School: week two & DW "Closing Time"
Sep. 25th, 2011 04:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bagheera_sanWeek two of teacher internship is over. Taught my first German lesson (on narrators and text interpretation at nearly A-Level level) and it went well. I have no problem whatsoever teaching older pupils (about 17-18), in fact, I enjoy it. My one problem is that I can't stop myself from smiling or laughing when they do silly stuff, so I undermine my own authority.
Next week I have to teach three lessons and I can already tell that nothing eats time like lesson preparation. Also, who the hell thinks its a good idea to teach grammar to adult native speakers who don't plan on a career in writing?
*
Yesterday's Who episode was mostly cute, but not as good as the last two. Matt Smith and Matt Smith's Wonderful Coat were awesome, however. Seriously, that coat deserves a BAFTA.
BAD:
*Cybermen defeated through the power of love. I hate "love defeats everything" anyway, but it seems particularly dumb when used against Cybermen. The whole point of Cybermen is that they take things like love away from you. That's the horror of them. If you can defeat them with love, then there's no horror at all.
*AMY IS A MODEL. Oh man. I guess now the fact that Amy's biggest skill is looking pretty is canon. I'm sad, because I think any companion is wasted on a modelling career. Even being a kiss-o-gram is a better use of companion skills.
GOOD:
*ELEVEN. I've never liked him as much as I did this episode. At one point I thought, "I'm really glad he isn't actually going to die, because then I would miss him." Matt Smith is good at a number of Doctor-ish things - being young-old, being alien/peculiar, being wise and clever and sad. This episode let him use all those skills, and mixed it with some funny bits and the result is that Eleven and Ten have never been more different. Basically this episode was Eleven's version of the final sequence of End of Time, only whereas Ten was all sulking and drama, Eleven's angst is quiet and sad and generally much more accepting. Also: Eleven and kids always works.
Also, I wish the long coat and bow tie combination had been his costume from the start - his other coat was too normal, and could be worn with a bow tie anyway, this new outfit looks much stranger (and much more dramatic), just as a Doctor outfit ought to look.
*Baby. The Stormy joke did not get old.
*Cybermats. My Benny-induced horror of them persists, but at the same time they're hilarious.
*The whole gay comedy with Craig and the Doctor worked for me.
One thing that made me thoughtful was the bit about the Doctor believing in humans. "The God Complex" gave away neither the Doctor's greatest fear nor his faith. Does he believe in humanity the way Amy believed in him? I don't think so. The Doctor believes in the potential of people, and he REALLY LIKES humans, but he's always had a healthy scepticism, too (just think of Three's distrust of the military or the way Four would have scoffed if you told him about the POWER OF LOVE).
Next week I have to teach three lessons and I can already tell that nothing eats time like lesson preparation. Also, who the hell thinks its a good idea to teach grammar to adult native speakers who don't plan on a career in writing?
*
Yesterday's Who episode was mostly cute, but not as good as the last two. Matt Smith and Matt Smith's Wonderful Coat were awesome, however. Seriously, that coat deserves a BAFTA.
BAD:
*Cybermen defeated through the power of love. I hate "love defeats everything" anyway, but it seems particularly dumb when used against Cybermen. The whole point of Cybermen is that they take things like love away from you. That's the horror of them. If you can defeat them with love, then there's no horror at all.
*AMY IS A MODEL. Oh man. I guess now the fact that Amy's biggest skill is looking pretty is canon. I'm sad, because I think any companion is wasted on a modelling career. Even being a kiss-o-gram is a better use of companion skills.
GOOD:
*ELEVEN. I've never liked him as much as I did this episode. At one point I thought, "I'm really glad he isn't actually going to die, because then I would miss him." Matt Smith is good at a number of Doctor-ish things - being young-old, being alien/peculiar, being wise and clever and sad. This episode let him use all those skills, and mixed it with some funny bits and the result is that Eleven and Ten have never been more different. Basically this episode was Eleven's version of the final sequence of End of Time, only whereas Ten was all sulking and drama, Eleven's angst is quiet and sad and generally much more accepting. Also: Eleven and kids always works.
Also, I wish the long coat and bow tie combination had been his costume from the start - his other coat was too normal, and could be worn with a bow tie anyway, this new outfit looks much stranger (and much more dramatic), just as a Doctor outfit ought to look.
*Baby. The Stormy joke did not get old.
*Cybermats. My Benny-induced horror of them persists, but at the same time they're hilarious.
*The whole gay comedy with Craig and the Doctor worked for me.
One thing that made me thoughtful was the bit about the Doctor believing in humans. "The God Complex" gave away neither the Doctor's greatest fear nor his faith. Does he believe in humanity the way Amy believed in him? I don't think so. The Doctor believes in the potential of people, and he REALLY LIKES humans, but he's always had a healthy scepticism, too (just think of Three's distrust of the military or the way Four would have scoffed if you told him about the POWER OF LOVE).
