Day 1

Friday was my first day with my class this year. As I am still completing my MA program, I am only teaching grade 4 beginners this school year. I have 14 students so far, which is great for class, but not so great for the up coming research. However, I was super excited about starting the school year and teaching kids again. This year I am starting the class of with Story Listening right away. Of course during the first class, we made sure the kids are in the right level and we spent some time getting to know each other. I learned that, for the first time ever, I have a beginner class in which ALL students speak English. I actually have a common language!
At the end of the class, I wanted to do one quick story, just to give them an idea of what's to come. So after talking a bit about what we will do in class and some expectations, I did Alvin Schwartz "In a dark, dark room".

You will hear the students comment in English and I am not expecting them to be all quiet. They were a little nervous when I told them that I was going to tell them a whole story in German, but it went well. Keep in mind this is story 1 on DAY 1 - we just met.
I almost ran out of time as the students from the other German classes started to come in, which is why you see me wave them off in the end. ;) But we finished and after the story I had two very excited boys come up to me and ask me if they could tell me the story in English, because they understood EVERYTHING! I call this a great start.