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 :-)))

...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

Wordle Waves....

As per Dave Dodgson's recent challenge I allowed Wordle to wash over my blog. Here is the pattern it left in the sand...

At first all I could see was my overuse of the adjective "great" and felt fairly disappointed that the defining feature of this blog was my limited use of the English language!

However, on reflection I saw the following patterns...

The verbs give an insight into some of the things that go on...

Teaching, laughing, saying, correcting, reading, using

Interested, looked, created, asked, started, noticed

Try, work, got, like

The nouns highlight a few of the people involved:

the Raven, each other, Scott, everyone, learners, bloggers

The adjectives, although limited, do describe my experiences!

Fun, amazing, great, unplugged, online, new

Again the nouns that came up highlighted a few of the ideas I've experimented with...

SceneIt, Reverse (reading), templates, projects etc…

And some more interesting nouns…

Discussion, story, vocab, notebooks, work, class, ideas, time, conversation, feedback, moments, giggles

So clearly a teacher's blog, with a limited vocabulary, who was surprised,  in the end, by what can be uncovered, with a little time and very basic language analysis!

Thanks for the prompting Dave a very productive and reflective half hour :-D

Moments that didn't work out....

Some recent comments on this blog by Jason and David made me think about a few lessons that I've posted materials and ideas for but then never fed back on how they actually went. This is probably because they didn't work quite so well as I'd hoped, or didn't go at all, mostly due to circumstances and my own lack of follow up. However, I think it's important to write about 'cause otherwise I might give the impression that everything in my class always works out ... which it definitely doesn't! Experiments go wrong, learners struggle and I am often lazy.

For example, the day I decided to use the Scene it! Arab protests lesson also happened to be the day that a male student started my all Muslim women class. Two ladies in particular are very conservative. They wear the hijab (head scarf) and niqab (veil) whenever they are outside or when men are present.

They were devastated... I really hadn't taken into account their perspective at all. We are full of bright ideas about integration, equal opportunities etc... and have successfully integrated men into several previously all women classes. However, this class was not to be one of them. One learner -  'A' told me that she would no longer be able to attend the class with a man present due to her husband. She actually used the phrase 'he will kill me'  The other lady 'H' reproachfully asked me why I hadn't told her in advance. If she had known she would not have come and she was very worried about what might happen if her husband found out she had attended a class with a man.

This is a level above simple preference or even religion ... these ladies were genuinely distressed and scared. I felt awful. The atmosphere in class was dead. The two ladies moved to another table and worked with their backs to the class. Everyone was subdued including the poor, unassuming male learner.

Now we are an equal opportunities college and I certainly could not ask the male learner to leave. However, there was another class at his level at a different venue so I was able to transfer him. The situation made me agonise quite a bit over how I handled the situation and over my values ... for a number of reasons and if that other class had not been available I would have had to make a very difficult decision.

As you can probably  imagine the lesson was a total flop :-/

The other session that I did recently was  Trying Talk it Up! This actually worked really well in class... the learners got a lot out of the dialogue and I mentioned that I would get them to practice at home and have them repeat it in the next session.

Well I didn't :-/ whatever else I'd planned took over, learners came who hadn't come to the previous session and I wussed out! Consistent follow up over a number of sessions is definitely one of my weaknesses as a teacher. I am planning to try the approach again, however, and I will endeavour to follow through on what I say to the learners.

That class is a low level class but my higher level class with more language actually told me off today for not being more strict with them when they're late or when they don't do their set homework (because they know I don't follow through on what I ask them to do!) They said they like it in the short term but in the long term they lose out... which is very true!

This all sounds quite negative... I don't feel negative... I just know that there are many ways I could improve as a teacher and I want to be honest about the less shiny moments amidst all the delight of sessions that go well.

A WriteWays experiment...

Really interested in this offering from JR last week so had a go this week with my E1s. Their writing skills are generally quite a way behind their speaking and the first unit seemed ideal for their level so I got them to do the initial piece of writing and then inputted it into the template very generously shared by Jason.

This is what I ended up with:

Download Writeways_lvl_1_unit_1 adapted for A's E1 class

So how did it go? Well it's certainly given me a lot of food for thought and again brought home to me just how complacent and frankly lazy I've been over the last few years especially with error correction. Also, the intrinsic difficulties of teaching classes of learners some of whom have study skills whilst others don't.

This class is made up of mostly Asian learners and also some Polish learners. Interestingly the Polish learners  immediately noticed the difference between the passages and very easily corrected not only their own punctuation but also their grammar using the model to help them. (I didn't ask them to do that) However, the Pakistani learners found the incorrect passage easier to read despite the errors mainly because it was about a more familiar person. They didn't really notice the errors!!

However, after some more explicit explanation they did begin to get the hang of it and what was really encouraging was some of them began to notice that they were using capital letters throughout their work for words like Live, Favourite, Mother etc...  and were self correcting.

The part that made me hang my head in shame was just how easy and natural it was for me to simply tell them their errors. Especially at the end, after the follow up writing and dictation, as I was running out of time. So, despite having just witnessed some 'aha' moments for some of them when they were self correcting, I just pointed out their fresh mistakes and wrapped up the lesson.

However, if they really can begin to self correct and notice their own mistakes that's a priceless study skill that would have been really worth teaching them. And by they  I actually mean if I can persevere with this whole noticing approach rather than falling back on old habits. Since it was clear from this class that they definitely can self correct it just takes more initial effort from me!

I will definitely try the second unit after the half term holiday although I might not do it all in one chunk as I did today as it's quite intensive. However, definitely well worth it both for them and me :-)

Collaboration...

 

                                                                    Image by Internet Marketing

I am really privilged to work with a small but incredibly supportive group of teachers. The most special thing for me about teaching for the past five years has been the friendship of the people I work with. We all started at roughly the same time and it's amazing the difference it makes to have people to bounce ideas of.  Sharing  stories of the funny / cute / insightful thing your student\s said that day. Something works well and we can't wait to get back and share it... someone's stuck and everyone stops as we all bounce ideas round till something fits. More than that each time someone uses your idea / resource they nearly always improve it... come up with a different twist or take.

So take a simple example.... I took some images found here into the classroom to focus a little on 'There is / are' . I passed these on to another teacher. She then took them into the classroom but instead of using them from the front she handed them out to the students and got them to chat about them in pairs before feeding back what they could see in their pictures. She then  passed them onto another teacher. She did the 2nd teacher's idea but then afterwards got them to spread the pictures out in front of the pairs and one of them described a picture whilst the other one guessed which one was being described. I then went into another class at the end of the week and used all three approaches to the pictures for a really nice well rounded 45 minutes of discussion.

That's just one example of 1000s ... I don't know where I would be without those three other teachers... I really don't. I've learned so much from them, sharing ideas saves so much time and that creative spark when you think... this is great but I could also do this ... or watch someone else make an intuitive jump that benefits you all is just a really fun thing to be a part of.

Then obviously there is this online world which I'm quickly realising is a vast ocean of more of the same but on a much grander scale. It's been overwhelming but also exciting and inspiring.

Which I guess is all a longwinded way of saying a heartfelt thanks to my friends who I work with every day. Without them I would not be the teacher I am today! But also a thanks in advance to this online world which is  very quickly helping me become the teacher I want to be :-)

A breath of fresh air...

... was what I needed at the start of this academic year. Coming into my fifth year of full time teaching was not positive. I felt fairly know it all "been there done that" and just generally quite jaded and very  very bored.

The sharp learning curve that defined my first few years of teaching where everything was fresh and I was constantly learning had plateaued. It was nice not to be so worried about lesson plans and classes but what in the first few years had been a flurry of collecting/adapting/creating resources had quickly become well stocked on and offline folders of go-to resources that it was very easy to go-to.  However, the sense of excitement and fresh insight and ... learning ... had faded.

Getting to go to the occasional conference etc... helped a bit but I'd missed the last one and it got to January and I just needed something new. So I signed up for a digital storytelling course online which, unfortunately, I have not managed to start let alone complete. However, at the same time... I stumbled across OneStopBlogs and all I can say is wow....

Just a few hours wondering round there and I could feel my teaching lungs beginning to take in a few deep breathes. There were people out there who were really thinking about why and how they taught, who were excited about their profession and most amazingly of all were willing to share completely free their insights, ideas and resources.

My know it all "been there done that" attitude began to fade. I hardly knew anything... I felt like a trainee again. There was so much I hadn't tried... ideas that scared me a little... and this idea that my students could actually learn in my classes began to emerge once again.

It was incredibly humbling... and a little hard to come to terms with... but gradually excitement started to stir.