Lesson Planning...ekk

I've been busy the past few days lesson planning. I don't have a book that I use, nor do I get any guidance from the Foreign Language Department. I asked my students to write down and turn in to me a few ideas of what they want to learn from me for the rest of the term. They all know I'm leaving in July, so this is really their last chance to pick my brain.


I read all their suggestions a week ago, so now I'm trying to formulate how to weave their suggestions into the next six weeks. For some, lesson planning without materials or a book can be frightening, and I admit for me in the first few weeks it was, too. I'm a creative, out-of-the-box person and I appreciate the freedom and latitude this job allows me. Like other oral English teachers, I rely on the Internet as my primary source. Yesterday I researched short, famous American speeches so that I can have my students learn to recite them. What's been hardest is for me to teach pronunciation. How to explain how to make the 'r' sound? Or the 'th' sound?

Yesterday I had two students come over, Betty and Sharon. They pointed at the word 'apple.'

"You told us to pronounce it as 'apple,' but our other teacher told us to pronounce it as 'apple.'
said Betty.

Both of Betty's 'apples' sounded exactly the same to me.

"Maybe both are okay." I said.

I always try to explain that English is so different than Chinese. In English there are several ways to say the same word, such as "potato, potaato." and they are both okay. In Chinese, there are tones, and there is only one precise way to say the word.

I'm most exhausted after I teach pronunciation. I never knew that speaking was so exhausting.

I'm still working on lesson planning today.

Tonight Ned and I are judging the "Foreign Drama Competition"... it's gonna be interesting.