half way through the year already!

How time flies! We're just about to start our 2 week winter break and I'm quite amazed at how this first semester has sped by.

We had the exam for the 3rd years' course on teaching English to young children and I was very impressed with how well all the students did. They had to teach an activity to the rest of the students, as though they were doing it with a class of 5-year-olds. I was really very pleased with the quality of their teaching, I couldn't have hoped for anything better! Hooray! It is wonderful to think that I’ve trained students who are now capable of teaching English really well.

I asked the students to fill in evaluation sheets at the end of the course and they all came back with really positive comments. They enjoyed the practical nature of the course and the fact that the assessments were designed to help them teach, not just to give them marks. They were also very positive about me as a teacher, which is really affirming. Overall, they gave the course 5/5, so I feel quite confident that I managed to meet their needs and make the course enjoyable enough.

I'm going to a wedding tomorrow evening; a young couple from church. The worry is that the only clothes I've got that are suitably smart are not going to be warm enough. It's forecast to drop in temperature tomorrow and there's a chance of rain. Still, at least I've got clothes to wear!

On Sunday, I'm leaving for the SIM Paraguay team's annual conference. This year it's at a hotel in the countryside and will last 5 days, including some teaching and relaxing as well as a great opportunity to just spend time with the team. As a group we don't get together very often because there are families in a number of different places, some very far away. So I'm looking forward to that.

And that's all my news, I think.