Reality show ESL training, continued

By the second day of training we already had our first assignment, and that was to split up into groups to teach each other a "skill." That went pretty well, and afterwards the teacher said, "Okay, these are going to be your groups for the rest of the training. Now split up again and think of a team name." Team name? Now that definitely resembled a reality tv show. I began to feel like there were hidden cameras somewhere so that the trainers could watch and chuckle at our negotiation attempts. I found out some interesting things about my groupmates. We have a few poets, a youth worker, a therapist, and many travelers. At least four out of six of us identified themselves as introverts.

Unlike reality tv, the training is not at all cutthroat. The candidates are all encouraged to do well and make it through the whole program. It's hard to student-teach and have people point out your mistakes, but it's also nice to have people reassuring you when you were a bundle of nerves and felt like nothing went right in your lesson.

There are some confusing aspects, like the lingo. By the end of the week we already had SWBAT, ELC, VAKTaSTic, PPU, KISS, EC, CCQ, TPS, PDP, PPU, FUMP, and others. My last lesson plan was returned to me with the comment: "This is not a TPS format. It's PDP or PPU." Luckily it was Friday, so it didn't really matter if my brain exploded.

So that was Week One. Three more weeks to go.