Archive for the ‘Rants and Raves’ Category

Today was a lovely, warm and bright spring day. Many of
devoted teachers (most presumably, those without
summer houses by the lake as myself LOL) gathered
at ILS for a conference.

Each session was 45min long with 4 topics to choose
from. Refreshments were served in between, which was
really a big plus!

The first session I went to was about using songs. We
had so much fun and the activities were really very
practical (in terms of application, not sure about the
end result). I really liked the ideas but the amount
of preparation time is really demotivating

Next, I went to an ESP workshop. The lecturers
shared their experience with aviation English,
the name of which gives me creeps! Makes one
really thing well before going in for ESP. That said,
it was an interesting workshop.

My third one was kinaesthetic activities. The lecturer
demonstrated several handy activities for which they
need sticky balls and rods, respectively. She said the
ball could be obtained from a certain shop but I did not
manage to get them. I will try next time. I also had to
order rods online from UK because Amazon.com has a limit
on countries toys can be sent to (makes me really say
*Americans* again with eyes upward). Amazon.de did not
have the rods themselves, perhaps, it is even wiser than
just make people log in to delete their shopping cart content
continuously. Deutch gemacht, eh?

The fourth session was about marking IELTS. I do not
want to do this exam preparation course because it
is highly time consuming and not very economically
beneficial as for a freelancer. However, it was really
interesting, the one minus was seeing that people with
poor English got 6 out of 9!

Tomorrow I will be actively using myself as an interpreter
for a project about stone sculptures. I volunteered
(I am surprised myself that I did!) to help meet
several foreign artists at the airport because the
organisators speak very little English. Then, I will
be working Monday-Wednesday and leave for
our extended weekend to Poland.

Not bad for one day.

I just could not NOT express my appreciation for this particular
cartoon. For more of the same author and no less
meaningfull for everyday teacher’s life, please
visit http://www.langwichscool.com

Today I was supposed to have one class in-company
that was resheduled because they couldn’t make it
last Wednesday. So, when I came as agreed, there
was no-one there. I waited for some time thinking
they might be in the traffic jam but it turned out
that they weren’t going to come and somebody was
suppposed to call me about that. Naturally, no-one did!

That just pissed me off so badly! I could have gone
to my office and done some lesson planning or
just visited my grandparents, etc. Such misunderstandings
are a terrible lack of respect for other people’s time
and effort.

Finally I found a slot of free time and went to buy
loudspeakers and a keyboard for my office
computer. I managed to plug in the
loudspeakers but I still need to do some
work with the keyboard. The former one had a
different plug!

I have compiled a good selection of cd-roms
with interactive teaching materials and I intend to
start using them accordingly. I am thinking about
one or two computer lessons per month. Also, I
will ask for an internet provider to come and take a
look at my computer, so that I can use more
material which is available online.

Should you know any good interactive websites
please feel free to leave a comment.

This weekend was extended and we had 4 days for
Easter break. I ate and slept, also spent long hours
watching TV. I didn’t go out for once. Now I am
back at work and I want to hit bed ASAP! The
weather is also terrible- we have snowstorms and
the winter seems to be back. I have few hours
tomorrow and I hope to get some more rest.

Today I attended one teacher development conference
organised by one of the publishing houses ( I will not
mention the name of the company for privacy
purposes).

There were several hundred teachers packed in the
main meeting hall, many sitting with their coats on
because it was cold inside and snowing (a few days before Easter!)
heavily outside. Many were sneezing or coughing.

The conference had to start at 9.00 and was supposed to be
due by 14.10 with a break for lunch. There were fours
topics on the agenda, mainly dealing with primary students,
teaching exam classes, motivation and teaching English
across the curriculum. There were three speakers all together.

The total impression left by this conference, including the
notion of wasted time, was that the lecturers thought
they came to an underdeveloped country where teachers
have no idea how to do their job.

To begin with, the pert about the primay classes was already
done in the same school a few years ago. I can say this
because I attended that conference: the same goal-setting,
the same theory part, a few new songs from the same book
promoted during the former conference.

The second part was about how to encourage
students become more self-reliant and sucessful
in their exams. The activities demonstrated caused
the back rows to whisper about wasting time, not being
doing proper exam practice, and wasting own finances
to prepare the tasks. We absolutely understand
that lesson preparation needs to take into account
the interest and motivation bits; skimming and scanning
as well as devising own materials is very useful but
it was not taken into consideration what type of
exam our state school-leaving exam is.

The third part dealt with what are motivated
teenager learners, how to deal with them,
etc. I understand that motivation is the buzz word in
education but sitting and listening for an hour
about how to motivate students was absurd as if
we were completely stupid teachers.

The fourth part was running late behind
the timetable and the lecturer (who delivered the
first part) tried and terribly failed to surprise us by
what integration of subjects and CLIL is. We saw many
people leave during this part without waiting for the end.

The overall picture was that it was an introductory
course to teaching principles for freshmen at a teacher
training college.

I wish the lecturers and organisers would take the
following into consideration:
1. Even though teachers so need to attend seminars and
get certificates for attendance and also this has got
to do with a certain amount of hours, topics have to
be chosen more carefully. We are moving onwards
and it would be really useful to have seminars on
business English, teaching with video, using authentic materials,
using smartboards, using Internet, etc.
2. The amount of people coming should be reduced. Speaking
to an audience of up to 400 people is a challenge for
the speaker and it does not allow much practical application.
3. Brainstorming with a teacher next to you is pointless
because it is ususally so that friends sit together and
all know what the others would say. Plus, doing this
every 20 min is BORING.
4. Such mixed conferences (primary to exam classes)
try to cater for many teachers since many teach different grades
and lecturers can promote many different books but to my honest
mind it is better to focus on one specific topic. That would reduce
the number of people (many will not come to a seminar
for the grades they don’t teach) and lecturers could have time
and demonstrate more practical aplication.
5. It would be nice for once to find in the teacher’s pack
a full set of coursebook, including CDs. This would give
a real chance to try the course and see if it works.
Now we always get a few different coursebooks
on their own but often have to buy the rest of the
material.

I might sound too demanding but this is the reality.
Our students make us be demanding. The market and
the educational needs are constantly changing. I
am also a quality freak and this conference
left me baffled.

This is an extended weekend and work for me does not
resume until Wednesday. This is another short week
that leaves me quite disoriented in terms of time. But what
really gives me creeps in April: this year it is very long
and no public holiday!

I feel some activity in people looking for tutors: I’ve had
some emails and calls already. One email is very interesting:
they will offer me free advertising space in return for
lessons. The same email was forwarded to several
language teaching companies (the CC field!). I emailed them
back just to see what happens.

In the first place, there was an international audit group
for education and they visited the Pedagogical university
of Vilnius. Some of my fomer study friends and I came there
to meet the auditors and to talk about our exprience. Though
the very idea is great, the impression was not. We had only
about 45 minutes to talk with the auditors. I somehow think this
is just a formality, nothing more.

Next, I got a call from one company and went to meet
them and talk about English lessons. They want to start
at 7 a.m. and every day, there would be one group. Since
travelling involved is difficult and the whole situation is not
financially useful for me, I said we will wait for another group
to be formed, so that once I come at their desired time,
I have more groups and more income. They’ll let me know
on the 21st March.

Also, I received an email from a company based in
Hong Kong. They are interested in Lithuanian lessons online.
That sounds interesting and promissing.

That’s it for now.

Just moved my blog here since the other place was going to
close down.

It is a late post about the matter but I still want to make it. Developing Teachers published my article about using a ball in teaching English to adults. You can read it on this page Any feedback welcome.