After a long absence...

... I'm back!

I've missed blogging. And a lot of other things I used to do in my free time: reading, cooking, doing sports, shopping, meeting friends for coffee...

The course I'm doing is almost over - a fact that I'm very happy about! It definitely hasn't been a waste of time, but it has taken over my life in a way I'm not entirely happy with. Now that the end is in sight, though, I'm happy to be able to start thinking about doing other things again... like blogging!

I've realised how important it is to me, and for my teaching. It's a place I can reflect, and put my thoughts down on "paper". The main thing I've learned from this course, is that reflection is essential to teaching, although ironically, as the course has taken up so much of my free time, I haven't actually been able to do much.

All that's left now is one final observed lesson, and the materials assignment write up. We've had to create some materials for a specific class, use them, then reflect on it afterwards. Once all the assessment is out of the way, I'm sure I'll blog about the experience, and share the materials I produced with you all. To give you a taster - they're vocabulary related...

Hopefully the gap between this post and my next one won't be so long!

So much to do, so little time!

After the first three weeks of the young learners course, combined with the end of term madness that is preparing reports and meeting parents, my head is spinning!

So many good ideas and food for thought that it's difficult to know what to do with it. It would be impossible to put it all into practice now. As part of the course I have to make an Action Point Journal, picking out the most relevant ideas to try out in my classes. I've already put one idea into practice.

In my class of 6-7 year olds I've implemented a name plaque system, where their names are placed on their desks at the start of each class. At the start of each lesson they have to put their folder on their desk, and then put their name plaque next the green traffic light on the wall.

This has helped in two ways:

1) It avoids any discussion over who sits where (I had a couple of students who weren't happy with where they were sitting, and there were protests at the start of nearly every lesson).

2) It draws more attention to the traffic light system, and reminds them that everyone starts on green at the start of every lesson.

I've also found the input sessions really interesting, particularly the discussion on authentic communication in the classroom. Here are just a couple of questions I plan to give some thought to over the next few months:

How can we incorporate authentic communication in our lesson plans?
To what extent can communication be authentic in the classroom environment?

Hope that's given you some food for thought too!

A sucker for learning

Something I've learnt about myself over the last few years of my life, is that I'm happiest when I have something to study! I didn't realise this until after I'd graduated from university, and had been living in Spain for a year or so, without studying anything. First it was a TEFL course, then it was Spanish, then it was the CELTA, and then it was Dutch. I can't help it - I just like having something to get my teeth into!

Where is this blog post going, you ask? Well, this week I'm starting the TYLEC, the Trinity Young Learners Extension Course, which was being offered at work. I doubted, for about a week, then I thought, why not?? I know it's going to be a busy and intense few months, especially since I've only been in my new job for a couple of months, but I know that I'm going to enjoy the course and get a lot out of it.

Today was the first input session. One of the main messages being - you've got to go into it knowing what you want to get out of it, and ready to challenge yourself. Also, there's no point hiding what you know are your weak points as a teacher, in order to pass the observations. Instead, put your weak points out there and make it clear you want to develop in those areas. Wise advice.

So, what are my weak points as a teacher?

1) Classroom management with large classes (this is something new for me, as in my previous job I had classes of between four and six students).

2) Responding to different needs - how to cater for different levels of ability in a large class, and planning constructive differentiated activities.

3) Relating to very young learners (5-7 year olds). I'm teaching very young learners in groups for the first time, and I'm struggling to create a good rapport with my students, and a relaxed, comfortable atmosphere in the classroom.

So, there you have it. My weaknesses are on the table.

I'm hoping that over the next few months I'll have time to blog a little about my learning experience on this course, and report on how I'm making progress in these areas. In the mean time, any advice on these aspects of teaching would be much appreciated!

Thanks for reading me!

How and why I learned Spanish

Spanish wasn't an option in my secondary school when I studied there, although now it is. I enjoyed languages, and was good at them (partly thanks to the help of my mum, who teaches languages, helping me out at home - checking my written work, and doing mock oral tests with me). I studied French for 6 years, and German for 3. I never thought I'd go on to study more languages in the future though.

I had no idea what I wanted to "be" when I grew up, but knew I didn't want to be a teacher! Both my parents were teachers, as well as a handful of my aunts and uncles, and I was most certainly going to do something different with my life. So when I left school I applied to study Divinity and History of Art at university.

As a family we'd always gone on holiday to France and Germany (where mum spoke the languages), so when I went on a voluntary 6-week building project to the Dominican Republic in the summer between school and university, the fact that I couldn't understand ANYTHING the locals said made a huge impression on me.

So there I was at university, studying two subjects I didn't really know why I'd picked, determinedly avoiding anything language related, because I wanted to do something "different." And then I found myself choosing Beginners Spanish as an extra course to fill up my credits. At the time I wasn't really conscious of this, but it must have been a direct result of experiencing being in a foreign country without being able to understand anything.

I was enjoying my Spanish course more than History of Art, and definitely more than Divinity, where I'd found myself surrounded by a bunch of people who were all studying to become church ministers. And thanks to the flexibility in Scottish universities, half way through my first year I was able to change my degree to Hispanic Studies. I realised I was doing what I was good at, and what I loved - and I knew I'd made the right decision.

I spent my year abroad as a language assistant in Zaragoza, Spain, and essentially as an au-pair too, as I was living with a Spanish family who asked me to spend time with their daughter in exchange for very cheap accommodation. I learned so much Spanish in those 10 months. I carried a notebook around everywhere I went, I had an "intercambio" (a 1-2-1 language exchange), I watched Spanish TV (even though most of it was a load of rubbish!), and was just totally emerged in the language. I was in my element!

After finishing my degree, I decided to go back to Spain, as I still didn't know what I wanted to do. I was putting off "the big decision" - or so I thought. And I've been living in Madrid ever since!

At first I didn't study formally, although I had a few "intercambios," and I was constantly looking up things I heard that I didn't know. I didn't watch as much Spanish TV as before, but I started to read a lot - newspapers, magazines and novels. Then, last year, I decided I wanted to study more formally. I found a teacher, and started classes. For about 8 months I worked towards the DELE exam, which I sat, and passed, in May last year.

But the learning never stops! I think that's really why I love learning languages - there's always more to learn, and yet it's extremely satisfying, because as soon as you learn something new, even just one or two new words, you can try them out and you see immediate results.

Golden Time ideas

As you may have read a couple of blog posts ago, I've recently started working with some new classes. This is the first time I've had such young learners, and I'm learning quickly!

I've decided to implement a traffic light system, but at first I wasn't sure what the consequence of getting moved to a red light could be. Then I found out about Golden Time, which means time at the end of the week when the learners have time to do activities of their choice in the classroom. The idea is that any time a student gets put onto a red light, they lose minutes of Golden Time.

I love the idea of Golden Time, and it seems like a really good idea to combine with the traffic light system, but I'm not sure how I can implement the concept in my setting.

That's where I'd like to ask for your advice.

I'm working in a school during their lunch hour. My students are 6 and 7 years old, and the classroom that we use is a secondary school room. So, it's neither my room, nor their room. There are no resources in the room that I can use, apart from the tables, the chairs, and the blackboard. There isn't a lot of floor space, unless the tables are moved - which is problematic, as they have to be returned to their original positions at the end of the lesson.

My idea is to join the tables together into groups of four, and have a different activity at each table for the last 20 minutes of the last class each week. The activities need to be easy and quick to organise, and self-explanatory, as there won't be time to explain the activities and for the students to have enough time to enjoy them.

I'd really appreciate any ideas or advice you could offer me on this.

All aboard the Grammar Train!!

Back at the end of the summer, while trawling through the blogosphere looking for inspiration for the start of the academic year, I came across this blog entry from Vicky Loras's blog. I saved it to Evernote to be used at a later date and, as usual, forgot about it until last week! It was a hit in the class I tried it in!

Image by @sandymillin

The Grammar Train is a lovely way to present new structures. I used it for sentences with the "going to" future. First I made three trains of my own - a positive one, a negative one and a question. I stuck the parts of the train randomly on the walls around the room, and the students had to try to make three sentences using all the carriages.

They then came and stuck them on the board, and we played around with the carriages to show all the combinations they'd come up with. After we'd decided on our three final sentences (which were slightly different to the ones I'd planned, but correct nonetheless!), I asked them to identify the subject, the verb "to be", the main verb and the time expression in each one. Then we talked about the pattern, and how the main verb always comes after "going to", and you change the order of the subject and the verb to make questions.

It was really visual, and I could see that it was clicking in their brains!

Next class, I'll get them to write some of their own sentences on mini trains in their notebooks, to remind them of the structure.

Thanks for the inspiration Vicky!