Eating an Antelope

I was looking for words to describe how I felt as an adult learner in the midst of an intense first module of Teaching English as a Second Language when I came upon the image of a squirrel in a forest being thrust an antelope to eat when he is really only used to gnawing on nuts.

That's a bit how I've felt during the last week and a half. As I think about it, they are squeezing the entire first module into two weeks with loads of reading assignments, writing assignments, a take home test and a group project that needs to be presented on the last night which is next Tuesday. I only started this module last week!!

I take comfort in the fact that other women my age taking the course are also feeling overwhelmed even though one of them has a degree of some sort and appears to be highly intelligent. But then looks can be deceiving. Who knows, I may be deceiving people as well. Apparently when they found out I work with dyslexic children they imagined me to be a real live teacher. As in a university degree. I have a certificate signed by Bonnie's husband extolling my virtues as a certified reading instructor. I sometimes wonder what that really means as I feel like a bit of a poser.

I do love the diversity of students in the class however, and the teacher is a delight. Wide age range of students with some having just graduated from high school, some my age and younger and one appearing to be a pensioner. I'm impressed by a married couple who are high school teachers from Korea who spent a great deal of money to come here and take this class without English being their first language. If I'm overwhelmed by the huge amount of material being fed to me in my mother tongue, these ones must feel like they are trying to chow down an elephant!

For the poster presentation which is a huge percentage of our final mark, I'm paired together with a lovely young woman. This entails writing a lesson plan and presenting it with as much ingenuity, creativity and accuracy as possible. My partner has aspirations to be chosen to take our poster presentation to much higher places. I don't share her enthusiasm but I'm glad she's a keener. Just not keen enough to have presented me with any tangible poster parts yet. Actually I take that back. She bought the poster board on which the project is going to hold our creative genius. I sent her a rough draft of the assignment today leaving places for her to add her brilliance.

As the class swirled around me the other day and terminology was being tossed about as if I should be familiar with it I began to wonder if I was brain damaged. I don't know how the others in the class were able to answer the questions the teacher was throwing out to them randomly and I was hugely relieved when she passed me over. I was wondering what on earth a learning strategy was among other things.

I will continue to take my salmon oil and hope for brighter days. Literally and figuratively.