Woo Training Party!

I’ve been MIA because I’ve had a ton of planning to do both at work and in my personal life. It’s all going well – it just takes more energy than you’d think.

Just wanted to touch base and report that the Volunteer Training Party we had this evening was great!

I’m most proud of the way we stuck to our objectives when we planned it. We had a great many awesome ideas, and it felt like we threw out 95% of them because there just wasn’t time to include them, but the result was a training that didn’t try to do too much.

For the record, those objectives were to respond to the Volunteer Survey we sent out in the Spring, to give the teachers learning-center-related social time, and to use this to move forward with future trainings and efforts.

The Learning Center is closed this week, and I have some out of town visitors staying with me during my time off. I’m hoping to write some content during this time, but either way I’m not planning to post anything new until at least next week. Just so you know.

Twitter Ifs

I would pay more attention to Twitter if:

1. I could have a desktop client on my main computer at work;
2. TweetDeck didn’t take up an enormous amount of memory on my home computer;
   OR
3. Twitter.com itself made it easier to listen.

I would be happier with Twitter being part of the world if:

1. People would stop fretting and fussing that Twitter is causing the general populace to cease to read longer texts such as books;
2. It didn’t lend itself so easily to generating new words such as “tweeps.”  It’s ridiculous – I was half inclined to name this post “twifs.”

Things I’ve learned because of Twitter:

1. URL shorteners are handy;
2. Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog was fun;
3. Automated messages are Irritating.

New Goal: Tame Wednesdays

Coast Guard 47' Motor Lifeboat by MikeBaird on Flickr

Today was another crazy Wednesday. It was a perfect storm of the usual entropy of new student intakes, the one and only copy machine in the building breaking sometime between afternoon GED classes and evening ESL classes, and a preventable scheduling mix-up that left me short a teacher.

Honestly though, it was far from a disaster.  My new students got enough attention, my teachers got one worksheet per class via the scanner, and my Advanced class (the center of so much bad luck with their lessons!) got a decent if not elegant lesson.

I’m happy that everyone got what they needed.  Still, I’d like to limit the chaos in the future.  Some things I can do:

1. Take a few extra moments whenever I update the schedule to ensure accuracy, and ask volunteers to quick double-check it (it’s online)
2. Look for a regular intake volunteer (I had someone briefly, and it was awesome)
3. Consider having a back-up or on-call volunteer teacher on Wednesdays
4. Re-think my intake materials location.  Currently, there’s a lot of running back and forth.

There’ll still be nothing I can do if the copier suddenly breaks, but if I add more structure (and help!) to the controlling of the controllable, the things I can’t control will be easier to adapt to.

Onward!

An Unfortunate Disconnect

Communication Breakdown (pt 2) by kilgub on Flickr

I was talking to a newly returned student this evening about how she plans to juggle attending both my learning center and the larger one down the street.

While we were figuring this out, she mentioned that she was taking a nursing assistant class at that larger school.  I said something to the effect of, ‘oh, I’m surprised they offer that.’

Well, it turns out she thought I said, ‘oh, I’m surprised you’re smart enough to take that class.’

Communication Breakdown (pt. 1) by kigub on Flickr

I clarified that no, no, I did not say such a thing and that I certainly don’t think it; I just did not know that they offered classes besides English and GED.  Well, she stopped laughing uncomfortably, so I hope that meant we ended up understanding one another…

I’m glad she was gutsy enough to call me out on what she thought I said.  I also can’t help but wonder how many other students think I’ve insulted them.  It’s disconcerting.

In Defense of Low Tech

Broken Computer Monitor Found In The Woods by BinaryDreams on Flickr

When my technology failed me in two classes in a row, I gained a new-to-me understanding of why exactly the use of new technology has been so relatively slow to become ubiquitous in classrooms, and why some perfectly intelligent people have dug in their heels and refused to jump on the computer bandwagon.

Some quick thoughts that have probably always been obvious to everyone but me:

1. Most education organizations don’t really have the funds to pay for top-of-the line gadgetry, back-up versions of said gadgetry, or adequate staff devoted to keeping said gadgetry functioning.  So it’s likely to go wrong, and when it does, we’re unlikely to have great infrastructure to get it going again.
2. Spending time planning a lesson and then having to completely throw it out the window and improvise on the spot, especially repeatedly, is frustrating.
3. Planning a “just in case” back-up lesson for every hour of intended computer-based instruction would take a ridiculous amount of prep time.
4. Teachers don’t like feeling helpless when their students patiently watch them fiddle with non-responsive machines during class time.

Again, I think these points are not earth-shattering.  But in a way they were to me – I’m otherwise pretty into making use of digital technology to expand learning and social interactions.

Even after my sudden flash of understanding it, I still think the decision to flat-out not use digital technology grossly underestimates its benefits and potential.  But I think many of us who embrace it grossly underestimate the amount of crap involved with making it work.

Transparency Modified

'Gremlins and the Mogwai Terror by 179' by JeanineAnderson on Flickr

Don’t get me wrong, yesterday was a good day. I just felt like I was being trailed by gremlins. Technical glitches, miscommunications, and random interruptions ate up large swaths of my productive time and left more work undone this week than I was intending.

Unsurprisingly, I was a little frustrated. Still happy, just frustrated. I think it’ll be funny in retrospect – technical issues got in the way of watching The Wizard of Oz yet again, and we start a new unit next week. Oh well.

I wanted to note the way I was transparent as the gremlins attacked. Basically, I only told a partial truth. I didn’t get into a laundry list of what had gone wrong that day; I just thought out loud briefly about what we should do next, deciding upon a quiz game so that the rest of class would be lively. Then I had everyone get up and take a five-minute break while I modified KABOOM to be a pretty intense review of spelling and verb tenses.

So, for all my talk of transparency, I didn’t announce to my students that I’d about &#%@ing had it with the bad luck.  I shifted my focus and kept on going.

On Transparency

The Wings-Become-Windows Butterfly by e³°°° on Flickr

Writing about yesterday’s Advanced class made me think more about teaching and transparency.  By transparency, I mean behaving like Emily, not like The Teacher.  While I do have some answers, I don’t have them all, and I don’t pretend otherwise.

In the classroom, my bent towards transparency leads me to say things like “Hello everyone!  I didn’t know I was teaching tonight.  I’m sorry I’m not prepared, but I think we’ll have a great class anyway.  Tell me what you studied yesterday.”

Why would I say this?  Because I think that pretending is a waste of energy and that my students are competent adults who can handle the truth in all its imperfection.

Did yesterday’s class get derailed by my confession?  Of course not.  Also, it wasn’t a confession.  It was a statement that turned into a springboard into a truly authentic review exercise.  After an interesting but not-quite-concrete-enough discussion of symbolism in The Wizard of Oz, I announced that we’d move to a pronunciation lesson, which is my most-requested topic.  We also had a genuine conversation about whether they would prefer to end class with a conversation activity or a writing activity.  There is learning in the meta.

The meta continued during the conversation lesson (which was about experiences with pronunciation) – I told them why I did what I did.  “I asked you each to report back to the whole class because I want to give you good experiences speaking English to a group.  It will help you keep being brave with your English.”  I think that saying things like this builds trust and gives them some gentle guidance on metacognition.

Recliner Testing by DCvision2006 on Flickr

Also, allowing myself to be frank about what’s going on, be it hiccups in the teacher schedule or practicing a soft skill, lets me be relaxed as I teach.  I don’t mean that I recline with my feet up; I mean that I’m able to think quickly and easily, and that it becomes easy for me to stop talking and be the kind of teacher that makes space for students to practice their skills and develop newer ones.

I hope I’m also demonstrating that it’s possible to be effective and professional without being perfect.  There is indeed room in this intimidating country of multiple choice tests and contracts for their personalities, accents, and talents to shine.

When You Realize How Far You’ve Come

Relatividad de la distancia by Victor_nuno on Flickr

Today was one of those rare days when I was able to not only handle a situation well that would have knocked me flat 8 months ago, but I also realized it.

What was this situation?  Registering six new students and realizing 60 seconds after Advanced class started that I was the only one there to teach it.

It could’ve been easy – we’re watching The Wizard of Oz.  Perfect!  Pop in a movie and focus on the new students finishing their intake exams.  Nope, because the laptop is dead and the library computers refuse to play DVDs.  So I gave some quick instructions to the new students, rescheduled one of them, had one of them test in the Advanced room so I could keep an eye on him, and then taught a pretty successful, high-energy class with zero preparation.

During the class, I realized that this would have been completely overwhelming to me in September, and still a huge challenge in December.  This evening I was definitely kept on my toes, but it was well within what I could handle.  Being able to do it felt good, and noticing that I wouldn’t have been able to do it when I first started felt better.

On Vacation Till June!

Woo!

Outreach and People

Kyllian gaat tekenen by inferis on Flickr

This evening I set up an information table in the front of the library to advertise my free classes for adults that take place in the back.  My goal was to increase our presence in the library and to see if people who were in the library at around class time wanted to be students or volunteer teachers.

People were milling about near me or walking by.  Nobody came up to talk to me for a while.   Then a boy walked by and looked at the giveaway pencils I had out.  He touched one but started to walk away.  So I asked him if he wanted one.  This led to a simple conversation, after which he walked away with a big smile and a sharp new pencil.  About 15 seconds later, a man who had been sitting nearby pretending to ignore me came up to ask about classes.  And a small line formed while he and I were talking.

Smiling and having shiny materials did not cause potential students to line up to talk with me.  Seeing me be nice to that boy is what started it.

My conclusion: people want to work with people who treat people like people.