Halloween and more about work

I went to my first ever Italian Halloween party on Friday and the people that organized the party who some of the most enthusiastic Halloween lovers I've seen here. There were all kinds of decorations- the spider webs, little orange candles, orange pumpkin lights, other types of streamers and a fully carved Jack-o-lantern. Plus, everyone was in costume. However, I had to laugh when I saw the types of food that were on the table and I said to one of the guys who did the decorating and who seemed most excited about everything, "This is the best Halloween party ever, but you can tell that it is Italian. I'm not sure how many American Halloween parties have a bowl of mini mozzarella balls and a bowl of olives as appetizers!" He laughed too. Man, was there a lot of food...I haven't been that full in a while...P.S. I dressed up as Cupid and of course took no pictures because I always forget.

Anyway, tomorrow I start my first after-school conversation class. I'm doing three 20-week courses, one that meets every Monday 2:30pm-3:30pm, another that meets on Tuesday at the same time, and another on Wednesday at the same time. I'm already thinking about ways that I can make the class my own and give it structure. I think I'm definitely going to use one of the tricks my first ever Italian teacher used and give each student a little cheat sheet of English expressions that they can use to avoid using Italian in the classroom. For example, I'm going to include how to say, "How do you say _______ in English?", "What does _______ mean?", and "I don't understand, can you repeat that?" You'd be surprised at how often students will revert back to Italian just to say, "Come si dice _______ in inglese?" ("How do you say _______ in English?"). It seems innocent enough, but it really breaks the flow of speaking in English and makes it harder to concentrate on one language. Another thing is that a lot of students use the structure, "What is _______?" instead of "What does _______ mean?". For example the other day a student asked me, "What is 'cuddle''?" and yes it sounded very adorable and all, but I'd rather that they spoke like a native speakers! I hope the cheat sheet helps....

Another idea I might use is one that I learned from several of my professors in college. I think it would probably be best to have the students sit in a circle during class, especially because there are only 12 of them in each course. The idea is that if you are standing in front of the class and they are all facing you listening, it isn't the ideal environment for encouraging conversation between the students. Furthermore, in Italy students are much more used to the "You lecture. I listen." format of class and it can be hard at times for them to participate in a discussion-based classroom environment. Yet another reason to avoid making them feel like that is what this class is about!

Last update: my advisor didn't really know anyone who needed private lessons but she helped me make some mini flyers that I'm going to put up today when I go to town. The other American assistant also mentioned that she could hook me up with some potential clients which is great.