Shana Tova

It's the end of another teaching week here in rainy BsAs. This week I've taught twenty four hours (including a 'double' class where the students of two classes were combined into one), finished off my adolescent reports, had two Italian lessons (but my teacher has agreed to not give me any homework) and fooled around on the on-line training course. Tomorrow is parent's day for my non-exam classes so I'll be spending the afternoon waiting for the occasional parent to drop in and be reassured about their child's progress. I don't have any problem students, just a few who don't work as hard as they could and some who don't have enough confidence in their own ability.

Wednesday to Friday this week is Jewish New Year or Rosh Hashanah so a lot of my students haven't attended. This meant that I had a 1-to-1 with one of my baby birds. I asked him what he wanted to do (1 to 1's are an ideal opportunity to deal with specific problems or weaknesses) and he said 'Conditionals'. I have to admit I came out in a cold sweat. If there's one area of the English language I cannot get my head around, it's conditionals. I've been teaching for seven years now, I've taught all levels from complete beginners to post proficiency, I've taught general English, business English, English for specific purposes and Cambridge exams. I've taught conditionals several times but never, never, never have I felt able to answer the question 'What type of conditional is this?' Luckily, the school used the same coursebook a couple of years ago and someone went to a lot of effort to create activities which take you through conditionals at proficiency level. So I grabbed those and some grammar books and the two of us worked our way through the exercises. He said he was happy at the end and, I must admit, the time flew.

A thunderstorm has just started overhead, no doubt it's woken up a few people but it doesn't bother me. Truth to tell I love the noise and the drama. I know better than to go outside during one - I don't want to be struck by lightning - but I love the pretty light and sound effects.

Ok, I'm off to bed. Lots to do tomorrow.

PS the title of this post is a traditional Jewish greeting at this time and translates as 'A good year'