Debbie Sealey » Warmers

I turned up at the course, having found my way without having to stop and ask anyone which way was left, etc. So far so good. I’m the sort that can be following a map in Australia and end up in Africa, so was pretty pleased with myself. I have to walk up a killer hill for part of the way, but the rest is downhill, so that’s cool. Of course I realise that at the end of the day the nice downhill bit will turn into an uphill enemy, but I’ll face that bit when I come to it.

The course is being held on Queen St, right smack in the CBD of Auckland. This is great - as a photographer, there is so much for my eyes to snack on in this area. In my spare time I’ll go for walks with my camera and take a photo of that clock over there, the weird spiral thing on that building, feet walking from street level, pigeons I have met…

Upon getting to the reception area, we are told to wait in the lounge part of the place. I got chatting to a guy with glasses who is also a kiwi. Seems like a nice guy - has a degree in English if you please. He shouldn’t have a problem teaching it then, or at least the spelling and punctuation part.

When we finally got into class after various formalities and paperwork, we found that there are 8 of us students and we have a Greek teacher. Go figure. Learning English from a Greek person - this should be interesting. It turns out that she speaks English very well indeed. And she’s young, but stern. Uh oh.

Four of us students are kiwis, two are from South Korea, one is Welsh and the other comes from Alaska. An interesting bunch of accents indeed.

So I figured today would be a fairly relaxing day, as the first one of the course. WRONG!!!! Oh, what optimism. What naivety. What a fool am I. Next time I read in the fine print that something is an intensive course I’M GOING TO BELIEVE IT. I am now back home laden with homework and still breathing hard and drowning in sweat from that horrible bluddy hill that was lying patiently in wait for me all day, just to raise up top end of itself and stretching to become twice as long as soon as I set foot on it.

I just want to flop on my couch and die, but I can’t - I have work to do. Whenever I do courses, I always forget how exhausting new mental input can be, then madly sign up for another one. WHEN WILL I FINALLY LEARN??!!

It was an interesting day in class though. Firstly, we did a name-game as an icebreaker. You know, where you say your name and where you’re from, then the next person has to say your name then their name and where they’re from, next person says the first two names, then their own, etc. The poor sod at the end of the line has a lot of names to remember, but it is remarkable how effective this game is. Personally, I have a memory like a sieve, but even I was able to remember all the other people’s names.

We also covered warmer modeling (spending a few minutes getting your students comfortable), context modeling (setting the scenario), classroom environments, pictures and props, and the graceful art of stick-figure drawing. Well, not particularly graceful on my part, but apparently the message still gets through, and that’s the main thing.

Okay, better go shower and eat and work. Gasp. I hope my brain still works…