Well it was a bright, beautiful, sunny Monday here in Galway although when I woke up this morning to a thick, cold fog I was sure it would be anything but.
Class is held at the Galway Lang
uage School in the Bridge Mills. The building was an operating mill about 480 years ago and in the late 80's was restored and now houses a small gallery of shops and restaurants on the first and lower floors and the language school on the upper three floors. It's so wonderful to look outside the window during class and see the raging river below us and the charming houses an
d bridges on either side.
We have 12 students mostly from Ireland but we have myself and Kim both from New England originally and Louie, a young man from Canada. It's a nice mix and everyone is very animated and seems excited about being in class. The work load is tremendous and right now seems a little overwhelming but the teachers assure us that m
ost people pass the course and just to stay focused and keep up on all the homework as it's assigned. There certainly was terror in a few of our eyes throughout the day but we will all get through it. We even managed a few laughs too so it's clearly not too bad. I just think none of us really expected it to be this intense. Well the weeks will fly by and we will all be much better at English grammar, or at least we hope so if we intend to pass the course. Today's grammar lesson was focused on verb tenses and every student did well.
We also learned the basics of managing a class room. Organization is the key to it all which I'm sure all my teacher friends would have told me if I had asked them. Also having patience we are told is key. Our teachers, I think, mainly work with adults and I think patience is a bit easier when you don't have the need for repromading your students. I am sure the process for working with children is much more difficult so there is certainly something to be said for working with adults. We watched a video of a teacher in Spain with her young students and let’s say none of us envied her position.
Overall a great start and I'm looking forward to tomorrow and fingers crossed another day of sunshine.
Class is held at the Galway Lang
uage School in the Bridge Mills. The building was an operating mill about 480 years ago and in the late 80's was restored and now houses a small gallery of shops and restaurants on the first and lower floors and the language school on the upper three floors. It's so wonderful to look outside the window during class and see the raging river below us and the charming houses an
d bridges on either side.We have 12 students mostly from Ireland but we have myself and Kim both from New England originally and Louie, a young man from Canada. It's a nice mix and everyone is very animated and seems excited about being in class. The work load is tremendous and right now seems a little overwhelming but the teachers assure us that m
ost people pass the course and just to stay focused and keep up on all the homework as it's assigned. There certainly was terror in a few of our eyes throughout the day but we will all get through it. We even managed a few laughs too so it's clearly not too bad. I just think none of us really expected it to be this intense. Well the weeks will fly by and we will all be much better at English grammar, or at least we hope so if we intend to pass the course. Today's grammar lesson was focused on verb tenses and every student did well.
We also learned the basics of managing a class room. Organization is the key to it all which I'm sure all my teacher friends would have told me if I had asked them. Also having patience we are told is key. Our teachers, I think, mainly work with adults and I think patience is a bit easier when you don't have the need for repromading your students. I am sure the process for working with children is much more difficult so there is certainly something to be said for working with adults. We watched a video of a teacher in Spain with her young students and let’s say none of us envied her position.
Overall a great start and I'm looking forward to tomorrow and fingers crossed another day of sunshine.
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