specific measure of gobbledygook

specific measure of gobbledygook was my favourite sentence of tonights input session - or SMOG as it is formally known. Who would have guessed that gobbledygook would be a word I would be referencing and reading about! The weeks are rattling past and my learning curve is steep but enjoyable. I'm still enjoying myself, albeit still a tad worried that somehow i've missed out on a panic that should have settled in by now. Schema is another thing we are getting more and more involved in - what are schema, did you know there are different types. before tonight I was blissfully unaware and only churned out the sentence 'to activate schemata' as learnt in my CELTA from the dark and distant past. Whereas this evening I could even tell you the names of four which we discussed this evening. However I've yet to find full definitions for them despite using scholor google search. (cue gnashing of teeth) back to flicking through a mountain of books (sorry.... skimming!) My last post spoke of my PDA lesson observation, since then I've submitted my evalutation and recieved my feedback both in oral and written form. Am I still a good teacher, well yes I am. Are there areas that I could improve on. Definately and I now have some to include in my action plan PDA part 2. Was I surprised, shocked would have been more accurate. It seems my board work is not scrappy as I thought. Although my lesson timings are off as I suspected (or rather not suspected but damn well knew).But I did find I had committed a cardinal sin in my obs, thank god it was that lesson and not my assessed obs that counts towards my DELTA pass or fail. Would I like to get a Merit or Distinction, I would be liar if I said no, but in truth I doubt that I will achieve any - only time, hope, prayers and perhaps a miracle migh be necessary - or am I being too self harsh. As with I suspect most DELTA students I find it much easier to say which parts of my lesson I think were wrong, not good, could be improved upon. But I find it hard to cheer myself on and say this was good, I like that, blah blah... but it's something I can work on. I'm definately going to try taping myself in my lessons and see how that goes. Note to self, include in action plan. I'm now busily typing up my input notes from this evening. Looking at the PDA part two and thinking 'what do I actually believe' and already thinking ahead to my LSA1 and my experimental for my PDA. On a more immediate note I know I am tired tonight and know that having to work 2 jobs, where I'm currently doing 35 contact teaching hours including an ESP 1-2-1, AND a part-time job in retail, AND trying to fit in my DELTA is not helping but hey ho. The Bills don't pay themselves. So I will stop here, write more later in the week, and wish you good night. (N.B. my blog tells me that some people are in fact looking at my pages of drivel. I do welcome comments, as long as they are constructive or encouraging, so please feel confident and send me a line or six).

A week later and a reflection

So I did my lesson, it was observed and I settled down to do the post self evaluation. Something I struggled with as I didn't remember everything that happened. I got some very good hints and tips from my fellow teachers ranging from, scrawl a note to yourself during the lesson if you a) remember to and b) have the time and it won't interfere with the class, to go through the lesson plan and think it through in your minds eye, trying to replay the lesson and make notes of what happened at each stage both good and bad. The good bits are also hard. I'm relatively sure I'm a good teacher, can I do better, well of course I can, I wouldn't be doing this course if I couldn't. Were my students engaged, well they got on with it, with only a few minor hiccups (down to me being nervous), and they completed the task in the allotted time and were not galloping out the door 2 minutes before the end of lesson bell, nor even when the bell had rung. So it was then down to the minutae. The self eval was sent and I'm scheduled to meet with my tutor tomorrow for my feedback face to face. I prefer it that way although she did offer telephone and skype options as we both have tight schedules. So what have I been doing since. Reading a lot. I am an avid reader, but I have found that each author has their own agenda when writing a book and obviously sometimes the direction they take in disclosing their thoughts and information is not the same way I'd lay it out. Ha ha.. as if I'm even close to being in the league of being able to critique a professional. Perhaps I should say as I am still on this learning curve I sometimes take a while to absorb the information and realise it is relevant to what I want to say. I'm juggling the balls of my pda 2 - reflection, beliefs and action plan, etc., whilst planning ahead to my first LSA which is to be a skills lesson, also pulling together my experimental practice, the topic of which is fairly much (is that even grammar) decided upon and of course Module 3, what am I going to do it on. All of which will take place over the next 8 weeks. How those who do the intensive DELTA manage all of this is beyond me. But they do and many come out the other side smiling, so I will just stick my nose in some more books, note down some more quotes and thoughts and get on with it. Obviously the down side to the part-time DELTA is the fact that life has an awful habit of getting in the way. Pesky work, how dare it demand my time, and make me tired. Family, fancy them having to cope without me for hours on end, even though I'm physically in the house, busily tapping away at the computer or far and away in the world of an EFL book. Clothes still need washing, drying and ironing, food doesn't magically appear on the table, children don't grow up without love, care and the occasional reminder that they have to consider other people when making choices in their lives. Bills need to be paid too. Bugger, knew there was something I'd forgotten to do. Note to self, pay the gas bill as October nearly November is not the time for the heating to suddenly grind to a freezing halt. Time to go back into the work of Richards and Rodgers (1986) and Stern (1983) whilst I think about what it truly is that I believe and begin the journey of my own personal development.

PDA Part 1 first draft

tis done. As is the way of all part-time delta students the time I had planned to do this and the time I actually did this were not one and the same. But tis done. As is the skeleton of my lesson plan and a first draft of my board plan. Tis done. Hubby has read it, only as a proof reader as his own job is so different from mine he has admitted to not being interested in the slightest at my content but he is happy enough to read it through for me to see if it makes 'grammatical' sense to him. He says it does. So tonight, 10pm I am powering down and going to bed. Tomorrow I will revisit it and see if I want to rework it. And add some flesh to the bones of my lesson plan. The lesson plan is my major nemesis. I stink at timings. lol.. although I hear from my fellow teachers that this too is one of their problems. Oh don't get me wrong I can look at a planned activity and see that it may or may not fit into the allotted time, but exactly how long each minutiae take I have never paid the slightest of attention to. Thank fully this is my PDA and my chance to get some constructive critique. So I'll stop here. Press save again and wish you all good night.

Lesson 4 The PDA

So tonight was the night that we had a look at the PDA, or stages 1 and 2 at least. We came away with an armful of handouts and my note book is jammed full with things I heard, learnt, thought etc. Quite how I'm going to have the time to read, source, find quotes, write all this up heaven only knows. I'm still keen and enthusiastic but honestly, I wish I had the option to view all of the major books and writers online so that I could just do a google search on a particular thing and then I could do more targetted reading. Instead I have accumulated several shelves full of books and yet whilst in input I hear the tutor referring to even more, and my co-delta students nodding or murmuring about others I've never even heard of. Wouldn't life be so much simpler with an online google for efl... lol Am I the only one who starts into this Delta feeling like this... (pesky question mark key is sticking again so it's back to the old trusty 3 ... for when I mean the sentence to punctuate with a question mark) I've got my date now for my PDA observation and the timings mean it's going to be my elementary class. Some of whom I've been teaching since the arrived day one and were put into beginners because they couldn't even understand the most basic questions such as 'what is your name', let alone participate in the induction day and the intake assessment. I must admit to feeling quite protective about them. My biggest problem is probably going to be explaining about who and why someone is going to be in our classroom. But I've got 3 days to explain and to get them used to the idea. I've also dug out my faithful recording device. Handily when I started my OU degree and was assessed for my disability they provided me with a top of the range olympus dictaphone thingy for taping my lessons as we knew that taking notes was going to be a problem. My plan is to record my lessons with my elementary students so that I can get a handle on how long various activites actually take as opposed to what the text book thinks or even my own planning suggests. Also as I am sure that for my PDA I shall be putting TTT down as a thing to work on I can gauge if this really is a weakness (in elementary we do have to speak mre) or if it is something I just think is a problem but really something else will scream out at me. I am also going to start taking board pictures for my problem two. I've also started googling articles and reference materials for my appendicies (spelling... where is autocorrect when you need it) so I can refer to them when I am writing my stage two. All sounds remarkably busy and organised doesn't it, so why am I feeling like I should be doing oh so much more than this... Haven't typed up my notes for this evening yet. Am planning on doing that tomorrow night when I get in from work, yes I did say work, in fact I do two jobs. Firstly efl teacher currently doing 25 hours general english spread across 2 classes, 1 x elementary and 1 x early intermediates. And I am doing 10 hours ESP, this week 2 - 1 on Business communications, next week 1-to -1 Medical English. And then I am doing 2 evenings a week (7 hours) at a retailer. The main reason for this is one, the bills don't pay themselves and two, as the winter nights draw in our student numbers dip alarmingly and I often find my teaching contract hours dropping so at this time I will volunteer my services more and more at the retailer in an attempt to keep my income on an even keel. However the retail pay is only £6 something, whereas the EFL is £11+ so realistically I have to do twice as many hours just to keep the wolves from the door. Meanwhile I am doing this Delta. crazy or what... I've been lucky enough that some fellow teachers who have gone through the Delta experience and come out the other side have lent me copies of their own lesson plans and cover sheets and assignments so that I have some idea of the expected style of content. The template we were provided was very good, but it's nothing like seeing a true model. After all we would never expect our students to provide something that we hadn't provided a model for would we... lol.. As I won't be doing the same lessons I don't consider it an unfair advantage, more a case of true EFL sharing. Time for me to actually get to my bed before 3 or 4am this week. Usually after a Delta input I have found myself up into the early dawn hours furiously typing up notes or researching and then unable to lie down and sleep because my brain is so wired. Hense my reasoning this evening for not typing up my notes until tomorrow. I need the sleep! Night night.

Input 3 lesson planning

So it's week two already. I didn't manage to post after Input 2 as once again I was up into the wee small hours. Ok it was a two hour input session, and yes it was intense as there was a lot of information out tutor had to get across but there were activitys going on as well, so how come it took me over 4 hours to type up my notes... by the way my laptop keyboard has decided to start playing up and the question mark is sticking so if I do 3 ... at the end of a sentence which should be a question then you just have to realise that it's replacing a question mark. I'm getting to know some of my co-delta students. It's early days and I'm not sure how I compare to them. Perhaps I am the most inexperienced in EFL despite the fact that I have been a teacher trainer in other guises for over twenty years. However I have realised from various comments I have recieved that I work at a really supportive school and some of the input we have received so far I was already aware of or doing compliments of the continuous professional development offered at my school. My biggest concern is what to read. There are just so many books and the skill is going to be identifying the ones that might contain the information or quotes I'm going to need for my Observed Lessons. The time of the year is not helping me as it affects me physically due to my medical condition(s) so nights like tonight I'm not sleeping due to pain and that's not good, although I am kind of used to it. I am trying to use this to my advantage and do some catch up reading (or typing this blog) when I really should be sleeping. Beats laying on the sofa watching trash tv for hours on end I suppose. There is so much information to absorb, the biggest them of the DELTA seems to be coming across as you have to put the WHY, why you are teaching an area of grammar, why you are concentrating on a receptive skill, why you have chosen a particular resource, why the students are doing an activity, why, why, why. And so far I don't seem to be having much of a problem identifying that. Some time in the next ten days I will be having one of the tutors come to my school and do my first observed lesson for my Personal Development Assignment. Thankfully this one only requires half the amount of paperwork, only a lesson plan (albeit extensive) and a self - evaluation form. My difficult lies in the fact I have no idea where my two classes will be in their learning journey as I only took them over today. One being an existing elementary class and the other a brand new class filled with new students who scored at early Intermediate stage one. So it's get to know you time in order to have the information I will need for my lesson plan. Once the tutors have told me when they will come then I can get down to brass tacks and write the lesson plan proper as I'll be able to identify where they are in their learning journey and which lesson I will need to teach to achieve the next required step. I'm surface calm but underneath I am tense as I really like to organise and get ahead of the game and at the moment I can't so it's frustrating. Anyway this is not much of a post tonight, hopefully once we get into the roller coaster of essays, lesson plans and self evaluations things will start to become more interesting.

Ok, today was day one of input, met my tutors, check, met the other students, check, got handed my timetable for the next couple of months, check, and most importantly was shown where the kitchen was for copious cups of coffee, check. I don't mean to trivialise the importance of the rest of the evening but despite normally being a decaff kind of girl I'm begining to realise that vast amounts of coffee, probably with caffeine will become my new best friend in the months to come. I'm doing my DELTA part-time as 1) I can't afford to take the time off work, 2) I physically couldn't cope with doing a nine week intensive course due to my various illnesses (too lengthy and boring to mention) and lastly 3) I know I am the type of person who needs time to cogitate and assimilate new ideas and information so realistically if I wanted to stand any chance of passing this thing I needed to do it this way. Got home this evening full of excitement and already setting up folders online and physically to record, store and generally pull together anything and everything I may need to read, digest and/or reference in the months to come. My dear friend Hx (henseforth I may only reference certain people by initials for privacy reasons), gave me some gratefully recieved hints and tips on references, storage of references for ease of retrieval, and other gumpf that she learnt on her journey through a Masters Degree. I am sure that during this course I shall become ever more grateful for her pearls of wisdom and feel the need to put together some form of gift as recompense... gift yet to be decided.. lol. Anyone who reads this must be aware that this is in no way a 'how to do' manual, merely a blog of my own journey through this learning experience and any information contained herein should be considered as my own thoughts,views and ideas and not to be used as fact or without reference to the original documents. I shall where possible try to include links and/or references but give no excuses or apologies if I forget or links don't work or references change. So be warned, you have been told!