Finally Teaching?

October 14 2014: So I've finally had some actual teaching classes instead of just standing around and talking to (at) my students. It's crazy though because this week I'll have 3 new classes of students who have never seen me. And we still don't know if this is my final schedule. I've worked with 7 different teachers so far and will possibly work with a few more. I was putting together an exciting presentation involving listening to songs and filling in the blanks on lyrics that I pass out but got the days mixed up so today's class (who I've seen every week) got a boring presentation instead. oops. They didn't seem to mind learning about how schools work in the USA though. I'd say we made it through 75% of the class before the talking got really bad. It's hard to make presentations for classes since they might not always have a computer (or it has to turn on, and log in, and take absolutely forever aka 5-10mins) so the length of time varies. I don't want to have lots of empty time but I also don't want to try to cover too much in one day. Have I mentioned I hate having 10 billion classes? I love all the kids, I really do, but it's hard to remember what we've covered in each class when each teacher is doing different things with different grades of students (I have first years all the way through fifth years). I'm trying to make the presentations more interactive because otherwise the kids lose interest and the teachers don't seem to be as strict (some) and the kids just talk over everyone. It's kind of annoying tbh. If it doesn't improve I'll have to step it up and tell them that yeah, it might not be the most exciting thing to sit here and listen to me talk, but it wasn't exactly a party creating the lesson either and they'll shut up and at least pretend to listen while I'm talking. Someone asked me in class yesterday what my favorite part of teaching was. I wasn't exactly sure what to say but I think it's when students are genuinely interested and you can see them thinking and understanding. There's only a few in each class that tend to talk and ask lots of questions but it's worth it when you know you're getting through to at least a few.

Quidditch is still going great. I went to a bar last week with a few of the team and Irish music was played. Definitely wasn't expecting to find that in Italy. It's been kinda rainy this past week but today was sunny and gorgeous. My host brother took me to a bookstore in Saronno where I bought some books in English to read. We've also talked for hours about all kinds of things. It's nice to chat in English during the week to someone my age (usually it's just on the weekends with the quidkids). One of the girls this week who will be joining the team during her stay in Italy is from Oxford. Our levels of Italian are pretty similar and she understands my jokes, woo (my puns don't have the same effect to non native english speakers). I was feeling kinda bleh the past few days but I think it's allergies. Finally found cough drops and then the next day I'm feeling back to normal. Host family is still wonderful, I think "reply all" should be eliminated as an email option, and I'm already ready for the weekend. Check my facebook for pictures because adding them here is a pain (sorry for those of you without facebook. wait til I get back or find Mom and ask her to show you).