This week I observed the intermediate Speaking Class 2 with Angel. The first thing Angel engaged the class in was an ice breaker and asked them individually what they did over the weekend. As they communicated what they engaged in over the weekend, he would correct them on words or phrases they needed help on or said incorrectly. The class environment was warm and welcoming and clearly a judgement-free zone. I could tell the students felt pretty comfortable in speaking in front of him and the class. After the ice breaker, Angel introduced the lesson for the day which was talking about presentations and preparing the students on their upcoming presentation. Throughout the lesson he asked them a lot about their own opinions on what makes a good presentation and presenter. Although it was a lecture, it was very interactive and the students had many chances to speak and express what they thought. I found he used a lot of stories and examples for them to relate to, and at the end of the class showed a video to demonstrate what a good presentation looked like and had them critique it at the end. This opened an open dialogue and reciprocation amongst the students. I definitely would like to implement these strategies in my classroom, as well:)
My third conversation partner meeting was with Josue, my conversation partner from Paris, France. He suggested that we go to a restaurant for this meeting, and recommended the Colombian restaurant on Tennessee St. called "Super Perros". I had never been to this restaurant before, so it was interesting to not only converse with someone from outside of my culture but also at a cultural restaurant with an atmosphere and menu different than what I am used to. Most of the menu was in Spanish, so we were able to bond over trying to figure out what the menu was saying, and ended up sharing a lot of laughs over it. During our meeting, we caught up on how he was doing at CIES, what he's involved in in Tallahasee, and discussed deeper topics such as the current political affairs going on in France. This led to a grander discussion about American politics, and it turned out we had similar views. It was interesting to connect our ideas across border lines, realizing we all want the ...
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