First, yes: I was thinking of the seminal Rodney Dangerfield classic when I wrote that title. Second, also yes: I realize the irony of the previous statement giving him some respect. But I feel like we've only just started this post and it's already off the rails. Let's regroup and meet in the next paragraph. Plan? Plan.
As I mentioned last week, I had my first classes of the semester on Friday. I felt all three classes went really well, and I feel rejuvenated and much more enthusiastic about my lesson planning this time around. I definitely underestimated how much of a difference it makes being able to start with my students from day one and be able to lay out my course goals and expectations for my students. I also think adding a grammar component will be much more beneficial for their progress. My goal in general is to stress the vocabulary, expressions, and grammar quirks that can really help conversational speech sound more natural.
To keep things interesting, we'll be keeping a half-hour cultural component and screening Apollo 13 in 20 minute increments over the next few weeks. I found an excellent website with ESL guides for popular movies; the 36-page(!) treatment of Apollo 13 features dozens of lines from the movie with underlined and defined expressions and idioms. I'm planning on using that along with my own created worksheets with plot questions to keep 'em from slacking. Language teachers: sucking the fun out of watching movies in class for over 100 years.*
*That may not be accurate.
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