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The TEFL course has certainly been tough going! Now that I have passed and have a weekend off, I can try to describe it.
Every day we started with input, near where we'd just had breakfast. This was a one and a half hour lesson about some aspect of teaching - Classroom Management, Teaching Vocabulary, Using Phonemics etc. This was always very interesting and was taken by Kerry, Penny or Shaun. After that, on days when one of us had taught the previous day we would have feedback.
First we would have to say some good things about how we'd done and then the other trainees and finally the trainer would give their feedback - always with good points first.
After that it would already be about half past eleven and lunch would be only an hour away (if we were on cooking duty we would have to start almost straight away). We used that time to do some planning for our next lesson or to do assignments or EFR revsion.
After lunch there was only a couple of hours until we had to go to the school - lessons started at five but we had to
GVI Base
This has a better view of the outside of the office. To its left is the door to the Resources Lounge, through which my dorm was reachedget there by half past four to prepare the classroom and put resources in place and it took a quarter of an hour to walk there, so we would leave at about quarter past four.
Once at the centre we would put our posters and pictures and flash cards up and put anything necessary on the whiteboard and get the register and name tags ready. Students only wore name tags for the first week but I did not have any difficulty in remembering names - mostly due to the fact that we never had more than five studetns in any lesson, until Kirstie's first ninety minutes which was switched from 5pm to 7pm.
The students used simple one syllable nicknames that they'd chosen, such as Joy, Dau (pronounced Dhow), Au (pronounced Ooh), Dein, Berm, Pen, Pik and so on. One popular female name was Porn - and there was also a Porn who did our laundry - and who gave me a lift on the back of her motorbike to the Junction, when I went to Krabi this weekend.
The students ranges in age from about 16 to about 50. Quite a lot of local teachers wanted
Weekly Schedule
The daily timetables are quite detailed to improve their knowledge of English and Dau, Joy and Porn were all teachers at a local school. They were the main regulars - so when the school said they all had to attend a meeting somewhere else in Krabi for a week, we had to cancel the five o'clock class and switch to seve, when more people had left work.
The lessons were fairly basic and all done in English. However, because the students knew very little English you couldn't give comlicated instructions - you had to use a lot of gesture and model everything with a student. They were all really keen to learn and loved ganes such as Chinese Whispers and Stand Up If.
You had to plan every little bit out before the lesson - what activities in what order and how they would achieve the objectives of the lesson, but also exactly how you would give instructions, where you would have the resources, hw you would use the whiteboard etc.
I didn't particularly enjoy the planning but it was obvious that you could never hold a class without detailed planning so it was always absolutely necessary. The actual teaching, though, I loved.
Palopas in the grounds
These little shelters are used both for relaxation and work purposes It was amazing to see people learning new words and gaining more confidence in their use of English!
One aspect of lesson preparation, though, that I did enjoy was making the resources. It was somehow nice to kneel or lie on the floor in the resource lounge with pens, couloured pencils and scissors and make flash cards or posters in a way that I never had since junior school! My favourite so far has been making a multicoloured fish for the village project yesterday and a fishing rod to go with it, so I could sing 1,2.3,4,5 Once I caught a fish alive. I did it very realistically so some of the younger students (about 5 years old) thought I really had hurt my finger so. After that I toned it down a little!
The lessons last for 90 minutes each. At first the three of us (Chris, Kirstie and I) did 30 minute stints, then it was increased to 45 minutes and finally we all got a whole 90 minute lesson! It is amazing how fast the time goes. You have to keep an eye on the clock and on your lesson plan to make sure you
are on schedule.
I had to go first at every stage - I had the first part of the first lesson, the first 45 minute lesson and the first 90 mnute lesson. My 90 minute lesson - on the simple past using irregular verbs - went well which was a relief to me as I'd been worried since I'd had a few problems in the lesson before. My glasses arrived the evening after I'd just done my first 90 minutes, so I was very happy that evening.
Chris also passed her two week TEFL, though her last lesson had a few problems - she accidetnally knocked some water over one of her posters, which put her off her stride a bit. But Kirstie, the only one who is doing the 4 week TEFL was by far the best of us - and she's only 20 years old and hasn't even "finished school" - by which she means University.
The Village Project gave me ny first chance of working with children - from 5 to 11 in mixed age groups of about 20. It was great fun and gave me my chance to sing. My fish was a
great success and the children liked it when I moved it to them and pretended it was going to bite!
THis weekend I cam to Krabi and have gone over to Railley Beach, which is truly beautiful, in a longtail boat. The weather held up well and I did some sunbathing and paddling. Tomorrow I go back to GVI and meet two new young guys who will be working with me as teacher's assistants in the school next week - and on Monday we will all start work. This will be a new challenge - less academic than the first two weeks, but a lot more actual lessons and a lot more actual students - and all kids.
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