March 4, 2011

• MIA

  Sorry – all one or two of you who might have noticed -  to have been so MIA here on Xanga. More sorry not to have dropped by and commented than really about not posting here much.

   

  Since I am no longer working for anyone but myself, I have enjoyed a proliferation of time which I dedicate to an increasingly disperse number of things, least of these seems to be poor old Xanga. 

   

  i have a 750 words thing, which is supposed to be about writing 750 words, private words, each day. I tend to write more like once a month. but it is completely private writing, which feels great. usually I try on different characters from different stories I am writing. or have been writing in my head – more often than in actual words – for several decades now, some of them. I actually had huge whole chunks of written things, 20 000 or 30 000 words of which I lost when my last laptop suicided.

   

  I have a blog for teaching EFL (English as a Foreign Language).just starting up. and I seem to be reading a lot there is a wealth of exciting stuff out there.

   

  Mostly I’m concentrating on teaching, and teaching excellent classes. I try to fire up for each class, indeed, though probably no one would be the wiser, I tend to run on a level of mild stress until the moment I feel i have planned and prepared each one satisfactorily.

   

   

  As well as designing my own materials, I’m doing lots of research into other materials, teaching methodologies and practices. Working for myself, I am teaching “unplugged” – not following a coursebook – so each class involves many decisions about students might need and how to give it to them. So there’s lots of intensive material preparation.  There is freedom and beauty in doing you own thing, and being completely free from external demands. I love not having to do any formal testing or assessing, rather trying to get Students to self-reflect and self-evaluate and work together with me to see where we should go next.

   

  I try to be excited about each class, and a little nervous. I try to take some risks, come up with things that are creative, maybe surprising, that will get students from a number of different angles, appeal to their multiple intelligences and their different learning styles. I try to get them motivated, intrigued, entranced, illuminated, try to get them thinking about how their brains work, and using it’s full glorious potential. It doesn’t always hit the target, some classes don’t take off quite right. Sometimes I’m too ambitious. Sometimes I get the level wrong. Often I come up with something way too complex to cover in a three hour class. I try to have a reflective session after each class. Keep notes on how it could be improved. and maybe then re-implement improved versions with another group. funnily something that works great with one group needs significant adjustment or outright abandonment with another. I love to see the different dynamics you get from one group to another. something difficult for one learner is a non-brainer for another, but each will have his or her own stumbling block…

   

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  I am playing lots of scrabble.

  reading lately mostly teens books, having been given a bunch of them – great for language students too!

  presently reading “Kidnapped” by Robert Louis Stevenson, which is fantastic.  with all that Scots, too difficult for my students though.

   

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  i have to put up all the pictures from the A-Z photo competition!

   

  maybe that can be the task for this weekend – though then again – we are going to the beach! yeehah!

   

   

   

   

   

  • 1:30 am
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