CELTA-first week done!

I've completed the first week of my CELTA course. I was warned that it would be too time consuming for a temporary job/sight-seeing, and it has lived up to its claim. So that's why I don't have too many pictures of Bangkok at the moment. But I have accomplished a few things, like....

My First Lesson!
           Taught my first lesson on Wednesday, day three of the course. It went pretty terribly, but I did manage to "pass". I was teaching a reading lesson, but as most of the learners are taking the course to improve their speaking skills, I was supposed to get them talking about the material. We do that by staging a "lead in" story/anecdote/question, etc. So, I asked, "Who has a job?" as my first question of the lesson. It took me about two seconds after the fact to remember that on Monday, when we'd interviewed our students, I'd learned none of them had jobs. As I watched all of them become uncomfortable because of the question, a small voice inside me muttered, "None of them have jobs because they are all refugees or asylum seekers, you idiot." Clearly, I had not thought through my questions when planning the lesson. It was hard to recover from that gaff, but despite the students not speaking much at all, the lesson went over all right. I stumbled over giving clear, short directions for the activities, but they understood.


Taking Pictures of Food

Sweet potato patties and paneer (middle)

pumpkin soup

Bean noodles (boonsen) with phanang curry (Thai)

Building Rapport with My Learners
       I have an interesting mix of students. Though I'm learning to teach in Bangkok, only one of my students is Thai. Four of my students are Pakistani, two are Japanese, one is Somali, one is Sri Lankan, and one is Chinese. This makes the class special, because the students are less likely to speak in their L1 (native language). Managed to crack a few lame jokes, and made a point of using their names and smiling more while I taught.

Upset stomach and homesickness....
    Solution? Coconut milk (settles the stomach) and making pizza! Bf's Dad recently traveled to Europe for business, and brought back some delicious cheeses. The pizza didn't taste like American pizza at all, but it did help. As did the glass of wine we had with it ;)

Guess this cheese?

Fresh!