Month: May 2015

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My #1stobservation

If you ask a teacher to recall one of their best teaching moments, I am 100% sure the majority of those asked will say, ” Observations!!”  Yeah… um… maybe not. So, I am going to write two posts, maybe even more (yeap, cause one is never enough) about this ‘hot’ topic. This post will focus on my first observation, my next posts will be about… (I ain’t gonna tell you. It’s a surprise!!). Oh! I am going to add a hash tag #1stobservation cause I would really like to read other teachers/bloggers’ stories as well, and cause blog challenges are fun, you learn!!

eecc3-delta2bbooks

2011

Let me start by saying that I got properly observed for the first time in 2011. I had already been teaching for about 13 years, but only then did I experience an observation. Actually no, scratch that. My first ‘observation/spying experience’ happened when I got my first teaching job at a private language  school in Athens. The owner of the language school stood behind the door and probably listened to what I said during the session. I know she was there cause I could see the top of her head from the door window, and she made a few comments regarding the lesson. So, that was my first ever kinda observation. Can’t really say much about that one, so let’s get down to business and go back to 2011. As I said earlier, the first proper observation happened when I got my first EAP job in the UK.

(FYI: in Greece teachers don’t observe other teachers, at least they didn’t back in the day when I first started teaching. Some teachers may get observed when they first start teaching in the public sector but not always).

My #1stobservation

When I first heard I was going to get observed, I panicked. I thought to myself, ” Oh! No! What if I mess up? What if my coordinator/observer doesn’t like my lesson?” As part of the observation process, I had to go into the office and share my thoughts about what I was planning to do. I got a few suggestions from my coordinator, and then went home to make my super duper lesson plan. I had objectives, lesson outcomes, anticipated problems, tasks analysed, the lots. I was set. I had designed the crème de la crème of lessons!!

The day in brief: It was a reading class I remember. I decided to seat my students in two horse shoes. The students were seated in such a way that they could actually see each other. I cut the text into two parts. I was going to do jigsaw reading. I thought that it would be a good idea to pre teach each group’s unknown vocabulary. I did. Then the students read their texts, group A and group B. I then moved students around, so they formed pairs one student from group A, one from group B. They now had to talk about the whole text. They did. I read the instructions for the exercises, once, twice, checked to see if they understood the instructions.They then did  the reading comprehension exercises. We then did whole class error correction and checked all the tasks. All in all, a good lesson. My students were engaged, on topic and there was a really good atmosphere. So, while I do want to toot my own horn and tell you all the great things about this session, I won’t. Nope. I will talk about weaknesses. So, now fellow reader/teacher can you spot the weaknesses in this lesson? What could I have done differently?

Drum roll

Problems

My instructions: I read them 3-4 times. I thought that by repeating everything they would, at some point, get it. I should have read the instructions, asked CCQs and done an example with them.

Pre-teaching vocabulary based on texts: I taught and checked group A’s vocabulary and then group B’s. While I was working with group A, group B was in Lala land and vice versa. I could have ignored the unknown vocabulary and not pre taught it, or asked them to use a black marker and delete all their unknown words, and only read the words they understood and then deduce meaning from that. I could have also given them dictionaries and asked them to look for words if they thought it was necessary.

My tasks: The jigsaw reading was done all wrong. I should have told them to read the texts, take notes. I should have then taken away the original texts, and then put them into pairs. Afterwards, I should have asked them to recreate the texts based on their notes.

My super duper lesson plan: was too super duper. I made a lesson plan that resembled the ones I did during my MA, the ones that were part of my dissertation. It was not at all practical. I flipped through pages and was panicking a lot!! I could have just used ticks and post it notes!!!

Checking tasks: I spent a lot of time checking errors and correcting tasks. I could have showed on the projector some of the answers, did a bit of peer correcting as well.

After the lesson I had a meeting with my coordinator. He gave me some very helpful suggestions. I learnt, took a deep breath and prepared the next lesson.

So, yeah. That was it. I survived my first observation and I learnt so much from it! If you do write a blog post about this and add the hash tag #1stobservation, please let me know!! If you want to leave a comment, feel free to do so.

Till next time…..

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Walk in my red (?) pumps, will ya?

 A day in my life

As I have mentioned before, I am partially colour blind. I have talked about how this affects my life as a teacher as well as a learner ( I am currently taking painting lessons). I have never posted anything about how this affects my life in general, though. I know that if you read my blog, you are probably used to posts that are about teaching and other ELT-ish topics. Today, I want to write about being colour blind and try to give a glimpse of what this is like. I would also like to raise awareness.

According to the colourblindawareness.org 1 out of 12 males and 1 out of 200 females are colour blind. They also believe that there is probably one colour blind student in every classroom (#1ineveryclassroom).  Being colour blind does not mean you cannot see colours (seeing black and white is really rare), it just means you may not be able to see some colours and shades. I am not going to go into medical details though because

a. I am not a doctor and

b. that’s not what this post is about.

Two paragraphs later, I am going to dig into the purpose of today’s post. Is it a big deal not to be able to see colours? Let’s see.

Walk in my red (?) pumps , will ya?

Girlie Stuff

As a 39 year old gal, this is something that really bothers me. I am unable to shop 90% of the time!!

I have no idea what colour the clothes I buy are. I always ask a sales assistant for help or I choose to shop from stores that have the colour written on the tag (for example, M&S and Next- even their websites have accurate descriptions of colours). Worst case scenario though is me buying something that turns out to be a random colour and then going back to the store and return it.

Makeup is an ordeal. I luv makeup, but I have no idea why cosmetics companies choose to give weird names to their eye shadows, nail varnish and lip sticks. Why does a pink lip stick need to be called “A day in the park” or “love me do” (names chosen randomly) and not just say: Pink/ light pink/ dark pink/ fuschia etc. ? You may ask, ” Yes, but you do not see it’s pink, so what you going on about woman?” Well, yeah, I don’t see it’s pink but I know what pink goes with!! The same goes for nail varnish. Once again, I ask for help, or buy egg yellow eye shadows and end up returning them.

Food Shopping

It is very difficult to go grocery shopping cause I cannot distinguish if the fruit or vegetable is too ripe. I have bought loads of green bananas. I never know if potatoes have turned poisonous or not (you are not supposed to eat them when they are green. It’s actually a miracle I haven’t had potato… poisoning yet).

Reading Magazines

Loads of magazines, newspapers and even books choose to write a text on a background that clashes, making it extremely or almost impossible for me to read. Black on red is the worst!

Going to the bank

You know the electronic display that shows priority in banks? I cannot read that. I take a ticket, wait in a line and then ask a person to help me and tell me what number is next. Do you know how many times I missed my turn back in the days when I felt embarrassed to ask for help?

Driving

I don’t drive. I think I will have a problem with road signs more than actual traffic lights. I have never tried to learn to drive. Never will ( I don’t think this is cause I am colour blind. I think this one is more cause I am too scared cause of general eye sight problems).

Instructions

Following any type of instructions that is based on colours is hard. Take out the lilac book, follow the green line, open the pink door (which is the ladies room). And then there’s the tube. I never travel on the London tube alone. So many colours mixed up on a little map. OMG.

Pie charts/ graphs

Yeah…. um… nope.

People’s reactions

Now this is very interesting. There are different types of reactions.

  • They ask, “Really?” Nah, not really, I am just pulling your leg cause being colour blind is haha funny (sorry for the sarcasm but arghhhh). There are actually some people who when I tell them I cannot tell the difference between colours, their first response is, ” Really? So you can’t see this is red? What do you think it is?” Then they start showing you stuff saying, “And this? What colour do you see? What about this?” : (
  • Yellers. I don’t know why, but I have come across people who start speaking louder to me when I say that I can’t see colours. I was buying eye shadow the other day and when I told the makeup artist I needed help with the colours she immediately raised her voice. I think that she thought I could not hear well, as well. This has happened many times. It’s weird. Dunno why it happens. : O
  • The helpers. These people are my favourite. What would I do without the? These are the people who take the time to give details about colours, if they suit me, if it’s a nice colour or not. Sometimes this can become a bit overwhelming cause they go into details about whether it’s a navy or royal blue (that is never an issue for me. If it’s blue, it’s blue).  I am really thankful to all the people who throughout the years have given me help!! : D

For 39 years I have lived without ‘seeing’ colours. I manage fine. Does it make my life difficult? Yes. Impossible? No. I ask people for help and they help. If no one can help me, I admit, I give up. I just don’t care. I don’t see any harm in knowing your limits and being OK with that. Being colour blind does not hold me back. I would like it if people/companies/organisations  were a bit more considerate though. I have purchased goods that had the colour printed on it, just for the sake of it, as a way to show my support to their support!

As far as teaching is concerned, I have found ways around it. I will be back with a post that will focus on education and colours.

Isihara test. Picture taken from here

Ishihara test. Picture taken from here. You should be able to see numbers. I don’t.

 

Feel free to comment in the section below. If you, too, are colour blind, please share your story with me.  All comments are welcome : D Thanks for reading!!

Till next time…..

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Welcome to your Online Business English Classroom

If you are already teaching Business English face to face, you may want to look into teaching BE online as well. There are a lot of things that need to be considered and this post presents information about starting an online teaching career, it gives suggestions about where to look for material and about how to deliver online sessions. It also presents some useful ideas on how to deal with technology and how to be an effective online teacher.

 Finding students

There are two ways to go. You can apply for a job at a company that offers online lessons, so they find the students for you, or you do it on your own,  as a freelance teacher.

If you decide to go for the second option, then in order to find students:

  • Use different types of social media to spread the word (Facebook, Twitter, your blog).
  • Advertise in local newspapers or online ones.
  • Approach small business and present what you can offer.
  • Connect with other teachers.

Platforms you can use when teaching online

There are a lot of platforms to use like Skype, WizIq and Adobe connect. Try them out and see which ones work for you and your students. Some are free, other platforms come with a charge.

Learner management system

Because you are not in class and you do not come into contact with your learners, it is a good idea to set up a leaners’ management system. This is a platform you can use with your learners and here you can upload all your lesson notes, lesson recordings, create a forum and whatever else you want. There are a lot of learning management systems online. You could also make a WiKi and share things with your learners there.

The first lesson

Before the first actual lesson, I suggest doing a few things:

  • Have some sort of getting to know you form and have your learners fill it in with their contact details. Losing an online learner is easier than a learner who comes to class and who lives just around the corner!
  • Send your learners your contact details and any other documents that may be useful to them as well. You can for example, send them a go to document which explains the features of the platform you are using or a document that explains your cancellation policy. Make sure that whatever has to do with the cancellation policy and technical difficulties is very clear and written in the document.  If you prefer, you can make a video and share this with your learner.
  • Also, be very clear about what you expect from them and tell them to tell you what they expect from you by having some sort of a learners’ contract.

Some tips about sessions in general

One of the benefits of teaching online is that you can record the sessions, so your learners can listen to the lessons again if they have a question about something or if they want to see how they have progressed since they first started their lessons. If you decide to record the sessions though, make sure you ask for permission to record.

In terms of materials and what to use when teaching online, your options are endless. You can use material from books which you scan or (find online) and upload on your platform or you can share links with your learner and work on them. Make a folder with all your favourite links so that you can find them straight away.

One of the downsides of teaching online is that you cannot actually write anything on your students’ notebooks. You do share a screen or a whiteboard though, so,  if the learners want to keep something you have written on your platforms whiteboard, then ask them to take a screen shot and save it in a folder.

Finally, during sessions remember to ask your CCQs (concept checking questions), your ICQs (instruction checking questions) , and your TRQs which are your technology related questions!

Webcams

Webcams are very important and I strongly suggest that you always have yours on when teaching online. That way you are not just a voice on the other end of the line but someone they can see. It is also a good idea to ask your learners to turn their webcam on as well. Webcams help avoid passiveness and it may also help minimize the distractions because you can see your learner.

 Dealing with technology

Technology is great, but very often it does fail, so you need to be prepared for when you might have a power cut, or when your connection is refusing to work. As mentioned earlier, send your learner a document with information about the platform you are using, something like a manual. You can also make a video or a recording and send it to them. Because technology can fail, make sure you have some sort of backup plan.  So, ask for your learners’ land lines so as to hold a conversational session if the technology fails.

Another important issue you need to think of is what happens when technology fails. You should clarify the cancellation or ‘wasted time’ policy. Will you charge your learner for lessons they miss due to technical glitches? Will you offer a cover session if the technology failure is due to a problem you, the teacher, is having? All these questions need to be answered at the beginning of the course.

Materials

Another benefit of online teaching is that the internet is your course book. There are so many websites you can use to find material for your students.

Online dictionaries: if your learners are having problems with pronunciation, you can send them to the Cambridge online dictionary for example. They can hear the pronunciation of the word and practice. You can also ask them to record themselves saying these words on Vocaroo and then send you the recordings.

Articles: BBC capital has short articles that are often accompanied by videos. You can also share articles from other online newspapers. Newsmap is another webpage that has titles of articles from all over the world.

The British Council, Business English site, Breaking News English, English to go,  The Grammar bank, Business balls and the BBC (have a look at BBC one minute news) are also websites you can look at in order to find material for your online (and offline BE lessons).

Remember that teaching online allows a lot of flexibility, so if one of the websites/ links you have chosen does not work or is something your learner does not enjoy, then change it to something else! If your learner has had a very long meeting and is not up to having a grammar lesson or something ‘heavy’, just move on to a lesson based on an article, choose something lighter. It is as easy as sending a link.

Coffeee

 Something for your coffee break

Your Business English students are people who do not have a lot of time, so assigning and getting your students to commit to doing some homework, may be a bit challenging. You can make it sound less like homework and more like a fun task by sending them an email and labeling it: something for your coffee break. As time is of the essence, choose tasks that are quick and related to the learners’ needs and work. Ideas for tasks: reading an article, watching a short video, creating a PPT or writing an email to you, their teacher, about something work related.

Just like any type of teaching, in order to be successful at online teaching, you need to be professional, informed and take your learners’ needs into account. Online teaching may sound a bit scary in the beginning, but once you are acquainted to the platform you will be using and have all your material and documents ready, you are good to go. Welcome to your online classroom!!

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I wrote this post for the Tesol France Newsletter and that’s where it originally appeared.

Till next time….