This will not be a rant

This is how I felt yesterday and this morning!

This post would love to be a rant, but I am determined to see the sunny side.

Because of a last minute class cancellation, I am now teaching a 7am class I am not prepared to teach... two hours earlier than I am supposed to teach. This means my leisurely Summer of getting to school at the late (for me) hour of 8:00 is gone as now I teach at 7am... meaning I leave the house at about 5:30 to get to school at 6:00.

This class that I am teaching..I am still not quite sure what it is, but it is TOEFL preparation, but not like the other TOEFL prep classes I give where students are taking my class to prepare for the TOEFL, no in this class taking the TOEFL is optional.

I had talked to the teacher who had my class previously to see if I could snag his syllabus, only to be told he hadn't made one. He was planning on doing a TBL type class involving anime with one student, and working on the other student's confidence... well that's great! But how do you give a grade to confidence?

So the first day's lesson plan? I cheated. I am giving them a diagnostic TOEFL test because I didn't know how else I'd be able to ad lib a 3 hour class.

Seven am rolls around and I meet my two students. They seem pleasant enough and speak to me in English (YAY good first signs). I explain that today will be boring, but I just want to know what they need to work on, so we'll do the TOEFL diagnostic test. At this point a student I used to have (and failed my first semester here) walks in and explains she's taking this class too.

She isn't on my list, but after talking to my boss she figures out she should be in another class, but she can't make the time, so she's joining mine. I am still not sure what to do about that.

However, as I said before, this is NOT a rant.

I am going to look at the numerous benefits this situation has given me:

1. I get to walk to school early before the sun comes out, so that prevents skin cancer!
2. I'm employed and will be receiving a pay check for June and July.
3. I get the luxury of tailoring my lessons just for my students and don't need to stick to a curriculum someone else made.
4. The girls seem very nice, and while there are the occasional lapses into Spanish, for the most part they are speaking English.
5. There are three students! I doubt I'd ever get a class of three students in the states.
6. My new work laptop's battery actually lasts the whole class meaning I don't need to lug the power cord around.
7. My classroom is now in the same building as my office which means less time spent walking around campus.
8. I won't have that week of being nervous while I wait for my students' TOEFL results.
9. My boss is being super chill and even said he wouldn't object if I wanted to hold a class or two at the nearby coffee place.
10. I asked my boss if I could leave early, so instead of working from 6:00am-6:00pm I'll have a shorter work day of 6:00am-4:00pm/5:00pm. (Of course leaving early won't help me if I have to stay late to lesson plan, but let's overlook that.)

So there we go, my Summer is looking to be a bit busier than I had originally thought, but I look forward the chance to try out new things.

Right now the plan is to: 1. Grade their diagnostic tests to find their weaknesses 2. Sort these in the order I want to teach them 3. Find a television show that I can use to teach these points (I am thinking Boy Meets World right now, but I am not 100% sure yet).

So there we go. My attempts at turning my frown upside down. This isn't the worst teaching situation I've ever found myself in, but it comes close.

If you think you have me beat I'd love some schadenfreude! Tell me about the last "last minute" teaching chaos you got thrown into in the comments!