k-rudd and me teach esl together

me and my new teaching tool:


seriously! i have k-rudd stuck in my little cubicle, and after we've laboured our way through a narrative in english i say "now i'd like you to tell my friend kevin about what happened in that story." it turns out that asking "what is the basic idea of that story?" or "what's that story about?" is a very difficult question, so having a third person to refer to is invaluable. thanks, vta!

one of my students recognised k-rudd, chatted knowledgeably on recent events in australian politics and spent an hour yesterday grilling me on the stolen generation and canadian indigenous relations. in contrast, a man i taught earlier in the week went on a long rant about how hard australian accents are to understand and what odd vocabulary australians used (he'd visited there) , so i talked to him for an hour in a canadian accent. it was v. good practise.

teaching is getting better now i'm getting to know my students. i'm also getting better at teaching ESL and explaining stuff like which words need an article. i'm not getting better at coping physically with all this work, so i'm off to buy iron supplements and green leafy things. there comes a time when pale and interesting goes too far. . .