This morning class was a disaster. A full on rocket ship explosion during the countdown. With a woman, a monkey, and a child on board. And like a years supply of tomatoes that just wouldn't burn. Awful.
I will be the first to admit that my knowledge of the "major English speaking countries" is pretty much relegated to the United States. And even here, I wouldn't consider myself a history buff. But if you ask me about the history of Canada...I'm a dummy. I didn't even know they were part of the British Commonwealth until about three months ago.
In other words, I should prepare for my culture classes. But often I'm caught up in my own world and...I shouldn't be making excuses. I just don't prepare like I should. I go to class with my powerpoint and my notes and just read the information to the class (which has ridiculous mistakes like Christopher Columbus was British...). Generally, I know enough to fill in the gaps, but sometimes I don't and I just stumble over the details until something sounds right. Or some portal of my mind is jogged back to fifth grade and I can remember it. Regardless, I don't treat this class as I should.
And today I got punished for it.
I started out ok. The powerpoint was going smoothly. I knew most of the information. I corrected the Cristobal Colon thing (British?! Give me a break!). But then I finished the powerpoint. I finished all my notes. I finished everything planned for this class. This 90 minute class. In about 20 minutes. I rushed home for more info and went back to the class explaining the movie we will watch next week. Spouting little pieces of trivia from my voyage to London. And generally boring the hell out of my class. For the next 50 minutes or so, I bombed. Terribly. Painfully.
It works itself out, I guess. I've definitely learned my lesson. I will learn about these English speaking countries. I'll look over the material beforehand (and try to correct the errors). And I'll try to make it so much more interesting for my poor students...
