CELTA Bootcamp: Day 5

Friday morning we all dragged ourselves into the training room for the first input session. We had decided to all go out to a pub for a drink after the day was done, so we were looking forward to some R&R. At about 9:45 a.m. a few people were muttering about how they already needed a beer.

Job Abroad Info
We had an exciting meeting this morning about job placement abroad. Apparently, Bridge Linguatec has contacts in some countries. Depending on the situation, they can act like agents peddling our resumes. Turkey is one such country and it sounds like I will be able to get something good over there. I have a meeting scheduled for Tuesday to speak with the Bridge job placement advisor. Interesting facts I learned:

• Moscow is the most expensive city to live in worldwide.
  
• South Korea is hurting for English teachers and is willing to pay some of them for airfare there.
• Most of Southeast Asia is apparently ageist (and racist) so older folks thinking of teaching English as a foreign language are more accepted in Central and South America.
  

The First One Down...
We discovered that one of our cohorts has withdrawn from the course. It was not George, who I've mentioned before, but an older man who has not been in my smaller group for teaching observations. Apparently this guy taught two lessons and did not feel like he could integrate the feedback for improvement into his teaching. So he spoke with the CELTA trainers and they made a "mutual decision" that it would be best for him to leave. I suppose that he gets a partial refund, but I'm really not sure how it all works.

Teaching Practice
I felt very confident about teaching my second lesson on Friday afternoon, but it was less than fabulous in its execution. My lesson planning is good, according to my trainer. The rubric for feedback did not request me to improve anything on my planning. However, my activities were waaay too easy for the students to complete, and so they ripped through it and left me with about 8 minutes at the end of the lesson with nothing planned. I was able to stall them for a few minutes but finally the train ran out of track and I just had to call it quits.

It was a turn around from Wednesday when I had too many activities for them to complete. I've been converted to believing that it's better to have too much material than to underestimate them and be left looking flustered in front of the classroom.

Room for Improvement
I still need to improve on my classroom demeanor. CELTA wants us to ask Instruction Checking Questions (ICQs) and Concept Checking Questions (CCQs) in a very certain way. If I explain something, I cannot just ask, "Do you understand?" because most of them won't admit it, or they'll think they understand but they don't. Rather, we have to replace the "Do you understand?"/"Is everything ok?" habit with questions like, "How long do you have to work on this?", "Can you work with a partner?", "What specific information are you reading/listening for?", etc.

This is by far the biggest obstacle I've encountered so far. The lesson planning I can do, but retraining myself to speak differently is going to take some work. But "Do you understand?" is slowly being beaten out of us with the big stick of Failure Fear.

Next week we will be graded for our lesson plans and teaching efforts. I have one more 40 minute lesson with my Intermediate group, and then on Thursday my first 60 minute lesson. I'm nervous... Good thing I have the weekend to get myself together.