Firm Dictation - Tutor Sesh 4

I've been kind of depressed all day. I finished the teaching video and had a sort of "what's left in life" kind of attitude. Do I open my veins in a hot bath? Hell no. I had a couple of beers and watched "The Devil Wears Prada" with the commentary turned on and proceeded to forget I had to meet with Jose.

So I showed up a little late and a little flustered. I think he sensed it but is so nice and gentle that he just gave me some space and let me settle. I worked through some exercises he was working on with Penny on Monday but they weren't seeming to do the trick. No flow was happening. I then moved into some exercises we had been working on already. Basically, we'd construct simple sentences in the present, past and future. This didn't really seem to be working either. And then I had some inspiration.

This is all TEFL training at CIES stuff. I decided to just go for it and do some dictation. I said, "I speak. You write." I started dictating simple sentences and making him write them. He'd look up as if to say, "I don't know." And I would say, "No es importante si no entendes como hacerlo." He totally was a lamb and didn't make fun of my Spanish. I would indicate I only wanted him to do the best he could by writing what he thought he heard. We went at five and he made several errors but realized that it was a good exercise so when we finished and I asked if it was helpful, he gave me a strong yes and wanted to do more.

That was it. I found something that worked and kept at it. I found it's really important to remember you are trying to teach here and that it is good to be a little firm. We like firm right? Firm cakes. Firm muscles. Firm discipline. Firm leaders. Firm is the new black.