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ZzZzzz…..(Sleep) vs. (CELTA)….9am - 7pm

Sunday, March 11th, 2007

I was supposed to prepare for my CELTA Teaching Practice and one of my assignments due the next day. However, I forgot all about it and spent hours watching TV and thinking about the Eurovision contest. It was something like 1:00am when I remembered I have class the next day. “Oh My God!!!” was the only sentence I said to my self for at least an hour. The time was 2:00am and I still hadn’t prepared a word for my lesson plan or assignment! I sat down in front of the computer and started working on it. Finally, I had finished everything at around 7 am (writing my lesson plan, preparing the activities, finding visuals I may need, thinking and searching for the stress on the new vocabulary I was to introduce, preparing activities and their answer keys, writing out my assignment etc.). My class was to begin at 9 am. So, I left the house at 8am and was there on time!

Note: That day ended at 7pm; I managed not to fall asleep or look tired for 10 hours!

P.S. I got an Above Standard for that lesson and a pass on my assignment!

P.P.S. This may happen to you as well. What I kept on telling my self all night was “You’re young and you have energy”! So try to convince your self when you are at a crisis. However, don’t forget your health comes first, so don’t push your luck.

Posted in teaching practice, forgot, celta, lesson plan, plan, English, assignment, sleep | 2 Comments »

____GoLDeN RuLeS____

Sunday, March 4th, 2007

If you are planning to start a CELTA course, here are the golden rules to follow;

Be organised: Those of you that have a computer, create a folder for everything you do (Homework, Assignments, Lesson Plans, Self Evaluations, Observations etc.). If you don’t have a computer, prepare your self a folder with all the documents in separate files.

Sleep well: You need to have enough sleep! Otherwise you may have some mood swings which might affect your teaching, understanding and patience.

Go to the institute early: If you are planning to take a CELTA full-time course, try to go there early. It will give you the chance to speak to your tutors, ask for advice, and listen to juicy gossip (hehe just kidding).Take notes: Even if you think the topic of the lesson is easy, you will need something to refer to when you are lesson planning. Those easy things are usually hard to remember when you have a teaching practice to plan for.