This was a difficult but energizing exercise for me. I felt much more like I was in the spotlight/center of attention, and felt the need to drive a show, keep things rolling and animated, and act like I knew what I was doing. So I got panicked a few times, because I was afraid of impending silences. At one point I lost one of my props (only to find them later … in my HAND!) and needed to switch tracks without slowing much. My familiarity with my students helped that not be scary.

Despite having planned carefully, I totally forgot what I was doing and had to wing it. In fact, one has to wing it, since one can’t be constantly referring to a script.

In my panic to get started, I presented objects too quickly and disorganized-ly. Maybe one lesson in that is that I need to take a deep breath and know that it’s ok — good, in fact — to begin slowly. I don’t have to go from zero to 60 in seconds. In fact, my students also felt that rush and would have appreciated a slower beginning.

The feedback I got was good overall: that I had good energy and that they liked having the real objects rather than representations to touch and handle.

Must be a genuine NEED / REASON to communicate, plus authentic material, real language, information gap. These are key.

• How did the principles of CLT translate into practice?
• What stands out for me?
• Issues/questions?