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…

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.

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.

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.

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...

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".

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?

And just like that...

I’m having a recovery weekend. To be honest, I’m going to work and finish my assignment now, but I am taking things easy, because I am exhausted.

So, to begin with, five minutes into my Thursday lesson, my Czech student decides to tell me that she’d rather be in a class with a native speaker, so that she can talk about England in the 80’s, as she’s got an exam coming up and she wants to know more about it. The thing shocks me so much that I spend the next 90 minutes thinking “I want to get out of here, get out of here” endlessly while Polish guy blabbers away about everything. Seriously, that guy is non-stop. At break time I tell the manager to move her to L2 from Monday, then realise I cannot stand having her in my class again, so I go back to the office, and I try to tell him to move her from Friday, only to burst into tears and beg to have her moved away as soon as possible. Manager is very supportive, and I feel so well about it, he goes “I’m moving her right now, I’m not having this!”, and gives permission to all the teachers who will have her in class..to make her cry.
The thing that annoys me is that even though I were a native speaker, what tells you that I’ll be able to tell you anything about England in the 80’s? Plus, I was a child in the 80’s! I was busy learning to write, playing with my schoolmates, going to swimming lessons!
Well, she’ll certainly be delighted to be in Denise’s class, who by the way spent the 80’s in Australia…

In other news, my body decided to reset the system. Only it forgot to inform me of such a procedure, so it took me by surprise when, while talking to Denise on Friday night, I heard a high-pitched sound in my ears, my vision blurred, and the next thing I know, I have collapsed on the floor and am “dreaming” away, I can’t remember what, but there are voices in my head and I am in another dimension for a while, until I hear Denise’s voice from a distance, and I slowly come round, as she’s trying to move me to a better position than heaped on plastic boxes by the sofa. I am sweating and hyperventilating, I can’t hear, I am confused, and I slowly, very slowly, come back.
So yes, my body decided that a reboot would have been a good idea. Clearly I am overdoing it a bit, and with another week to go, this was just a signal that maybe I should slow down? Eh, if only I could. So maybe the idea of preparing for a half marathon is not the greatest plan I can have, I suppose. Shame, because I am halfway there already! I guess that combining the stress of working full-time on a fixed term contract with such a low salary, plus going to college twice a week and to workshops, and studying like mad the rest of the time, and dedicating almost 2 hours a day four times a week to hardcore work out at the gym, plus not really eating that much (no time, really, and when I have time I’m not hungry anyway) is pushing it too far. That’s what Christmas is for, right? To rest (a bit… I am going to study as much as possible, and run as much as possible too, but I am also planning lots of relaxing cooking, walks, and lots of sleep…much needed). Anyway, I had never fainted before, so it’s been an interesting albeit scary experience. I know it’s a weird comment, but it’s just what I think.

So, now, about that assignment…

Mal comune...

I’m going to be selfish and (fill the gap with any suitable word for the case), because I have found out that most of my colleagues have to resubmit their background assignment, just like yours truly. Phew! It does make me feel a lot better, especially when all sorts of insecurities and doubts over my abilities came to mind and obsessed me for a couple of days (that is, until the next session when I found out about it). So, no more depression, I am working on the assignment, trying to finish the one related to the experimental practice, and generally cursing my terrible choice of starting my LSA1 with a bottom-up exercise when I could have easily just followed the flow and gone for a traditional top-down activity, like I always do: what was I thinking???
Anyway, no sense in thinking over things past, better get going and work for a better future.

Speaking of which, my horrible students have left at last: HURRAY! On Thursday I experimented the authentic material lesson I had carefully planned, and was observed for part of it, so that I could get some sympathy over their “horribility”, but the observation went well, so I am happy; and on Friday, the last day with them, I even received flowers! Fancy that. Flowers to thank me, because I taught them lots of interesting and useful lessons, they think, and for my patience… Their words! Oh, well, this is why I do it, as we say. But I am certainly glad they are good and gone, and am now preparing for a couple of weeks of…who knows?
Well, I should be doing S2 now, but there are no students, as there was only one, as part of the Czech military, so I guess I am on hold in case a teacher calls in sick; also, I hope I can take some of this time to observe some of my more experiences colleagues… However, this doesn’t sound likely, as ex-academic manager, on roll list for a couple of weeks now, hasn’t shown up, so we’ve all been covering his classes, and something tells me that yours truly will, once again, be deep in covering for two long weeks; then again, if I am not mistaken, his class was the S3, also Czech militaries, so there shouldn’t be anyone there, now. Uhm… Well it will be interesting to go to school tomorrow…
An in the afternoon, after some 2 and a half months on short courses, I’ll be back on long, teaching L4, which includes, regrettably, my Czech housemate with the really bad voice (sorry, I am so bad and will go to hell, but she really has an irritating voice); however, it’s only for 8 lessons, because long courses have Wednesday afternoons free, and so will I! And the first two lessons are ready, as on Thursday they have their PET or KET test, so I will be preparing them, and have nothing to worry about.

Boy, Christmas is coming fast, and I can’t wait, to be honest, and not because I will be relaxing and stuffing my face, no, but because I’ll have more time to study and prepare…well, everything, really, not just my LSA2, but also stuff for module 1 (phonology and methodology, how exciting) and for the extended assignment of module 3. The Cambridge guys are sooo damn strict it scares me, which is why I cherish the whole month of unemployment that I am now facing, so that I will have more time to study, really.
I do wish I could have taken a few months off to do this course properly, or just affording to work part-time, but unfortunately, as most things in my life, suffering is what I have to do.
Only joking. The truth is, I believe that what doesn’t kill you, simply makes you (ta-dah!) stronger.
So, deep breath, and go!

Stressed out...

Yes, it looks like I could do with less worries in my life…

I am writing this in the hope to put my worries on "paper" and make them look less scary, distant, approachable and solvable.
So, where to begin?

One big problem seems to be the lack of time to do everything, or shall I say that all the things that we have to do seem an enormous amount, compared to the actual time we have. Of course, teaching full time is not really helpful, especially when I am a lot better and more experienced in lower levels, and have to teach upper-int and advanced, instead. To make things better, this week I am also on half cover, so instead of recycling stuff from my morning class with my advanced student, and mixing it with general chats and a round of Scrabble, both yesterday and today I had to cover for another upper-int class of catatonic Czech students, who make me want to scream.
If this wasn’t all, it seems that tomorrow I am actually covering for an advanced class? How come, haven’t I got my own to think of? So probably the boss got mixed up, and it would be interesting to go and find out, except that he doesn’t like to see me too often, so I am never comfortable going to the office looking for help…I’m sorry, but it’s not my fault if YOU are the boss therefore YOU are responsible for the timetable and the rest, therefore YOU have the answers! Anyway, seen as I have to bother him about my situation for the year to come, I’d rather risk it and have a surprise tomorrow morning, than bothering him again. So not good, though.

Which leads me to my feelings about my work place at the moment: apart from the general gossip going about, all these women whispering every minute of their day, and even outside work (my landlady, also core staff at the school, seems to enjoy sharing gossip or whatever, whenever she sees me, and doesn’t mind repeating herself, just in case I have forgotten), well apart from that, and from a shared feeling of “we don’t like the boss”, I sense a core vs. temporary staff contrast. They seem to want to make it clear that no, we temporary staff cannot expect to stay here for much longer, unless we are their friends, like nervous inexperienced teacher who finished last week (and all her fault too: when ex-boss said that he would find her stuff to do till the end of the year, she just said “good, thank you”, and walked back to her desk, whereas I cunningly asked for a contract, got one, and therefore am now on the teaching list until the end of the year, with or without students to teach). So, there is going to be a meeting on Thursday, and it does make me laugh that I witnessed the first draft of the notice being made, and it said: “CORE STAFF MEETING”. Said head title was then changed to a general “staff meeting” invitation, but I can’t help feeling that people like Chris, me, or if he was still here, Pawel, wouldn’t really have much to say, and even if we did, our words would probably be drowned or ignored. So, to be honest, I’m going to the gym right after class, on Thursday, and then back to college for another Delta session. I think these are the most important things.

And this leads me to the study problem, which is really stressing me out, and it is the main reason why I stick to this obsessive gym-routine, as I tend to internalise stress, and it’s so not good. As I said, I don’t have enough time for everything, and I am fighting to find it and keep it: I believe I need some me-time, right?
The problem is, I leave the house at 7.40 every single morning; I get to school by 8.20, prepare my lesson at my best (given the horrible course book I have to use, given the even more horrible students I have, and whatnot), and spend the whole day teaching and planning and preparing, and trying to find something to do with my classes, and all that. It is a shared feeling with my Delta colleagues, that we are focusing so much on the learning and preparing for the diploma, that it seems that the standard of our lessons is actually going down, and I seem to be walking out of my classes thinking “what a crap lesson that was!” a lot more often than I would like. Well, at least I’m not alone. I have my diploma classes twice a week, and there we are inundated with materials, ideas, assignments, “homework”, books to read, websites to consult, and stuff to think about, god knows when, since on such days I get home at 9.40 when I’m lucky, having spent exactly 14 hours away, and almost collapsing on my bed… I dedicate 3 to 4 times a week to the gym, mostly to keep fit, and sane, and work out all the stress that I am accumulating, and also because I am paying 34£ a month for it, and I’d like to make it worth it. Plus, I like that gym.

Of course, part of my worries are also money-related, as always.
Some worries are private, although a lot less complicated than they used to be, so honestly they are not that important right now, but still, I spend some time thinking about a couple of things that I’d like to fix, and which I thought were over and done with, but apparently they are… only for me. It seems that the other part involved in this, and who actually took all the decisions in the story, is not over with it yet, which I find almost amusing, if it wasn’t also quite irritating at times, all considered. But this is another story…

Finally, to make me feel better, here is a list of things to do for the next few days, to try and sort things out:

- print background assignment with comments, work on comments, resubmit. It seems that next week and the one following I’ll be on cover in the morning, so, with a little luck, working on it at the weekend and next week, I may be able to hand it in before the last week of the course. By the way, on Thursday I must get the books back and write down page numbers, which I had written on my handwritten notes, and then as soon as I copied them down, I just didn’t take them too. Why? God knows…
- plan experimental practice and teach it. This is planned to be on Thursday, so I can prepare the students on some grammar aspects, have a closer look at how I should teach the lesson, possible organise a peer observation for the day to get the necessary feedback, and then cunningly write the assignment retrospectively and complete it over the weekend, or again next week.
- Talk to boss on Thursday; he said he’d have some time for me at some point, later in the week, I believe Thursday should be a decent day? Just before the gym, so I can then go and forget my misfortunes with a really hard work-out…
- Go the gym on Thursday and Friday, in preparation for a really long studying weekend: it was supposed to be a fun weekend with a friend coming over to visit, but the way things are going, I’ll probably spend it researching, writing, editing, revising, studying…

…well, there would be a lot more to say, but I guess I’ll stop here. I expected to spend a long night studying, but by the way things have evolved I think I will go to sleep now…It’s such a shame, really, because a colleague from the Delta wanted to go for a drink tonight after class, to celebrate my birthday, and I was so looking forward to that, and instead…
Then again, as I said, social life is nothing I can have right now…

Two more weeks...

...before S 3.2 finally finishes.. Man, I hate those guys. They are a teacher's nightmare.
First, Czech guy number one is highly intrapersonal: never wants to work with other people, is slightly higher than the other two, or simply more confident, a bit cocky too, possibly a psycho inside, and very childish (remember the scene in Shrek 2 with Donkey making popping sounds with his mouth while going to Far Far Away? That was Czech guy number one this morning, every time I turned to write on the board..oh, how old are you again?).
Hungarian teacher is hopeless, and as long as she is talking, and asking things for herself, and commenting on things that interest her, it's fine. If one of the other two guys does it, then after less than a minute she goes "can we move on, please? Because I have paid for this course"...Oh, boy. Plus, she's highly jealous, as with her students she cannot really tell them to discuss something while she simply monitors, she must always be present, help them out, provide words and all that, so she cannot stand when I tell them to work together, and finds every possible excuse to make me speak too, and believe me, it's not because she likes me and genuinely wants me to join in, oh, no.
Czech guy number two is my favourite, because he's sweet, cooperative, has a nice smile, asks proper questions that are relevant to what we're doing... Unfortunately, he's not very confident, and I think he may be a bit shy too... Uff. Two more weeks to go, no new students, and a change of book from Horrible Book number one to Horrible Book number two..

In other news, and for something completely trivial, I have just bought a beautiful dress at M&S, and can I just say, I really feel for the poor people who work there...Saturday morning, 14th November, and there were CHRISTMAS SONGS in the air... With 6 weeks to Christmas, the poor employees must be going mental by the end of the month, really. One colleague at school was saying that there should be a law to prevent this kind of things, come on! I cannot think of Christmas yet, it's not even my birthday!

Speaking of which... The countdown is -5!

And now, back to that Experimental Practice assignment...

LSA1: how was it, then?

Well, I have some very nice colleagues who've supported me all along all morning, so, thank you all!
(except the poor sod, the sad bastard, the pathetic git, who had nothing better to do than tell me that to use my flashdrive on the computer in the staff room I had to scan it first... as if anyone in that office has ever done it or will ever do! But hey, I guess today it was my turn to be bullied).

Then, the lesson itself went well, with only a couple of minor slips:
one, I miscalculated the time, but mostly due to the presence of my borrowed students from L3, lovely guys that I wish I could have all the time, and who were very talkative, very responsive, very VERY! I wish my usual guys, after seeing how a lesson should go, started being real students from tomorrow... Unfortunately, hopes are low..
Problem number two, and I've been kicking myself since I found out, I had prepared a list of verbs and prepositions... and used the wrong preposition in one of the examples! I still can't believe I did that. Of course, when you've spent two weeks working on the background assignment, on the lesson plan, on the cover sheets, on the class profile, on the students' profile, on the materials, on the tasks... and at the same time you've tried to teach 8.30-15.30, well, I guess a slip can happen, I'm only human.
Still, it will bug me for eternity. I am one of those people with a horribly good memory, who remember every tiny detail of their life, and whereas the good memories haunt you because they've gone and you cannot have them again, the bad memories haunt you because you're still going crazy at how you could have done better, or said something different, or whatever.
The lesson of the day is: LSA1 is finished and gone, I am happy about it, I haven't made major mistakes that will cost me, and I am pretty proud that I survived, and that I was the bravest in the group, who chose (CHOSE!) to be observed first! A pat on the back and a high-five for me!

Talk to the hand, I'm busy

...working on three different assignments and trying to prepare the best listening lesson ever is not easy...plus I have a cold, plus I am thinking about personal things too (not that anything is going on, however, I happen to spend some time wondering...), plus I am into some serious work-out routine, if only for the sake of mental health, plus I would like to cook some of the lovely vegs I bought and which I cannot bring myself to cook because at the end of the day I am simply just too tired, so an apple and a cup of peppermint tea must do...

Highlighs of the week:

- covering L 3 on Monday morning, and meeting the students from said class both yesterday and today, and being asked "teacher, why don't we have you again?".
- meeting my favourite L5 student (now L4, good boy) in the cafeteria, and the first thing he says is "I miss you, teacher". A feeling shared by most of my students, it seems...

People, vote for me !

Background assignment, experimental practice, and whatnot...

It’s reading week for Delta students, but this doesn’t mean much, really…only that we can try and use this time to catch up with all the things we have to prepare, a list of which was included in my previous post.
So, where to start…

It’s the last week with my lovely S 3.2, as both the Czechs and the two French girls who have joined for this week only are leaving on Friday, and for the occasion it will be movie-time again, and possibly scones… if not my own recipe, then supermarket ones, as I doubt I’ll have the time to bake…or learn how to use that oven in time (first experiment went fine, second went baaaad, so have lost my confidence now, and I’m annoyed, being the Queen of Cakes and Muffins).
On the other hand, my S 2 class is suddenly crowded! From 2 to 6, how cool is that? Pair work at last, and discussions, and all that. Of course, things cannot be perfect, so one of the students is a Spanish university teacher who lives in France and teaches any sort of English there, who has lived in the USA for something like 7 years, and who said that the level of the class is too easy for her… Ahem…You’ll excuse me if the other students are struggling enough to keep their head above the water while I pull them down with complicated vocabulary, phrasal verbs, long reading tasks, and challenging listening! So today I did what every teacher should do when confronted with such a student: I drowned my class in idioms, proved to know I know a loooot more than they do, which is obvious, but above all, proved that SHE doesn’t know as much as she thinks she does (and her pronunciation fails her every now and then, which makes me, I confess, highly happy, hehehe).

What I have taught this week.
Upper-intermediate class: having got this horrible book to use, I did try to find something remotely interesting and useful, barely managed to, as it is really bad. I mean, I see the point of it, being highly task-based, so theoretically it’s good, focusing on the grammar, giving a lot of colloquial expressions too, functional language all the time. Bad points, which unfortunately outnumber the good points: the grammar is spread with no logical order (past perfect in Unit 5, present perfect continuous in Unit 11, just to mention something); BORING TOPICS! I mean, BORING! I found a unit with a reading about carrier bags, which in itself is almost as boring as discussing the weather in the Caribbean, I guess, but worse than that was the discussion following the reading, which included questions such as: “Do you have a favourite carrier bag? How long have you had it for?”. I mean, seriously… Also, crap listening stuff! Almost as bad as the ones in the previous book, which is depressing when you consider how important listening is in teaching and learning a foreign language. There would be more, but I’ll stop here. The point is, I used the book twice last week, and twice this week, going back to my favourite text book on Wednesday, and again on Thursday.
Generally, things went well, and I am now starting to think of my diagnostic observation, the feedback I got, and what I should do about my weak points. But this is another chapter of the story, really…
Advanced class: we started off with an easy thing, coming from an upper-intermediate book, just because most of my students are virtually advanced but struggle all the same, especially with specific vocabulary; so this was the beginning of the week, followed by a long article on male beauty, oversaturated with vocabulary, which they tackled and beat clear. Wednesday I attacked them with body idioms, which was seriously complicated for both parts, as there are so many, and I had only chosen a few important ones, that my guys were likely both to hear and to use, but they came up with more, so it was challenging on my part too, in the end.
All in all, not a bad week, albeit my eternal juggling condition… but it’s nice to be teaching such advanced levels.

Next on the list:
Background assignment for the first observed lesson.
Assuming I will have a similar class to the one I’ve had so far, I am focusing on “helping advanced (or upper-intermediate, we’ll see) students with understanding details in listening tasks”. Precisely, I am considering what Anderson and Lynch call “transactional listening”, although I have to double-check the definition; we are talking about the kind of listening where you need to understand in details, activate a lot more than a listening for gist sort of skill, here you are processing the information you receive so that you can then summarize it. As an example, I am considering the kind of listening I did with my guys for the diagnostic observation, where we were talking about mysterious stories, so they had to understand what the story was about, but there was a lot more than that, like years, and specific words that would make the situation clearer, and so on. The idea is that in the case of “interactional listening”, interaction can be minimal, being limited to a simple nod of the head, or random “uh-hu”s, and so on, and comprehension isn’t necessarily deep (talking about a party or something, you may need to understand only words like “good”, “fun”, “music”, or such), whereas in transactional listening there must be a deeper effort to understand/interpret the information so that you are then able to process and repeat it – in your own words, which is evidence of comprehension, rather than repeating from memory.

So this is it, and the weekend will be dedicated to this assignment, and to the preparation of the lesson plan, only the skeleton, thank God, because at the same time I’ll be working on my next point:

Professional Development Assignment – part A.
This is when I consider my strength and my weaknesses, also in view of the feedback I have received after my diagnostic observation, and which underlined the usual things I receive as feedback:

GOOD POINTS:
Language awareness (which include good use of check questions, examples, and so on)
Good and unobtrusive error correction techniques
Clear board work
Good learning environment (friendly, professional, calm attitude, not dominating, good involvement of the students)

BAD POINTS:
Instructions (a really bad point, I don’t know why it’s so difficult!)
Form and pronunciation of the language not on board
Board work, although good, could be more methodical, and things like random language could go there too, which I do, actually, but I tend to put words related to the topic, rather than random words.
Time management (another really bad point)

So, ultimately, not bad, and nothing new under the sun: the weekend will see me reflect on these points and start thinking of an action plan, which will include those students’ questionnaires I’ve been handing out for a couple of weeks during the past 4 weeks.

And for the final thing to do during what I (clearly) expect to be a loooong weekend:

Experimental practice assignment (stage 2).
And this is where I go “uhm, my teaching life is absolutely complicated, rushed, hectic 5 days a week and sometimes more; what can I do to mess it up even more? Oh, I know: I can try and teach using a technique I’ve never used, or teach something I have never taught before, and when I do that, I can get another teacher to observe me, just to increase the level of stress brought on by being completely out of my comfort zone!”.

….I don’t think I need to explain further…

So, this for an anticipation of the next weekend/week…
I do wish I had more time, considering how I am also trying to go to the gym 3 to 4 times a week, and chilling doesn’t sound too bad an idea either, every now and then… I bought this book at the airport, London: the biography, which I can’t wait to read, and will never do, I know, not before the course ends, in June… Even when I decide to take some time off assignments, all I can think of is books, and teaching ideas, and research, and photocopying more materials, and and and…
Yes, we’re all thinking it: I’m a total workaholic, and proud to be.

I'm busy...as always...

In the next three hours, I have to:

- prepare an essay outline for my first assessed lesson, which will be on the second or third week of November; considering how I have no idea what kind of class I'll have then, it feels quite complicated to decide what exactly I will focus on... More to come when my brain activates..

- start working on my PDA; again, I have no idea what to write exactly, although we've been reminded of the things to include in what seems to be a really important essay, no matter how often they tell us that we don't even need to "pass" for this one...

I am just back from a fantastic Italian weekend, and having lost Saturday for a nice walk, a trip to the market with a proper cappuccino breakfast, a fab dinner with my friends, I am now trying to catch up, although my body is screaming for some sleep and quiet time... which won't come before Saturday, I'm afraid...

And now, for that essay outline...

Can I have a bigger class, please?

Seriously! It's a bit exhausting, at the end of the day, especially when one of the two students is off (being on a long course they get Wednesday afternoon off, shame that the class is a short course one, so I ended up with not-very-lively- Czech guy). And next week it will be exactly the same...
Actually, if I can be picky and I actually get more students, could I have 2, or 4, or 6, etc? It is my dream to have an even number of students (more than two, though), so that the dream of every EFL teacher can come true for me: PAIR WORK! Yes, I can do it now, but it's a bit mechanical, and besides, they do turn to me every minute to check answers or whatever it is, with me!
I managed to teach using my own version of the Silent Way, today...only to balance the amount of TTT I was using. It worked, it was improvised, it was fun for the students too: cool. Ok, I agree with whoever it was (Harmer?), it's not about TTT but about TTQ (can be wrong there): as in, the quality of your talking time is what matters, not the amount, and I always make sure that I am using my time in a useful way. Still though, how I miss the good times when you set a speaking task to a big bunch of students, and then start moving silently from pair to pair, enjoying the sound of talk around you...

Diagnostic observation and a blinding headache

...This should be enough to say how it went...
Allegedly due to a chocolate overdose, I woke up with a really bad headache; sum it to the stress of being observed; with the stress of having no clue of what I was going to teach in my PM lesson; with the drop in temperatures (but god willing no rain yet..keep your fingers crossed); with the mounting anger at the thought that annoying old teacher has taken my seat, and annoying old teacher number 2 is back from his holiday so has (justly) claimed his seat back, therefore yours truly is currently seat-less, well, put all this together and you have the explanation of my headache.
All considered, though, it didn't go that bad: I had backup stuff, because once again I had miscalculated the times (how could I? It was all going well, and all of a sudden I still had 30 minutes to go instead of the 15 I had planned!), but this shows the ability of thinking ahead to possible emergencies and having a plan B ready at hand; my grammar explanation didn't take as long as I expected, because the guys had a clear idea of what was going on, and no problems whatsoever, although in the end they didn't really use the target language as my objective clearly stated in the lesson plan... Oh, well.
Ultimately, things that I would change in this lesson plan: I'd have a better board-work. But honestly, there was a good one in my mind, and my mind wasn't functioning because of the flicking headache! So, action plan: prepare a written board-work for this kind of stuff, just in case migraine strikes again.

The long, long, long update continues...

Week five

Saving money doesn’t make me feel better..

Good good girl… waking up incredibly early on Saturday morning, after moving to a new place for what I hope will be a bit more than 3 weeks, I lied in bed thinking of my immediate future: London or not London? And considering how I had just been accepted on the DELTA, which is going to cost a loooot, and how my contract has been extended but not till November, to October!, and with one week of “holiday” which I’ll be forced to take during September, well I had no choices, did I?

Dutifully I decided to stay in Bournemouth and invest my energies in the following activities:
- find my way from the new place to the school, as I am now further (up? Down? Who knows). Map in one hand and smiling in the sun of a beautiful morning, I did find my way and estimated the time of arrival within 45 minutes: we are back on track with some serious morning walk before work, yay!
- Find the library and possibly join too…which was not possible as my current address is still in Brighton and that will do no good. So, mission postponed to Thursday, when I should have managed to have some bank statement that proves that I am (for now) a Bournemouthian (??? Making words up as usual…). But apart from that, the library is really nice, Brighton-like although not as big, with armchairs, an exciting noise of life all around the place, and tons of interesting books. I have recently taken up an interest in history, since fiction has bored me, and I am still afraid that it will be hurtful, so I can’t wait to get my card and start reading.
- And finally, invest the money saved by not going to London in…books for the Delta course. Only 3 books should be sort of compulsory, and I did buy one, almost bought a second, then flipped through and found it scarily similar to one I already have: I mean, there is only so much you can write about phonology… I’ll give it another thought before proceeding.

Later in the day, a call from John which lifts my spirit up, especially as it comes minutes after I have returned home with my shopping, without getting lost in the process, and looking forward to scrambled eggs on toast that I’ve been dreaming of for the past month (sad soul that I am…). So I am in the quiet of my room, and enjoy a short talk with him, and am left with a big smile…and my lunch waiting to be prepared in the kitchen!
Seriously though, it’s nice to be back to use a kitchen after two months of forced inactivity.. The place with Deaf Landlady was just too small, the stove electric, and the pans.. well, just not good, as DL tended to burn them almost on a weekly basis… Although, what with the need to save money, I am not sure I will eat that much in the future: the rent, the gym, the course…ow.

Updating regularly would do this blog a favour

Instead, it’s Monday morning and I am just wondering what to teach in my pm class, frantically flipping through books that could present any slightly interesting conversation-sparking material…
Well, I download more stuff from iPlayer, which as usual will be used for the Friday lesson, and then I jam the photocopier due to my responsible decision to make double-sided copies for the sake of the forests, but clearly the photocopier disagrees…
I get back home in a fantastic 40 minute-walk, and experience the pleasure of cooking again after more than two months on a forced diet of (first) canteen food, and (then) raw carrots, fruit, yogurt, sandwiches, and microwaveable soup. So, to start a new section of this blog, let’s begin...

Food for all seasons

Mushroom soup – September 2009

Really, soups are the easiest thing: all you need is some olive oil or butter to melt in the pan, then some chopped onion, maybe some garlic too (it goes great with mushrooms), when they start to turn golden add the mushrooms, and pour boiled water on it all, and a stock cube. Let it go, let it go, let it go, for about twenty minutes; to make it thicker, add a diced potato halfway. Check seasoning, and serve with toasted brown bread and olive oil..or with a nice chunk of cheese on the side. Yummi, warm, autumnal... beautiful

Ramadan is not good

Ok, I’m going to be in trouble for writing this. But seriously, guys, this is not good for you. You cannot come to my class half starved, and make a mess of my lesson plan just because you’re dying for a cup of coffee at breaktime or a sandwich or pizza or whatever. My Thai guy and I are getting tired of it. You’re all nice guys, but please stop it. Seriously. Go to Burger King and stuff yourself with chips drowned in ketchup, and then a gallon of Coke, that cannot but be good for you. And when your immune system tells you that you should really eat, and you come to class all weak and with fever and a sorethroat, do you know what you have to do? Go home, have a nice cup of tea, or milk with lots of honey, and a good-for-you tablet of Paracetamol. That’s a good boy.