I have this annoying habit (okay I have many but this one of them) of simply trying to 'do things my own way'.
I have never been good at direction and for some reason I have this part of my brain that when I take on a task, no one else has ever done it before. Or more importantly, they may have done it but I can figure it out myself, without assistance.
Sans help.
Uno. Just uno.
Last night when we were out with a bunch of foreigners at this cheezy American style bar (which, we have discovered, has foreinger night not just on Friday but a good crowd comes on Wednesday and it so breaks up the week. Plus, D found not only dudes to play basketball with but their Canadian AND they walked in with hockey gear last night after some ice time at the local centre. And he wanted to go home after dinner....thank goodness for my rubber arm!)
So we're out with these foreigners and this lovely lady L who is 60 and has been teaching for probably about 40 years starts telling me about all these games you can play and these exercises you can do with kids.
I was happy when I figured out my 'come up with as many letters as you can that start with this letter' game.
And suddenly I realised, people HAVE DONE THIS before. People ARE DOING THIS right now. And she had actually gotten her ideas FROM A BOOK.
Oh. You mean people acutally SEEK OUT HELP for this whole teaching ESL thing? Like, publishers have put money, time and effort into compiling methods THAT WORK and DO NOT NEED TO BE INVENTED AGAIN?
Today I was searching for materials for my class. And I stumbled upon GADS AND GADS of websites that contain exactly the type of information that is useful for classes that have already finished their books.
And I had to laugh at myself. Because it's so typical of me to assume that I could just figure things out on my own and reinvent the wheel.
And yet I was so pleased with myself that I had FOUND the information.
Because, you know, no one ELSE is using the resources online. I guess only SUPER GENUISES like me can type in a search in Google.
Ya, that's it.
See? Still so me.
I have never been good at direction and for some reason I have this part of my brain that when I take on a task, no one else has ever done it before. Or more importantly, they may have done it but I can figure it out myself, without assistance.
Sans help.
Uno. Just uno.
Last night when we were out with a bunch of foreigners at this cheezy American style bar (which, we have discovered, has foreinger night not just on Friday but a good crowd comes on Wednesday and it so breaks up the week. Plus, D found not only dudes to play basketball with but their Canadian AND they walked in with hockey gear last night after some ice time at the local centre. And he wanted to go home after dinner....thank goodness for my rubber arm!)
So we're out with these foreigners and this lovely lady L who is 60 and has been teaching for probably about 40 years starts telling me about all these games you can play and these exercises you can do with kids.
I was happy when I figured out my 'come up with as many letters as you can that start with this letter' game.
And suddenly I realised, people HAVE DONE THIS before. People ARE DOING THIS right now. And she had actually gotten her ideas FROM A BOOK.
Oh. You mean people acutally SEEK OUT HELP for this whole teaching ESL thing? Like, publishers have put money, time and effort into compiling methods THAT WORK and DO NOT NEED TO BE INVENTED AGAIN?
Today I was searching for materials for my class. And I stumbled upon GADS AND GADS of websites that contain exactly the type of information that is useful for classes that have already finished their books.
And I had to laugh at myself. Because it's so typical of me to assume that I could just figure things out on my own and reinvent the wheel.
And yet I was so pleased with myself that I had FOUND the information.
Because, you know, no one ELSE is using the resources online. I guess only SUPER GENUISES like me can type in a search in Google.
Ya, that's it.
See? Still so me.
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