I had the most successful and least stressful lesson with IIB today. I introduced present continuous and basically took no nonsense from them. I lectured in an even, slow voice, writing things on the board and asking no questions. Instead of involving the students in the presentation (i.e. asking questions that lead them to “discover” the point I’m trying to make), I told them, “This is the present continuous tense. This is how we form it. This is when we use it. This is how it differs from present simple . . .” I gave them a worksheet, basically saying, “Screw student-to-student interactive practice.” They do not handle even the slightest freedom well, so I held the reins the whole forty-five minutes. And the damnedest thing happened: They asked questions; they put forth a little bit of effort. I was shocked. Never again will I treat IIB like I do the other classes. Authoritarian, discipline-based teaching is the only thing that works. I am almost looking forward to next week’s lesson to see if it words again . . .

Strange things with my camera: At first I couldn’t get the shutter to open. I finally figured out that I wasn’t advancing the film properly. Then the real mystery struck: My light meter is no longer working. I am hoping that it is just that the batteries are dead. If not, I”ll spend a lot of money learning how to set the f-stop and shutter speed in various conditions. I should be in Nowy [Targ] Friday, so I’ll hunt down a couple of new batteries.

Marion was in dom nauczyciela blessing people’s houses. He stopped by my place but didn’t come in; even after I asked “Co robisz?” he didn’t offer to sprinkle water around my place. He probably knows (from Danuta) that I am not a Catholic . . .