Reflection on teaching in India

Hi everyone , now I have had time to think about it a bit ( and some time to write it ! ) here are some thoughts on my recent trip to India, where I taught some English at a primary / middle school.There were 19 of us altogether - three of us were English teachers, the rest doctors and nurses, and we went for 2 weeks to the South West of India.

On the first day after recovering fromn the very long journey, the two other English teachers and I introduced ourselves to Mr Alex, the Headmaster of the school , and arranged to observe some English classes the next day. We were then all invited to the school assembly where we were officially welcomed as a team and given the traditional coconut drink ( from real coconuts with a straw ). We returned to the hotel by bus , would we ever get used to the way people drive in India ? !
Tuesday 23rd dawned , hot and noisy , and I had completely forgotten that it was my birthday until Helen congratulated me ! The team had even arranged balloons and decorations in the meeting room at the hotel , which we used daily for morning prayers and evening worship times together. They had also arranged for a big chocolate cake to be provided with the evening meal ! We set off for the campus and when we arrived there was already a queue of people waiting for the medical camp to begin. The doctors would be very busy that day !

Helen, Jimmi and I went up to the school and observed a few lessons and Sam got to meet lots of school children , who completely surrounded him , all asking him the same question in their Indian accent : " What is your name ? !" His reaction was to turn into a tiger and chase them all around the playground ! Lots of squealing ensued !

On observing the lessons , I felt that it would be difficult to break away from the style of teaching that the children were used to - because that is what they need to pass their exams, , which were coming up soon. The facilities included wooden benches and tables for the children and a blackboard with chalk for the teachers . Each child also had a text book , a work book containing grammar and vocabulary exercises, and a blank exercise book. The lessons we saw , especially for the older children, consisted of reading difficult texts and doing grammar exercises , each child standing in turn to answer questions, the answers to which they had learnt at home the night before. The teachers worked very hard in difficult circumstances and we didn't want to disturb the school curriculum too much , or walk in arrogantly as if we knew better, but we did hope to make the lessons a bit more fun and lively for the children. At least , in the younger groups it was nice to see them learning action songs and rhymes, which they obviously enjoyed. The teachers received little pay and worked very hard to ensure that these children from poor local villages and from the orphanage had a chance at some education , especially some education in English, as this was an English medium school and all lessons are taught in English . The hope was that this would improve their future prospects of getting better jobs or going into higher education, and hopefully of escaping the poverty trap.

We began our teaching the next day . The school day begins at 10am and ends at 3.30pm with 7 lessons and two short breaks. Even the youngest children have 7 separate lessons , with 7 different teachers ( though they also have an afternoon nap on the classroom floor after lunch ! ) I took the 7th Standard class, aged 13- 14 years , and although I did use the text book , I also played word games with them and got them speaking a bit too, as well as doing a running dictation ! It was difficult at first , because they were not used to doing anything out of the ordinary, and they always felt they must stand up to give an answer. Also they were not used to my "English" English accent and could not understand me until they got used to me a bit more. There was also the problem of noise - the classrooms were all open and close to each other , so there was the noise of the 360 or so other children , not to mention the noise of the monsoon-like rain which fell quite a lot while we were there ! They also spoke very quietly as they were quite shy until they got to know me a bit better. No problems with behaviour though at all !

Sam was so good when I was teaching , he would sit with the children and read his books or do his sticker books by himself, or sometimes he helped me by rubbing the board , even telling the children once that they must not scribble but write clearly, and showed them an example of both on the blackboard ! ( clarity of instructions - a budding teacher there I think ! )

Jimmi, meanwhile, was teaching jolly phonics to a younger class , and managed to get them all doing the sounds and actions - the teacher was taking notes too. It was nice to see them interacting and having fun, and Sam joined in these lessons and learnt lots.

Helen taught a middle class, also having to stick to the text book quite closely. In her class there was a child who obviously had special needs , though this was not normally catered for in any way and he caused a few problems with his behaviour as a result, which was a challenge for Helen. There were lots of opportunities for supply teaching too , as several teachers were absent and whole classes would often sit without a teacher for the length of the lesson.

We had received a couple of donations from friends before we left, so we were able to buy some new sports equipment and some new science equipment for the school, which was very gratefully received by the teachers. Although the school has gained recognition as a primary school , it does not receive any funding from the government, because it was set up privately by the church to fill a need in the local area.

What would I do next time ? I would love to get right away from the text book , but as this is not really possible , because of the exam system, I would try to find ways to do more communicative activities based on the texts they were reading. As there were no photocopying facilites , I had to find other ways to teach using minimal resources - lots of plain paper and other props such as balls etc. It certainly stretches the imagination !
Anyone got any other ideas ?
I'm looking forward to going again soon - and would be grateful for any tips !
Jackie x

Making use of technology in an ESOL lesson

They say we should take risks and try out new activities, and being very aware of the need to include some use of ICT in my lessons , I decided to book all of my classes into the computer room for the first time. I booked the ICT room in advance and took them in today.
The room has five computers and they are linked to the Internet and also to a printer ( though this was unfortunately not working today ). I had checked with a
member of the office staff about how to actually turn the computers on in the
computer room, before the first lesson began ! I needed to know if they would need a
password for example, and just wanted to be reassured that the computers would work!
The learners came into the computer room, and sat down ,ten learners sharing one
computer between two. For the Level 1 groups , I had planned a reading task, which
would involve going onto the Wikipedia website and finding information about a
particular sports personality, using headings and features of text, skimming and
scanning. This worked well and, working in pairs , the learners were able to locate the required information and write some sentences in response. I noticed that one learner was able to independently locate and use an online dictionary when unsure of a meaning of a word. They were also asked to talk together about the interests of the sports personality and compare them with their own. Once this activity was completed , I gave them a list of websites to choose from , which provided various activities for practising their English, such as spelling games, quizzes, grammar exercises. I think they liked having the choice and managed to find some good activities which they enjoyed working on . I had checked the websites earlier, and was able to give some advice and guidance, bearing in mind the ability of the learners and also the individual goals they were working on currently for their ILPs. The learners were so engaged , it was hard to get them to finish at the end of the lesson ! It was nice to see them working on their individual goals using a different medium from the usual paper-based resources too.

For the Entry 1 group , I had also prepared a reading activity, involving checking a bus timetable online, using the Plymouth City Bus website. This also worked quite well, as I had made the task very clear, involving simple clear steps to follow, it was also relevant to them , as it was local and one question asked them to locate a bus service from their own home to the city centre and check times. I then also gave them a choice of websites for individual activities ( the same list as for Level 1 ) This worked quite well , with some students finding very suitable activities to work on, but others needed more guidance , especially on finding simpler activities that suited their Level.
I would probably reduce that list for them next time, or set more specific tasks with
more limited choice , geared towards their individual goals or needs. This group were
also very motivated, and asked if they could go into the computer room again soon ! My only question for this group would be - as we are aiming only to do the
speaking and listening exams - what Online activities would be available for
practising pronunciation , or listening for example, and what facilities are
available for that in the ICT room ? - I did not notice any speakers for example,
or headphones. That is something I would need to check out for next time.
All in all, taking them into the computer room turned out to be a successful
exercise , well-received by the students, and not as daunting or as complicated
as I had thought it might be !

Let's reflect

Hi team !
- it only took me about 45 minutes to get into my blog ( couldn't remember my password ! Must make a note of it somewhere ....... ) Hope you like the photos - I was amazed when I managed to put them onto the blog !
I look forward to reading your comments !

Here is a bit of a reflection on my OTL today ( that's Observation of Teaching and Learning for those of you who are abbreviationed out after today's session !)

I felt very nervous and quite stressed - about the teaching side but also about the paperwork side : Had I completed the Learners' ILPs in a satisfactory way ? Had I diagnosed their level properly ? Had I set measurable, attainable and recordable goals - and were they reaching them ? Had I recorded their progress and achievement well-enough ? Did I have evidence to back that up ? Did I have a Group Learning Goal sheet , a Course Information sheet , a scheme of work , ( which showed it had been updated ), lesson plans showing differentiation and that showed I was responding to learner's needs and that the learners were leading the learning ? What about a class profile ? A set of lesson materials for the observer ? So much to remember ! Would the learners get there on time , would they respond to the lesson well ? So many things out of my control !

Mr M ( the observer ) was very nice when he arrived - I felt I should offer him a cup of coffee or something - but remembered this was not a social visit .. ! He asked me a tricky question - how many sessions would the learners have in a year ? I vaguely remembered the number 36 - and eventually managed to tell him they had 36 weeks with two sessions a week ( didn't try to multiply that myself as my maths is not good - hoped he'd be able to work that out himself ! ) He seemed happy and settled himself down at the back of the room. The learners began to arrive and I felt more at ease - just chatting with them as normal and setting them their first task . They were great - they all arrived on time , and nine out of eleven of them turned up ! They all ignored Mr M and did everything I asked them to do really well ! They responded really well to the lesson , which was all about expressing obligation ( must ) or lack of obligation ( don't have to ) in the context of the workplace. It was a lovely atmosphere - I nearly forgot about Mr M myself, until I wanted to do some pairwork - and realised I had an odd number .. mmm... but then another learner arrived - yes , very late , but perfect timing for the pairwork ! The rest of the lesson went really well. I sent the learners for their break, then had a feedback session with Mr M - who was very nice and encouraging , gave me lots of positive feedback and some suggestions on how I could use my resources more effectively to save myself some work - he is going to organise some CPD for this later in the year. So it all turned out ok in the end - I got a satisfactory/good mark - phew ! I have learnt so much by going through this process ( glad it will be two years before the next one though ! ) and I look forward to learning more about how I can save myself time by using my resources more effectively.What will I do next time ? Try not to get so stressed, make sure all my paperwork is in place at an earlier stage , ASK if I am not sure about anything ( I can be a bit self-sufficient , and I am quite isolated at Swarthmore at the moment - I only bump into other staff at the photocopier occasionally )
It's definitely time for a cup of tea and some chocolate now though!
I'll be back !


That's better ....
Just wanted to mention also that whilst doing my homework for the course over last weekend ( before my OTL ) I read the report on Barriers to Language Learning and felt completely inadequate and quite emotional about the diverse needs of ESOL learners - how much they need and deserve an excellent standard of teaching , which caters for their different learning styles and particular needs, and how difficult that is to do especially in a class with a very spiky profile. My learning curve has been almost vertical - especially since September, but I still have so much to learn !

Jackie