Monday, December 20, 2010

The Coca-Cola Christmas lesson

Projector lesson: I really wanted to try out some technology, to jazz up the teenage PET class and also for my own professional development. This lesson took me about 18 hours to prepare, but a large part of that was learning how to use PowerPoint. I'm not sure how to add a ppt into the blog. The main thrust of the lesson was to introduce two Coca-Cola Christmas advertising songs, and to make the students aware of how advertising colours our view of Christmas, whether we want it to, or not. 
I began by asking the Ss to work in pairs, making lists of Christmas symbols. 
I then showed them a slide with animation - introducing the most well-known, with vocabulary (Father Christmas/Santa Claus, bells, gifts, nativity scene, Christmas tree, stockings), and then a new slide..."COKE", then Coke = Christmas? I asked them to consider why this might be so. 
Then I adapted  four texts from www.saint-nick.com. There was a worksheet with questions about the texts. (If you want a copy, ask in the comments below). Then we talked about what happened with the advent of TV...and I showed them this youtube clip.  The worksheet had the lyrics with some errors for correction, and the next slide was a copy of the correct lyrics, and clipart to illustrate vocabulary. 
Then I asked them if they thought things were different now...

This slide got a big laugh.
After showing some screen shots of the Coke ads which followed the Hilltop Singers ("Holidays are Coming", "The Greatest Gift" and the one with the polar bears and penguins, we flipped over the worksheet and there was a gap-fill for the full song used in the 2010 NEW Coke ad, which had only just started playing on TV in Italy. Only a couple of the students had seen it. Train have a really cute video and a catchy song, and I was hoping the teens would love it :-) I played it first without the video, so they wouldn't be distracted.
It was hard for them - I scaffolded it the second time by writing the missing words on the board in random order...it made it easier, and then I just underlined the words as they came up the third time around.
To end the listening part of the lesson, I played the advert and had them underline the parts of the song they heard in it. 
And then I showed them the making of the advert, with the words of the director highlighted afterwards on a separate slide, to generate discussion. See it here.

That's it :-) 

I've used the lesson six times so far, with individuals of all levels, as well as with the teen class. It's been a hit every time. The song is quite difficult, so a little scaffolding goes a long way. Also, the discussion will depend on the level of the students. 

Personally, I really enjoyed experimenting with PowerPoint, learning how to download youtube vids, taking screen shots, and am now wondering what else I can use, and where to go next! 















Ravioli - because I can.

It's about time I added a post about "life in Italy", instead of always teaching, teaching, teaching. Today's my first official day of the Christmas holidays, and the children are still at school until Wednesday. Three days for catching up on writing, studying, housework etc.
My daughter requested Ravioli for lunch today ("NOT tortellini, Mum! Spinach and Ricotta ravioli.") Well, it's nearly the holidays, she's a great kid, so I thought, "Why not?"
Then I found that our local shop only had TORTELLINI, NOT Ravioli! They did have ricotta, though, and I had the day off. Again I thought "Why not?"

I started with two cups of flour and two eggs, and made the dough. It was a little dry, but that doesn't matter.
  I began rolling it through the machine...(the machine that my mother-in-law got as a wedding present!)
First pass


Second pass

Third pass
Fourth pass

About the sixth pass, I think
Almost too long for the table



The filling - ricotta, spinach, nutmeg, salt, pepper and parmeggiano

Beginning construction

Putting the lids on

And enough pasta left over to make fettucine!



In the end, with two cups of flour and two eggs (plus the ricotta and spinach, etc), I made 28 large ravioli and enough fettucine for two adults (probably). Then I made some simple tomato sauce, and lunch was ready. It took about an hour to make, with a few facebook pauses. I'll post pics of the cooked ravioli in the next post.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Trying something different in the teenage class

I had a feeling that my group of 17 teenagers, who are supposed to be preparing for PET, were getting a little bored and restless, and I wanted to jazz it up a bit. The unit theme was education, so I found/developed four texts about Japan, The Netherlands, New Zealand and The USA, and their different educational systems. I used photos of pre-school kids, primary, secondary and university students, to elicit the different stages of education and ages. In a small bag I had cut up the names of the countries (5xUSA, 4xNZ, etc etc), to sort them into groups (so they weren't working with the same people). This worked well, and they were soon in their groups according to which country they pulled out.
I then said "Tell each other about what you know or imagine about the ed.sys in that country. - 2 minutes".
Then I gave them each the text about their particular country, but all chopped and jumbled. It didn't take long for them to put it back together. They then had to fill in a chart in their groups. I wanted to get them writing questions about their text, but was running out of time. (I had my CELTYL tutor's voice in my head - what's the CRUX of your lesson, Jo? What's the crux?') - admittedly, it was probably the question writing.
I put the whole texts up around the room, and asked them to choose another country which interested them, and go take notes, to report back to their group. They seemed to be very interested in this. They then reported back, and finished filling in the table.
To wrap up, I asked a few of them what they had found most interesting or unusual about the ed.sys in the other countries - and writing homework was, of course, writing a similar text about the ed.sys in Italy.
Overall it was a fun lesson, which got them working with different people, and speaking more. It needs tweaking (the whole filling-in of the table didn't seem to serve much purpose really), and something else to make it more motivating, but as a first step away from the book, I felt quite happy with it.
I am going to try asking for feedback about it from them next week. Their class teacher would also like to observe a lesson soon, so I'd better keep creating that material!

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Here We Go Again

Today was the first day back teaching at the pre-school. 30 children, from age three to almost six. All together, in one class, for two hours. I went with high hopes, as I always do. I want to expect the best from them, and they always reward me by being amazing.
Today, I have to say, I was too ambitious. It was a good lesson for me. When you have 30 children in that age group, with only one teacher to help, arts and crafts any more complicated than colouring in two objects gets out of hand very quickly.

WHAT I DID:
I used the We Are Busy Beavers Weather Song, which was a last-minute decision. My plan was to have this lead into first making the weather mobile from Very Young Learners and from there, into a Dress-a-snowman activity.
The song was FANTASTIC! I reintroduced Lulu and the Cookie Puppet from last year, then used flashcards of hot, sunny, cold, raining, and did a chant to teach the vocab. I also worked on classroom language - today's target was "Listen" and "Repeat". With hand gestures, they GOT it!!! Then we got into the song. They just loved it. We listened the first time, then added gestures the second time...and the third and fourth...
Then I used Cookie to call them back to their desks four at a time.
And then chaos ensued. I could have and should have predicted it. They weren't allowed to get their own colours from their backpacks, so had to share three packs of school colours (for thirty kids). Then, of course, we had to cut out the shapes for the mobiles. There are only six children who are allowed to use scissors, so the other teacher spent a lot of time cutting...and then we had to attach the pieces to the straws.
The book suggests using sticky tape and sewing thread, and I blindly followed instructions. Result - immensely fiddly and slow. The teacher (years of pre-school experience under her belt), pulled out some thin ribbon, such as you might use to tie up a gift to make it look pretty, and a stapler. Excellent idea, one to be remembered and repeated for the rest of my teaching career. You can imagine, however, that this meant those children whose shapes were tied to the straw in boring old cotton, suddenly wanted to rip them all off and have the pretty pink ribbon. *sigh*

Owing to the chaos, we never finished up with the attractive class set of weather mobiles which my over-active imagination had assured me we would. Instead, the kids ended up just stuffing them into their backpacks. I chalked it up to a learning experience for me, and we cleaned up. The kids from last year remembered the Tidy Up song. That was a huge positive. Once we had things in order again, we went back, listened to the song again, did the bye-bye song, and the school bus left, leaving about ten children behind...so we sung Jingle Bells a few times, which leads in nicely to my up-coming lessons - two before Christmas - on the obvious theme!

WHAT I WOULD DO DIFFERENTLY NEXT TIME:
This could have been a quick "colour the cloud" activity but still would have been chaos. So...what could I have done? Well, I could have prepared the shapes (cloud, sun, snowman, and umbrella) earlier, and laminated them - a class set so that each child had ONE shape. When their verse came up, they could hold it up...or else, I could do the gestures, and the children with those cards would hold them up. Hmmmm, there's my lead-in for the next lesson!

Phew. Any comments? What would YOU do with this many children?
I've decided to rely on really simple songs from supersimplesongs and wearebusybeavers, making up actions where possible, and using flashcard activites. Two hours is a lot for children to sit still, but this group descends to chaos almost immediately if they get up....

Friday, November 12, 2010

The Epson wonder-thing

Our school got an invitation to visit a certain informatica shop in Viterbo, to attend a presentation of the new Epson EB-450Wi interactive projector with a view to perhaps adopting it in our classrooms (in some imagined far-future...). I went with a colleague today at 11 a.m. We were the first to arrive. Did someone say interactive whiteboard thingy? I'M THERE!!!! In fact, I had already cased the joint at 8.45, so that I knew where to go.
I didn't have to be convinced by the IWB. I already am. I've been desiring one since I bought the 4th edition of Jeremy Harmer's The Practice of English Language Teaching, which shows teachers using the things. Then, as previously posted, I got to try one out at the recent IH ELT conference in Rome.
This new Epson wonder-projector negates the need for an IWB though! You can project onto any surface, including a blackboard. How retro would that be? That surface then becomes interactive, by using a special infrared pen (or else there is an infrared light from the projector which recognises movement...or something! I don't need to know how it works to know that it is wonderful.)
The people giving the demo were suitably convincing, and my colleague and I chatted about the application all the way back to school.
Then I got to thinking. I've been considering getting my own set-up to take when I go out to other schools. A decent lap-top and a portable projector - but is this the way to go, or will it create other issues which I am unaware of? How much can you actually do with the thing once you've got it? Am I going to have to learn a whole new skills-set to maximise the benefits? And will the technology make me a better teacher, or will it interfere the rapport I build with my students?
Consider that I don't really know how to use Powerpoint...

I did consider this, and as I had a bit of time up my sleeve (due to the fact that we really didn't take much convincing about the Epson Wonder-thing, and that they couldn't really keep us once we'd seen what it could do), I played with Powerpoint before my individual lesson.

What I came up with was a short presentation with images of Tod's shoes and bags, a photo of Diego Della Valle, and Saks Fifth Avenue. Why? Well, this particular student is preparing for a public exam to enter into a certain public entity which has something to do with markets and stock exchanges. For the English part of her exam, she will be presented with a fairly technical article about finance or markets or something. She will have to read it, then precis it, and then answer some comprehension questions about it.

I'm running out of financial articles that I can grab from the 'net! We've done them all. Especially ones about Italy. However, today I found a little piece about said Diego become the main shareholder of Saks. It was an uh-huh moment. I found as much information as I could about his company, Saks Inc., Carlos Slim (who was the main shareholder until Diego shouldered him aside), and the deal.

The PPP worked as a nice lead-in to the articles...but then?

Sadly, there is nothing that technology can really help with when the exam she has to do is sooooo dry! She did enjoy the article about the slap-down shouting match between Silvio and Diego, though.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

A Word Monster

I also had my Starters group today. I wanted to jazz up their vocabulary learning a little, and remembered an activity I'd used with the pre-school class. The Word Monster. Which was perfect for  today's lesson, as we were doing body parts (having done colours, numbers and "how many..." over the last few lessons.)

I had a sheet of brown paper already stuck to the board when they came in, so they were very curious about what we'd be doing. I went over the body parts with them, eliciting face, head, eye, ear, nose, mouth, body, arm, hand, leg and foot.

Then I got a big pen, and said...This is our Word Monster. He has a BIIIIIIIGGGGGGG head (which I drew). Then I asked how many eyes does he have? etc etc etc....

Once we'd drawn and coloured our monster, and talked about him, they gave him a name (apologies to Alex Case - it was the students' idea, really!), and we put him back on the board. 

Now, this is a Word Monster (idea taken from "Very Young Learners" by Vanessa Reilly and Sheila M. Ward), so he 'eats' flashcards. I forgot the blu-tak today (will forget head tomorrow). Usually I would blu-tak the flashcards they know to the monster's mouth, and then check again at end of lesson - if they remember, then the monster eats the words which end up in his BIIIIIIIGGGGGGG STRIIIIPPPPPPPYYYYY BOOOOODDDDDDDYYYYY. :-) Today he got to munch on those words immediately, and the flashcards sat on the ledge of the board. Ah well. It was fun and creative.

Instant warmer for PET

I started with a new PET prep class today, at one of the local high schools. Lovely school - run by nuns, and the English teacher is switched on and speaks very well. I have sixteen students, probably all about 15 and 16 years of age. A good mix of boys and girls, and all at about the same level (with the obvious gradings of ability).

I only have them for an hour at a time, once a week, for 24 hours in total. That isn't much time, when you consider that I am preparing them for all three parts of the exam (Reading/Writing, Listening and Speaking). Usually our job is just to prepare them for Listening and Speaking. We decided to use Skills Booster 4, by Alexandra Green (published by New Editions, HEINLE CENGAGE Learning), because it is a short course, and covers the four skills very nicely, and is also aimed at the appropriate age group.

As I was preparing the first lesson yesterday, I had one of those completely blank moments - I just KNEW there was something I usually do at the beginning of a PET Prep class, but I couldn't force it from the dark recesses of my currently-overtaxed brain...

Until I got into the classroom, of course! Ta-dah! I immediately discarded the completely lame idea I had planned as a warmer, and put them into groups. Then I wrote up some questions about the exam on the board : How many papers are there? How many parts in Reading? How many in Writing? How many words do you write in Part 2 Writing? In Part 3? How much time do you have for Reading/Writing? How much time for Listening? Where do you write your answers for Listening? How many people at a time do the Speaking Exam? How many examiners are there?

I negotiated a time limit (5 minutes) and set the timer, then let them at their handbooks....

They really got into it, and although no group answered all the questions, it familiarised them with the handbook, and with the exam.

And then we got on with the Skills Booster book, lesson one.

And I am well pleased with the book! It is just the right level. Gave them a confidence boost right from the get-go, and I think it is going to be a great group to work with.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

NaNoWriMo in Iceland

I'm wearing a different hat in November. I'm a teacher. It is what I do. I love it. But I'm also a writer. It's what I do. I love it. I get paid for doing the first. I'd love to get paid for doing the second (actually, I have been paid, once. Which means that I know I can do it again.)
Why November? If you follow the link to NaNoWriMo, you'll find out. NaNo gives me the kick in the pants I need to make me fit writing in and around all the other aspects of my life (you know, wife, mother, daughter, sister, teacher, friend...), and shows me every year that I CAN write, and I LOVE writing.

The first year was when I wrote the novel I'd been thinking about for ages. I finished that book, and its been rejected by several very reputable agents. :-) As you know, rejection means that I'm a "real author"!

Last year I wrote a book which I loved - only it had a very saggy middle which kept me bogged down. So much so that it is still a work in progress. I thought about resurrecting it this year, and making the 50,000 words the second half of that book - but then I had another idea.

And also a change of genre.

I've moved from Chick Lit - erm, I mean, Contemporary Women's Fiction - into ROMANCE. Yes, romance, with the necessary Alpha male, strong yet vulnerable female, and some slurpy bits. And to add a bang to the whole story, I've set it in Iceland (because I needed a literal bang, as in a volcano!).

Previously, I've written about New Zealand, Italy, London...you know, places I've actually been to, and know something about. This year, I'm completely in the dark. Well, not completely, of course, because we have the Internet, with blogs, flikr, ads, mapmyrun for calculating distances, and all those good things.

However, if you are visiting this blog, and you live in Iceland, or have been to Iceland, I'd love to hear from you. Really! Especially if you live anywhere near Skaftafell, and/or are a geologist, an Earth Sciences student, or a photo journalist :-)

Thanks for checking in!

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Another way to do a song...

What can you do with a song in an ESL class?
Error correction
Gap fill
Re-order the lines
Re-order the words (!)
Running dictation (with the text...correct while listening)
And one I learned from Margaret Horrigan of IH Manzoni

Take the first verse of the song you want to do with your students. For this example, let's use "These Boots Are Made For Walking" by Nancy Sinatra (because this is what MH used at the conference, to lead into her lesson about shoes). 
Count how many words there are in the first verse, and maintaining the punctuation, replace each word with a letter (in order---1,2,3,4,5,....). You can do this on the board, leaving space to replace the numbers with the words. Or you can use the technology available, and do it as a document, which you then project onto the board (or else, surely, you can do it somehow on an interactive white board, but as I have no experience with one, I'll leave that to the really techy people!) 
If you do it as a doc and project it, you have the words under the numbers, but in white on a white background, so they are invisible at first. As the students guess them, you can then change the colour of each correct word to the colour of the team which guessed the word....

Proceedure : Divide the class into two or three teams, and assign each team a colour (according to your whiteboard pens, of course!). If you are still working on a blackboard, you may have coloured chalk. If you have no coloured chalk, assign each team a shape - the Circle Team, the Oval Team and the Rectangle Team, for example. 
Explain that they must listen to the song, and then they can hazard a guess - one word, or two or three or four (etc) words TOGETHER (this is to show them the lexical chunks). If the words are correct, write them up on the team's colour (or put the team's shape around the word). They can listen again and again, while they build the verse up on the board. 
Once that is done (and you can help them with questions such as "What can come before a noun?"), you then go straight into the lesson. 

This technique can also be used with short reading passages (which you, the teacher, read to the class), which also lead into the theme of the lesson. 

I hope I've explained this clearly enough. If not (or even if), please leave a comment, and I will attempt to clarify!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

feedback session

I gave a brief and rushed presentation on the conference today at our staff meeting. I was happy with how it went, but obviously needed a lot more time to fit in two days' worth of inspiration. So I've said I will report a little more on here...just not right now!

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Diamante poetry

Diamante poetry was one of the techniques suggested by Jeremy Harmer in his presentation "The Marriage of True Minds:  poetry and music in language teaching", given at the Accademia Britannica International House 50th Anniversary Educational Conference, in Rome, Oct 22/23, 2010.
Here's my first attempt (written on train on way to second day of conference).

FIRST DAY
Student
eager, open
repeating, speaking, inventing,
textbook, dictionary, computer, whiteboard,
miming, eliciting, smiling,
prepared, delighted,
Teacher.


I know - it's never going to win a competition, but the creative spark was struck, and I felt great pride in my little poem. Now imagine your students producing something similar. They have to tap into their lexis to find words they can use. You can give them the theme (Men/women, cats/dogs, summer/winter, day/night....), put on some background music (if they want it - remember to ASK. And remember, don't turn of the music before it is finished, just because you think the students SHOULD be finished!). 

He talked about many other activities you can do with poems in class. If you want to know more, comment, and I'll report, but for now I will just mention Jeremy's favourite - "YOU".

The students think of someone they love, and write that person's name at the top of the page.
Then the teacher says "Write about that person as if they were 
... a month."                 "You are April, flowers blooming, sudden showers."
...a kind of weather."    "You are a sunny day, warmth spreading."
...a kind of food."         "You are a bowl of porridge, strength to get through the day"

and so on and so on! He says that the students engage with this kind of writing, and that poetry can also be used to vastly improve students' pronunciation. I'm excited to try some of his techniques.



Accademia Britannica International House 50th Anniversary Conference, Rome, 22-23 October, 2010

DAY TWO

What a GREAT day! I think I enjoyed it even more than yesterday. I'm looking back over the programme, and I think the presentation I enjoyed the most was "CLIL - Herstory", by Deborah Withworth and Jo Glaiser, both of   Accademia Britannica International House. As has long been noted, text books to tend to focus on HIS-tory, with only token females (Amelia Earhart? Marie Curie?) appearing now and again - and those tending to be white and European. The presentation began with an exercise for students - nine women from history, of different cultures and colours. I felt ashamed that I knew only two of them - but I wasn't alone. We were then given the names of the women, and the countries, and had to match them to the pictures. I recognised more at this stage. The women were Rosa Parks, Ci Xi, Pocahontas, Anita Garabaldi, Truganini, Miriam Makeba, Aung San Suu Kyi, Jacqueline du Pré and Hypatia. We then were given a list of what they were famous for, and had to match again. The task then focused in on Jacqueline du Pré, with a listening (audio/video) taken from youtube, with some questions for the first listening, then a braille-coded gap-fill type exercise, where we had to reconstruct the text (listening). A very clear lesson plan.
We were then shown how to do something similar with a reading text about Truganini.
This was such a valuable presentation as it reinforced what I'd learned while doing the CELTYL - when teaching our young learners (or anyone, really), it pays to be creative with materials, instead of relying on the text book.

Jeremy Harmer spoke again this morning (and autographed my copy of The Practice of English Language Teaching! I'm such an ELT groupie!). His presentation was based on a series of short videos he'd made using a flip-cam. At several different ELT conferences, he'd asked teachers to talk about a successful lesson they'd taught recently, and we used their responses to think about the beliefs we bring to our own teaching.

There were two presentations in praise of the IWB (interactive white board) again - I even got to try one out! Yes, I want one. As with any tool, they don't work by themselves. The teacher still needs to put in the time for preparation, perhaps even more time than before, at least at the beginning. It seems that they might take some getting used to. You have to think about where you stand, so you don't block the beam, and you have to write very neatly on the board. That being said...I STILL WANT ONE!

The after lunch speaker, Paul Roberts, from the Centre for English Language Teaching at the University of York, offered a theoretical presentation entitled "Fixed Standards and Language Flows" which raised questions about how the type of English we teach our students. He talked about problems he has had with groups of students from different cultural backgrounds trying to negotiate and make decisions in English. One culture's way of showing respect may be another's way of showing disrespect - so are we trying to teach a "culture" while we teach a language? He ended with  two tentative conclusions and a question...
"Fixed standards may only be slightly relevant."
"Native speakers are probably irrelevant."
"Where are the new teaching materials?"

And I will leave you to ponder those while I make my way to bed.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Accademia Britannica International House 50th Anniversary Conference, Rome, 22-23 October, 2010

MY IMPRESSIONS (to be expanded later...)
DAY ONE

Nothing beats an ESL conference for giving your teaching a lift, and the first day of the IH conference had me soaring. Although I must admit that gone are the days when I just absorb everything. I am now more attuned to the presenter who is really informing me, and more aware when the presenter is just trying to sell me the latest textbook or product.

In this post, I'm going to deal with the speakers who really taught me something, and  inspired me to be a better teacher. Therefore, I have to begin with Norman Cain who, with just a few comments to open the conference, reminded me what a truly gifted teacher he is. It was fascinating to learn that back in 1984, Norman got his CELTA (which was called something else back then) at the very school he now runs (IH, of course).

The first speaker of the day was the famous (in ESL circles) Jeremy Harmer, the author of The Practice of English Language Teaching, among many other titles. His presentation, entitled "The marriage of True minds: poetry and music in language teaching, began with an enthralling performance of Shakespeare's Sonnet 116. He then went on to explain that his talk had arisen from a show he'd created with a musician friend called Steve Bingham, called Touchable Dreams. As well as some ideas for helping our students learn to pronounce perfectly through poems (I will deal with specifics in a later post), he touched on the use of music (rather than just songs) in the classroom. An important point - as teachers, we should remember to ASK our students if they would like some background music while they do a task, instead of just playing it...and then turning it off when we think the activity should end, even if the music hasn't finished!

Margaret Horrigan was the next presenter to inspire. Her talk on Biodiverse Teaching was based on a lesson using shoes as the theme. I'd seen part of this during the CELTYL course, but that didn't detract at all. The main message was that as teachers, we should show respect for accents, cultures, races, and beliefs, and that our teaching (especially of children) can be a chance for us to gently open the minds and broaden the horizons of our students. I got to help Margaret on the stage, too, which was a thrill (yes, my nickname IS Herminone!).

Norman Cain then gave a presentation on CLIL - Culture, Traditions and Religion - going where many ESL teachers fear to tread! And, of course, showed us how it can be done, in the most engaging way! He videoed a taxi driver in Malaysia, talking about Thaipusam and the Batu Caves, and played it to his students. REAL English, unedited...and they loved it. There are just so many possibilities.

The after-lunch slot is never easy, but Hugh Dellar (author of the Outcomes series of ESL textbooks) made it look that way. He compared ELT with the British Royal Family, with vocabulary and pronunciation coming in as lowly ranked nobles in thrall to King Grammar. His talk ended with King Grammar is dead! Long live...?
...lexico-grammatical structures?
...grammaticalised lexis?
... curiosity and wonder in the ordinary!
...learning and teaching!
and an invitation to join him on facebook (which I did, naturally...)

My brain was about full by this stage, and I didn't manage to get very excited by the last presentation, which was an introduction to the web platform english360...that is, until the presenter, Valentina Dodge, began to show us what we could do with it. It looked like the future, manageable, right there on the screen. And you can try it for free www.english360.com - which I will do, after the conference ends, tomorrow.

As with any conference of this nature, there is a lot of information to process. Tomorrow, I will reflect on Day Two, and then in later posts, go into specific details, applicable to lesson planning.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

A festival for Saint Bartholemew

San Michele in Teverina is protected by St Bartholemew, who is also the patron saint of Armenia, bookbinders, butchers, Florentine cheese (eh?), salt merchants, Malta, neurological diseases (and those who seek their cure), plasterers, shoemakers, tanners and leather workers (he was flayed).  
Our village church has a large statue of him, and every year, in the week leading up to his Feast Day (August 24th), we celebrate with Masses in his honour, live music in the piazza every evening, games for the children, an Ape Gymkhana (see photo), and on the final day, a procession of the statue around the village.
This is an Ape (Ah-Pay), Italy's answer to the ute.



Gruppo Folkloristco arriving...

This year, on the Sunday afternoon, we also had a "Gruppo Folkloristico" come and perform. The first impression was more Main Street, USA than Corso d'Italia, but they were a lot of fun...AND check out the ribbons on their hats.
Yes, Italy does feature...
They had some really fun instruments, and I especially loved the cymbals on the scissors. This group seemed to have pulled "folklore" from the United States, England (Morris Dancing, anyone), and ... well, I guess, Italy.
The funny man with the scissor cymbals.

The marching/cheer leading girls were a big hit, and highly skilled. It was an original act, and I think most people enjoyed the music and the dancing. The main thing is that our village is protected for another year, and we can rest easy. 


Thursday, August 19, 2010

Very exciting moment.

For many of us in the on-line TESOL world, Alex Case is a bit of a hero. Well...he is for me, anyway. I check his blog regularly, and value what he has to say. So I was thrilled to bits when he asked me if I would comment on the Young Learners course I did in June. It took me longer than I wanted to write the blog (perfectionism going strong!), but I finally took advantage of Anti-Procrastination Wednesday (www.flylady.net), and GOT IT DONE...and submitted, too!
Today it is up on his blog, and I am really tickled to a high shade of rose to see it there! Of course, now that it is up, I'd like to tweak it a bit, but I'll deal with anything that needs tweaking in the comments!
A big thanks to Alex for inviting me to write for his blog. www.tefl.net/alexcase/teaching/tefl/teenagers/yl-extension-to-celta/

Thursday, August 12, 2010

A little oneirology for Thursday.

Studying your own dreams can be an interesting window into your current mental state. Most adults dream about two hours EVERY NIGHT of their lives – but most adults are also highly unlikely to remember more than one or two of their dreams.
When I was younger, single, and had more time on my hands, I kept a dream journal for six months. As soon as I woke up every morning, I would write down all the dreams I could remember. Initially, only one or two were clear, but as I began this habit, I started to remember more and more details, and then more and more actual dreams, until I could record up to seven dreams from a single night.
I was disappointed to note that there were no real patterns. Most of my dreams were fairly unexciting, and seemed to be more of a rehash of the day’s or week’s events, than any specific message from my subconscious.
Except for the Anxiety Dreams. I had read that people often have a particular recurring dream during times of heightened stress. The common examples are appearing naked in public, being chased, not being able to move, and the classic, turing up for an exam without having studied (I didn’t need to dream that one – it actually happened my first year of university. It was stressful. And I failed.). However, none of these was my Anxiety Dream of choice at the time I’m talking about (ten years ago now).
No, my AD was about toilets. A severe need to pee, and nowhere to do it, or else the toilet was up a tree, or in a vast maze of cubicles, mostly occupied, or mostly filthy, or mostly with a large audience. Whenever I found myself recording a toilet dream, it was a sign for me to examine more closely what was happening during waking hours.
I no longer have the time or the inclination to record all my dreams, but I have noticed over the last year that the nature of my AD has changed. In anxious moments, the location of terror is now an airport. I need to catch a connecting flight. I have too much luggage. I can’t find the gate. I have to go from one terminal to another, but can’t find the way. There are too many escalators, mainly going in the wrong direction. And last night, I was in a country between Italy and New Zealand (maybe Singapore, maybe Bangkok), and they had told us to wait in a garden. Where a smiling flight attendant gave me a suitcase, and told me to hurry to Gate [unintelligible], which was over there [vague gesture]…up and down escalators, have to validate boarding pass, have to go through a long corridor which is also a luxury hotel (picture walking along side many cubicles, each with a fancy bed and delicious linen). At the end is a staircase, very crowded, and my Australian aunt is there, but she isn’t going where I am going. She knows where I need to go, though, and starts to give me directions, while we are both being jostled by the crowd. In the background, at all times, is a large red clock, ticking loudly, counting down how much time I have left...
As it approaches 0:00 I am thankfully wakened by my son yelling “Muuuuuummmmmmmmyyyyyy.”
If I visit another airport tonight, I’m getting help.

Monday, August 9, 2010

NaNoWriMo - not just November.

For those of you who don't know, National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo) starts on November 1 every year, and ends on the last day of that month. The challenge is to write the first draft of a novel (at least 50,000 words) in that month. If you want more information, check them out at www.nanowrimo.org or on facebook under NaNoWriMo.
At the moment, as a way to keep us on our creative toes, they are running writing challenges, in the comments section of their fb wall, and today's was "Write a story that uses the words "happy" and "coffee" and is 50 words or less!"

So I thought I would cheat on my blog today, and just publish my entry :-) This year will be my third NaNo, and I am very excited about it - although this is the first year that I haven't had a single plot or character idea in the lead-up. I'm a little worried, but not too much, yet :-)

I'd love some comments about my wee story - perhaps THIS will spin out into the 50,000 for NaNo2010?
__________________________________

Just another day turned to cheap farce when Samson entered his usual coffee shop and found the waiter locked in an embrace with Sylvia. Perhaps she had forgotten that this was where Samson always had breakfast. Or else she was trying to show him that she was no longer happy.

__________________________________

Friday, August 6, 2010

A day's not wasted when you learn something.

I've been subscribing to TIME magazine for ten years now. Its weekly entrance into our home provides a take on world news and culture which I don't get from other sources - and nearly every week I find myself reaching for the OED to look up a word I don't know. Anything that expands my vocabulary is a good thing.
This week, however, I am excited to have been introduced to a whole new piece of jargon - for jargon it can only be. The August 2, 2010 Europe edition has an article about South Korea's LG Electronics, and I was puzzled by the sentence "...more than tripled the share of R&D spending on "disruptive" research -...". ??? How can research be disruptive, was my immediate thought. Reading on, I gathered that this term refers to research into brand-new areas, "breakthrough solutions" and that this research may not show results for a very long time. Okay...got it...
The very next article is about OLEDs (or Organic Light-Emitting Diodes) - fascinating reading. These are flat, flexible, and can even be transparent. They emit a warm glow, similar to sunlight, but remain cool to the touch. The last sentence of the second paragraph reads "..."That's the disruptive nature of it."..." - again, this word leapt off the page at me. At this point, a trip to the dictionary becomes mandatory.
My trusty OED only has the standard entry ...
disruptive adj. Causing problems, noise, etc. so that sth cannot continue normally.
Yes...time for a trip to that other font of all knowledge - google. Google, then to wikipedia, where I discover that I am many years behind on this one!
The entry for disruptive technology first entered the wikisphere in 2002! I'm eight years behind...
No, WAIT!
"The term disruptive technologies was coined by Clayton M. Christensen and introduced in his 1995 article Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave[3], which he co-wrote with Joseph Bower." (wikipedia).
I'm fifteen years behind!

And this is what wiki tells me it is all about.
"Disruptive innovation is a term used in business and technology literature to describe innovations that improve a product or service in ways that the market does not expect, typically by lowering price or designing for a different set of consumers."

Thanks to TIME, for helping me catch up, and thanks to google and wiki ( for teaching me something new today.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Why I am a reader....and why I want my children to be readers, too.

When I read about housekeeping, I (albeit briefly) become a better housekeeper.
When I read about parenting, I become a better parent.
When I read about writing, I become a better writer.
When I read about teaching, I become a better teacher.
When I read a novel, which someone has poured their love, imagination and effort into, for weeks, months, years -
I have a window into a world I never knew existed.
I have a window into a culture I will never visit.
I have a window into lives of people I would love to have as friends.

I want my children to grow up with these opportunities. To enrich their lives, and let their imaginations soar. To discover that they can learn more from a book than from the TV. And that in times of sorrow, pain, heartache, a book may be what sees them through.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Too hot to teach!

- let alone learn! Today the temperature hit 30 degrees, and inside the classroom, it was roasting. The little cherubs had been for a walk in the morning, up to the Piazza, to rehearse the play they're performing Friday evening. When I arrived, they were sitting quietly, drawing.
I had no intro from the teachers today, so it was a bit hard to begin. The Hello song got their attention (mostly), but it was really difficult to keep it. Then someone spilled water all over the floor, just as we were getting into the action songs, so it was "Everyone back to your table" - worksheet time.
I tried giving out stickers again today...same problem as the first time, in that my sticker pads are lovely, but all different, so many arguments about who got which sticker - and then they don't detach easily from the page so it took forever. Not to be repeated.
One girl cried because she asked me when English finished, and when I told her "tomorrow is the last lesson" - sobs...."I don't want English to finish!" Ah, sweetie.
Reflection points: The Wiggles are great for this age group, but only certain songs. The ones which work best are "Here Comes A Bear" (although I haven't bothered trying to teach them what a Wombat is!), "Rock-a-bye Your Bear", and "Five Little Ducks".
They only enjoy the worksheets when they can see a very clear reason for doing them. They didn't like today's at all, because there wasn't time to explain WHY they were doing it.
They know their colours, clothes, animals and sun/rain/hot/cold very well.
I'll be sad at the end of tomorrow's lesson.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Did you see that train go by?!

Whoosh! Stated aims for today's lesson were:
Children learn body parts - head, hands, feet
Children review clothes vocab - hat, shoes, trousers
Children enjoy completing a worksheet
Children learn a new song

What really happened:
I arrived at 2p.m., to find that the last yoga lesson of the year was still in session. This gave me time to set up the chairs in a semi-circle, at which point I discovered that I had left my poster of Lulu the Blue Kangeroo, with her handy pouch for flashcards, at home.
D. and G. also ran up to me, demanding a piece of the "yellow-tak" I use to attach posters to walls and flashcards to posters.
The children had taken off their shoes and socks for yoga, so we sang (well, I sang, and two children joined in) the "Put your shoes on" song. GOOD!
Then they sat on their chairs, and we sang the hello song - at which point they all stood up again (action song!), and it was very difficult to get them sitting again, of course! (predictable). REFLECTION: Perhaps at the point I had them all sitting, I should have skipped the Hello song, and moved straight to the flashcards (or even just given up on the lesson aims, and read a story they know and like).
To add to the confusion, there was a photographer, who was also videoing the lesson. Always nice to be informed of these things! <---- sarcasm.
I had the Cookie puppet, with a hat on his feet, which moved to his hands, and finally his head. This was a very involving way to introduce the new vocabulary. I also showed them a worksheet with Lulu and Cookie learning a new song. We clapped hands, tapped feet and nodded heads...and then did the song, which again involved standing up and doing actions.
I then wanted to hand out worksheets, and bless them! They actually started lining up in the train, to get their worksheets - hurrah for children and routines!
However, because we'd started late, it was then time to tidy up and get ready for the school bus, so the whole consolidation part of the lesson was consigned to "next time".
I quickly flipped to the goodbye song...
and to wrap up a totally confusing lesson, I then had to stay, as the teacher was called away by a parent, so I pulled out The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and read it, standing up, while they all sat at their desks with their backpacks on.
This was positive, though! I wondered how much they were really getting from the story - this is the third time I have read it, and one of the 6 year old boys usually seems very bored by it.
Not this time. A couple of other children stood up in front of me, and L. couldn't see. He asked the others to sit down (strongly), then came over and explained that if they didn't sit down, he and the others couldn't see, and that they wanted to enjoy the story as well! Yahoo! I'd call that a success.
So, I was in, done and out, hot and bothered, and just wondering what, if anything, I'd managed to teach them today...
but now that I've reflected, I think I can say they did learn something - or rather, they HAVE learned something in the time I have been there. Four more hours this week, and we have finished.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Avoidance or Acceptance?

I've been reflecting on my parenting this weekend, rather than on teaching, which is still chugging along nicely. The occasion for this reflection was a trip to the supermarket with both children, and husband, in tow.
Saturday morning is never the best time for this undertaking, but with my work hours all over the place at the moment, I'm just not managing to fit it in during the week. I have been doing top-up shops here in the village, but we were seriously low on fundamentals (think loo-paper, washing powder, and cornflakes - things which just cost so much less at the big supermarket).
Things were tense from the moment we left home - well, actually from about 2kms from home, when hubby suddenly realized he'd left both his wallet and driver's licence at home. Oh dear! With Wee Man already starting his usual chorus of "When are we get there, Mummy?" and "How long does it take?", we decided that me driving was the better option. This lead to the Big Man chorus of "Change gear now" "Watch that pothole" and "You could have overtaken him there". T.E.N.S.E.
Our children no longer fit in the seats of the supermarket trolley, but they do love riding in it - only problem is that now they are so big, they have to get out again as soon as we start putting any consumables in...
And thus it begins..."Mummy, look at this." "Mummy, can we buy that?" "Mummy, do you need this?" "Mummy, X from school always eats this." WE KNOW THIS IS GOING TO HAPPEN. So why, then, does it always make us tense, and slightly crazed-looking around the eyes?
There are some things in parenting which are simply inevitable. THIS IS ONE OF THEM.
Which is why I've decided to break my parenting down into two possible reactions to any given situation, and plan accordingly.
I can either AVOID the situation all together, which means shopping during the week, while the cherubs are at school.
Or ACCEPT that they find the supermarket amazing, and are filled with wonder when there. I can thus prepare by making a list of things for them to find. (This time, Emily loved picking the best apricots and bagging them. Weighing them turned into an instant maths lesson. Liam was less than impressed that we'd only left the carrots for him to bag.) I can make sure they're well-fed and watered before going in. I can explain clearly the behaviour I expect from them (staying close by, keeping hands away from things which are not on our list..). And to end well, I can choose the check-out lane which does not have all the chocolate and lollies displayed to tempt little fingers and frazzled parents.
Avoid or Accept - my new way to deal with parenting.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

What's happening in their heads?

I haven't posted for a while - things have been ticking over - or rather, just ticking, like a time-bomb, waiting to explode. The whole experience of teaching this preschool class is getting wrapped up in all the local politics whirling around us.

So, just a couple of things to note about my class. There are thirty children on the roll. I've never had that many at a time - usually more like 20-25. The older ones, the 6 year olds, and the 5-nearly-6 year olds are the ones which seem to be paying more attention, but sometimes the younger ones really surprise me.
My son is in the class, and he shares his table with little Mr F who is one of those boys who has a hard time sitting still, but he's quiet, and even if he doesn't like to be part of the crowd singing and dancing at the front of the class, I notice he is often doing the actions and mouthing the words from his seat at the back. My son always calls me "Mummy", of course. The others call me "Maestra d'Inglese" or just Jo. But when I went to Mr F.'s table to check he was able to do the work last week, he said "Mummy, non ho i colori." (I don't have the colours). He called me MUMMY! I loved that! Showed he's paying attention to the interaction (in English).
The second thing which suprised me this last week was a little Miss 5, who always wants to help me (so she can nab a bit of the yellow sticky stuff I use to stick the flashcards to the wall.) She sidled up to me the other day, with her usual "Maestra, posso aiutarti oggi?" (teacher, can I help you today?", and I said "Sure!". [not sure why I have slipped into this "sure" instead of "yes" business - may need to work on my teacher-talk!], and she turned to the class teacher, who was about to send her back to her seat and said (in Italian), "Teacher, she said "sure", and that means "yes"!". I was floored! She had picked that up only through context.
The last moment this week which had me smiling to myself was the brightest button in the class, a chatty, out-going Little Miss 6, who loves to do all the action songs, and often stands beside me, as a helper, demonstrating the movements. We have been doing clothes - hat, shoes and trousers. The song goes "Cookie, put your trousers on..." etc etc. They've learned the song, and repeated it ...
I pulled out the flashcards, and held up the picture of trousers, saying "What are these?". Little Miss 6 called out, excitedly "TROUSERS-ON!!!!"
*BLINK*
"Yes, trousers! - that's right!" (What am I doing to them???!)

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Washing On The Line

This week I give myself a 2 out of 10 for planning! I just can't seem to knuckle down. I know in my general teaching, I tend to rely too heavily on the course book and teacher's book - then wing it a little, depending on what comes out in the lesson. I think after teaching for so long, I can do this. Perhaps my lessons would be a little more brilliant if I made extra activities. I admit this. However, the lessons always go smoothly, and I am always aware of the individual students in a group, and do extra practice when necessary.
None of this works for the pre-school. Apart from being aware of possible topic areas, my "normal" way of doing things counts for little here. The course is wonderful, but my group is not its target audience, so everything needs to be adapted. That was fine at the beginning. I had that beginner's enthusiasm, and desire to succeed brilliantly.
Then, of course, staying up until midnight, then not sleeping for worry anyway, began to take its toll, and I just had to back off a little from the intensity.
And it should be noted, that once I DID back off a little, things got a little easier. And now I can get it together 30 minutes before a lesson (provided that I read through the TB before going to bed!).
What I have discovered so far, about my group, anyway (it remains to be seen if this knowledge is transferable), is that it all depends on the mood of the crowd. If they are restive, even the best planned lesson is going to be a struggle. If they are able to focus, they manage to absorb everything.
This week's topic is clothes. My idea for today was to revise using the flashcards, then do the song again, but then I drew a blank. Half the class had done the puppet and dressed him yesterday, so I didn't want to do that again (also, having started halfway through, they don't have English folders to put their work in, so most of them had taken the puppet home!).
My idea is hardly original, but it felt so to me! I used WordArt to write a curved title "What's On Your Clothes Line?" across the top of a page, printed it out, then drew a clothesline, with pegs attached (but no clothes).
After the word review (I also had them pull clothes out of a bag, and taught socks and skirt, to add to Hat, Trousers and shoes from yesterday), and the song, I then drew Cookie's clothesline on the board, and they called out clothes, and I drew them hanging on the line. This also let us review Sun and Rain (and Incy Wincy, of course!). Then they went to their desks, and got drawing.
I had the usual M. saying "I am not good at drawing. I can't do it." The teacher told me that they deal with this by saying "Just try - it will be what it will be." - I also added that I was sure she could do it, and that I have already seen her doing some beautiful drawings.
She tried....and surprised herself, I think!
Tomorrow is the big interview for the CELTYL at International House in Rome. I'm off to do some last minute cramming. I found out today that the oral part usually takes about an hour!!! I hope my voice holds up!
Oh, I also firs

Monday, May 24, 2010

Too much to deal with

It wasn't meant to be like that, but today I really went in without a lot of pre-planning. I read through the teacher's book over my morning coffee, and nodded my head a lot, without managing to absorb much (late night last night due to Miracle Baby C's very moving Baptism). This week's unit is all about clothes - well, trousers, hats and shoes, anyway.
The first thing that happened when I arrived (VERY stressed after a morning driving first south and then north, behind very many large and slow trucks), I was told that it was S's birthday, and so we would be celebrating.
Happy Birthday in English, of course, then I helped giving out plates, forks, cups and serviettes, and telling the children the English words for all of that. Then I served the drinks, so used "Would you like Coke or Fanta?". Going for meaning based on content, here! They got it!
After the cake, and clean-up, we got down to the lesson. My heart wasn't in it, though, after the OTHER news I got upon arrival.
The first I already knew - from September, the intermediate school will no longer have a Prima Media (the first year), but only Seconda and Terza. Which means that the students in their last year at the local primary school must now go out of town for school. They all have to do that for high school, anyway, but it is sad to lose the intermediate school, too.
The second piece of news left me numb at first. I had heard that the local primary wouldn't have its full complement of teachers from September, which meant that two of the classes would have to be combined. I figured this would be something sensible, like the first and second year combined, or the second and third. Instead, it will be the second and fourth! That is 7 year olds with 9/10 year olds.
The reason (if we can call it that) is that this year's First and Third classes are the smallest (9 in the former, not sure how many in the latter), so they are the two which can be combined from a numbers point of view.
Nothing about taking the children's learning into consideration there.
I went to a primary school where there were two years combined in each class - that is not my concern. I am concerned that they are combining two completely different levels of learning in one room. In the 2nd year, they are learning about making longer sentences, moving onto more complicated multiplication. In the 4th, they are writing compositions, and studying History.
After school (the lesson went just fine...), I talked to a friend whose daughter is the same age as mine. They go to Dance School together. She takes her daughter to school in Viterbo. I'm going to look into it. Even though I would struggle with the logistics of it, my children's education is much too important for me to muck around on this one.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Out of Context

Today while shoe-shopping (lucky me!) with my friend (double lucky me!), I met up with one of my pre-school kiddies. He's one of the stars of the class - not for any particular ability, but because he always seems to have a blast. And because he always draws an extra picture just for me, with his name written on it. With his dark curly hair, and big brown eyes, he reminds me a lot of my little brother at that age - especially when he lights up with his cheeky grin.
I first spotted his mamma, and although I recognized her as one of the mums, I couldn't connect her with the correct child, until I saw D. I was so happy - I just blurted out "Hello D!".
He freaked out! It was kind of funny, but it made me wonder about the psychology of it - I still have a lot to learn! He had been running towards me, but when he saw me, he froze, then started running away from me, while looking for...perhaps his dad, or mum. I hope I didn't scar him - I'm sure that it was just that I was totally out of the context in which he knows me. Now I can't wait to see him on Monday, to see what his reaction will be.
As to the shoes - I had (yes HAD) to get new shoes for a Baptism tomorrow. C. the Miracle Baby is getting Christened, and we are all invited. I went in looking for heels...I have a very pretty dress, and wanted something really pretty to match. There were some REALLY special shoes, in a pale lilac with flowers at the toes, and a 4 inch heel...I put them on. They fit. They were beautiful.
Then I remembered my promise to my husband - "you can relax....I will look after Liam. Don't worry about a thing."
I took off the heels. You can't run after a 4 year old Liam in 4 inch heels. Well, not without falling over and ruining your pretty dress, anyway.
Luckily, my friend has an eagle eye for JUST the right shoe....a beautifully flat, just-the-right-shade-of-purple ballerina.
I left the shop on a real shoe-high. But still wondering about what goes on in the mind of a 5 year old, when confronted with a teacher completely out of context.

Friday, May 21, 2010

What a difference a day makes ...

... and a smaller class! Today's class was a success from my point of view. I think this was mainly due to the class size being very much reduced (the reason for this is unclear). There were 14 pupils. When I arrived, they were sitting quietly at their tables, all anticipation. We began with the Hello song, which they all respond to, and enjoy. Today I asked I. and S. (two girls), to be my helpers for "What's in your pocket, Lulu?". In the Teacher's Book, it is "What's in your pouch?", but I think "pocket" is a more useful vocabulary item, so have adapted accordingly.
Today the items were Happy/Sad, Big (spider), Little (spider), Elephant, Parrot, Frog, Snake, and Bat.
After the presentation, and drill, I pulled out "The Monkey Puzzle", by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. This is the first time I've tried a story with them, which they didn't already know (we've done The Three Little Pigs many times). I translated some bits, but mostly read it in English, with lots of mime. I asked lots of yes/no questions, and they responded correctly, in English.
While reading "Children Learning English" by Jayne Moon, I was struck by a teaching example in Chapter 5, where a Hungarian primary teacher is telling her class of eight-year-olds the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff. She only speaks in English, but accepts answers from her students in Hungarian - which she then reflects back to them in English. This method seems to be very sensible to me. It lets the children know that they have understood, even if they are not yet ready/able to respond in English. It also models the correct English for them.
I tried this today. I stopped often to let the children comment on the story. The book is beautifully illustrated, so the children were very engaged with the story. They were excited to see what would happen next. I had most of them to the very end.
An interesting CLIL point - some of them didn't get that the Butterfly was the caterpillars' mummy. Perhaps with more time, this book could lead onto a whole science lesson in English!
One negative that I will allow myself today - my follow-up activity was not well thought-out. In my defense, I hadn't thought we'd even get that far! We reviewed "I like...." and "Do you like...?" and then I asked most of the children (until boredom and bottom-jiggling set in), Do you like elephants? Do you like... etc etc. Then they all drew their favourite animal from the story.
They don't really care for free drawing, it seems. I get a lot of "Ma io non sono buona/o..." (I'm no good at drawing...), which always surprises me from this age group. I let some of them trace the animal they wanted, from the book.

To end the lesson, we did Incy Wincy, and Five Little Ducks, and I also stayed to support the teacher, while she got the children ready for the school bus. (Note: there was another biting incident, before I arrived today, between two local girls - Ts worried about expected fall-out).

I left feeling very positive. Long may that feeling last.

A difficult lesson

It is never easy taking over someone else's class. For whatever reason you have to do this, there are issues to be dealt with - the last teacher's style, the rapport they had built with their students, the students' own feelings about having a different teacher halfway through the course.
I'm discovering that coming into a pre-school English course half way through adds several other issues.
First of all, there was no record of what the group had already covered. I was told "seasons, clothes for winter, some songs, and hello, what's your name?".
I had already decided before beginning, to start with Cookie and Friends, Starter, and work to supplement with further activities for the more experienced children. This system is working fairly well, although I must say that we end up doing rather more colouring than I care for. That is an issue I need to address.
The main problem for me (and this is no surprise!) is class(room) management.
The class roll has 30 children. Their ages range from just-gone-four to just-gone-six. There are two children who survived the Haiti earthquake, and are living the local youth hostel. This has created some discipline/management issues with the regular teachers, not just for me.
The classroom is long and narrow - it is actually a lovely space. There are large windows, and room to move. There are six hexagonal tables with chairs for the children to work at. At the start, they seemed to have assigned seating, but the last two weeks, I have noticed that this "rule" has become rather flexible.
And that is the crux of the matter.
My job here is not to criticise. I only wish to reflect on my OWN experience of teaching pre-schoolers and young learners. This means that I must establish "English Lesson Rules". What happens when I am not there must not concern me as the English Teacher (me as a mum of one of the pupils is another matter entirely).
So yesterday, after reading another chapter of "The Practical Guide to Primary Classroom Management" by Rob Barnes, I decided to be more pro-active. I translated "We play like friends." and "We keep our hands and our feet to ourselves." into Italian for them, and used it several times. I praised good sitting down, and good joining in, and good being quiet and listening, and everything else I could find.
I felt it had little impact, but with persistence, I expect to see results.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Teaching ESL to very young children in Italy.

Over the Easter break, my son's pre-school teacher called, to tell me she'd had to let their English teacher go, for various reasons, the most important one for me being that from October through to the start of April, she'd only done 25 hours of a 70 hour program. Which meant that SOMEONE needed to pick up the remaining 45 hours - and complete them before June 11th.
That SOMEONE being ME.
By virtue of my being a native English speaker, being an ESL teacher (they were warned many times that I have little experience with children, and NONE with pre-schoolers), and living close by, I was their best bet, and their last resort.
That was Sunday evening. I began on Wednesday morning.
After first hopping the train to Rome, going to Feltrinelli International, and buying an entire course of material (Cookie and Friends, Starter and A - OUP).
Two hours - the lessons are usually two hours long, in the afternoon, and the class is 4, 5 and 6-year olds, 30 in total. Throw in two wee ones from the Haiti earthquake, and you may start to get a feel for the challenge.

I'm now 25 hours into my own personal growth /professional development challenge, and have also decided that it is time to embrace my inner ECE/Primary Teacher, and do the CELTYL.

When I think back over my life, focusing on the kinds of books I've always loved reading, a pattern emerges. What do Anne Shirley, Jo March, Anne Hobbs and Jane Eyre all have in common? TEACHERS! They are all teachers. I love teaching! I am really interested in how children learn. I must also remember that for the longest time, if anyone asked me what I wanted to do when I left school, I replied "Kindergarten teacher" (that is 3/4 year-olds in NZ). I got sidetracked along the way, but now....

It is time.

Time to teach!

Time to teach Littlies!