Hi Everyone,

We just had class outside because the power was off . . . it goes off a lot. Normally, we just ignore it (the staff usually goes outside and takes a break), but today in the 5:45 p.m. class, we couldn’t see! It was getting dark, and the lesson I’d planned relied heavily on using the whiteboard. (They were going to rewrite their stories using the correction guide; it went really well with the 3 p.m. Intermediate level class. While the Ss were writing, I was writing many of their errors, which I’d “collected” while marking their stories, on the WB. We then went through them one-by-one and made the corrections. It was a really good class because they were all very attentive; I think using their errors really helped. I could tell that they wanted to know WHY it was wrong? And how do we correct it? The question was written, almost literally, all over their faces. : ) Yes, that’s what we’ll do tomorrow in the 5:45 p.m. class. Or ?

“Hmm, what to do?” I thought to myself as I dropped my many *accoutrement on my desk.

“Grab your chair and let’s go outside,” I said within seconds. What were we going to do? Honestly, at that moment, I had no idea, but I knew it would come to me. And come to me it did.

It ended up that I had booklets for each of the Ss with exercises on homonyms. I’d given the original to the director last week asking if I could pretty-please-with-ice-cream-on-top have copies of the first three exercises. But . . . I also told him that I’d really love it if he could copy the entire book. So when he delivered a box to me yesterday, and I opened it to find enough copies of the ENTIRE book for ALL my Ss in the afternoon classes, he had the biggest grin on his face.

Uh huh, simple pleasures really do bring the most satisfaction. : )

And, this 5:45 p.m. class really gets beat up with all the “changes” that happen now and then. Changes as in people coming and going, some of whom need to be sent off in style (Kai and Sean yesterday, imagine 200+ Ss forming two lines, hugging K & S, waving goodbye . . . yes, crying . . .and of course, we needed to be there too ! ), students who need to rehearse for a dance concert for a very important someone, the power going off and it’s just too dark to have class, etcetera, etcetera. So I’ve already been adjusting my lessons for this particular class quite frequently. I do my best to cover what I really want to cover with them.

Today’s lesson was really fun because the kids were into doing something “different.” And by golly if those homonym booklets didn’t come in handy!

I used the backside of a piece of scrap paper for my impromptu “whiteboard.” One-by-one I wrote word pairs like week/weak, ate/eight, read/red, reed/read.

Ahhhh, I can hear the collective gasp from many of you (around the world) as you remember what a homonym is. : )

Yes, homonyms are words that sound the same but have different meanings.

We went through the pairs. Yes, CELTA followers, I used CCQs. It was quite fun to jump up and growl like a big animal that can walk on its hind legs, take a sock off to show my naked foot, etcetera, etcetera. (*)

And as class ended and they left, I received too many “Thank you teacher!”s to count. : ) And the hugs? Also, too many to count.

Sigh. I’ve fallen in love with these kids.

And I leave FLO in 2-weeks and 4-days . . . the wheel of time seems to be gathering speed. I can literally see it bumping and rolling down the calendar hill.

Yes, I’m savoring every moment that remains.

And with that, it’s time to say goodbye. I’m quite late for din-din.

Love and light to you all,

-sj

p.s. and yes, as soon as the Ss left, the lights came back on : )
and that’s how I was able to do the post . . .

* backpack, bag of the Ss notebooks, box of gift homonym booklets . . .
Mahalo Glenn for the real definition. : )

(*) Twenty points to whoever guesses first what those two words are. ; )