Last week the extra Monday classes that I had been scheduled to teach began.  Finally!

Before Christmas I had been scheduled to start teaching extra classes on a Monday and these were due to begin on the 4th January.  Then it snowed.  And snowed.  And snowed some more!

All classes were cancelled and the extra classes were rescheduled to start on 18th January.  Then I received a call from my mentor explaining that there was some administrative mix up and the classes were going to have to postponed for a few weeks longer.  This did make me anxious as I was well aware that I would need to teach every hour that I could to ensure I reached 150 hours by the end of the course.  It started to feel like anything that could go wrong was going wrong!  The Co-ordinator for Monmouthshire Adult and Community Education came to see me and was extremely apologetic.  Apparently, she only realised she needed to fill in certain forms and completer certain paperwork when her boss asked her for it, resulting in the delay.  She assured me that she would do everything she could to ensure the classes were up and running as soon as possible, and after only a one week delay the classes finally started on 25th January!  It was a great relief, especially as it now means I should be able to easily reach the required amount of teaching hours by the end of the course (taking into consideration the number of teaching hours already completed on my placement).  One less thing to worry about! (That is unless something else goes wrong, fingers crossed it doesn't!).

Last week I also had my first assessed teaching observation.  Despite getting to know my learners and feeling comfortable teaching, I was quite nervous.  Firstly, the class to be observed were all of a high level.  Most of the learners have had experience of learning English in an academic context and their knowledge and use of technical terms (metalanguage) is extraordinary.  I was worried that a learner would ask me a question that completely bamboozled me! However, there was nothing to worry about.  The class was really enjoyable to teach even though a spider somehow managed to get in my hair! (I didn't even see it but one of the learners did and got it out).  I really wanted to play to my strengths and show a really good level of teaching but, even though I passed, I feel I let myself down.  As the class is at a really advanced level and different to any group I have taught before, I have been feeling lost in the past few weeks.  With the observed lesson itself I feel I put too much effort into concentrating on the vocabulary to be taught instead of trying to provide more of a context for this language to be placed into.  I did try to place the language into some sort of context, providing students with a problem solving/jigsaw reading and had planned for the writing task to focus on the findings of the recently published research into British social attitudes.  But the topics chosen had no real relation to the learners lives and there wasn't really an opportunity given to allow the learners to relate this to their own lives and experience.  As the lesson went on, the language became even more decontextualised and abstract. 

 I have a really good relationship with the students (after my tutor left they clapped and gave me a birthday card) and I do hope and feel this may have been shown in the observed lesson and there is a great atmosphere of mutual support and collaborative learning (which I think was shown).  The comments provided by my tutor were really supportive  and constructive and I do feel this has definitely helped me 'find my feet' again and has helped me to focus on what I will do with this class and my personal teaching development from this point on.  Even though I feel I may have let myself down this time, the whole reason of being on this course is to improve my teaching practice and I am aware this is a continually ongoing  process, and so will use this experience as an effective learning experience in my professional development as a teacher. 

Onwards and upwards!