Random Ramblings

I just finished typing up a batch of student evaluations for my ESL classes -- about 11 students overall. Understand that I need to do these in order to get paid; there's no getting out of it. The stress comes when you realize that not only will my company (ELAM) be getting these evaluations, but so will the HR department of my students' company. What I say may be used by HR for future purposes. This oddly places a great deal of pressure on me to get it "right." It's all the harder when you realize I don't normally take a lot of time during class to do individual evaluations, but sort-of take the class as a whole. Sure, I have a sense of who my strong and weak students are, but compared to some other classes I've taught, I just don't feel I'm qualified to write a detailed evaluation for each student.

I did it. But I didn't like doing it. I suddenly understand the moods my mom gets into whenever she needs to write report cards.

It occurs to me that I'm now at the half-way mark of pretty much all my contracts. I still stress a bit about lesson planning, but we've solidly moved into the main chunk of the course and things are settling down. Thankfully, none of these are for-credit courses, so I don't need to prepare any midterms, and my students won't be stressing about final exams. It's just routine for another month or so, until the contracts wrap up.

Shiva has also wound down for me. I spent a great deal of time at the shiva house since Sunday, but I don't think I'll be back. The official last day is tomorrow, and I'll be out of the house from 11:30 am (possibly earlier) until very late at night. I've got a busy day planned tomorrow:
( Stuff I'm doing tomorrow, cut because I'm fairly sure it'll be unimportant to most of my readers )
So... yeah. Not much on the "free time" front tomorrow. But it'll be good to feel like I've got stuff to do, and it'll definitely feel good to be back at karate again.

Now, to grab a soup before my class starts in 45 minutes. Thank god I brought a book.

I'm reading through my ESL textbook to prepare for my class tomorrow. I'd say it's the most boring book ever, except that I have to compare it to the one I used this morning. As is, it's a toss-up.

Gah! My brain wants to melt!

...and it should not be underestimated what a good night of sleep will do for one's sanity. Truly. My worldview is up several dozen points over yesterday's, merely because I slept through the whole night last night.

On the other hand, I'm now about to go upstairs and pull teeth for an hour and a half. I'm back with the elementary-level class, and I'm still not used to working with people who can't laugh at my jokes (through no fault of their own, of course). Wish me luck.

In terms of the course I've been agonizing over for the last day or so:

I know I work best if I have a textbook. I know there are textbooks in my boss's office, and he's offered to let me use them for individual classes. Obvious answer: use the textbooks as a base, and see if I can get them for every class. So obvious, so scarlet-letter-hiding-in-plain-sight. Students having textbooks = less photocopying = less time needed to plan lesson = happier Julie.

Yay for potential solutions. Now I've just got to wait for word from my boss that it's okay. Hopefully he gives me said word by tomorrow morning.

Just back from the interview at Vanier's language school (a separate institution within the college). I had two interviewers, the head of the language school and the head of the learning centre. Suffice to say, it went very, very well. They told me so, point blank: "You're the first person we've interviewed all week where we haven't been holding our heads in our hands. You nailed every question. You've really got a sense of your teaching method, and it perfectly matches ours."

So they offered me work.

Specifically, they offered me two evening courses, of which I took one: an advanced written communication course. It's twice a week, two hours each, for nearly twice my already-respectable hourly wage. I start Monday. This effectively doubles the amount of money I'll be making this semester, which makes me happy indeed.

My only concern is that this cuts into two social things that I do in the evenings, which will need to be shifted or rescheduled, but this can be arranged, I think.

Anyway... yay for more employment!

I've got an interview on Friday with the head of Vanier's language school, for a twice-a-week evening class (4 hours total), starting next week and going to late November.

If it works out, the timing may be a bit tricky on Tuesdays (I'd finish at Dawson at 5 pm and start at Vanier at 6), but the money would be very good -- nearly twice what I'm making now on my currently ESL contracts (which is none too shabby).

Fingers crossed. I'm not going to think about it right now, as I've got to go get ready for my first shift at Dawson.

In relation to none of the above, Marc comes home in less than 24 hours. Just thought I'd mention.

(Wow... has it really been 3 days since I last posted anything? I think that's the longest I've ever gone, with the exception of Pennsic. I guess that means my life's been pretty slow, huh?)

So. It looks like I'll finally have some employment within a few weeks. I'll be teaching for a new company, ELAM. They're a private ESL company, much like ILSC, but they're geared exclusively towards corporate teaching. The pay is comparable to ILSC's corporate division (where I've been teaching since November), but there are a number of advantages: all my students get the textbook (no massive photocopy campaigns), I get the teachers' manual, the textbooks are all geared towards business situations, etc. In other words, there's a lot more resources I can take advantage of. I'm already booked for a 10-week Monday/Wednesday lunchtime contract, and I'm just waiting for confirmation on a Tuesday/Thursday one as well.

In terms of Dawson, they still don't know how many hours they can give me, though they're hoping it'll be more than last semester, maybe as much as 10. Though I'd wanted to give them first priority, I couldn't afford to put off contacting ELAM any more, so I simply told Dawson I wouldn't be available at lunchtimes. It should still be workable, I think. They want me to work for them, I want to work for them... it'll work out. (Pardon the pun.)

Anyway, now to get back to pruning my filing cabinet. Fun, fun, fun.

So I'm here at the school, having taught for two hours this morning and led an hour-long walking tour this afternoon. Factor in that my voice was still not really recovered from the lingering bout of Yucky Sickness (tm) that seems to be clinging to my throat with the ferocity of a rabid monkey, and you can understand that I'm not feeling 100%. On the other hand, I made about $60 doing it, which I suppose is worth some discomfort.

In other news, we started up Ian's new game yesterday. It was a Surprise System game for the main character (Sam) until the last bit of the session, in which he finally figured out what we're playing. I had fun, though I'm not sure I played my character quite right. It'll take a session or two for me to get into the mentality.

Now, I'm off to the hospital to see Ian's mom. I've got more stuff to do for her. I never thought I'd be so happy that a) I've got a laptop, and b) I type so bloody fast. God, like any good GM, finds a use for all skills in time. I don't really like hospitals, but that's another post for another day.

Final note: Tonight I intend to get my first full night of sleep in about two weeks. Anyone who calls me tomorrow before 10 am shall be flogged. Consider yourselves warned.

Today's class didn't go well... again. I've only taught them 5 days, and at least two or three of them have gone, if not hideously badly, then much worse than I'd like.

This got me thinking: I know I'm a good teacher. People tell me routinely that I'm a good teacher. So why is this particular class so damned hard for me to teach?

And then it hit me: I'm very good at teaching content, and that's simply not what this class is about. This class isn't about content, but communication. Oh, sure, we have to have content (so far we've talked about crime, sports, medicine, food, and families), but it's all a means to an end, the end being to communicate better. And teaching someone how to communicate better is profoundly different from teaching them some sort of content.

When you teach with the goal of having someone understand the content of what you're teaching (whether that be persona research, math, computers, karate, or history), the approach is surprisingly similar. You present the content in a way that is clear and concise, then you check for understanding, then you repeat from step one until the content is understood. Over the years, I have become very good at these two steps.

Teaching for communication is different. For one thing, it shouldn't be centered on you, but on the students. For another, it's not a matter of presenting content, but of facilitating communication. The goal isn't, "students will understand how to solve quadradic equations," or "students will know how feudal societies were structured," but rather, "students will communicate more effectively." I've been approaching things from a content-based standpoint (show them how to use a certain verb tense, or a certain set of vocabulary), which is important but not the main goal. Hence my problem.

That said, it's good to know. It actually explains a whole lot of things for me, most importantly why I've been so uncomfortable teaching this particular ESL class. It might not help me for the next two days, and it's certainly not an excuse not to try to do better, but at least it explains why things are as they are. And it also reminds me that I can still be a good teacher, while not necessarily teaching this class very well. It's just a different realm from what I'm used to.