Occasional Tales

What else is there for me? I’ve hit Unit 7 in the book. My reaction when I saw the content was, “Has another year really passed? Am I going to go through this article yet again?” Before term started I was a little uncertain about teaching the pre-AL students for a fourth year, but I haven’t really had the time so far this term to stop and think about it. For some reason the article in the unit got me thinking about teaching the same material yet again. Of course, I’m not teaching the content of the article. The skill is note taking. I suppose I could change the article, but it wouldn’t really invigorate me. The refrain I’ve been hearing around the office is “tired”. If I was only teaching on one programme, I’d be rather annoyed that the other programme, which is somewhat demanding, is likely to encroach on my time. Some of my colleagues have ridiculous amounts of teaching to the point that they’re coming to working, going home, having tea, a shower, and going to bed. Outside...

Here it flaps like a hummingbird’s wings. For the past few weeks I’ve been getting messages about updating Adobe Reader. For some reason (though I can only speculate: my current theory is that this has something to do with state-authorised, malicious pdfs), because the school seems not to like Reader, any attempt to update it crashes into some Windows Registry issue which prevents certain values from being written without admin rights. I’m trying to download the new version of Reader. It instantly leaps to 33% and then seems to get stuck on 48% or so, but progresses very, very slowly after that, and eventually everyone gives up. I’m about to give up and probably find myself stuck with Reader 10.x.x forever. Instead, the school wants us to use Foxit, which I’ve tried and found irritatingly unfamiliar. I have Acrobat at home (being a nuisance because of some bug which insists on installing the latest patch even although I have the latest patch). In educational news, my bra...

I’m an educator. (Cue mocking laughter.) I spent last weekend in Malaysia on a training course. This meant having excessive amounts of information pumped into my head, little of which my mind managed to retain. What I do remember clearly is InterBac assessment = lots of work . Lots. (Because I was aware of that, I didn’t make my surprised face.) I also remember that the workshop leader only has ten students. I have about 60 of my own. It’s also not hard for students to be adequate in the InterBac programme. Like the IGCSE ESL mark scheme, the InterBac mark scheme is so relaxed that it’s horizontal. Guaranteed to flatter should be the slogan. In fact, when I was making suggestions about things we could do to stretch the best students, it struck me that EFL is for the hard of thinking (in the “hard of hearing sense”). Yes, I know it’s all about testing language rather than intellect. Once upon a time, the rubrics for different IELTS bands used to refer to the effect a pi...

School teachers and their games. I survived the observation intact in spite of only covering half of the objectives and letting the “activity” go on a little long. Somehow allowing lessons to be a little organic ist verboten, and being well prepared (just in case) is Bad Planning™. As I noted in a previous post, it seems puzzling to be told we have our own styles, but to have to conform to someone else’s whims. So long as the powers are sufficiently happy, I’m happy.

Watchin’ the defectives. One thing I’ve largely been spared is observations over the past few years, and when I did get observed, because I was unaware of the rules of the game, I failed miserably. But it seems that the boss is now having to deal with such matters, and to make it worse, his underboss was also present. How did the class go? Well, I didn’t get through all my aims, but I let the class grow organically. I’m sure, though, that I’m meant to get through all the aims or get censured for it. I know we have to get observed, but individual styles never seem to be taken into consideration in spite of being told that we all have our own ways of teaching. That’s bollocks as far as I can tell. We’re all meant to teach in the same way and sing from the same hymn sheet while we’re doing it. Apparently the trick this time was to ask follow-up questions, which I duly did. I’ll probably get asked how I knew any learning was taking place, but it was a vocabulary class with a...

But not all of you. In the main, the pre-AL classes have been all right. Pre-AL α is better than pre-AL β, but only because the latter has some infantile vegetables who are the heirs to the last lot of vegetables we managed to get rid of. I also have a new Elaine. The old one spent about a year and a half looking like a rabbit, which was about to cry, caught in headlights. She then vanished, the rumour being that she’d been sent to Hong Kong for a little nip/tuck. This new one, though, has a hard, smug quality about her. You should’ve seen the look on her face when I reminded her that she’s not permitted to eat in class. I’m not sure whether it was a look of bafflement (“What did the foreigner just say?”) or a look of effrontery (“How dare you presume to give me orders, servant person!”). I think she understood, though. She’ll probably annoy me by doing adequately well in the exams. There are also some other numbskulls in pre-AL β who’ll ruin that class. Get rid of them and ...

The imperial way. I don’t like my timetable because everything seems to be beginning, middle, end this year. I have Ass 2 after lunch every time I see them. They’re turning into the Ass 2 class from two years ago. They’re not bothersome, but they are mentally inert. I wonder whether things would be better if we had an official textbook. Pre-AL 2 would be better but for five morons who are the heirs to the morons which we shed at the end of last year. It’s Terence, Hank, Nero, and Elaine all over again. On the other hand, I rather like Pre-AL 1 even although I see them at some awful times of the day and week.