I had my fifth teaching practice today. It was the presentation of future forms: will, going to, and present continuous. Yeah, you can use a present tense to talk about the future (Later we are playing tennis). Just another reason English is so difficult.

Presentation is the most technical part of the process, and is very structured. First you get the students to tell you the sentence (I did this by playing a tape, pausing it, and asking what the last sentence was). Then you say, and drill the students. Then you have to ask concept checking questions (Did they play tennis yesterday? Are they playing tennis tomorrow?). Then you get the students to tell you each sentence, write it on the board, and highlight the grammatical structure. Since it's so structured, doing this stuff is my strong point.

But giving clear directions continues to be my weak point. I got lots of blank stares, and my exercise didn't go so well. Despite this, I got another S+. I don't teach tomorrow, so I am free tonight. Only five more teaching sessions to go!

I can't believe how much some people are stressing. I get stressed out before a lesson, when I have to run around printing stuff out, making copies, cutting them, queing up tapes, etc. But overall it's not so bad. Maybe it's because I studied engineering. I don't think anything could be more stressful than that. And during the course of my education, I was always trying to get the hightest possible grade.

It is possible to pass the CELTA with an "A" or "B," but getting one of those won't help you. It may help you get your first job, but after that, only experience maters. Actually, all the grades mean is that you are more independent, and need less guidance. I wouldn't mind a bit of guidance at first.