4 May- the day of perfect attendance



morning post-secondary class

Back row: Michaela, Jindra, Kristina, Helena, Zuzka, Mira

Middle row: Petra, Jana, ME, Mila, Roman

Front row: Michal, Vojta, Petra, Klara

afternoon post-secondary class

Back row: Isabela, Katerina, Vladia, Vojta

Front row: Michaela, Julia

It was an IJV miracle. A once in a lifetime experience. ALL of my post-secondary students attended class today!! Luckily I brought my camera to school to snap a class picture for our year-long 'travel logue' project we've been working on for my afternoon class. I never would have guessed that I would need it for my morning class as well-- I absolutely HAD to document the whole group together. So feast your eyes on my 19-21 year old groups of post-secondary students who are lucky enough to have 3 hours of English lessons everyday!!   

love/hate the czech republic

A prime example of my love/hate relationship with the Czech Republic:
In class today...
me: Sooo the royal wedding is tomorrow-who is excited??!! Is anyone going to watch some of it on tv?
honza: Tomorrow? Really?
me: Yes, Honza. Haven't you read about it in the newspaper or heard about it on tv? This is kind of important.
jitka: Well, yes of course Natalie.
honza: But there is something with more important tomorrow.
me: More important than the royal wedding? What is it?
vojta: It is the world hockey championships.
klara: what means 'royal'?

SPRING is in the air

It has been a long time since my last post, so I'll give a quick Prague update.

Almost like clockwork, as March arrived so did the feeling of a new season. Days are noticably longer, green buds appeared on trees and warm sun has allowed me to leave heavy winter gear at home. Spring is here!!

Classes are going well- my post secondary students are deep into Cambridge exam preparation and almost all of them passed their first Mock Test last month. We will do another practise exam in April before the real deal in June. I have started a new business client, Gemalto, a France-based security company. Every Thursday for three hours I meet with about 15 IT security students who have excellent English skills thanks to their international staff and regular classes. I also have a new public conversation class on Wednesday afternoons with a nice mix of University students and middle-aged working women who returned from my autumn course.

When I'm not at school I am busily planning out trips for the next three months, going for walks around the neighborhood or out with friends enjoying Praha in the springtime.

Next week is spring holiday for the post-secondary students so Deanna, Melissa and I are spending the weekend in Munich, Germany. Then, sister comes 1 April!! I took the whole week off so we are going to spend some time in Prague, Budapest, Hungary, and a day trip somewhere else in the Czech Republic. Can't wait!

That is all for now as it looks like another beautiful day!

Veselé Vánoce!

my 'elementary' level post-secondary class

Yesterday was our last day with post-secondary classses until after the new year, so we had a Christmas-themed lesson! There are many differences between Czech and American traditions at Christmastime, so we had a nice discussion comparing our two cultures. Since they don't have stockings to hang  by the chimney with care, I had them decorate their own (paper) stocking to bring home! As you can see they were very creative and had a good time with the mini art project. We listened to Christmas music in the background and it was even snowing outside so it was quite a festive lesson. They gave me a present from baby Jesus (the Czech equivalent to Santa?)  and were looking forward to 2 weeks holiday  :)





my 'pre-intermediate' post-secondary class... at the pub!

My other post-secondary class (above ) was sad to see the end of the week come because the other teacher, Zach, will be going back home early January. So we had our Christmas lesson then took them out to a pub nearby for a farewell drink. Five and a half hours later we were finally saying goodbye! They were very happy to have us spend time with them outside of class and we all enjoyed each other's company very much.

Now I just have 4 classes this week and I'm off to London for Christmas!

i'm thankful for skype.

skype family frame shot

Happy Thanksgiving!!
In honor of turkey day I successfully pulled off a turkey hand-art project with my Czech students, making them tell me, 'Farmer Natalie', why I shouldn't kill them for my Thanksgiving dinner. It was hilarious.

After school I came home and had a skype-athon! First with my fam in Minnesota celebrating at Uncle Tom and Aunt Susie's house, then with the Nanny/Faust/Quinton/Pelant crew in SNOWY St Louis, and finally with Zoey in Seattle. whew!

Lots to be thankful for this year, and looking forward to our own attenpted Thanksgiving dinner this weekend in Praha!

Hello, Goodbye, and standardized testing

I started life as an actual teacher on Monday...but then my first class got cancelled...

...so then I re-started life as an actual teacher yesterday with my "first" class at a medical supply company, OZP. There were 6 very kind students eager to start the course again after a 3 month break, only to find that I had to give a standardized test on day 1 to assess their level. After brief introductions and an intense 75 minutes of testing they were very happy to go home and I didn't blame them. After grading them I am happy to see their results and hope that they can indeed move up a level to Upper-Intermediate.

Back at IJV I received a revised schedule and it looks like I have two post-secondary classes which each meet daily for 90 minutes. These classes are composed of 16 (!) students ages 19-21 who need to pass the English exam to get accepted into University. I will be teaching from a regular textbook for the first semester, then doing exam preparation for the Cambridge exams starting after Christmas break.

For the rest of the week I am creating supplemental coversation lesson plans for IJV, saying goodbye to fellow TEFL classmates who are leaving Prague for various reasons, and meeting the rest of the English teaching staff!

last day of TEFL!

I cannot believe that the four weeks have passed so quickly, but today I am teaching my last lesson as a TEFL student.

To celebrate, everyone receives their certificate at the end of the day with a champagne toast... or 5.

I am very happy to have survived the course and that I start day one of work on Monday morning!

Hopefully I will hear back`about the dream apartment I saw last night and will be moving this weekend.. hopefully :)