March, 2007

In less than 12 hours it will all be over-well this part anyway! I have my first observed lesson tomorrow and I swore I wasn’t going to start stressing at this early stage……….oh how I lied!!!!!!! I got into work at 8.15 this morning and worked on the lesson plan almost non stop till 1pm , when I had to teach again. After the (unprepared) lesson, I proceded to try and get tomorrow’s lesson plan completed.
I feel as though I haven’t moved on from the CELTA course-I tend to be rather indecisive-understatement-when it comes to observed teaching-even within my own place of work! This is why I am usually left panicking at the last minute. If only I could stick to what I originally planned to teach……. but no, I keep coming up with these brilliant ideas on how to wow the observer-A NEW ONE EVERY DAY!Eventually I had to decide and so spent another hour and a half designing the new materials that I needed. Why oh why didn’t I just use the Skills for Life student pack and materials? No I had to try and be clever. Planned a kind of running dictation style comprehension. (hmmmm… yes, I wondered, too)
Anyway, after photocopying everything and remembering to copy the lesson plan for myself, I stupidly left it at work, so will have to go in early YET AGAIN to highlight all the bits I want to remember. I hope the cleaner doesn’t move anything on my desk: I will freak out! Poor Polly-my 14 yr old daughter- has been ill off and on for the last 12 days. She now has a mouth full of ulcers and the usual mother’s guilt seeps in BIG TIME!! Any other day I would have just called in late and taken her to the GP, but I have no way of contacting my tutor at this late stage, so I have to hope that the doctor will have an afternoon appointment free. One thing I am sure of-once my hour long stand alone observed lesson is over, my students will be glad to know that I am off home to my daughter! There is a limit, you know.
If anyone’s interested, my E1 students will be ‘obtaining information from a school timetable, talking about likes and dislikes re school subjects, and writing a sentence or two about it.’ That’s the plan, anyway. Let’s see if I manage to achieve my aims, eh? Can’t wait till it’s all over. This is worse than the dreaded presentation.
I will let you know how it goes-if I can stay awake!!!!!
Wish me luck!

In less than 12 hours it will all be over-well this part anyway! I have my first observed lesson tomorrow and I swore I wasn’t going to start stressing at this early stage……….oh how I lied!!!!!!! I got into work at 8.15 this morning and worked on the lesson plan almost non stop till 1pm , when I had to teach again. After the (unprepared) lesson, I proceded to try and get tomorrow’s lesson plan completed.
I feel as though I haven’t moved on from the CELTA course-I tend to be rather indecisive-understatement-when it comes to observed teaching-even within my own place of work! This is why I am usually left panicking at the last minute. If only I could stick to what I originally planned to teach……. but no, I keep coming up with these brilliant ideas on how to wow the observer-A NEW ONE EVERY DAY!Eventually I had to decide and so spent another hour and a half designing the new materials that I needed. Why oh why didn’t I just use the Skills for Life student pack and materials? No I had to try and be clever. Planned a kind of running dictation style comprehension. (hmmmm… yes, I wondered, too)
Anyway, after photocopying everything and remembering to copy the lesson plan for myself, I stupidly left it at work, so will have to go in early YET AGAIN to highlight all the bits I want to remember. I hope the cleaner doesn’t move anything on my desk: I will freak out! Poor Polly-my 14 yr old daughter- has been ill off and on for the last 12 days. She now has a mouth full of ulcers and the usual mother’s guilt seeps in BIG TIME!! Any other day I would have just called in late and taken her to the GP, but I have no way of contacting my tutor at this late stage, so I have to hope that the doctor will have an afternoon appointment free. One thing I am sure of-once my hour long stand alone observed lesson is over, my students will be glad to know that I am off home to my daughter! There is a limit, you know.
If anyone’s interested, my E1 students will be ‘obtaining information from a school timetable, talking about likes and dislikes re school subjects, and writing a sentence or two about it.’ That’s the plan, anyway. Let’s see if I manage to achieve my aims, eh? Can’t wait till it’s all over. This is worse than the dreaded presentation.
I will let you know how it goes-if I can stay awake!!!!!
Wish me luck!

Ok Ok so it’s finally over-the Dreaded Presentation has been delivered, and you have no idea how relieved I m feeling! Well, if you’ve been reading this,then perhaps you will be able to imagine the relief at least. I’d love to be able to say that it was worth all the stress and hard work………..but I’m sorry, it wasn’t! Not that it didn’t go well, because it did(thanks to the combined effort of our group, not least H, who designed the powerpoint stuff, and M, who operated the changes of page throughout this nerve-racking ordeal) I have no idea if that is actually a verb….to page-change??? It seemed to be quite successful. A couple of overlapping points, one part where I prayed no-one would ask a question because I had totally forgotten what a phrase meant, and one amusing point where I reverted into teacher mode and started the elicitation process ‘…..can anyone tell me………?’ Went down well, however: I acknowledged how as teachers we seem to do this naturally, and laughed it off.
Secretly we thought ours was the best….well, we would, wouldn’t we? However I still can’t accept that it was worth the sleepless nights-my older daughter remarked, ‘I always hated presentations at Uni;I still maintain it was the tutors way of getting the students to give the lesson instead, thus saving them work.’ Now,I did not say that, remember, SHE did!!! I have to say at this point that this course deals quite strongly with the famous student-centred/student-led lesson theory. I have really enjoyed the input sessions on the various views on methodology, and have managed to read quite a lot of the famous Geoff Petty.Much of it is very interesting, and I can see why things have veered away from the dated and traditional methods. I must say, however, that regardless of the million and one surveys and investigations,I have yet to be converted to the theory that lessons should be completely student-centred. Peer correction can never be 100% effective, despite being productive in that it promotes L2 speaking. Students, regardless of age and background,will nearly always expect their ‘two penn’orth’-i.e. teacher direction and teacher correction. Uh-oh!! I said the C word-a very dirty word in this very enlightened era! Heuristic is the buzz word. They must DISCOVER things for themselves!!! However, as one student was so quick to point out to me (when I applied my taught methods of self correction and smugly asked,’Now, what do you think is wrong with this here?’ ,rather than telling him)……….’You are teacher-you tell me what is wrong!’You have to laugh, don’t you?
So,presentaton over, and all that remains is….well, the rest of the course basically, which includes this assignment INCLUDING the b****y grid, the next 9, the 6 observations, the 5ILPs,the portfolio in all its glory and probably the loss of my sanity. Hallelujah! Oh, by the way, I have another (unassessed) mini presentation to research for next week-this time on audiolingual teaching-so interesting at least-AND my first observed lesson will be on Friday 23rd March, so watch this space-I now have something new to stress about. March is a very busy month for me-Piano Festival with youngest daughter, trip to Suffolk to see my Mum on Mother’s Day-of course,my very first Sikh wedding on 25th,and an overdue visit to Northampton to see my younger son. Easter cannot come soon enough for me!!!!!!!!

Well, last week was a nightmare!Felt quite confident when I walked into the session…………and most definitely NOT when I left-early, you remember-I had to go to my daughter’s Yr 9 Options Evening. (Also not a barrel of laughs)
Anyway, we covered Teaching and Learning Styles, matching definitions and quotes from various authors, many of whopm I had never read. My group members, however, seemed to know them all!!!! Ever felt stupid???
Anyway, this week was the first of the presentations-one on Lifelong Learning, the other on Success for All. Both of these were very professional, and filled me with dread at the thought that it will be our turn next . My research has proved very draining, and I was stressed out even more when I discovered (Friday 4pm) that my group members needed my bullet points typed up and sent by’Saturday afternoon latest’!!!!! As I work all day on Saturday, this meant that I was up till 2.30am working on this mind-numbingly boring subject to produce just seven or eight bullet points and an introduction.I don’t ever want to discuss Inclusive Learning and its Influence on Practice EVER again!!!
Incidentally, in case anyone’s intersted, I finally got home at 9.30pm on Tuesday and Polly will be taking Italian and Drama as her options, along with Latin and GCSE Music in year 10!! I have so much more admiration for my children now that I am under the pressure of deadlines myself.
I hope that my moaning doesn’t portray me as a miserable person-I’m really not-honest!! I’m sure that once this presentation is over, and the THE GRID filled in, I can proceed to completing the first assignment within the allotted time frame and move on to more interesting topics.