What have I learned so far?

I have taught for just over a week in my two schools and that means I have taught in over 12 classes.  So - what have I learned so far?

• The male students will always ask if I have a boyfriend.  I don't have to answer, but I do anyway - if only to keep them quiet.
•  Once a student has found a common interest with you, such as a favourite TV show or singer, they will talk to you voluntarily rather than wait to be picked on.  I recently had a student come to me after class instead of running out as soon as the bell sounded and she asked me to give her some recommendations for good TV series to practise her English at home.
• It is very hard to get a class to be quiet if there are more than 12 students.  Just now, I had a class of about 18 students, and they were constantly chatting or whispering to each other.  However, because I was a strange new person in their class, they were curious enough to ask me questions throughout the hour.
• Finding activities to interest the students is hard.  They have compulsory grammar exercises from their teachers, which are never fun, so it's up to me to find or invent games and activities for them to become involved in.
• Never underestimate how a simple reading exercise can help improve their speaking skills.  For one class this morning I worked with pairs of students and asked them to individually read through an article they had studied on London.  Not only does this help their confidence when reading aloud, but it enables you to pick up on commonly mispronounced words.  The main ones I encountered were "law", "cultural", "abbey" and "height".  For some students, I wrote the difficult words out phonetically as best as I could. 

I really think that I will have more ideas to help my students after this week, especially after getting to know their levels of English more and more.  At the moment, I can only remember a handful of names; I hope after the Halloween holidays I will remember lots more!

 On a side note, my flatmate and I visited a language exchange run by "Franglish" on Sunday evening, in Paris.  This was a great opportunity to meet new French people and we were given lots of recommendations of places to see and shops to visit.  The idea of the event was to pass amongst people - much in the style of speed dating! - and talk to each other for 7 minutes in English and 7 minutes in French.  I received lots of compliments on my French which was definitely a confidence boost, and definitely want to go again. (The only downside was that it costs 12€ to go, but in this price you receive a drink!)  To the right is a photo of the inside of the café in which the event took place - L'Autre Café in Paris.  It had a very homely and quaint atmosphere.

For now, I have one more class left and then it is time for me to go home.  Tomorrow and Thursday I am in my second school, and then I am on holiday for 2 weeks - so I cannot complain!

Bonne chance to any readers who are doing the same job as me :)