Ch.. Ch.. Ch... Changes....

'Keep it simple, stupid' might be a good thing to think about.  It's interesting how teaching the evening group (who are largely pre-celta trainees of the type I envisaged would do the course) is quite a different expereince to the afternoon group (largely overseas, post celta/ interested in the course/ know the grammar).  The session yesterday was much too easy, no challenge for them (of course!) and not very satisfying for me.  Tonight it was much slower, and I've gone back to simplify my input, put continuous (easier) before perfect aspect (more tricky) and to take out the slides I had on 'When isn't it perfect/ continuous?' looking at gerunds, participle clauses, -ing adjectives etc.  This is just too much for them.  They are really struggling with getting the basics.  More can come later.

On the technical side, the breakout rooms are better now, and I've adjusted my mike so that the sound is better.  I feel as if I'm getting to know them a bit, but I need a little profile of them near me, I think.  I might ask them to send me a pic, too....

First session in Pilot 2!

Just finished the first session on the 'big' pilot.  A bit wierd because I don't know people, I have to say - a bit impoersonal - it's better in the breakout rooms.  Still, 10 people came plus one of the trainers who is interested popped in.  The big thing is just that there still is too much information in that frst session  it took an hour and a half and couldn't have been done in much less.  It would be good to ignore articles, but they're so important.  Could they be moved to the third session? 

Working blind, as it were, it's difficult to judge the level that people are at. Big difference between this and f2f is that you can't easily tell how easy/ difficult they are finding it.....

I sent out a quick review type homework (two sentences to parse) afterwards, and I thik that's a helpful idea. 

Pre-lesson task

Would it be a good idea to, as well as providing follow up tasks to the lessons, to also give a short pre-lesson task.  This will necessarily have to be brief - they won't do it if it's going to take a lot of time, but perhaps something to give them some schema before you bombard them with information would be helpful.... Need to think about this.

ESOL Teaching Skills Task Book

http://www.languages.ac.nz/table-of-contents-and-resources.html

This is a fantastic resource for post-celta trainees (and other teachers).  You should definitely recommend it.

A thought is that it would be a good idea to give a list of resources and possibilities for CPD after the course, including the Virtual Round Table conference, Russell's website etc etc.

This could be via links on your website, too.....

Does it have to be Pre-CELTA?

I've been up to my ears in lovely e-mails over the past couple of days.  It was suggested to me (thanks David Hare) that I put something on the CELTA e-mail list about my ideas for the course, and having done so, have had loads of support, encouragement and good ideas.  One of the things that came through was that it wasn't only before the course that this kind of information was useful, and that it was often only during or after celta that trainees realise how much they need to know and perhaps have the schema to embed the new knowledge more effectively. 

There were also some good ideas about sources for information - nothing new, but well timed reminders that Parrott, Aitken and Thornberry will be good friends to have over the next few months.......

With all of this motivation going on, I decided that I needed to strike whilst the iron was hot, so I have put out some information to publicise my first 'proper' (but still free) course, starting in April.  That was about 9am - this evening I already had 4 e-mails from people wanting to do the course - wow!

This is the advert:

Just about to do a CELTA?

Worried about the grammar?

I may be able to help!

I am a CELTA tutor in the UK and am running an on-line class in real time in a virtual classroom to help you to prepare.  If you’ve never done this kind of thing before, you’ll be able to see me on a webcam, see a whiteboard, hear me talk and talk to me and other participants. 

The course is FREE, and all I ask is some feedback from you afterwards, as I am using this for an MA research project.

The course will be in two parts –

·         Part I – 5 x 1 hour sessions on naming parts of speech and tenses.

·         Part II – 7 x 1 hours sessions.  A closer look at some of the trickier parts of grammar (such as the present perfect tense and conditionals).

All you need is a computer with a broadband connection, speakers and a microphone (if you don’t have the latter two, you can buy a headset very cheaply).

The course will begin in April.  If you are interested, please e-mail me, and I will send you the web address you need to log on, and the timetable.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Jo Gakonga                 gakonga.family@onetel.com

Onward ever onward...

Just finished a session - 9 people came and it's getting easier.  Made much more use of the breakout rooms tonight and this worked well, especially for those who had microphones - I think I'm going to encourage people more strongly to get microphones, because it's a much richer experience for all if you can use voice.  Discovered that the participants can move the slide show on themselves when they are in the breakout groups, so that was a bit of a revelation, and made managing them much easier.  I asked the learners about the breakouts and they were very positive about them - said that they gave them time to think.

In terms of the material, had a bit of a re-think about what is important to teach them.  Things do go slower in  on-line teaching, and I think I am being drawn into too much detail (especially with pronouns.....) I need to pare it back a bit and keep up the levels of practice.