Magpie Moments

Seven years, three kids, a career change and more...

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

 

It's been seven years since I last posted here. I dropped of the map. Sorry about that. Eight months after the previous post I gave birth to my eldest son and everything changed.

In all the best ways. In all the chaotic ways. In all the 'oh my goodness is that a brick wall I just hit with my entire body' ways. In all the 'this is changing me on every level' ways. I am not who I was.

I didn't leave teaching then. I came back after maternity leave. Then left again on maternity leave. Then came back after maternity leave. And then left. Really left. Closed the door and didn't look back. The college where I worked had changed as much as I had during my absences and in none of the best ways.

It's a familiar story - funding cuts and the consequences of those cuts. Significantly less than stellar leadership and management. Paper, paper everywhere with "sausage factory" classes to teach. Numbers, money, speed, unnecessary redundancies, money, numbers, paper, more unnecessary redundancies.

Real, authentic language learning became a relic of a by gone era as did the real, authentic teaching community that had surrounded me for nearly a decade.

I still miss the college that was. Where I first learnt what it meant to teach and be taught by wonderful learners and colleagues. I miss this online space as well and the friends I made here.

But everything about me that was 'teaching Anna' felt unreachable, packed up, dismantled, on a shelf, at the back of a cupboard, in an abandoned room ... and well, you probably get the idea. I didn't know what to write about anymore.

I retrained as a coach (life coach), became self employed and learned a load of new skills, developed as a person and went through/am going through the crucible that is learning to market yourself both successfully AND authentically.

I LOVE what I do now.

Still... I couldn't find my way back here.

Then a year and a half ago I made the decision to home educate my kids. And just like that the Magpie was back. There are so very many beautiful, shiny, wonderful thoughts, ideas, resources, people, theories, ways of doing, ways of being, all out there glimmering in the half light. I love to learn.

And today I felt the urge to share some of what I'm discovering with others and 'Magpie Moments: A collection of other people's shiny ideas that are inspiring my teaching' felt true again. 'Teaching Anna' took a deep breath for the first time in a long time. A forgotten room felt found.

I'm sorry for disappearing without any explanation. I would love to connect with anyone who, by some miracle, still gets notified if I post.

Instead of teaching wonderful, adult ESOL and Literacy learners I'm teaching three wonderful children.

I have no idea what this home education journey is going to look like but... I can feel excitement starting to stir.

Copyright, images and why it's not always good to be a Magpie!

                   Image used with the generous permission of Sally Elford

So this post is a confession of sorts. When I first entered the online world of blogs I knew very little about copyright and rules around using images. I came up with the title for my blog, went to google images and found a picture of a magpie that I uploaded. This became the central motif of the blog. I didn't even think twice about it. I continued to use images in this way until a few months ago when I realised other people were crediting their images and that it wasn't as simple as going to google images and uploading any picture I liked!

Through blogs like Jason Renshaw's and others I noticed people were using Flickr as a legal way to find and use quality pictures. Then I realised there was something called creative commons that meant the picture could even be adapted - this began to have an impact on my materials design. It's been a little frustrating as it has severely limited what images I can now use in my classroom material. However, it is rewarding to know I'm going about it in the right way. Discovering beautiful ideas like ELT pics - set up by some probably equally frustrated teachers has also helped. Have a look at Sandy Millin's post here if you're intrested in the story. The new google image search filter is also great as it allows you to look for creative commons pictures only.

Anyway, back to my Magpie image. Whilst I've been able to go back and credit most of the other images in my blog, which luckily were almost entirely from Flickr, I had the horrifying realisation that the entire blog design was based around this gorgeous magpie picture. However, I had no idea how to find the original artist! Luckily using the other new google facility I dropped the image into google and it came up with this delightful website by an artist called Sally Elford. I highly recommend taking a look particularly at the print section :-)

Slightly terrified of possible lawsuits and huge fines I approached her through a friend and amazingly she has very, very kindly given me permission to continue using it. So, I guess this post is both a confession and a massive, massive thank you to both a hugely talented and very generous artist :-)

After all that I'm away now for a week with some friends so I wish everyone in the UK a great half term break and the rest of the world a great teaching week :-)))

Playing with plants...

Came back after my lesson today to discover something seriously exciting! David Warr of Language Garden fame has just released his plant maker - along with a challenge to review a lesson and make the highlights into a plant.

So, the above plant is some of the words we came up with in class today when we thought of Bradford, as per the lesson I wrote about here. There was obviously  a variety of opinion, some of them opposing, but we had a great time chatting about it. The materials were actually a bit too hard for them - they are more towards the low end of E2. However, they still found the session interesting - at least they seemed too :-)

Anyway, thank you very much Mr Language Gardener - you've made my day. If we ever do get our promised interactive whiteboards it will be a lot of fun to use in class!

Edit: Below is my second slightly more complex attempt with the Churchill quote: "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But I'm hoping it is the end of the beginning." Which applies just as well to my language plants as to WW 2 I'm sure ;-p This plant was a real labour of love as it crashed twice when trying to save it but I got there in the end :-)

A dash of Positive Bradford mixed with a dollop of material design...

 Image by namraf

I love my city. I love it. We moved here five years ago when I married a Bradfordian. The city has sometimes had a bad rep. Many people associate it with the race riots of 2001 not realising how far the city has come in the decade that followed. Positive Bradford day was an amazing example of this. Two business men put it together along with this amazing website and this one which I've ruthlessly stolen from to create tomorrow's lesson.

Throw in a good, solid dollop of some new design skills based on the generous sharing of the English Raven's time and skills, and I have some resources that I'm pretty darn proud of. (Feels slightly wrong to put my name down as the designer since the content comes from Positive Bradford and the design ideas are pinched in their entirety from this tutorial.) I'm seriously excited about this new Masterclass series that Jason is doing and had a lot of fun with the materials below. I realise that unless you teach in Bradford they are unusable but I'm sharing them anyway as I feel pretty chuffed.

Read something recently about a new wave of tech that is coming allowing us to design and create physical objects. Sounds very sci-fi - wish I could find the article because it had a great quote about how people prefer something average they created themselves over something incredible someone else made. That's how I feel about these materials.

The basic lesson plan is as follows:

1) Learners write down the first five words that come into their head when I say Bradford - positive or negative.

2) Discuss those words with a partner - opportunity for emergent moments ;-p

3) Look at the Positive Bradford homepage and discuss what they think about those five words

Download Positive Bradford warmer

4) Read the sentences about Bradford's history and future and tick the box if there is anything that is new for them.

Download Did you know activity

5) Share any new information with their partner and the class

6) Group discussion on our perceptions of Bradford and the power of positivity.

7) In groups they read one of the top ten facts about the city and create a true/false quiz for the other group to complete

8) Create a poster/presentation on the city and how they feel about it.

That's about it. I'll let you know how it goes! Thanks again to Jason Renshaw I can't wait to see what tips he has in his second video! ;-p

 

 

October Optimism...

Image by Muffet

It's been a while and I do apologise for that to anyone who still finds their way here amongst all the September flurry and excitement. It's been a difficult few months for me professionally as we fought to maintain our teaching programme amidst funding changes, funding cuts and the latest bright idea. To turn our centre into the local job centre sausage factory where all levels showed up at once for short programmes that would have inveitably turned into little more than workshops and taken the quality of what we do and the life completely away. I had serious thoughts of quitting all together.

However, October's here - we've found some funding, we've also found a compromise whereby 75% of our provision remains the same, 25% is used for job centre clients. The programme will be short and intense but hopefully now should also provide some quality and the possibility for progression.

Whilst the funding situation still looks dire for next year, the threat of a third OFSTED inspection in as many years looms over us and the usual drain of paperwork on paperwork threatens to overwhelm I feel much more positive.

After all the delays classes have started, most of my students are delightful and the ones that are harder work provide an interesting challenge and for me, most importantly, I've found some creative inspiration once more which is, at the moment, a big part of what keeps me going! So here's to this year may it be brighter, more fruitful and more inspiring than the one before, for both me and my students! :-)

Creating Readers - Mahfuza's Day

One of the most useful CPD sessions I ever attended was a really fun book making technique that Charlotte Haenlein taught at the 2009 NATECLA conference. Book making is a great lesson in its own right and it also happens to meet a piece of portfolio criteria, following instructions, which is always a bonus ;-p

So as a follow up to Rima's Day we created our own books using images from the SQA's "Daily Life" pack. The book making itself is fun... all you need is a few different sets of coloured paper and the instructions.

Download Book making instructions reduced

 

 

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They get all sorts of integrated skills work as they:

 

• put the books together
• write their sentences
• talk about their daily routine
• listen to others
• match the appropriate words to the picture
• read their own books to themselves, eachother and their children.

I've also used the books to make picture dictionaries and alphabet books. Lots of fun for all so a big thanks to Charlotte for her wonderful arts and crafts session! :-)

Using readers - Rima's Day

It never ceases to amaze me how much absolute beginners love to read books. When I bring in a pile of kids books they will quite happily choose one, look at the pictures and attempt to decode the language. Whilst this is fun for a while they are definitely limited by how much they can decode. That's what I love about some of the graded ESOL readers that talented people like Marta Paluch have created and then shared on free websites like Talent.

Rima's Day is one of my favourites because the language is simple, the pictures are clear and although the language is quite significantly above my learners' level they can have a jolly good stab at it. We print them off in booklet form which gives them a huge sense of achievement as they learn to read and understand the vast majority of it.

There's very little prep needed but so much we can do with the text. Here are a few of the things we did last time I used it: 

• We read it together with lots of acting from me as many of the verbs are unfamiliar to them  e.g. put on, clear away, get up etc... 
• We practiced whole phrases
• We went round the room reading a page each
•  I read it and they acted out the verb phrases
• They acted a phrase and the other learners guessed which one  e.g. washing the dishes
• We played word races where I said the verb and they raced through the book to find it and show me.
•  They read it to eachother
• I broke it down onto cards and they matched pictures with phrases and ordered the text. 

Usually ideas for what to do just spark as you see what phrases catch their interest etc... They take it home and read it to their kids and bring it back a little scrattier than when it was given  but well used. It may not be an authentic text but they certainly get an authentic sense of achievement from learning to read and understand it. There are three different readers available for free on Talent that I can find but I'd love to know which ones other teachers use and as always any ideas for how to use them :-)

 

 

Using tickets - an unplugged approach...

 

Often tickets are used for very practical activities in classrooms like role-plays etc… which is great. However, after  seeing a ticket on Sandy Millin’s wonderful infinite ideas website a few creative ideas were sparked in my head. I’ve posted there as well but  really like the Teaching Unplugged framework. After reading Mike’s excellent post, where he also used that framework very effectively, I felt inspired to have a go. Do check out both blogs and obviously the book. I've already used Mike's travel recommendations lesson with great success :-)

Anyway, here's my lesson. Not sure if it fully qualifies as unplugged but it's certainly materials light and myself and several colleagues have had really fun lessons with it.

Think about it

Tickets open doors. Think back over your life experiences. A magical afternoon at the zoo, the concert of a lifetime, a trip through snowy and unfamiliar landscapes on the way to your first job in a foreign land. These are just a few examples of experiences made possible by a ticket. If you’re doing a topic like transport, journeys or events why not take a bit of time to find out what your learners’ experiences have been. Do they have any stories to tell? Or can they imagine some?

Get it ready

Bring in a bus ticket, football match ticket, plane ticket etc… Also different shapes and sizes of coloured paper cut into the shapes of various kinds of tickets.

Set it up

Pass your chosen ticket round the class. Ask learners to imagine what the story of that ticket might be. What happened to the person who bought it, what did they experience whilst they were using it? Allow time for discussion. Ask the learners if they have ever had an interesting experience whilst using a ticket? What kind of ticket was it? Discuss the different purposes of tickets.

Let it run

• Pass out the slips of paper. In pairs or small groups, ask the learners to create their own ticket. It can be any kind of ticket.
• Ask everyone in the class to exchange their tickets with the group sitting next to them.
• With their new ticket the groups decide on the story of that ticket and write a short narrative.

Round it off

Each group shows the class their ticket, reads out the story and answers any questions. Tutor feeds back on emergent language as appropriate.

Follow up

Learners  discuss where they would go/what they would do if they had a magic ticket to anywhere. Possibly creating  a WEG style table .

	Type of ticket?	Where to ?	Why?
Salma
Darius
Akram
Jabeen

 

Thanks to Sandy, Mike and the authors of Teaching Unplugged for the inspiration :-)

...and then there was a glimmer of light!

                                                                                                Image by overthemoon

This started as a response to the amazing comments left by Adam, Naomi, Mike, Ceci & David on my latest post A Moment of Melancholy but in the end I felt it deserved a post in its own right.

I don't really know how to thank everyone without it sounding trite but last week I really was close to wanting to pack it all in. I've never felt so discouraged before and although I still can't see the whole way through the door, I can now see some light from the other side. The advice and support I received was more than I ever expected and has highlighted to me once again the amazing worth of this online world.

The first person to comment was Adam.  Randomly at the same moment he was posting his comment I stumbled across his excellent blog. I can't recommend his post Why is my class doing so well highly enough to anyone feeling remotely like I was last week. Usually when I'm in his position, loving my job and teaching a group of learners who are highly motivated I take a lot of the credit. Instead, this post takes a long, and indepth look at motivation and the reasons why a class goes well or not so well.

His down to earth advice and common sense really helped me take a deep breath and look at my class with a bit more perspective. I really liked how he said, in such situations, breaking up a course of study into small achievable goals can bring some students back from the brink.

This is perhaps where I need to focus - and since I was pretty near the brink  I'll start with some manageable goals for myself.

Goal One

Really break stuff down, help the learners see their achievements at the end of each lesson and how they are building on those achievements albeit slowly. This will require me to be much more structured. A lovely teacher who I work with has offered to sit down with me and create a clear scheme of work for the remainder of this year.

Goal Two

Help them structure their learning outside of class. Naomi  made two great suggestions for which I'm infinitely grateful. You can find them here. The first, creating labels that they could put on household objects at home, could be linked into classes. We would create the signs together then after class they'd place them round their homes. The second idea is also good and something I will encourage them to do this coming week.

Goal Three

Maintain perspective - whilst I know that I can do a much better job, beating myself up isn't going to get them or me very far. Thank you to Ceci & Mike for your calm and encouraging advice in that respect as well as a good reminder of the other factors involved.

Goal Four

Find and incorporate more varied and creative ways of re-covering vocab. I spent a productive afternoon finding some new activities for this. The best one was the iteslj website and a list from a teacher called Mark Koprowski. Some of the ideas were very familiar but others were new to me.

Goal Five

Find out more about family learning. This was David's suggestion and I think it's worth looking into. The learners were feeling disheartened because their children are learning so much faster than them. So the idea of linking that learning up and using it to help the parents makes a lot of sense and I think it's worth a try. Again see here for details.

Goal Six

Try to set up some work experience for them. The various suggestions made by Naomi, Mike, and David on the theme of outside learning made me think how great it would be for them to do some volunteering. They can't get paid work but volunteer work would give them experience and immerse them more fully into the language and culture.

So there you have it, perhaps not a wide open door but definitely a glimmer of light. Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to comment, read, tweet or just simply care. Your advice,  support and presence have made a difference. Although the situation is the same I feel I have some tools and a bit of mountain perspective to take back with me into the valley.

Thank you :-)

A moment of melancholy...

                                                                                                                Image by Joep Rooson

This last few weeks I've been struggling. A mini crisis of faith in myself as a teacher. It feels like all the doors are closed both to me and my learners. Whilst, as the title of this blog indicates, I do have moments that sparkle and shine I always end up going through times where I wonder if what I do for a living has any impact or long term worth.

Take my refugee group as an example. They have been here for a year now in this country trying to adapt to the culture, learn the language and get settled in. However, the job centre (where they receive government benefits) is now cutting them off from money periodically because they still haven't got jobs. This is one of the hardest job markets in the UK in a long time. Everything requires a piece of paper and that paper requires a high level of English. "No English, no job", as my learners said to me despondently last week.

They've never had any formal education before, never written their own language and never spoken any English before. They do have all sorts of skills from cleaning and cooking to plumbing and plastering and all sorts of dreams like becoming a nurse or a policeman. But English is the key to the door and they just can't learn it quick enough.

Or I can't teach it well enough which is where I'm at right now. When I first started teaching this level, the year before last,  I threw myself into it with enthusiasm - learnt about phonics,  the language experience approach, found new resources, used images, mimes, magnetic letters, mini whiteboards, arts and crafts etc.. There have been some wonderful moments where we've communicated about ideas way above their skill level. Just today they managed to explain that the education door was quite literally locked on the school classrooms and mosques in Burma. They were stopped from attending school because they were Muslims. The fact that they can communicate that to me is amazing ..... and deeply tragic. But it's not going to get them a job anytime soon!

They also told me today that they can only retain / learn 2 - 5 words in a session. We were looking at pronouns and one of them just stopped and looked at me and explained that he'd been learning English for over a year and still couldn't remember the difference between we and they.

The despondency in their eyes the last few weeks has broken my heart. They have hope for their kids but not themselves. I can see where the job centre is coming from... some of them have been in the country for nearly two years now. Why haven't they got a job? Why can't they speak English? I can also see where my learners are coming from. They're at the edge of giving up, I'm their teacher, they trusted me and yet they seem to be making no progress.

Where I'm coming from? Right now... I think the job centre and my learners have a point. I can fill the time with skills practice, games, activities etc... and put together lessons that we all enjoy. Yet.... they are retaining hardly any of that English. I feel like I've accomplished very little and I cannot see how to do it better. What I'd love is to be a fly on the wall of a class where the teacher is getting it right. Or watch a video. The few videos online of people teaching beginners have been tremendously helpful but there's not many out there. To teach this level successfully I'm beginning to think I need to massively increase my box of 'tools' because the amount of time required to recycle things is huge and if it's not done creatively or with enough variety the classes are not going to work well.

It would be easy to say it's impossible, too hard or unrealistic in the time scale but it lets me off the hook far too easily.  The truth is I do not have what it takes and am struggling to know where to go from here :-(

As always very open to ideas, thoughts or you know someone to come do my job for me with a complete set of creative, varied and well structured lessons that will help my learners make progress that they can see and I can learn from ... .... ... anyone? ;-p