School in London - Week 3

September 18, 2005.

Relaxed today – well sort of. There’s a lot of work coming up in the next week and a half, though and we can’t afford to start feeling smug about any of this. And in fact some of us do take this very seriously – in fact our group met this afternoon for the second Sunday in a row now. We spent a little over an hour at the Starbucks across from Green Park station, going over the next couple of days worth of lesson plans – what we can do at this stage though is severely limited by our lack of knowledge of the students – as well as talking about the third written assignment, which is due on Friday.

Monday. A bit of a hectic day today. One of the tutors was out sick and Annie had to fill in for the second hour of input (lectures of a sort) and we spent much of the morning meeting in our TP groups talking about this week. Later we were informed that although we had timetabled our class plans in each group through Thursday, there was some concern among the tutors that some of us had not taught a wide enough variety of lesson types (speaking, reading, grammar, etc.) so we have to put our Thursday plan on hold until we get clarification on who needs to do what. I am scheduled to teach on Thursday and have not done any reading lessons as of yet so I suspect I am one who may have to readjust. We’ll see.

This  problem highlights one a couple of the occasionally confusing elements of the course here. One is that there is no long-term plan available to the student, a plan that would provide you with what you needed to do and when so you could plan accordingly. What we wind up doing is planning maybe 48 hours in advance of the lesson, which of course reduces the amount of creative input for that particular lesson. And closely tied to that is the fact that we have to teach every type of lesson, something which would not be an issue if we had a set schedule. In fact for the first full week of teaching we had a set schedule provided for us. While we all appreciate the need to teach on our own and to develop the abilities to do so, one wonders do we need to develop the skill to work with only 48 hours notice, as it were?

Something else we have to be a bit concerned about is the student turnover. We first began to notice this is our previous class group (mid-intermediate level students) when every day we were getting a significant shift in the number of students, and in students leaving the class joining the class, etc.  Today we met our new class of elementary (2nd level) students. Last week we had started observing them while they were with the previous group of teacher trainees and right away noticed the few number of students attending although a much higher number had apparently enrolled for the course. Today we had 11 students enrolled – way too much for this small classroom – but only 4 showed up and of that four 2 were new. One, a man from Chile, said at the end of the class that it was too difficult for him and he wasn’t going to come back. So it will be interesting to see what the class is like today

Anyway, the upshot is that one can hardly plan with any certainty on the number of students (a bit critical in construction Lps which are dependent on groupwork or pairwork) but even more importantly one cannot count on any constancy or consistency in what any given group of students may or may not know at that time. It is very frustrating. We heard through the student grapevine late in the day that one of the other trainees in another group in our class was actually shouting at his students to get them to understand! If true this does not bode well, certainly for him, but for many others as well and points to a whole new set of problems facing us in the next week or so.

I keep saying “the week or so” because by a week from Wednesday all my teaching will be done and my written assignments handed in. I like the sound of that, frankly.  

So after class  the five of us in our group talked for a bit about the students and the challenges were are now faced with. We then moved down to the bar in the basement of the school and talked about the LPs for Tuesday and Wednesday. 

Long days ahead yet.

Tuesday. I taught my 5th session today. It went OK and I passed but still I have some weak points to work on: my “teacher talk” is coming down and continues to do so, also  my writing, particularly on the board has shown significant improvement, but I need to work on maker my instructions for various tasks clearer and to be more attentive for errors to make the necessary corrections in class.

Ate by myself at home. Youceff is gone of course, he returned to Algeria last weekend, Sylvia the Italian lawyer has to go home on a family emergency and will probably not be back until this weekend. Jackie is hit-and-miss for dinner so it was just me. Worked until about 10;30 or so.

Wednesday. Another very busy day, which may have accounted for why I did not sleep very well; woke up about 2;30 or so and could not get back to sleep so got out of bed and starting in on my lesson plan at about 4 am. Although I did not teach there was still plenty to do: get ready for my next teaching practice which will be tomorrow. I’m going to rely on the overhead projector for much of my board work – it is really quite easy to make corrections on the board but using the OHP – so I need to prep all those materials and of course get my handouts ready and I still need to finalize the structure, the design if you will, of my LP. 

I observed my last experienced teacher for the course (we had to do three and write up our notes) and afterwards met with another of our tutors, Ben, to get his feedback from my LP ideas. I then scooted off to meet the group in the bar in the school basement to talk about the next written assignment (no. 3). Sophie was kind enough to have bought drinks for everyone and I found an Old Speckled Hen waiting for me when I got there,

After our regular group meeting broke up about 4:45 or so I spent some time in the library and then I went to Kinko’s to get my transparencies printed out. (I burn my documents for class onto a CD and then take the disc to Kinko’s which is really quite close to the school, about a 5 or 6-minute walk, and use their work station to print out what I need. The school’s print center is antiquated and the computers are buggy.) I returned to the school and to the library for a bit looking for a couple of things for our next assignment and I then went to Starbucks to check email. The place was packed so I decided to just head back to Willesden Green. 

Since I had no intention of eating at home that evening I stopped at Shish and read the Guardian while I sipped a glass of trebbiano d’abruzzo and ate a nice relaxing meal.  My landlady had sent me a text message early in the day asking if I was going to be there for dinner, probably hoping I would say no so she wouldn’t have to cook for just one, and I said no sorry. I ate at Shish in Willesden Green. There is a Turkish restaurant just down the street which I may try later this week. 

Thursday. I taught my 6th session today. I woke up early – probably about 2:30 although I didn’t get up and start working until a bit after 4 am. Anyway, I worked on finalizing my lesson plan for the day and headed into the city. It was rainy pretty much all day – really the first “bad” weather we’ve had since I arrived here. The day went very well and I had a good day of teaching. This was the last of our 40-minute classes. Beginning Friday (and for me Monday) we will start teaching for 60 minutes each. I did a little work in library after our regular late afternoon group meeting and then headed for home. I ate with the family this evening – or rather they ate with me since they usually do not eat with the students. Anyway, I had a very nice conversation with Soodabeh’s son Eissa, who is half-Iranian and half-Iraqi but was born in the UK. (Soodabeh is my landlady.) He is quite sharp, very intelligent and clearly well read, particularly about affairs in the middle east but also in his own country as well. Not a day goes by when I don’t learn something new and different about the world from someone who has seen parts of it I have never been to – and not as a tourist but as someone who is plugged into those other parts in some profound ways. For example, Eissa is Shiite Iraqi (on his father’s side) and he expressed grave concern over the future of Iraq as things presently stand. So we had a nice dinner of rice and chile con carne and great conversation.

Friday. Fall is most definitely in the air. Coolish nights now and chilly mornings but sunny skies and felt a bit like Vermont. With the onset of cooler weather I slept very well last night – but also because I had just finished teaching practice session and I am always very relaxed after that. I suppose the tension and suspense (am I going to pass, that sort of thing) before class just evaporated leaving me a bit drained. Anyway, I felt great in the morning and had a good day at school.

Our lectures are a bit less now in the morning session as more time is given to allowing us to finish our various assignments and getting our “portfolios” in order. This is a large binder which each of us was given when we first began class. Inside are all our records, lessons, tutor observations about our teaching sessions, everything, and serve as the basis upon which we are given a PASS or a FAIL. 

So our tutors wanted to make sure everyone has theirs in order because things will be happening pretty quickly next week. The senior assessor from Cambridge University will come and spend the day going over all of our portfolios and observing the “observers” (our tutors) during our teaching practice sessions. By the end of Wednesday (my last teaching day) I should be pretty much finished.  That’s my hope, although I’m also resigned to having to resubmit a lesson. Anyway, it won’t be long now.

I just observed two members of my group today. We have been given the option of picking one afternoon when we are not teaching to just take off – there are no more observations of experienced teachers so they are giving us a bit of a holiday. I – like most others – thought NOT to take today off and spend it watching how a 60-minute session goes. Also I have to teach Monday AND Wednesday so it works much better for me to take Tuesday afternoon off to finalize my lesson for Wednesday. Anyway, after class our group plus members of a couple of the other groups got together in the bar in the basement of the school and had a couple of beers and talked about of lots of things other than school. This is truly an amazing group. For example, I spoke at some length with Estelle who is from the London area and after school is planning on going to Mexico to teach but she wants to eventually move to America – her boyfriend lives in San Fransisco – and settle there. She was quite eloquent in explaining to me why she likes America – much of it has to do with our political system and how it seems there is still so much more room for the individual to have a say in what does and does not happen than perhaps she has experienced in her own country. 

I eventually said good-by to the group and headed to Miso’s, the noodle bar near Piccadilly Circus for dinner, and then took the tube home.

So far so good.

Saturday. Much of today I will spend putting together the items for my Monday lesson – it all about restaurants and reading menus so it should be fun. I just need to find some photos (online I hope and from magazines and newspapers) as well as some objects themselves. 

Richard and his wife asked me back for dinner this evening – they had me over for dinner last Saturday -- and I can’t resist. The company is superlative, the conversation always enlightening, the food is delicious and the wine wonderful. It will be a nice way for me to relax and get out of my “dorm room” for a couple of hours or so. More importantly they are really very nice people and a pleasure to be with.