5 tips for surviving Prac

When it's all over you will understand this feeling all too well!

I'm not saying I am an expert on how to survive prac or that I was particularly impressive myself. But...there are a few things I wish I knew before I began my prac so I thought I would pass them on.


  1. Prepare, prepare, prepare.
 I don't just mean write up a lesson plan and get all your resources together. I mean check that your class will be at school that day. Are there any upcoming excursions, incursions or school events that would mean they will miss your class or it will be shorter? Assume that all technology will fail every single time you step into a classroom. It's the only way to be prepared for the (hopefully) odd occasion that it does. This may require printing off some worksheets or simply having a copy you can quickly write up on the board yourself. Also show your MT your lesson plans ASAP so that you have enough time to make any necessary changes.

2. Get involved in school life
Volunteer to do extra tasks, help other teachers or even run your own club. Extra tasks could be marking or helping to organise a school event. I ran lunch time speaking practise classes during prac so have a think about how you could add something to school life for your students.

3. Learn from teachers in other subjects
Whenever you have spare time, unless you genuinely need to be preparing lessons, go and observe other teachers. From any discipline. All teachers have something to teach you, even if it's simply what not to do.

4. Work as little as possible.
Depending on how your Uni works, you will be doing a block or rolling prac. I guess for students undertaking a block prac it will be easier not to work but I must stress that a rolling prac can be just as much work. Therefore, it's best to cut down your hours if possible. If you still aren't sure whether to work or not check out my advice on "To Work or not to work".

5. Remember that no beginning teacher is perfect!
You are a student here too so don't be too hard on yourself. Also our MT may give you feedback that seems a little harsh but remember that they are doing it for your own good. If you are even stressed out about some seemingly negative feedback - I can assure you I received plenty! And I made it through :) We all have tough days when the students are feral, technology fails or our lesson simply doesn't go to plan. But you will survive!

On another note, if you have a particularly lovellllyy MT who doesn't give much feedback or tends to only give positive feedback then consider showing your lesson plans (discretely) to the Head Teacher or University Lecturer. You really are on prac to learn to be the best teacher you can be so you need constructive feedback. If all else fails, make sure you reflect on how your lessons went and how they could be improved.

For some more tips on Master Teachers check out my post on "Dealing with Master Teachers". For all the teachers out there, I would love to hear what other advice you have for Prac Students and how they can survive their placement.

:)

Specially designed to ensure maximum comfort when stapling a schadenfreude

What's the best language to learn?

I read another Blog the other day which was advocating a certain language was the best to learn. This got me thinking...what is the best language to learn?

I don't think there is a simple answer to this question if we are talking about all people in the world or even in Australia or even just NSW. It's not possible to generalise like this when we all have our own motivations, beliefs, interests and cultural backgrounds that could and should influence our decision.

One strong belief I do hold very close to my heart is, that if your family has a heritage in a country that is not an English speaking one -  then this is a great language to learn. It is a part of who you are and you should embrace it. My Grandfather came to Australia after the war in the 1940's and never spoke German with my mother. Therefore, she never taught me. But I love learning it because I know it is still a part of who I am and gives me a stronger sense of identity. So please, don't lose your language, culture and heritage.

However, if you are motivated by work or money then another language might be the go. Asian languages are very popular for this reason. In saying that if you live in the United States you might want to consider Spanish.

If you want to learn a language to travel - well learn the language of the place you are going - obviously!

If you are motivated by your partner - learn what they speak. They will be an invaluable teacher.

On that note I do still strongly advocate learning Spanish for a few simple reasons:

• It's probably the easiest language for English speakers to learn. It's a phonetic language with a relatively small alphabet.
• More people speak Spanish as their first language than English making it the 2nd most spoken in the world in terms of native speakers. Imagine all the people you could befriend!
• Latin America is the largest growing market in business. Therefore, Spanish is a growing language for business. Aka employability.
• 50 million people (more than double the population of Australia) in the USA speak Spanish. SO if you want to go there, you might need more than just English.
• It's one of the most culturally rich languages you can find. And that's not surprising considering it's the main language in over 22 countries. From the Incas in Peru, the colourful streets in La Habana or to La Tomatina in Spain there is so much to see and learn.
• There are a lot of resources available. From grammar to free music and TV shows, there is something on the web to help with your Spanish in a fun and exciting way. In comparison to German I find it ten times easier to find both teaching and personal resources for Spanish.

Macchu Picchu, Peru

La Habana, Cuba

La Tomatina, Spain

What do you guys think is the best language to learn? Or at least for you what is or would be the best? And what are your motivations? Maybe I will have inspired you to learn one today :)

My Experience: Teaching Group Interview for ESL

The exact words some of the other applicants may be using to ask this question in a few days time.

Today I had a group interview for the role of an ESL Teacher in an ESL Centre at one of the Uni's in Sydney. Before this I had never done a group interview so was a little perplexed as to what it actually was. I read a few things online and there were a two main types I saw described:

1. The Panel Interview - This sounds like there a few people from the organisation interviewing solely you or  group of candidates.
2. The Group candidate interview - In which you are asked to work with other candidates on tasks and perhaps present a demo lesson. This is what my interview was.

So you must be dying to know what we did?

Well let me start out by saying it went for 2.5 hours! But time flies when you're having fun and to be honest the whole process was pretty enjoyable despite the few butterflies I had! 

To begin with we all had 2 minutes to introduce ourselves. Surprisingly, out of the 9 of us only 2 were native English speakers. All the non-natives had ridiculously impressive credentials like Masters and post graduate studies in TESOL and a lot of experience teaching ESL. However, I was shocked by how many errors they made in English. One girl even wrote Tuseday on the board. Really. So although I was much younger and less experienced than the other applicants at least I could speak English. I also just think its weird to try and teach the native language of a country when you can't speak it properly. Sorry! I would never go to Spain and try and teach Spanish. How embarrassing for starters. And when my student enter the big wide world and make mistakes - who will they blame? Me. And rightly so. Buuuut that's not going to happen so we needn't worry!

Anyway here's the rest of the interview structure....

First task - Discuss in groups your strategies for dealing with 4 situations that could arise in the classroom. From memory they were:

• How you would deal with a disruptive student.
• How you would deal with co-teaching with a teacher who was not implementing technology to the expectations of the students and teaching plan.
• How you would deal with a student who complained about their host family/ had issues with their host family.
• I can't remember the last one! So it must have been boring haha

Second task - The dreaded DEMO LESSON!!!!! I actually felt really confident doing this. Mostly because the lady that went first was so bad. So that was nice for me. In all honesty out of all the demo lessons only 1 or 2 were OK. I suspect people didn't really plan for this or anticipate it. So if you are going to a group interview for a teaching position I would prepare at least 3 demo lessons that fulfil the following criteria:

• They can be adapted to different time frames eg you could leave some parts out if you have 5 instead of 10 minutes
• They are not boring grammar explanations that are trying to show off how much grammar you know. This results in a lot of teacher talk and doesn't showcase that you know how to include a range of things in each lessons such as group work.
• Don't try an adapt an entire lesson into a demo lesson. This is just stupid. So many people did that today and their demo lessons sucked and made them look stupid. Pick something short and sweet in which the students learn something and create something.
• GOOGLE IT! Watch some YouTube videos even from different subject areas to get ideas. The point of the demo lesson isn't to show off your knowledge of the English grammar system. Or that you can explain how to write some really complicated text type. It is not a time to show off! Rather showcase your overall skills as a teacher and presence. 

So my main tip: SHOWCASE don't SHOWOFF. You will just look stupid if you do.

And that was all. I thought it would be more of a learning experience for me but it wasn't really. Although the other teachers had a lot of experience I wasn't very impressed with them. The majority couldn't speak English and the only other native was an old man who was quite dull. Which brings me to another point, don' be over the top for the sake of getting noticed. One girl today did this and she just came across as plain cray cray.

I know this post is a little more informal but I hope it helps people out. Please post any questions or advice about your experience doing group interviews as well. We can all help each other become better teachers by sharing information!

German Teachers Resources: AlexiBexi on YouTube

I love this guy! Ich liebe ihn! And I also think most things in German sound hilarious so when AlexiBexi translates English pop music into German it's going to be a hit. He also happens to be somewhat of a comedian so the videos are always entertaining too. Click here to see AlexiBexi's songs oder Chart Songs auf Deutsch! Below is my fav.....

I have used these songs as a hook in my classes or simply as a way to advertise German to younger grades so they can see how fun it can be! And the students loved it. Learning the words to Call me maybe in German is quite addictive.

In my search for the Call me maybe video I stumbled across another great section of his called Ich mag's Lecker in which he makes different recipes. Really funny although probably too difficult for most school students. Unless they are native students doing extension.They could still be a great resource to get the students to write the recipe and learn common phrases such as Na, klar which he uses a bit as it's quite casual.  Here's the one I watched today in which AlexiBexi makes a cute little dessert and confirms my deutsche Freundin Joana's advice that there really is no word in German for fluffy by using the word "fluffy" auf Englisch!

Let me know what you guys think and of any other ideas for teaching German using YouTube or other videos!

Professional Development: Goals

Part of becoming a good teaching is developing professionally. For me as a trained language teacher that means keeping up my language skills, staying in touch with the current news and trends from Spanish and German speaking countries as well as up to date with language learning methodology. SO I've decided to post my goals on here in the hope it will make me a little more accountable for achieving them!

Goals

• Volunteer for home visits with Spanish and German speaking aged care residents. More info here: http://govolunteer.com.au/
• Watching TV from Spain and Germany. Great channels are rtve.es and daserste.de . If anyone is studying another language and knows of a good website then please comment! I chose the ones above because you can stream all the shows for free or watch live tv. There are many other channels but these seem to have a good selection of shows. I love Familia from rtve.es!
• Take the C1 exam for both German and Spanish. This goal isn't something I plan on doing immediately because I'd like to undertake a little more study as well.
• Practise writing in my languages. Keep up my penpal exchange with the girl from Germany and Blog about Tv shows or movies I'm watching.
• Join the MLTA, Spanish, German and ESL Teachers Associations. 
• Get a job actually teaching languages and take part in the Endeavour Fellowship aka a free learning exchange trip to a foreign country. Sounds like a dream come true! More info here:http://deewr.gov.au/endeavour-language-teacher-fellowship-practising-language-teacher-questions
• Maintain this blog with reflection on my teaching and posts about my involvement in any of the above points.
• Read newspapers in Spanish and German. Some available in Australia are El español and The Spanish Herald as well as Die Woche for German. You may need to find a specialist news agency or a larger one that stocks them. But they are a great cheap resource not only for yourself but your students too!

I would love to hear other language teachers thoughts on how they continue to develop professionally as well!

Casual Teaching: Day 2

Finally!!!!! I am an actual, real life teacher. The NSW Government actually allows me to educate the future of Australia....even in primary schools when I'm a qualified high school teacher.

And it's been such a nice change! I did teach primary school whilst in Spain but it was very disorganised and didn't really make the most of all the invaluable resources that they had. However, at least in the school I taught at today, it is so organised.

I had some early arrivers fill me in on the daily timetable and wrote it on the board. Something I will endeavour to do again when casual teaching! So off to a good start. First up was a spelling test, with more of the kids teaching me than I them and marking of Maths homework. So nothing too strenuous. I was beginning to think this primary thing was a piece of cake.

Then we continued work on their assessment. It was slight mayhem as all the students had completed different amounts of work and it was impossible to get everyone to the same place. How do teachers normally manage that? I provided some extension activities for students who were finished and also had some older students in the class because of PSSA Sport so I had them proof read students work which seemed to work well but overall it was just a bit noisy. In the end they all got the work finished though so I suppose that's good. It just wasn't perfect so I guess there are a few aspects I would like to work on. Giving very clear instructions to students about what they are doing and making them accountable for sticking to that. I had discussed with them what they were to do and written it up on the board. There were different options for the students depending on where they were up to but as I was marking a lot of their drafts it left those not lining up the chance to make a lot of noise. Also the students in the line waiting for their work to be marked were quite rowdy. I'm not exactly sure how to manage that. They were bored and I couldn't go any faster. Are they just like this with casual teachers?

The afternoon session was by far the worst. We had sport and it was soccer. I have no idea how to play soccer so that was probably the biggest problem. The kids were bonkers as it was last thing on a Friday and after lunch. Half didn't want to get involved and then a few students were incredibly rough and hogged the ball. On top of that was the constant dobbing about cheating. I wouldn't even have known because like I said - no idea how to play soccer! I considered doing soccer drills instead but we were sharing the oval with all the other classes and all the other teachers could see the class so I didn't want to be seen as not doing the conveyed activity.

All in all  think the main issue is still behaviour management and  the more I get to know their routine the more effective any strategies will be. I think next time I need to employ some basic strategies such as having students stand up behind their chairs if they are talking too much, using praise to influence the class and learning the students names!

The Overseas Teaching Experience

Many new grad teachers choose to do some amount of time abroad teaching. Usually 6-12 months and generally in the UK or possibly Asian countries teaching English. I think this is a great idea and such a fantastic way to travel as well as gently easy yourself into the world of teaching without supervision!

I taught in Spain for 6 months as part of a program through the Spanish Goverment. Anyone who is interested I will post a link below but they require basic Spanish skills although you can have any undergraduate degree. Anywhoo....

Things to consider if you are moving overseas to teach:

• Do you want to travel whilst you are there? Check that the city or town you are going to be in is easy and cheap to travel from. I was in Madrid and although this is a capital city it isn't the hot tourist destination that places like Barcelona or Malaga so the flights to other parts of Europe were actually quite expensive.
• Do you want to learn the language? My best advice for anyone wanting to learn the language would be not to go to a big city. More people speak English here and will be very excited to practise with you, especially if you look like a foreigner. For me, being blonde haired and blue eyed in Spain I stook out like a sore thumb. Also, don't hang out with all the other expats. You will just end up speaking English. Take language classes in combination with practising with native speakers too. Save up for these classes and go intensive if you can. You are only there for a short time so really want to make to most of it.
• Be very careful when finding accommodation. Save enough money to stay in a hotel for the first few weeks if you have to or try and find an English speaking real estate agent who can help you if you don't have any friends or colleagues to help you out. Depending on what you want find out what the demographics of different areas are. For example if you are wanting to meet other young people move into a student area, also good for cheap rent. If you want to practise the language then avoid these areas.
• Save, save and save some more before you go so you can make the most of all the great opportunities that arise once you are there.

A few other programs I know about for anyone wanting to do this are:

Spain 

 http://www.mecd.gob.es/australia/convocatorias/programas/auxiliares-de-conversacion-australianos.html

There is also the Endeavour Program through the DET. Asian language students can attend these once they finish uni and all others after 1 years of teaching the language. The DET pays for EVERYTHING so it's really a must-do. Plus you can do one every 5 years.

http://deewr.gov.au/endeavour-language-teacher-fellowship-practising-language-teacher-questions

Practicum Advice: To work or not to work?

Work and practicum is like work and more work with more work because you're also doing Uni work and that's just all too much work for even this sentence. My number one, ultimate, best, I wish I had been told this piece of advice for anyone about to undertake prac whilst studying full time is DON'T WORK or work as little as possible. You might end up looking like the cat above. And as much as I love cats, the sight of a povo uni student looking this stressed is never good!

I know, I know you are thinking but I won't have any money? Well my friend, let me ask you, what is more valuable: money for, well really not a whole lot because during prac you will have very little spare time to spend any money or your sanity? I made the mistake of thinking the money was more important and worked over 30 hours a week and did prac on top of full time uni (half of which was external) and I would not recommend it for the following reasons:

• You can't give any activity your best effort when focusing on so much
• There isn't enough time in each day for most of these activities to be done well
• It's stressful so you need some time to relax
• When you start working again you will appreciate whatever crappy job you have and then appreciate a teaching job even more when you get one!

Also, I should mention that Youth Allowance or NewStart Allowance may be an option for some people and although it's not a lot it might at least pay the bills whilst you are on prac. Definitely worth considering!!! I know the majority of the people in my class were receiving Youth Allowance during prac. Contact Centrelink for more info.

http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/services/centrelink/youth-allowance

Practicum Advice: Dealing with Master Teachers

That leads me to dealing with Master Teachers. I had experience with some fantastic, innovative Master Teachers who challenged me and provided me with every opportunity to become the best possible teacher. For teachers like this I would advise taking on every task they offer you. These kinds of teachers won't ask you to do their photocopying but instead might ask you to transcribe an entire class worth of Spanish HSC trial spoken responses. This may seem worse for some, but they only ask you to do things that they know you will learn from. And I did learn from transcribing all those spoken responses - I now know the common errors HSC Beginner Spanish students make and the structure of HSC spoken exam. 

Now that I'm out in the workforce I'm so thankful for all these challenges because they have really given me an edge over other candidates. Gracia Dios for teachers like this!

I also trained with a fantastic, vetran Spanish Teacher whose rapport with the students astounds me even to this day. He really did make teaching look so easy! But he has been doing it for over 40 years so that should give us all some hope. After that long it will be second nature. Only 38.5 years to go then.....

Collaboration with other teachers is invaluable. As I trained in languages, my department was never one in it's own. I mean to say the language department was combined with another. At my first school with the music department. Observe these teachers too! They may cal you for casual days once you finish if you have shown a keen interest in their subjects. Plus they often have great advice about teaching and are more than willing to share it with you. I found that behaviour management skills can be learnt from a variety of subject areas. 

If you are unfortunate enough to be dealing with a difficult MT then I advise you to try and keep them happy as much as you can - as they will be writing your prac report. It is always a shame to work with a poor MT as you don't get to learn as much and it can be quite disheartening to see how unenthusiastic some teachers have become.Depending on what subject you are teaching, it may be possible to discuss a change of placement with your University if it is really that bad. My University was very understanding when I spoke to the Unit Convener about the issues but at the end of the day it was so difficult for me to get a placement (as I was teaching German) that it was deemed best for me to remain at the school. I also spoke with the Head Teacher because the majority of my issues were that the MT was disrupting the class herself (often walking around talking during class or handing out notes during my lessons). Therefore making my job much more strenuous as the class was particularly disruptive to begin with. In this case it can be better to do what the Head Teacher advises. For example my Master Teacher would tell me not to bother giving the misbehaving student detention as they would not bother coming so there was no point. However, the Head Teacher said this was an acceptable behaviour management strategy with this class and furthermore advised me on how to structure the detention to make it more meaningful. His suggestions included making sure the students had something to do during detention so it wasn't just sitting there. EG writing out school rules or completing class work. 

The Head Teacher was also receptive to my suggestion to discuss with the students what they themselves thought would help them to work better in class. This also actually produced some surprising and enlightening responses from the students. They asked not to sit with their friends! Something my MT then refused to do and reprimanded them for suggesting. So as you can tell, all teachers have varying ideas about how to deal with disruptive students. We don't just learn what to do on prac, but also what not to do. 

So in summary, to effectively deal with Master Teachers:

• Communicate - ask what they want you to prepare, ask what you can to do help them out (marking ect)., talk to Head Teachers and Uni Lecturers about any problems
• Play nice - be polite and professional as they will be writing your prac report
• Appreciate that they have taken you on - Master Teachers are very busy themselves especially around HSC and report time.And don't forget to say thank you!
• Get to know teachers in other subjects and observe their lessons. 

Practicum advice: Block or rolling prac?

So it's been nearly a year since I finished my practicum!! I remember feeling like I would never get through it and I don't think I have ever been as stressed in my life as I was during the 10 odd months I did my prac over.

My uni runs a rolling prac rather than block prac sessions as part of the Diploma of Education. I found this to be a good thing and a bad thing.

Pros:

• More authentic experience of what you will most likely be doing once you finish - casual teaching
• You get to know the school, teachers and students better
• Expose to a range of activities within the school - the most useful for me was HSC and HSC trials. If you aren't in the school during these times you simply don't get the exposure to it. I was lucky enough to help write and mark HSC papers which I think is an invaluable skill.
• Improves your time management skills

Cons:

• You may only be there a few days a week so it's even more difficult in terms of behaviour management as the students have different teachers for the same class and can be confused as to what exactly the boundaries are.
• You are stuck with the same Master Teacher for a long time (not so bad if your MT is awesome!)
• It is very difficult to manage full time study and work on top of prac. I would advise against working all together if possible but I know this is almost impossible for the majority of us.

Overall, I think the running prac is a better albeit more challenging method of running a practicum placement. It can be very stressful not just for you as the student teacher but your Master Teacher as well. Often they are juggling HSC or Naplan for primary on top of dealing with a student teacher.