Two Days A Week...

Would you believe it's the end of another weeK?!?!?!

How did that happen?

Suddenly I've got two whole days of nothing to do. Hunh?

No doubt I'll find something, maybe read a book on reading, or think about critical thinking or even write a piece on writing.

See, the possibilities are endless.

In The Summertime

The British weather..., what can I tell you about the British weather (that you don't already know, that is)? While I was living with my parents, down at the seaside, it was sunny. In fact, sometimes it was so sunny that my Arabic students complained about the heat. Now that may have had more to do with there being not air-conditioning than anything else but...

Since I've moved to Winchester, it has either rained, threatened to rain or just been damp. I've been soaked, sweaty and just plain damp myself - and it hasn't been fun. I don't mind the rain (although I prefer the sun) but I do object to the continuous presence of water. Not only does it mean my towels don't dry properly after my morning shower but worse than that, my hair is a mess!

Bring back the proper British summer, that's what I say!

What I'd Say...

Can you believe it? I'm half way through week two already. Things are settling down and I'm beginning to get a grip on things. The two groups I'm teaching are potential BA students and one of them is having great difficulties with the work. However, I've talked it through with my DoS and I have a plan for the next three weeks. This makes me happy.

I'm still feeling a little out of my depth because so much depends on the students passing this course (although both of my groups will have a further five week course after I've finished with them). So, in theory, it doesn't all depend on me but I do want to do my best for them (damn, I must be turning into a proper teacher). On top of all this, I'm learning so much. Things I would have appreciated knowing before doing my DELTA (let alone my degree) - I really think I've been winging it all these years. Of course, my motto is "If you can't blind them with brains, baffle them with bullshit" which has worked quite well over the years. (OK that isn't my motto but it seemed to fit the moment).

I do have a motto but it's in Latin (I think - I got it from the internet a long, long time ago). NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSIT. I leave it to you to work it out.

Come on, Nature

It's the end of week one and, boy, am I feeling tired. Luckily, Monday is a bank holiday so I'll be able to rest a little more. I had intended to visit G in London but after spending a couple of hours trying to plan my lessons for next week, I realised I needed a lot more time, so I'm going to plan with a colleague on Sunday. The idea is to plan for the whole week and draft out the following week so that during the week we can just tweak it to suit our students.

I'm beginning to love my students (in a purely platonic way), they are becoming more adventurous and, I think, are starting to trust me. Unfortunately, my other group are like sacks of potatoes. I have never known such an unresponsive group in all my teaching career. Even when I ask them questions directly, using their names, they either avoid my eye or mumble something incoherent. They also like to hide behind their dictionaries (which are electronic and therefore translate everything into Chinese for them).

Things got so bad today that we had the 'talk', the one in which I use my special teacher voice (sometimes it even scares me), about them listening when I'm talking, concentrating on the task at hand, and asking questions if they don't understand what to do. I know it's not just me as the other two tutors have said they have similar problems. How these students managed to get a test score high enough to convince anyone they could function in an English language academic situation is beyond me. However, people do perform differently in test conditions, especially if they have been trained to do the test. This is one of the things that make language learning so difficult. Anyone can learn a few set phrases and questions but how do you deal with the response from a native speaker who will almost certainly not use complete and grammatically correct sentences, and will use lots of idiomatic expressions?

In completely different news, my mouse has stopped working. The cursor will go up and down but not side to side. Oh dear, I guess that means I'll have to buy a new one (one that doesn't need a mouse mat and has a special roller function - life is hard).

Weather update - believe it or not, the sun was shining as I walked to work today. But it was still raining, big ploppy drops. Not enough for a rainbow but enough to dampen my enthusiasm!

Rainy Day Woman

I noticed that none of you tried to answer my question. Not so easy is it? Still we hammered that one today and, hopefully, it means I'll see less and less nonsensical writing. I met my other group of students today, the ones I'm doing Academic Reading with and they are even quieter than my Writing group - how is this possible??? I only see this group for four sessions a week so I don't know how well I'm going to get to know them but I'm hoping that once I've got their names under control (and most of them have westernised names) things will become easier. Unfortunately I'm still at the point and 'you' stage (which I hate). I also received a pleasant surprise today, one of my Writing group gave me a little present - a Chinese dangley (like the things you attach to your phone). It's embroidered and mainly orange so perfectly replaces the pull tag that came off my favourite (orange) handbag.

Other news - I went into Southampton to get my ID card this afternoon and the journey back was anything but straightforward. Also I'm going to change my accommodation - I'm moving in with the other tutors as there are fewer people and a cleaner kitchen in their flat. I planned to do it this evening but...

Rain update - Winchester is still in gold medal position AND, somehow, the showers always manage to co-incide with my needing to be outside. Why?

Singing in the rain (not)

So, day two is over and I've done my first real teaching of this course. Was it wildly successful? Not really but we still have to get used to each other.

Most of my students are Chinese and Taiwanese and none of them have been to the UK before. The culture shock must be enormous. For example, we were talking about different types of writing today and I mentioned blogs (and that I had one). They mainly just looked stunned - and I've only just remembered how much censorship there is in China, even I've been deemed 'unacceptable' on occasion and I'm soooo innocent (honestly).

They will loosen up and I will calm down and we'll meet somewhere in the middle. In the meantime I'm getting involved in planning lessons at a level of detail I haven't used since doing my DELTA.

Two more things - it keeps on raining - what is it with Winchester? It is going for the Olympic Rainfall Gold Medal?

And here's a question I've been grappling with: "Just what is a sentence?"

Feed me Seymour....

Day One (proper) of the new job. Actually got to meet some students today although they weren't necessarily the ones I'm going to be teaching. A ten minute interview in the morning followed by an afternoon of planning (with the recurring fear that I have no idea what I'm doing) and finishing with a Welcome Party in the evening.

In reality, that meant three million very tired students (some of them only arrived at midnight last night and haven't slept for 24 hours) scrambling for the buffet and getting to know each other while we teachers elbowed our way (gracefully) to the food and then stood talking to each other.

Tomorrow, teaching commences and I fully expect to be both exhausted and exhilarated this time tomorrow night.

Until then my lovelies...

I am what I am

Today was my first day at my new job and, unlike my previous teaching jobs, it has been all about the talk. Don't get me wrong, I'm not criticizing the process, it's just, as I Said, different.

Usually, when you join an EFL school, the induction consists of lots of 'getting to know you', moving around reading little pieces of paper (aka mingle activities), brainstorming and occasionally poster producing. All invigorating and reflecting the way we are supposed to teach (even if I sometimes find such activities embarrassing and childish). Here it has been much more grown-up. Mainly sitting, listening, asking questions and reading information which, I hazard, reflects the teaching method (we are at a university after all).

My head is buzzing with so much information and, to tell the truth, I am a little scared of what I am expected to do. However, I can only do my best and the support here seems very good.

As they say, that which doesn't kill us, makes us stronger.

Update 10th August

My lovelies

It's been so long since we've spoken, and it's all my fault. I've become lazy and commplacent, living with my parents.

What have I been up to? Well, I've been teaching near beginners (mainly from Arabic countries) and sulky teenagers (from Spain and Poland). The beginners I enjoyed - lots of laughter and silly voices (mine) - but the teenagers, not so much, the privilege is entirely lost on them, all they see is the loss of their summer holiday. Would I have been different at their age? I doubt it. But even so I wanted to shake them for being so spoilt.

Anyhow, next week I'm off to Winchester for five weeks teaching post-graduate students how to write academic essays. I don't know how much fun it will be but I do know how much more lucrative it will be and how much it will enhance my CV.

And I will be living in student halls of residence which will remind me of living in hostels so hopefully the blog will take off again,

Until then my lovelies

Ciao