Week 2

First teaching experiences

Week 2 means the each and everyone of us now has to do what he or she is supposed to do - teach. And obviously most of us are quite nervous about doing it. There have been so many tips on how to be an effective teacher. Also, there are very specific guidelines on how to conduct a lesson; we are asked to create a detailed lesson plan. 

I can consider myself to be lucky as I am not in the first group of teachers. Instead of doing a part of the very first lesson, I have the chance to observe, listen to tutor comments and prepare myself for my lesson later in the week.

And then it's Thursday and then it's my turn. I  show up with a lesson plan, a clear idea of what I want to do during my section of the lesson and.... the best intentions rarely match with reality. The exercises prove to be a challenge for the class and this makes me feel awkward and nervous. Fortunately, in the end the students manage to complete the activities planned and the baffled look on their faces I saw at the beginning has disappeared. What a relief!

So, I finish my section of the lesson. I walk back to my seat trying to command my legs that seem to have turned into jelly and I observe the next teacher with a great sense of relief: my part is done and I managed not to mess it up!

 

 

Week 1

Phrase of the week:  Thank god I am not on the 4-week intensive CELTA course

Ah, it was mad of me to really believe I would be able to give a detailed description of every day spent on CELTA course. But you'll have to forgive me for my idealism. Or so I hope. Two weeks have passed so quickly that I've barely had time to breathe. Still, I will try to not go to much ahead of myself and give you a brief overview of week one.  As much as I remember, of course. We've been doing so much that it feels as if we've been doing this course not for 2 and half weeks but for years.

I gave you a quick overview of our first day. The highlight of the second day was obviously meeting our students for the first time. Fortunately we could all feel relatively free and relaxed as the first teacher practice lesson is  not observed by tutors. 

This, of course didn't mean we all felt relaxed and carefree. To be honest, we still felt quite nervous :) As for me, I would have never believed I'd be the punctual one, but I noticed how fabulously our best-laid plans grew over our heads. Well, I am exaggerating, but looking back, this was our first lesson in time management. You know what?  Managing time is extremely difficult! And as it turns out and as is and will probably be pointed out throughout the course - less is more.  I think most of us are still, during our third week slightly worried about having too much time and too few activities for students, but usually it's exactly the opposite - there's always too little time!

As for the afternoon seminars, they were fun and they were exhausting. I could of course describe them in detail, but if there is anyone planning on taking the course, I don't want to spoil their surprise by revealing everything! All I can say is -  I am still amazed by how I still have working brain. The amount of information received just during the first week, I thought, would turn anyone to a vegetable! 

This course is intense! And by intense I mean the most intensive course I've ever taken. Thank god I am doing just the semi-intensive course, not the full intensive one! Those guys must be crazy!  But strangely enough, this super-intensive, super-stressful course can and actually is fun! 

The further along we are on the course, the more fun it becomes. Seriously! And well...  yeah... more stressful and time-consuming and....

But I will tell you more when I'll find time to write some more... 

PS: never mind the seven hundred thousand grammar and spelling mistakes. Even though I am training to be a teacher and I know at least in theory what correct grammar is like, at 23:15  after hours and hours of lesson planning and other English language related activities I am well past caring about the mistakes. 

Day 1

anticipation · fear · information over-flow · brain meltdown

Ah, beginnings, how sweet they are! New people, new knowledge. Everything is new. Exciting and slightly frigthening. Even though I have a general idea of how the course works,  I don't really know if and how I will be able to cope with the work-load and keep my motivation. I have no formal teaching experience and I have forgotten most of the „grammar“ I learned at school more than ten years ago.

There are twelve of us and every single one of seems to be nervous. As it is the very first time, many of us, including me, have arrived almost ridiculously early and there's not a lot to do besides staring at walls and waiting for the course tutors to arrive. Small-talk and chatting?  Nah,  I guess we are too anxious to be social.

When the tutor finally does arrive, everything does get a little bit easier – I never knew that ice-breakers could be so effective! After we've done a few of them, we feel relatively relaxed and to my surprise I've managed to learn everyone's names. Usually I am very bad with remembering names!

The group is then divided into two, everyone is given a one letter and one number code which will be our code for the whole course. Well, of course you can't do without any bureocracy, but as I am such a strange person and also a little bit of a geek, in my mind I yell out: I am not a number, I am a free man! Some of you will get it, most of you probably won't :)

And then it really begins! Information, information, then some more information and after that, just to change things a little  - more information. Then we have short break and then we get some more information. It's basically about everything – we discuss teaching techniques, we do some practical exercises, we are introduced to the main guidelines of the course. Suprisingly, no grammar at this point.

It's evening section of the first day that I could call interesting. Puttingit mildly, that is. What it really is, is exhaustion, brain melt-down and practical exercises which under normal circumstances would probably be quite easy. At 4 pm, after our brains have been bombarded with every type of information, I feel I have no level of English at all. I feel that the only thing I am capable at that point is to say I am potato. Despite the exhaustion we do manage to even do some grammar-related activites. Thank the heavens, we're in groups! Collectively we can even come up with some of the correct answers. (Well, actually we did quite good :))

Then it's finally over. What a day! Yet, I didn't feel uncomfortable or worried not even for a minute. Despite this massive load of information, I even managed to have some fun, get to know my fellow trainees and yes, of course  - get a step closer to the certificate I'm after.

In front of the building, after the formal part was over, we decided unanimously how lucky we were for not taking the intensive course!