Group Dynamics

My small group, led fearlessly by Kate, is a hodgepodge of accents and countries. Some of us have taught before, but most of the group hasn't. At this point in the stage, and given my background at Syracuse and this summer, I have loads more experience than any other group member. I cling to my head start and study everything I am told every night. Katie, the Australian of the group, is quite possibly my favorite new person. She pronounces every TH like it was an F, which is at first complicated, but it ultimately is quite endearing. Everything becomes Everyfing in Katie's magical mixed-up language. Her spelling is also wonderfully atrocious, so she spells things like headache wrong on the board and gets corrected by students. The rest of the group, sitting in the back of the room, makes frantic gestures to get her attention. Linda is from South Africa, and is a bit older than the rest of us. It has been my experience that the older students are generally the most studious, like they have something to prove to everyone. We go on lunch break and Linda sits in the library, studying her lesson plans. She asks thousands of questions in our small group time and Kate patiently answers it all. It's quite overboard. If we were competing against each other, Linda would be prime competition. Sarah is from New York City and so stereotypical that it makes me laugh. The first day, she pointed to the students and asked them what their name was. The students cowered beneath her glare. When she laughed, she said "That's funny" without a smile on her face. She could beat me up.