End of module three - reload; and how cold it is!

So, having spent a week working on module three for a whole week, I submitted the new version two days ago, having got no idea if what I did was what I was meant to do... I have changed the course outline, and have included objectives, which may show that I know what I'm doing...I have therefore changed the materials, and this means that most of chapter 3, 4, 5, have changed too... Word limit checked, and since the maximum is 4500, I have stopped at 4476, which is good enough to me.
Results in February, so fingers crossed till then.

Plans for the last days in London now include:
- a lot of tv watching...too cold to get out, I did today to go to Kingston and it was worth it, but I thought my nose would fall off! And my fingers...and my toes... Lovely, though, because once home you get in the hot shower, and it's simply glorious! So more walks to come...followed by, as I said, non-stop crime series.
- a lot of reading: having finished the book I've received for my birthday, I am now reading another one, which I started this afternoon, but being halfway already, I think I'll be done either late tonight, or early tomorrow afternoon..I need more books.
- some teacher development: I can't believe I have actually the time to read all my books on methodologies and stuff, in peace, at my own pace, and not because I need to quote someone in an assignment that has to be submitted in a week or so...It's great to read things that you want to read, just because you want to.

And finally, on Monday I have the very important interview/meeting/setting things straight with my future employers, fingers crossed...
And the following Thursday mum is coming, so it'll be walking around, visiting, being a tourist all day, albeit one who knows a lot more about the area than you would think... And in less than two weeks, it's Italy and family holidays, and I just can't wait :-) So can't wait!

When the game gets tough...(time for module 3).

So, finally I meet my tutor, just for a chat. I kind of expect some feedback on module 2 and 3, because after all, I have prepared a whole new observed lesson without knowing what went wrong with the one before, so I am left in the dark as to whether this was more like what they wanted to see...Anyway.
It appears that Cambridge can't be bothered to give feedback to candidates: so, when up to last year module 3 would come back with a bit of a list of things that could make it better, from this year it doesn't even come back, Cambridge just says "pass/fail", and that's about it. Clearly one essential criteria to pass a Delta is to be psychic and be able to read in their minds...
If this wasn't enough, the deadline to submit the new improved version of module 3 is...November 30th. Which leaves me with a week, really, to do my work, read the assignment again, try to understand how it could be improved, re-write it, and submit it. But there are so many questions that we don't know the answer to, such as:
- can I actually provide a new course plan? And doesn't this mean that in the meantime I have modified my previous one, taught it, and now I am talking about it?
- Do I actually have to teach the course, then, or is it fine if I am just discussing the possibility of teaching something like this?
- In that case, how am I supposed to assess criteria such as validity and reliability and the whole lot, if I haven't actually tested it on a class? (not that it would make much of a difference to me, really, since I didn't teach my other one either...well I did, only two months AFTER I submitted the assignment!)

...I guess I would have more questions if I wasted time thinking about it...but being an action girl, let's get down to work and see what I can do for now, considering that I have half forgotten most of it...oh, man.

Over and done with? LSA4 -reload

The assessor arrives at 10 o'clock...of course, my tutor had said 10.30, which sounded strange, but nevertheless..then again, my tutors have never been quite reliable..
I am beyond agitated, and have revised, practised, rehearsed the lesson a million times, checked the assignment and cover sheet, the worksheet, the teacher's copy, the lesson plan (improved), and everything is fine, and looks good. At breaktime I check the dvd, the cd player, everything works fine, and I am feeling well.
The lesson begins, and it goes so well, so well! Responsive, cooperative students, and they do notice so many things, and practice so eagerly, and enjoy everything, and there is laughter, seriousness, a bit of this and a bit of that, I feel pretty well, and eventually the assessor leaves, big smile on his face.
I am shaking, and the feedback from the students is so good: the Korean girl is happy because she has noticed stress which she had never noticed before; the Turkish and Arabic are very happy too, for the film, the listening, all the noticing activities. Everyone else is pretty satisfied too, and the box of "Celebrations" is perfect to conclude the lesson.

I have now spent 4 hours watching tv, having enjoyed a salmon bagel, mango, and a mini chocolate mousse, because I need a reward for having survived yet another challenge. Hopefully now I have done enough... I couldn't stop smiling when I left the school, and am elated at the idea that I am done with module 2, fingers crossed of course, and from next week I'll be working on the improved version of my module 3.
So, module one - check. Module two - check. Nearly there.

Meanwhile, on Monday I have the second interview for the management job, and after that I have an interview for a teaching position which could evolve into an ADOS position...more fingers crossed, I guess... But it means going back to Bournemouth, which is exactly what I want and need. Good.

Another countdown...

Worksheet ready, including a teacher's copy, more for the assessor's sake than for myself...you never know. The cover sheet is almost ready, having completed that waste of time by the name of language analysis, and tomorrow I am going to observe the class, so I get an idea of the students' profile...although as I write I realise that half of them will be from another class, so...uff, one more problem to deal with.
In the meantime, a probable interesting interview for an ADOS position, fingers crossed. I can't believe that by the end of the month I will be done with two out of three modules of the diploma, and two weeks away from the end of module three...all complete, at last. I noticed that most of the people who took the exam with me haven't passed all, which is quite encouraging, so it wasn't just me sweating blood over books and assignment for nine months and being so disappointed at the end.
Other than that, I feel pretty positive about the interview I had on Friday, particularly since they want to see me again, which is usually a good sign. It would be interesting to get this job, a bit of management experience is always good in a cv...

Ok, enough of this chit-chat. Back to business.

And now for the cover sheet...

...am currently stressing about the cover sheet, as the title might suggest... Tomorrow I am going to arrange and observe my class, and prepare the language analysis, and all that. Again, it's really writing by default, and the assignment is now complete, at 2442 words, 12 references to materials and 7 different sources in the bibliography... Then, I think of Linda and her great essays and lessons, and of how she only just passed...and I think of the interview on Friday, which went so well, and how the girl asked me why I decided to do the Delta after only two years...yes, interesting question. I think we all embarked on that suicidal trip to find some stability in this life of uncertainty, of going from place to place, of not knowing if this room will be the same in two months' time, if we will be in the same city next week.
For the past 6 months I have lived in 4 different places; I haven't been able to cook one meal for myself; I have panicked and stressed over my things, crammed in my friend's flat, because I have nowhere to store them. I have been thinking of going back "home", where I would have my room, my family and my friends, and I wouldn't be so lonely that I cry most days, unable to see the future. One more interview tomorrow, and a hostile city, that's what it's proved to be, that I want to run away from. I envy the ones who have their own life, and a house, and a family, because these are things that I have tried to have for the past 5 years, and I have worked so hard, and nothing has changed.
Still, here we go, working hard and hoping that eventually all these efforts will be rewarded. The interview went really well, and I feel quite optimistic about it. And next week it's my birthday, which I am going to celebrate alone, since I don't have any friends here - ok, I'm seeing theatre friend the day before for the makeover thing in central London. But there's only so much I can ask of one single person.
On the plus side, having been to Bournemouth, I have finally have my precious boxes with me, and this means my Parrot, my Underhill, Hewings, my dictionary, and my biography of London and of Turner; yes, this prompts the questions "where the hell am I going to put them when Christmas comes and I have to leave this place", and I'm afraid the answer is yet again "theatre friend's flat", but fingers crossed my books and I will have a job and a place to stay in a few weeks.

More on LSA4 - reload, and a rant on the Cambridge people

The assignment is nearly done: I am at the stage where you have analysed the topic and you have presented the potential issues regarding teaching it, the learners, and so on.
I can't stop thinking of the appaling essay that I have recently read, which was beyond fail, it was simply unbelievable: things thrown in with no logical order, random paragraphs, only two references, spelling mistakes, NO reference whatsoever to any materials, the bibliography a simple list of titles and authors where the "An A-Z of ELT" had become simply "ELZ", and I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT PASSED, AND MINE DIDN'T!

Anyway, the worksheet is nearly complete too, and tomorrow I am going to see who my students will be; I am just going to find out names and nationalities, and maybe arrange to observe a lesson on Tuesday, so I can get an idea for the class profile. Little by little, again, things are shaping up, except it feels that it will be right, and then there's this horrible feeling that somehow Cambridge wants the moon from me, and I don't have it. And I would love to show them my feedback forms from all my previous jobs, and my promotion to senior teacher on day two of my job last summer, and the beautiful feedback from all my students, which counts so much more than their stupid boxes to tick. But of course, if I want the diploma, I have to speak their own metalanguage, and try and think in their own little world, where nothing real happens. Sad people. I am pretty sure that none of them remembers what it's like to teach, and none of them would be able to teach a class properly. Of course, in theory they are geniuses, and they know their Thornbury and Parrot backwards. But put them in a class of lazy Arabs, or of traditional Germans, or forgetful Italian and Spanish,then we'll see.

Man, when is this going to end.

On pronunciation

Focus of my LSA4 - reload...

I experimented the lesson with my last class, on Friday, my last day at work. The results are:
- counting the number of syllables: dangerous (two syllables?). I will need to make sure that no funny questions are asked, although, not being God, I hope the assessor will be lenient...
- deciding where the stress goes: better. As in, that's where I can see students struggle, so my theory holds, and we can have a chat and a revision and they all practice, so it's good. I think.
- deciding where the stress goes in a sentence: not so easy as it looks, and that's also good. Some students are quicker than others, and with a bit of support we all made it there.
- the practice with Spiderman: awesome. It was really good, andI had the right balance of boys and girls to play the part, it was fun, it was good, it ended well.

The whole lesson, with improvised material, took just over an hour, and considering that we were faffing about, it's ok. I could imagine the assessor walking out just as we were repeating the lines while watching the movie, and it would make a good impression, I believe...It's practice, it's doing what they were supposed to do, and so on...

Currently working on the assignment, which is being written by default, having written so many by now... The only thing is: will it be good enough? Who knows what these Cambridge people want. I can only do my best, again, and pray for the best.

Meanwhile, it's still raining, so my plans of morning gym and afternoon study have gone in the gutter, which means a whole day of study and preparation, followed by a day of nothing at all, by which I mean gym and a trip to London for tea and shopping...sounds nice, and it should help my gloomy mood too.

No resources in the teacher's room...

Observation at school tomorrow morning…uff. The day before my contract terminates, and there is no work for me after that there, so why bother, I wonder? It just means wasting time on a silly lesson plan, which by the way is the same that the teachers had to prepare on the days of the BC inspection – and it’s funny, in a ridiculous way, because there is such a box as the timetable fit, Delta-style…except it’s silly to fill that in, and in total rebel-style, this is what I have written:
“The lesson opens the new unit in the book, having just finished unit 6. (…). In future lessons the focus will be on unit 8 (…)”.
…what else could I have written? It’s a short-term class, the two students who have been here the most have been here for 2 weeks and are leaving this week, so what’s the point?
This conveyor belt teaching style, with lack of extra resources, is very disappointing, and above all depressing: going by the book is boring and dry, especially when it’s a book that seems to focus on teenagers in lots of activities, and crams in grammar and random vocabulary, with silly exercises that are the opposite of memorable. And I can’t really integrate these lessons with anything, which is really sad, because I have no other resources in the teacher’s room, and clearly my own materials are somewhere else. And in any case it seems that the focus here is on a traditional teaching style, with lots of TTT, grammar, exercises, and the like of it. I’m not totally against it, but it feels dry, forced, useless: what’s the point of me explaining a million rules per lesson, and talking for most of the 3 hours we spend together, when I already know the grammar and can use it properly, and don’t need any speaking or listening practice, this being (sort of) my own language? Speak, dammit!

In other news, assignment for LSA4 – reload, is going ok, and with a lot of effort (and headache, backache, and sleepless nights) I will have the necessary materials to test the lesson on Friday. Shame that, as I said, these guys are not really great for speaking and practicing pronunciation… Well, at least I can get an idea of the time, then, and prepare lots of back-up, or simply change it to a 45 minute lesson.
So, back to study now, and two more days before leaving the school…

Pronounciation and another observation

Long time no see, mostly because I've been busy teaching in London, teaching in Hull, finding another job in London, finding a place to live in London, trying to find more work...
LSA4 - reload, is coming soon. Having said that, I have no idea of when it will be, as far as I'm aware it may well be tomorrow, since my tutor only appears when he needs money or admin info from me, and seems to be in another country/world/planet any other time...
Anyway, I am working on an assignment on pronunciation and stress in connected speech, having been convinced that discourse is a suicidal decision (it did feel like that, but pronunciation is so scary). I have spent most of yesterday and today working on notes, preparing a provisional lesson plan, thinkink of resources. My weekly plan involves an equal amount of time spent on the assignment, on preparing the materials, the class profile (of a class I don't even have, this being my last week at the school and probably my last too, by the looks of it), and all that jazz.
The school I am working for is not exactly the best I have worked for...Week three of four, they take a picture of me to put on the teachers' wall, which makes me feel they are serious about keeping me on. They plan to observe me on Thursday, that is, the day before my last day of contract, which is either promising or really bad planning. They haven't given me a contract because the DOS is the only one who prepares them, and she's back on week four, which means I may as well have a contract on my last day of the contract, which somehow is hilarious. They say it will be no problem to find me a class for the observation, but they can't tell me if there will be work after November 5th (presumably because of some Guy Fawkes-like attack on the school that they have foreseen but which may not happen...). They have been giving me lots of work, which on the one hand is pretty cool as I am paid by the hour, and on the other hand it makes me feel that it's so that by the end of week four they will have their complete 12-week course for EAP and they can send me away, no longer needing my services. Clearly not good.
But enough complaining: I've been working 7 hours already and I feel that some distraction is well deserved... Miss Marple here I come.

Time flies

Well, it's week 4 already, and so far so good..which is strange. It's the first time in 3 years that a summer camp goes perfectly fine, and all my classes are awesome, and I don't have to stay up all night planning lessons, and all that.
Having said that, we may have a British Council inspection on Thursday..since they seem to be after me, I bet that of all the centres they could choose, they're going to end up here. Oh, well. I am prepared, and have been under 3 inspections already, and all I think is, if I have survived the Delta, really, there isn't much more that I can't do.

In other news, and on a more personal side, I am starting to think that I am not ready yet. As much as I miss human contact, and sometimes I really feel it, I am slowly realising that I may not be ready for it yet. Not just with anyone. Although I have pangs of jealousy whenever I see certain things happen which I would like to be part of, and then I remember that it's not going to happen, me being what I am, so I am almost fine with it.
It's not time yet.

Update...

On day 2 of my new job in London, I have become a senior teacher...
By day 5, I am nearly in love with a cute guy who, unfortunately, looks a LOOOOOT like my ex...
Almost week 3, and I am seriously wondering what to do with myself...and would rather concentrate on teaching and not be bothered by heart matters...but as they say, le coeur a des raisons que la raison ne connait pas.

Dammit.

Countdown..and the feedback questionnaire

Well, with only a few days between me and freedom, I can say I am feeling quite confident. Although I have no idea whatsoever about my module 3.

So, first we receive this email that says: goodbye, thanks for working together, for the time we spent on those long dark winter nights talking crap, ahem, about methodology, and so on.
Following this, an email that says: oh, guys, two of us are going to Lybia for a month on Friday, yes, it's a few days before the final exam and the deadline for module 3, so for any question bother our number 3, who has no clue about anything and will take a day to reply, if he replies at all, but hey, good luck, maybe we can meet up during the summer for a drink and a laugh, hey?

....
So I email number 3 with a question about module three. Then I email again to say that on Thursday I am going to go to the school to pick up my memory stick that I left there for them to download my files (which they should have already, but rather than finding them in the mailbox they had me leave my flashdrive there...).
On Thursday I go to the school, and guess what: no memory stick anywhere, and no sign of guy number 3. Oh yes, and no reply to my question either.

I find a partial answer on the handbook, then receive his email saying that he didn't really understand what I meant about the bibliography...
Now, this is the way I asked my question:
"In the bibliography for the assignments on module 2 we had to include at least 5 sources, and they had to be mentioned in the assignment itself, I was wondering if the same principles applies to module 3, i.e. is there a minimum number of sources to include and mention?"

....

Ok...sounds like proper English to me!
Well, in the end, Cambridge says that I should show extensive research, and only include in the bibliography the people I have mentioned in the assignment. This results in a total of 9 sources, although I have read some 20 books for the bloody paper. Of this 9 sources, 6 are directly relevant to the subject I am discussing, and 3 are general teaching resources such as Harmer and Scrivener. FINGERS CROSSED! I hope Cambridge will consider it enough...

Well, following all this the only thing left to do was let them have my feedback questionnaire... and question one, "is there any aspect of the course that wasn't satisfactory or caused problems" did give me material for writing...
So, I won't say all the things that I wrote in the questionnaire, because I also doubt that they will be taken into account, however I haven't been satisfied with the way the course has been presented and managed, and if I have missed so many lessons it's also because some evenings, looking at what we were going to do in the session, my only thought was "what a waste of time", which, looking at the photocopies, actually was.

I don't know.
But in 5 days it will all be over, and I will be packing, celebrating, going to the beach, and spending the last days in Bournemouth NOT studying...

And the countdown is...

Oh my God, three weeks and I'll be over and done with the Dip! ..Well, provided I have passed the external, and that module 3 is a pass, and that module 1 is a pass..
I am not worried about module 1, really. With barely no preparation I have almost got a distinction, so I am ok with that. Module 3 is complete, only needs some editing as I am (again) over the word limit, so have to cut some 80 words...Plus, what is it with people who assume that I should have a fancy mobile phone?
Foreword: when submitting the assignment for module 3 you have to provide appendices, which, if necessary, have to be scanned. Although I know we have a scanner (and a cool photocopier which also scans and emails stuff) at school, I just thought I'd make sure that I need to scan my materials (which seems stupid, since I provide page numbers and all that, and I believe the Cambridge people will be familiar with materials that..well, that they publish!). So I asked, do I have to? And what if I don't have a scanner?
The answer, from a random person who signed "regards" and no name, is: "try to take some pics with your mobile phone, it sometimes works"..
Ehm...thanks for assuming, as I said, that I have a fancy phone, when I have everything but...

In other news, it's sunny, breezy, birds singing in the sunset, warm enough, and I have an interesting and not too difficult class, this week, L3.2. And I meet up with my favourite students after the lessons, and at lunch time, and they are nice, and smiling, and they make me smile too. I do love this job.

When you have a word limit....

..there's little that you can do.
So, even though I have been told to include one more author in my assignment, by mentioning him in my paragraph about memorising vocabulary...ahem...well it's not possible, ok? Not when you have already written 2376 words, and you have to add some parts to the linguistic analysis, because (for no reason whatsoever) you need to say that Spanish speakers would say /kukear/ instead of /kuke/ (pretend there are schwas in the right place). Why should I talk about Spanish pro? I have no Spanish in my class, never have!
Anyway, all this adding useless info for the sake of it has made me go way beyond the word limit, so I spent almost 2 hours trimming and working away, trying to say what needed to be said within 2500 words.
I have 2479 words. And the shortest conclusion ever seen. Fact is, I cannot squeeze in different frameworks now, and it will have to be a general, sum-it-all-up kind of conclusion. I don't care. The analysis, the issues and solutions, the appendices, the bibliography, it's all fine, the word count spot on. Do we really care about 5 lines???

In other news, I have been moved to L4.3, because you can only do so much when dealing with traditionalist Arabs who think they are the leaders in class, and assign homework to the other students! My patience, proverbially endless, has actually come to an end after 2 months of bearing with this guy. And I certainly am not up for more frustration and lessons that go wrong because the idiot thinks he knows more than everyone else, and he even wants to tell me how to behave with students or what to teach in class.

And finally, in two weeks I'll be on holiday, having survived the external observation and being four weeks away from the end of it all. My, I really can't wait.

What a waste of paper

Naming no names, the initials will be enough: NH intermediate. What a lot of rubbish. Having previously complained about its boring listening, its useless reading, its unbelievable list of vocabulary (unit 5, if I'm not mistaken, introduces none other than 25 adjectives!), today I will complain about its random presentation of grammar.

Unit 8, revision of conditionals (first and second): revision of first, all fine, intro to time clauses like "when I have time I'll take a second degree" or stuff like that. Even the grammar box and the explanation at the back of the book reiterates that nothing but present simple and perfect go after "when", so I stick to the instructions, just in case...and before I know it, the practice exercise that follows gives a sentence such as "when will you know if you've got the job", which fair enough, cannot be expressed otherwise, but haven't you just told your lot that the future cannot go after "when"???

Man, I do hate this book... Luckily I can use other resources, or god knows how I would have survived these 6 (7?) weeks...

In other news, having prepared paragraph 3 of module 3, improved the introduction, completed the background assignment for LSA4, prepared the lesson plan, I can definetely say that I am exhausted...and it's only Monday.

A-ha

..as in: Take on me - great song: I couldn't help dancing on the bike at the gym, while it was playing soooooo loud in my earphones! I was one step away from singing it too, then thought of my fellow sweaters (as in: other people who were sweating on the machines), and screamed the song in my head. Good girl:-)

Anyway, one good thing from the money I am spending for the Delta: two pages on pronunciation which brought my students straight into the fantastic world of single vowel sounds, from "tree" /tri:/ to "boot" /bu:t/ through "car" /ca:/.
Beautiful.

PDA Stage 4, or: utopia

Since we are almost at the end of module 2 (with the external observation being the nightmare of nightmares, but let's not dwell on it), there is one more thing to do to close a chapter: complete the PDA assignment.
The PD (professional development) assignment, also called R&A (research and action), is the idea that after being observed the first time (the diagnostic, that is, not the official LSA1), you can identify key areas for development and improvement, as well as strengths to work on even more to become a super teacher. (Ahem: yeah, right).
So, divided into three stages, first you identify these areas, in the next session you say how you are working on them and possibly if there is anything to adjust (example: now that you, examiner, mention it, I see that my board work is not that bad...but my ccq are, so let's include them in my list. Just an example - my ccq are great, and so is my boardwork!).
Now it's the last stage, which is the one where (I just checked this on the rubric) you comment on how my "beliefs on teaching and learning and my classroom practice have changed as a result of this assignment" then you "identify and critically evaluate the most effective procedures and/or methods and/or documents for reflection and observation" that I (should) have used for my own professional development for this assignment; finally, you outline how you will continue to use these as part of your own continuing professional development.

In other words, you tell them what they want to hear and everyone's happy.
Because once again, let's face it, would we really have the time to do this? How can I write on my assignment that not only I have never had time to observe other teachers (being that I need to work to pay the rent/food/gym/books/Delta and can't just take time off), but the two I actually observed in December had a lot more faults than me and actually, I think that they would have benefited from a couple of input sessions on, say, how NOT to answer your own ccq. How can I say that yes, in an ideal world I would come home from a 10-hour work day and happily start developing materials for professional development, such as student's questionnaires, feedback forms, write my own journal on every lesson (which fair enough, I tried to do, only time...), and so on and so forth. Experience has taught me that most teachers just go by the book, and have no interest whatsoever in improving their teaching skills, especially once they're happily settled (like my current colleagues) and all they need to do is check that the cd player works, then off to class. Some do put some effort, but only because they've seen the same material over and over again and could do with some variety!
Ultimately, I am going to work on improving, constantly, because it's the way I am, and I love my job and want to be good at it. But I don't think I need to tell the Delta people that I will do it, because I certainly cannot promise a detailed action plan when I have no idea where I will be a year from now. Or six months from now, as far as I'm aware...the job in London is only until mid-August...

Anyway, enough of this: let's just write it down and pretend it never happened.
Happy Easter, everyone:-)

7 books and counting - plus: the unreal life of DELTA students

Am currently preparing for LSA4: having read 7 books on the topic of teaching vocabulary, the only thing that is now clear is that nothing is clear.
Just like when I was preparing the assignment for LSA1, listening, everything is good and nothing is good. Pre-teaching vocabulary, not pre-teaching it, first the meaning then the form or the other way around, only 5 items or 20 items, chunks or single units, high TTT or total student's autonomy, translation or not translation.

Once again, I feel like everything I have done for the past 2 odd years doesn't mean anything, and is possibly wrong: if you believe the Cambridge people, the world of EFL is a fantastic island where every lesson is a rainbow of perfectly behaved smart students, who respond with perfect timing and the correct word, where a working day stretches to infinity, allowing you the time to plan and prepare perfect, memorable lessons, all from scratch, thanks to the wonders of technology and of your brilliant mind, you, the EFL teacher, holder of language knowldege.

In real life, unfortunately, a working day means being up at 6.30, walking to school, grab a cup of tea and start flipping through books wondering how to make your students click, and finally say "I went to the pub last night" rather than "I go to pub yesterday night" for the umpteenth time. And after queueing for the photocopier which will normally break down at precisely 8.32 of a Monday morning, you decide to actually use the horrible course book assigned for this run of the course, only to find out that the cd doesn't work, or the cd player doesn't work, or they work fine but the listening is so boring that it sends you to sleep in a microsecond.
Then in your afternoon class, as you are teaching IELTS to a bunch of lazy students whose studies are paid by the government so who can't be bothered to study when they can have a fun life free from responsabilities, you are trying to elicit methods to actually pass the bleeding exam, for example by looking at the questions, first, and guessing what the answers may be, the response to which is that one of them, after the lesson, goes to your DOS and says that you don't know the answers and are asking them!
At the end of the day you decide to go to the gym, because your brain needs some rest, so you spend an hour sweating on a treadmill watching CBBC on the screen in front of you, and when you go home, and it's almost 7 o'clock, all you want to do is collapse in a heap, crawl to the bed and enjoy a nice book (like the new biography of Dickens that you've just bought).
But no, there's the A-Z of EFL waiting for you on the desk, piled up with Lewis and Schmitt and Nation, and needs analysis forms to study, and of course your friend Jordan, all shouting for attention; and finally, what exactly are we going to teach tomorrow?
Oh, right, the class wants to study present perfect simple and continuous, the same class of students who today, after 90 minutes 90 of "I went - I didn't go", told you that "yesterday I don't sleep much because I go to pub with my friends"...

Observation week

Yes, because if I didn't have enough, I am going to be observed tomorrow by one of the head teachers, in preparation for the British Council Inspection (it must be me: every school I go to receives notice for an inspection...clearly, they're after me), and then on Thursday I have LSA3...
As always, the thing with these observations is that you prepare so thoroughly for the 60 minutes with the tutor or whoever it is, and then you are left alone, wondering how to fill in the other 30 minutes, and in my case, the other 90 minutes after the break too!
Oh, well...

In other news, we are working on module 3, with a bit of cheating, I confess, as the commentary to the needs analysis is almost ready...but the needs analysis questionnaire hasn't even been given to the class! So I am half making things up, half writing stuff I have noticed in my class, where a full immersion, 3 hours a day 5 days a week, is always a good way to gather data, considering how they like to tell me about their needs and wants, and their studies in the UK and whatnot. So,
not so much cheating as anticipating the results...

And finally, being St Patrick's day on Wednesday, we have a useful (was going to write "interesting", but I'm afraid it will be kind of boring) lesson about it, which will be a good excuse to show some Michael Flatley to my boys in L4...What I wouldn't do to spread the word...

Articles: my own material (almost)

I like making my own stuff (without sounding suspicious). It allows a bit of creativity, and when you have to use such a horrible useless nonsense book like NH, well, sometimes it's the only thing you can do.
So today it was articles, which for a class of Arabs and Czechs and Koreans was a real struggle, but thanks to James Bond it worked well.
So all you do is: find an extract from a book (can't, for the life of me, can't remember where that reading came from), a very short passage about James Bond and someone named Mary and a guy from KGB.
Give it to the students with random questions to answer (being the last thing on my mind I had to make them up as I was writing on the board, so it was all about "who do you think Mary is" and "what do you think will happen next").
Write a couple of examples on the board, test how much they know of why in one there is "the" and in the other there is "a".
Go throughsome examples and rules.
A matching exercise (from sentence to explanation) is useful, at this point: I found a good one in "Trouble with articles" or something like that (have tried to find a link on Amazon, no such luck). Of course the students will want to do the other exercises as well, which is just fine as they are dialogues and spot-the-mistake kind of exercises, so it's good.
Finally, take the reading back (I made them turn the page over so that they couldn't read it), and give them the same reading but with gap-fills: I have never seen them so interested as in those 10 minutes (excluding an idiot who doesn't deserve more attention here than what he gets - not - in class. Seriously, nothing hurts an attention-seeker more than not getting attention, and I am soooo good at ignoring people when they annoy me. Unfortunately for him, I always give people 3 chances, and he burnt his 3 within 5 minutes of the first day in class).
Optional: snakes and ladders from New Cutting Edge pre-intermediate Teacher's Book: meant to be a 20 minutes game, it turned into a 50 minute-tournament...
Optional 2: Skaterboy from New English File intermediate TB; a song is always appreciated, and in today's case, it was a good way to conclude, since it also goes quite fast, so even if they had to predict how to fill the gaps before listening, it was still tough.

Big smile! Tomorrow it's speaking day, mostly, Friday will be food and easy stuff, maybe a category game, then at 12 half the class will leave to go to the Mosque, so I'm nearly done. And next week it's L5, so, back to my pre-intermediate. Hopefully I'll have "small Abdullah", who is fun to teach. Shame I'll have to leave "big Abdullah", who has been renamed "sweet Abdullah": you look at him and melt, nothing but that.
I love this class:-)

It's all about skimming

Or so it seems.
Welcome to the IELTS (low) class, where we patronise students with study skills they already have, or they have already learnt about because they have been on the course for so long that they've seen all that could possibly be seen.
The problem is, they still don't get it.
So, first of all we have an open discussion to brainstorm good ideas and bad ideas to apply on the reading part. Among the good ideas, we have things like:
- see if the title can give some information on what the article will be about (i.e. activate schemata, and there goes the spidergram on the board);
- read the first sentence of every paragraph;
- use illustrations to help you understand.
Among the bad things, we have:
- underline names and dates (that is scanning, my dear, not relevant or useful here);
- get stuck on unknown vocabulary.

So, everything is clear, they look almost bored when they tell me the do's and dont's, and so we proceed to do the reading, where I give them 3 minutes to skim the text (literally 30 lines) and produce a sentence that summarises it. It's about Malcom X and MLK, and some differences and similarities, so it's pretty clear, and you know what happens next?

They all get stuck on unknown vocabulary.
The all underline, no, worse, CIRCLE names and dates AND the unknown vocabulary.
The even start looking for translations in their evil electronic dictionaries.
And three minutes later, they haven't got a clue of what the article is about...but have a whole list of words to ask me!

And tomorrow: WRITING! Are you ready?

On the other hand, morning class: a gem. Dictogloss: a success. But this will be another story - LSA3, background assignment, is calling...

This is why I love my job

"Dear teacher,
thank you for teaching me. I really enjoyed studying English. You always smile and I like your smile. I had a good time with you, so I never forget you. I wish you happiness".

"Dear teacher,
thank you teacher. You taught me speaking and writing. I think I talked with you a lot. You always worry about students and you always think about students. It's difficult for people but you do it. You say "I want to become a good teacher" every day, why? I'm sure you're very very good teacher and I hope you will become the best teacher all over the world.
You can do it".

Confessions of an Agatha Christie-a-holic

..ahem..well, what can I say, I'm guilty. ITV3 is on a Poirot marathon, and having watched two movies yesterday, and (ehm) 4 today, I feel I can happily register in some detox programme now...
But it's worked: while watching "Lord Edgware dies" I read and took notes from my materials on writing and writing lessons; during "The ABC murders" I prepared a skeleton and first draft of the background assignment for LSA3; as Poirot investigated in "The Hollow" I decided the plan for the perfect writing lesson; and as the clues became clearer and clearer (not) in "The murder of Roger Ackroyd" I sketched both a needs analysis sheet and a diagnostic test for module 3. So, how productive was my Sunday then?
I definetely deserved a "quiet" day like today, and am now ready to go back to work tomorrow, for an intense week, which will see me teach L5 as always, prepare the Japanese for their TOEIC in lesson 7, and run more and more...After all, exercise is a natural anti-depressant.

Depression, chocolate, and a little help from my friends

Well, let's not talk about the first topic of the title, shall we?

But it's Chinese new year on Sunday, and my students are set on making me a choc-a-holic, clearly! Lovely L5, all of them. Although I hate teaching long courses in the afternoon as I never know what to do, and apparently I cannot use the book for EAP? Why is that?
Anyway, the weekend is going to be dedicated to a study of needs analysis and diagnostic tests, to..test on my L5 next week, before preparing section 2 of my extended assignment. The good news is, I just got back section 1, and my tutor says I'm off to a good start...phew! Also, all I had to do was ask a couple of people in the office and...two emails with sample of needs analysis questionnaires, and a teacher who was still looking for more samples as I was leaving the school, muttering something about how he won't get any sleep if he can't find them... I always find it amazing when people are so nice to me. It's...moving.

In other news, I've got a job offer with interesting future opportunities, so: London here I come! It's official, I am moving the the city by the end of June, and will work there all summer, then let's keep our fingers crossed and see if I can stay in the same school (and chances are very high, apparently). But I also had another phone interview this morning, and it was very positive, and I must contact the school again come June, to see what they have on offer for me; in that case it would be either senior teacher or (hear hear) assistant director! Let's not get too excited, though!

It is a relief to know that module 3 has started off well, and I am now preparing for LSA3, and I mean that I am practising writing lessons...of course writing is one of those skills that students never want to practice, even IELTS students think they can get away with it. But I will get them used to a writing lesson a week from now on, so that by the time of the observation they will be ready! Fingers crossed, again, though, since come next observation I could have a completely different class, either in terms of students (it's stage test time next week, which means that some of them may move to L4) or in terms of level (I may be moved to another class). Oh, well. At least I will have some practice on it and will be more prepared.

Other than that...Well, depression is back, although not too heavily, and the gym is scaring it away, together with my strengthened will power. I won't go down that easily this time. It is only sad that I should let this thing go against my will, and only to save my life, so to speak, when all I wanted to do was giving a hug and offer support to a person who won't accept it out of some misplaced ideas of right and wrong. Still, I've done all that I could and more. It breaks my heart, but it's for the best.

Observations and a pub meeting

...So, LSA2 passed. Very close to a merit too, apparently, if it weren't that my paperwork sucks (yes, so my PDA should comment on...how I cannot master the Cambridge-speak). I'm really relieved, although the comment from the tutor, that I should see the lesson in retrospective with a bit of emotional distance, is not really a great help: after all, I taught the lesson, and the way I feel after teaching it is just naturally influencing my judgement, no matter what. In the previous lesson I was relieved that the students had reacted a bit better and thought that everything had gone fine, only to find out that I had just passed, and this time I had battled with stress for three days, and nightmares, and all that, convinced that it was a fail, when instead it would have been a merit, even. How can I be unbiased when it is me we are discussing?

Anyhow, lesson passed, fingers crossed for the assignment, since things seem to have changed at the DELTA, so the pub meeting we had scheduled after the session on Thursday, just to share some info that we may have learnt separately during out course, became instead a communal rant on what the hell is going on now. And the reason for this is that we ALL have to resubmit our experimental practice assignment, an assignment previously described as "impossible to fail". But what drives us mad is some of the criteria for this resubmission: in my case, just to mention one point, there is a comment that criticises my choice to submit the article in a format different than the original...Now, having submitted the assignment electronically, what was I supposed to do, buy a scanner, scan the article, and attach it??? And there are other idiocies like this, where fastidiousness seems to be the main criteria of evaluation. This is simply unacceptable, especially when we haven't really had much to work on in terms of instructions, and receiving feedback AFTERWARDS is not really useful, since, for example, in the case of the lessons, if something is wrong in a listening lesson I will probably not need to know it during a writing lesson, and so on. Shouldn't we rather have some more criteria on what will be judged in a lesson? Example two is the fantastic "whatever you do is wrong" point: S. spent an unplanned 3 minutes explaining a thing to a student during her lesson, thus responding to students' need. Wrong. A student in D.'s class asked a question and she decided to put the answer off to a later point in the lesson: also wrong, because she didn't respond to student's needs. So, what exactly are we to do?

Well, there are lots of things on our mind now, with LSA3 in a month, and the ongoing module 3 that is already causing problems (my bibliography contains books that I cannot find in the library, and the tutor must be mad if he thinks that I'm going to spend 200£ on books that I will use this once and never again; S.'s bibliography came on the day we were supposed to hand in the introduction...), so I must say that we are all pretty pissed off, and on the verge of a riot. Interesting, that's for sure.

In other news, blogspot is refusing to show me the font, which means that I cannot choose how the post will be published; at the same time, Word is refusing to let me copy (or cut) and paste my entries to the blog itself, which means spending hours writing online...so not good for my balance (the account balance, that is).

Well, more news to come: now back to the topic of my next observation, which is writing (speaking is too unpredictable). Oh, yes: we've just found out that LSA3, assignment and all, is going to Cambridge too, so that IS the lesson that we MUST pass, not just any internally observed lesson (as in, passing LSA1 and 2 was not that necessary then). Great. Anything else?

What not to do during an observed lesson...

Ahem...where do I start?

Clearly, the first requirement would be to have the class that you were actually meant to have up to a week before said observation, and for which you have structured a whole 2500-word essay, devised a complete 60-minute lesson plan,including a cover sheet with problems, assumptions, class profile, language analysis, and you have also created the materials from scratch...yes, that would be ideal.
If, however, three days before going back to work you find out that what you are going to have is two classes of German teenagers, on a forced study holiday, on a forced business English syllabus, well, then...maybe this is a good time for that talk with God that you have always put off for lack of time or will.
However, said God is kind of angry for being put aside while you were too busy working, preparing, running, and generally trying to survive on no salary whatsoever and another 800 quid to pay for your diploma, therefore He is going to have a lie-in on the morning of your observation. You expected that, so once more it's a rolling up of sleeves and breathe deeply before starting the lesson with an unknown class.
Once you realise that your material is too optimistic for this class, and that they require a bit more help, forget your assessor and just go with the flow: play the clip one more time, stopping at the important bits so they understand properly; write down a couple of useful words in no particular order, do a bit of CCQ, then move on to the grammar noticing part. Now, this is where you may need to actually help them out at the beginning, but they are quite good, and it seems that slowly, very slowly, they are coming out of their teacher-is-god mindset, and are cooperating to finish the task. Breathe in, breathe out, keep going.
Now, it's time for the guided practice: it should have started a minimum of 7 to 10 minutes ago, but as you will dutifully point out in your evaluation form, you have been responding to your students' needs, not messing around wasting time, so, breather in, breathe out, let's begin the practice, and go around the classroom checking, monitoring, chatting with the students. It seems to be working, very slowly, and at this point the assessor leaves the room, and you can finally collapse in a heap on the floor, before resuming your smiling self and moving on with the practice, and a casual chat with your class...

Feedback to come on Monday, and forecast says it's not going to be positive, unfortunately. No matter the fact that I was teaching an unknown class, that I was so stressed I could barely breathe, that I positively responded to the students' needs and ultimately they used the language appropriately, the assessor will see my messy boardwork (which I had to restructure while the students were working in pairs), my casual instructions (although clearer than usual, I must say), and my running overtime, so that all she could see was the beginning of the guided practice - although I did point out that the students were able to use the target language appropriately by the end of the real lesson, i.e. 90 minutes, because come on, in real life a lesson is not bloody 60 minutes, it's a whole hour and a half, so why messing us around?
Anyway. As I said, I don't expect a positive feedback, in fact I expect to have failed this one. How annoying, especially because it was not (entirely) my fault: if I had had my class as expected, things would have gone fine, because I know those guys and I know that they wouldn't have had problems with that lesson. But clearly, the Delta people are not going to consider that...

So, for now, let's go back to EAP and how to begin the assignment: considering how every book on EAP about writing skills puts writer's block for an introduction as one of the most common problems, perhaps this is not a good idea?

All work and no play...no, the other way around...

Well, after a very relaxing time filled with snow, food, friends, lazy walks and shopping...back to work, back to reality.

And back to the fantastic world of EFL, specifically EAP, the subject of my extended assignment! Well, I've got lots to read about it, and no idea of how to structure the essay, so...good!
At the same time, I should really start with my LSA2, and so far, having been back for a few days, all I've done is..the skeleton. At least I'm not working at school, so I can actually say that I can write the whole thing in a week because I've got nothing else to do!

In other news, there is a lot on my mind. So much that I can barely express it here. In the end, the solution is a class of body balance (tomorrow: dance jam!), a walk to town, a couple of emails, and lots of music. It usually works.

Happy new year, then. May it be a successful one.