Tuesday Recap

Today was my first day of practice teaching. That might sound weird to some of you who know that I've already been teaching for about two years, but it is a requirement for our training so each of will teach 2-3 times this week. It's sad to say, but even though I've taught a bunch of times, I was super nervous this morning. And as the clock ticked closer and closer to 9:30 (and the start of class), my nerves just got even worse. I guess that has always happened to me before teaching, especially when I taught as a GTA at UCF. But once class started,  I was reminded of just how much I love teaching. When I met my students and we jumped into the lesson, I just felt an old part of me come back to life. After all, I've been out of the classroom for almost a year and a half.  It definitely wasn't a perfect lesson by any means (is there ever such a thing?! :) but it reminded me of why I'm here, why I'm living in Asia...because I love students and I feel like I connect with them in a cool way, and the Father loves these students and wants a connected, personal friendship with them as well. I hope that today was just a glimpse of the way I'll be able to build relationships with my students once I get to my final destination.

Here are a few picture highlights from today. We learned about persuasion and advertising so I've included several of the advertisements my students came up with for your viewing pleasure:)

Group work

Students presenting their ads

We learned about slogans and rhetorical questions...Are you ready to explore your own paradise? :)

We also talked about alliteration...lovely atmosphere, lively view, long-lasting impression. Who wouldn't want to go there? Pretty impressive vocabulary too.

Sapa is another popular place to visit in Vietnam. Could it be Yours Destination? :)

This group even did research on their phone to learn about the Pyramids in Egypt. Mummy welcomes YOU!

Today was a pretty rainy day. Started with a jog in the rain (all the Vietnamese people looked at us like we were crazy for running in the rain), then off to school. My room has a balcony so one of my favorite things to do when it's raining is to sit out on my balcony watching the rain and playing my guitar. I did that for a while today and it was so relaxing and refreshing.

My little spot on the balcony

Rainy Vietnam

I don't teach again 'til Friday so it's nice to have a few days to refresh. I was able to read a book of my own choosing and write some postcards. Went down to the fruit stand and bought some plums with Christa - we found a new favorite vendor - 7 plums for $1. Such a good deal. We ended the day with some team time eating dinner and playing good old Banana Grams. I didn't win, but it was still fun (imagine that, a Mitchell who has fun without winning!) Learned a lot more about our final destination too from teammates Brad and Stacy so that was exciting. Perhaps I will share more later. For now I should retire. Class observations start at 7am, so I gotta get up around 5.