Job Discussion Forums

[brissygirl]

Hi there

I thought I'd take the time to reintroduce myself because it's been months since I first posted and introduced myself. I can't believe how fast time has flown - when I last said hi I was still doing my CELTA course, and now here I sit, only 3 weeks to go until I leave Australia to move to Istanbul. Over the last few months I've been slowly packing up my life - sorting out insurance type stuff, selling my car etc.

I'm starting to panic a tiny bit - about where I'll live etc, and more importantly, the fact that I've only done a tiny bit of volunteer one on one tutoring since I finished my CELTA course - no classroom teaching. Unfortunately my current job pays a whole lot better than ESL teaching here, so in order to save my pennies to move it wasn't really possible for me to take up any teaching contracts. Were any of you in this position? Any tips re what would be the most effective thing for me to do to get back into the ESL headspace in a hurry? Or am I just going to have to accept that my first couple of lessons might be a bit nerve-wracking and that it will all come flooding back?

Hope to meet some of you at some point.

Cheers

[dmb]

[brissygirl]

aaaaghhh - thanks dmb - I thought that might be the case. Oh well, best to just accept it and ride the first few weeks out I guess... thanks for the honesty - much appreciated.

And thanks for the welcome - I can't wait to get there. Except for the going from cool weather here to cool weather there bit... I guess that's my payback for having the luck to go from a Turkish summer last year back to warm, pre-summer weather here.

[Kodak]

Hey Brissy, best of luck to you. I'm sure you'll be fine.

Count yourself lucky, you're as trained as a neurosurgeon compared to me. I was going to do my CELTA up in Edinburgh this summer but I got hit by an evil debt collecting agency wanting something called tuition fees that I hadnt full paid yet from the previous year

As a result I couldn't really afford the 4 weeker. I coughed up a lot less to do the silly i-to-i weekend course just for the hell of it.

That consisted of me having to give one mock lesson lasting 10 mininutes!. What's even worse was that the one I was given was to to teach beginners past present and future - real hardcore experience that one is

Anyway, I'm heading out to Istanbul towards the end of November and I am almost literally wetting my pants in sheer terror. Also I feel sorry for the people I will be teaching as I imagine for the first month they aint gonna be getting much of their money's worth from me

I'm trying to downlaod as many video examples as I can, info that is on the net regarding the actually classroom experience to study like a mad man over the next month.

Anyway, sorry to hijack your thread Brissy. Just wanted to let you know you'll be fine

[brissygirl]

Hi there Kodak

Thanks, and good luck to you too!

[Freddie Miles]

In my first lesson, I was supposed to go into the class and play a game with them. The set up was something like a guest native speaker would come to the class for an hour a week to give speaking and listening practice. (Nice work if you can get it.) Having never been in a classroom- at least- standing in front- I thought it was a fairly easy way to begin.

So I go into the class, accompanied by their regular Turkish teacher, who begins to explain this overly complicated game. Meanwhile I am standing there like a sweating manniquin with a frozen smile on my face. The students had these half bored/half confused looks and I immediately saw where this was going. (to the sea-bed) Thankfully, I decided to scrap the game and took off my- by now- drenched suit jacket- and sat at a desk and began asking them to introduce themselves. The teacher exited and the rest of the lesson went swimmingly.
The first lesson need not be so traumatic if you stay flexible and show an interest in the students. The main problem is in most schools the usual pattern is "Teachers give you the information, the student must sit back and absorb and become intelligent." Showing an interest in the students is the best and most honest way of overcoming the first lesson jitters, in my opinion.

Having said that, I still get a little nervous on my entry into a new class. That's natural isnt it? The whole situation is decidedly UNnatural, standing in front of a class of students blathering some, to most of them at least, jibberish.

[dmb]

[Freddie Miles]

We should open a thread of stereotypical sh-thead student types.
Here is one quote from my favourite types..
"Hocam, I dont need knowing grammar. I need speaking practice."

[Otterman Ollie]

Hocam give me a grammar lesson coz ben bokkaffer!

[Golightly]

I am speak good, but amerikali accan best

[thrifty]

A few months ago a student who is nicknamed the cement mixer because he just never stops-the word "brunch" has come up-

T: brunch comes from breakfast and lunch (showing it on board) and it is often at the weekend and about 11 o clock.

Steamroller: Ugh in the Saudi Arabia yani eat the brunch anytime maybe same same 2 o clock night

T: NO! I told you brunch is eaten between breakfast time and lunch that is why it is called brunch. If it is late in the evening it is a snack or supper maybe.

Steamroller: In the Saudi Arabia I can eating the brunch all day.

T:No NO NO No brunch is only in the morning -if it is not mid morning it is not brunch.

Steamroller: He He the Saudi eat the brunch any time.

T: Page 60.

[dmb]

What was on page 60? I hope it wasn't food vocab.

[thrifty]

One of our Irish teachers told me the story as he really suffered for months with this character. We have some great nicknames for some of the students, teachers and managers we hate and others. One of the cleaners is called "the man with the iron brain."