Further to the last post...(Courtney)

So..I left for my last class of the day brimming with confidence. Of course I should know that whenever this happens, disastor is about to strike. Which it did. Up until now I have been pretty cool and calm in class, I haven't really done anything goofy or made a fool of myself which is surprising.

I get to class and it is my least favourite class of the week, Class 12. At least I get it over and done with on a Tuesday. Last week we performed our restaurant dialogues, and Class 12 was a nightmare. One group did so badly I told them they would redo their dialogue for homework (we never set homework) and perform it again next week. So I had been umming and ahhing as to whether I should follow through and Marcus told me I should so that I don't lose respect. Better to follow through than not. I get to class and say right, group 10, you will perform your dialogue before we start class. The rest of the class go nuts, they love that I have remembered. They are hooting and cheering and arms are up in the air. The boys in the group weren't too impressed that I had remembered, but they dutifully got up and did their dialogue which they had written properly and it was much better than last week.

So now I get the computer going and pop in the stick thing that had the song on it. I know what the stick thing is called but I cannot remember. Memory something. So I have a bit of a look on the screen and realise I have no idea what I am doing, which isn't helped by the computer being in Chinese. I ask for the class monitor to help me. He fiddles around and tells me that the stick is empty, there is nothing on it! Great! The damned song is on there. No dramas, I'll look on the school intranet as we have saved it there too. Marcus used the intranet in his classes with no problems. I open it up and I have NO idea suddenly what I am looking for. I click around a bit with no luck...where is the bloody song!!! Then another boy gets up to help, who usually helps me with the computer. He uses the stick thing again, and thank the gods, it works. So I press play for the song...there is no sound. By now I am flustered and red. The boy comes back up. After a minute of fiddling suddenly the room bursts to life with the sounds of The Beatles. Phew!!! This took 15 minutes of a 40 minute class. So so embarrassing.

So I figure everything is ok from here. The kids start listening and they all start yelling out "Yesterday! Yesterday! We know". Good lord, they know the song already (this is what I mean by it being a popular song for ESL teachers to whip out) I ask if they want to hear it anyway and got a chorus of yes so we continue. At the end of the first listening, I go to hand out the lyrics so they can read/sing along. As I take off the bulldog clip that is holding the pieces of paper together, I slip and the bulldog clip goes flying and hits a boy in the front row.

All I can do at this point is hope that the bell goes...and soon. On a positive note, this was the first time Class 12 has actually behaved for me out of 2 months of classes.