My New Home, Sweet Home! 09/27/2014

As some of you suggested I will write in English from now on because I need to practice, and morever after what you are going to read next!

Please, my English native friends or English expert friends, forgive my mistakes and be indulgent with me (you have the right and the duty to correct me).

So let's go back to the SF story:

in French we say: quand les oiseaux chantent, après ils déchantent - after the birds have sung,  they stop singing ! that's what I am going through!

Guess what: my hostess I just met an hour ago is just a young Eastern witch, with a strong sort of Russian accent, she is from Moldavia. She opened the door without a look at me. The two young daughters of her companion are staying with her (10 and 12 years old) because, guess what: the companion is a nurse in a psychiatric hospital 3 hours from SF so he is away 4 days a week. The poor little girls have nothing to do except stay in their bedroom to watch TV on a giant screen in front of their bed. We are in a supposed lovely house with a lovely garden in the near suburb of SF and guess what: they never eat outside because it is too cold! (I just got a sunburn today walking along the street). There is a supposed living room in the house and guess what: there is no couch, sofa or even chairs to sit on! Only a closed piano and a cupboard, with a view of the neighbours'wall, which anyway we do not see because the blinds are lowered and closed. I wanted to have a cigarette in the garden to relax and guess what: it is strictly forbidden to smoke even in the garden because it is not good for the children! So I go back to my room ( because I am not invited to have a drink in the living room which does not exist, and furthermore she seems to be disapointed that I have nothing planned tonight!) and try to get connected to REAL persons! So I ask for the wifi code and guess what : she won't give it to me because you never know what I could do with it, so she told me she would type it herself in my computer. So I wait for her in my room so that she can type the code herself... and guess what: she never came, because she was waiting for me to bring my computer to her!  I think we are going to be very good friend.

The good news is that she hosts two other sudents, and guess what: they are away for the week-end (which I now completely understand).

 

I have to tell you about my house: very neat and clean, in a street that could be compared to Wisteria lane, the famous desperate houswifes' street (a famousTv show for those who might not know).

My wonderful Moldavian Cristina is about 30, tall, thin, blue eyes, long blond air, but she looks like a grey spider.

She prepared diner for the 4 of us last night. It was not the gin & tonic welcome diner party I had expected but well! We had a very good plate of nice vegies+ rice + chinese dish. But no drinks at all (no glasses on the table) and no desert (a fruit would have been welcome).  It was ready at 8. We were finished at 8:15! Because I tried to chat with the two adorable little girls.

After that, I asked if there might be a family television I could watch, to make up for the Russian accent and the lack of English listening. But no, there is none, the only TV is in the girls' bedroom. And there is no living room as I said previously, only a passing room. But I can Watch TV on my computer. Of course!

After that I was given the rules: I shall not go back home after 10 pm at night during the week, because it wakes up the girls (of course, they live in the former living room separated to the corridor by a wood panel!).

And the best of all, I want you to open wide your ears because I am sure you have never lived such a welcoming attitude:

I asked If I could make a cup of tea, anytime. I was told that students are not allowed to use the kitchen utensils, nor are they to open the fridge. So if I want a cup of tea, I should go to the mall (a 15 mns walk) or to the gaz station which is closer!!!

At that point, I fell down and burst into tears... No , I just said "ok I understand ". Period.

 

So this is the bright golden jail I live in! This is not a nightmare, This is my real life!

Well, as you can see I do not know how long I will be able to bear this situation!

I wish you all a wonderfull sunny sunday, mine might be a long long one!

The transformational experience of being taught how to teach

I have done my teacher training and got what I’ve come here to get: the CELTA CERTIFICATE!  Four weeks of intense training. It was such an empowering experience.

We were three in my class (!), Cat, a 28 year old woman from Idaho who already taught in South Korea and is intent on moving to Taipei in Taiwan, and Jenny a 57 year old woman from California who already taught English literature at university in the US, is willing to volunteer in Tibet and seeked effective tools to teach English as a second language. Two great women ! We were in position of teaching the very third day or our course. It was something both highly useful and dreadful - scary to teach in front of a class almost from scratch -  also the best way to learn, by making mistakes which is part of the learning process. Every afternoon we were teaching “free classes” to “real” students of the school. They were approximately 8 to 14, from 20 to 60 years old, from South Korea, Japan, Brasil, Russia, Europe and were elementary to upper intermediate level.

My two classmates: Cat on the right Jenny on the left

My great teachers: Sezgi, 2nd on the right, and Jenny far right

I have entered a new world.

I realized I was not wired correctly with regard to what is required from a teacher. I realized I had to shed all those automatic processes I’ve been used to dealing with for years, to relearn a new way of expressing things. We – company workers - have been used to studying a topic, gain an expertise on it to be able to tell about it extensively to our colleagues and managers. And now we have to reverse the process and ask our audience - our students -  to tell us the good way, to elicit their skills, their mind, their speaking ability, to find the answers by themselves. It is a new philosophy we have to adopt : We enter the dialectic method of enquiry of Socrates . And as our renowned friend Wikipedia says : “the Socratic method remains a commonly used tool in a wide range of discussions, and is a type of pedagogy in which a series of questions is asked not only to draw individual answers, but also to encourage fundamental insight into the issue at hand. This is perhaps Socrates’ most important contribution to Western thought”.

No wonder this training was baffling. The overarching principle of our teaching hinges on this student-centered methodology. I am entering a new world, I need an overall rebooting of my mind.

The paramount concept of our training lies on the CCQ  - Concept Checking Question - and its infamous enemy the TTT - Teacher Talking Time! The CCQ is a clever way to elicit students understanding rather than “spood feeding them” - quote from our teacher Sezgi-. And that might be the most difficult part for us trainee teachers because as previously said we are wired differently. That is when we are required to have a thorough analysis of the grammar point, the vocabulary or the functions we are supposed to teach. And we know we have done a good job when we’ve almost been silent during the class.

The interesting part of this course is that we’ve been taught the way we are supposed to teach our students, with this same discursive process.

Praise is the first tool of class management we’ve been told about. Surprisingly, as far as I can recall, it seems to me that the word praise does not belong to the lexical set of the educational system in France. As a tool of class management it is yet so positively obvious, because our students need confidence to be able to speak a new language! The use of interaction patterns such as working in pairs is also meant to foster confidence and encourages the student to practice the language in a “safe” environment, not being exposed directly to the teacher or the entire class. This is also the spirit of the“check in pairs” stage, in which the student can check their answers whith their classmate and thus be sure of themselves before giving an oral answer to the class.

The very scaffolding of our teaching was the lesson plan frameworks and we’ve internalized - or still are in the process of internalizing -  these while teaching ourselves or observing our peers teach. A good lesson is planned with a clear aim. The lead-in serves as an icebreaker, we then introduce a context to what we’re going to teach, we then set up a “treasure hunt” to make the students guess the rules or the meaning of what they are being taught, then we process to a controlled practice to check their understanding, then we set up a freer practice to give them a free way to practice the new language they ‘ve learnt. That is in a nutshell the guidelines to the Language lessons: vocabulary, grammar, functions. Nothing else but a logical way to get acquainted to a new language.

Observing and being observed by our peers with a time of constructive feedback  was a very empowering process and a time of self awareness thanks to our professional and empathetic teachers. And ultimately establishing a rapport with the students was a wonderful experience.

I feel like a whole new world is opening up for me. I AM so GRATEFUL!