (Ecuador) his neice; Miguel (Mexico) his daughter; Carlos (Mexico) his daughter and Ali (Comoros) his wife. They were to come up with three adjectives to describe them, Ali came up with 1 for his wife ("she is very understanable"), when pressed for 2 more, he switched to his sister. LOL, I bet hsi wife has to be understanding.

I described "laidback" as no worries, and chilled out (they got that). I described "reckless" (in terms of driving) as "you don't care! you're swerving and speeding and breaking and owning the road! but not well lol".

Look at them.. working in pairs, talking.. wait.. Hector is back to Spanish with Aura who *just* mentioned she didn't like living in London Ontario because there were too many Columbians and she didnt' have a real chance to practice English.

"hey Hector..in English please.. thank you"

Hmm.. ok I think Deuse and Miquel are done...the rest of the class is still working.. ok I've given them part C to do: 3 adjectives about someone you admire in full sentences, for example I said "I admire my mom. She is very thoughtful, quite funny......hmm....and......um.... sporadically generous" hahahahahaha

wait a minute.. didn't we already do an exercise very simmilar to this not 30 mins ago? "excuse me Miss?", I look at Deuse.. "didn't we already do this?"

"yes.. but sometimes repitition is good!" aiya....