TESOL is almost finished!

Whew! Just one week to go. Yippee!!! This course has stretched me in so many ways and has pointed out to me what areas of my teaching style and ability need to be worked on (namely, grammar). I guess I've been speaking English so long that I don't remember the rules of why we say things and pronounce things the way we do. It's been many years since I've thought about what a preposition is, let alone try to explain to a non-English speaker what prepositions are, or articles, or minimal pairs and phrasal verbs, etc. etc.

The whole thing has been quite a stretch, but the most rewarding part of the whole course has been the practicum. Each evening our class heads into town to teach English to speakers of other languages. We have people from Columbia, Peru, India, Mexico, Russia, etc. taking our classes. It's been such a joy! They are so eager to learn, so excited to improve their English speaking ability.

I've learned several things about myself during this course: 1) I'm not very good at giving a grammar presentation (my grades are lowest in that area); 2) That I don't function too well on 4-5 hours of sleep at night; 3) That I flourish best in an environment of acceptance; 4) That I need words of affirmation to keep from feeling overwhelmed by taunting tasks.

Sorry for my lack of postings to this blog over the past several weeks. I really thought I would have a chance to post a little, even if not a lot. We were warned that this course would be "intense" but little did any of us really know how "all-consuming" it would really be.

Please keep me in your prayers as I finish up my TESOL training. And please let me know if there is anything I can be praying for you about.

A few days ago John (our son) called to let us know that Daniel is now officially a "Fleming." PRAISE GOD!!! Now things move on to the passport and visa stage. Please keep them, and Daniel, and the process in your prayers.