burabura » teaching

Teaching Day 4 – First Conditional

Gloria — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:15:37 +0000

Like I expected, I can’t remember what happened last weekend or what went on for teaching day 3 if I didn’t write ‘em down straightaway. There’s a cocktail of English and American accents and CELTA lingo in my head now with imaginary phonemes appearing on everything I say or write.

I got an “above standard” grade today for my lesson! Wasn’t expecting it thoughI know that I did do better today than all my previous lessons. I guess my improvisation using a student in my class to elicit and teach the first conditional scored me some points. However, my instructions for the activities still came out in a mess as before.

I took John’s advise yesterday about doing the lesson plan and language analysis before preparing the lesson materials and it really did work. He mentioned the lesson is only gonna be as good as our analysis of the target language and wise words indeed. If I hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t have been able to do my impromptu grammar clarification before my lesson proper that I didn’t plan for.

Jinhan got his 3rd “above standard” today! I’m thrilled for him! Hope he’ll get a Pass with A at the end of CELTA. I’m aiming for a Pass with B.

Oh, and my classmate, Tom (Thomas), gave me a mixed tape of songs with Gloria or Glory in them (except for one song – I will survive by Gloria Gaynor, which technically doesn’t count)! That was sooo sweeet and it really made my day!

I’ve only been getting an average of 6 hours’ sleep every night and am suffering for a bit of a migraine since yesterday. Need to persevere! Assignment 2 due tomorrow! Damn, this blog is starting to get really wordy. Gonna go 拍照，拍照 with Kenji this weekend!

Teaching Day 2 & CELTA Dress Code

Gloria — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 16:21:28 +0000

Just finished my assignment 1, stealing some time to blog a little. I experimented with using the Overhead Projector (OHP) for my lesson last Thursday. Too much drilling about “chesting” led me to forgetting to use the overhead transparency that I prepared (to give instructions) and had some students fill up the wrong column on their worksheet. Poor time management and complacency led me to being less than prepared for lesson 2. Made the mistake of not enough ICQs and CCQs, again. Thankfully, I managed to get another “to Standard”. Personally, I felt that I did not improve much though my tutor and classmates said otherwise. It’s very important to hear their feedback, positive or negative, and I’m very grateful to Aaron for his constructive comments about my lesson. I was very surprised when he mentioned “holding things for comfort” and noticed I was holding my whiteboard markers throughout the lesson!

CELTA Dress Code
It is fine to dress smart casual on non teaching days. We have eight teaching days so that’s the amount of formal wear you need to bring (suits and ties not required for guys). I was surprised to find out that ladies are not supposed to expose their shoulders in Thai culture, so keep your sleeveless tops at home or for the weekends. Bring a jacket too because the classrooms can get really cold at times.

Clubbing in BKK
My Singaporean friend, Alan, dropped by with his customer and I managed to grab a couple of drinks with them on Saturday. We went bar hopping and clubbing till late and here’s a tip: carry your passport with you. Some places do not welcome Thais and they may check your identity if you are or look Asian like me (they may mistake you for a Thai). After much persuasion, we managed to get “exceptional approval” to enter Zaleng (a club in Bangkok) even though we were in shorts and slippers. A bottle of Johnnie Walker red label goes for only 900baht! It’s weird but they serve popcorn for 60baht to go along with your drinks. They usually serve peanuts in Singapore.

Update: After chatting with my classmate, Greg, I found out that they serve popcorn in some parts of the States too!

CELTA – Teaching Day 1 & Stuff to Bring

Gloria — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:25:55 +0000

The CELTA course has been keeping me very occupied.

Got a “Standard” pass for my teaching today. It’s not “Above Standard” but I’m happy because I know I still have plenty of room for improvement. Things like pairing/grouping students or “chesting instructions” seemed easy to execute while observing classes, but they turned out really awkward and unnatural when I actually did them.

Despite planning my lesson, scripting my instructions, ICQs and CCQs (Instruction Checking Questions and Concept Checking Questions), anxiety got the better of me and I didn’t carry out some of the stuff I intended to do. I am glad the class wasn’t a complete failure even though I did my gist task and introduced one vocabulary after my detailed reading task (because I completely left them out).

My tutor, John, was surprisingly very encouraging and positive; quite different from all the nightmare stories I read online about CELTA trainers. My group mates, Aaron, Brian and Laura were also very supportive, especially Laura. Oh, and of course my roomie, Jinhan, too.

Even though it’s been barely a week, I feel that I have learned and benefited greatly from my trainers. Like what you’ll Google from ex-CELTA trainees, this course is truly helpful for anybody who wants to teach English as a career. The pedagogy is excellent for teaching any language in fact, and I noticed some similarities to the PBL (Problem Based Learning) pedagogy I practised while teaching Republic Polytechnic.

Workload is gradually building up and I can see now, why they say the CELTA course is very intensive.

Some tips on what to bring

Big A4 ring folder with dividers and clear pockets
Stationery (pens, pencils, eraser; hole punchers, staplers, glue and scissors are available in the school)
A notebook or writing pad
Color pencils (to add color to the black and white printouts used for your lessons)
Jacket (as warm and humid as Bangkok is, classrooms can get pretty cold at times)

Everything is conveniently and cheaply available at the supermarket in Big C where ECC is located if you don’t want to bring your own.

I reaaally should be preparing for Friday’s lesson or sleeping right now instead of blogging but I’m afraid I’d forget all these by the time weekend comes. Besides, my weekend’s probably burnt too with a 750 – 1,000 words assignment due on Monday. Heck, I’m gonna treat myself to a beer and get a cheap bikini so I can chill by the pool after Friday’s class!