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.