Teaching English: Looking back

Positives

• A celta 
• Reason to get up in morning 
• Gave me back confidence (especially in 1st year) 
• A new experience for life 
• + $ 75,000 in 2 years 
• Survived almost no preparation in last year 
• Zest of creating lessons, I was good at it 
• Grew lot in skill from initial "teach from book" 
• Made earlier classes laugh 
• "Best teacher ever had" 
• Adoration of Ana 
• Fannie "That was very interesting" 
• Bella "Great grammar" 
• "You're a great teacher" 
• Business students to Fee "enjoy class" - we missed you 
• Lovely people (Steve, Ed, Fee, Janice, Matt x 2, Sam, Jo) 
• Teacher Trove + writing Wiki + student blog 
• Lauren blown away 
• Part time - so able to focus on Art of Living 
• Extremely resilient (divorce, tax, students leaving, CELTA observers) 
• Stockpile of ready lessons - print in morning (amazing!) 
• Celta observers always impressed 
• Several inexperienced teachers did not cut it - I did 
• Rosa did ask me back in summer - knew I was going away 

Triumphs   

• You're a good teacher! (Bella + Gustavo + Melanie + Michaela and co) 
• Famous lesson with Steve Jobs 
• Your lesson is very interesting. Thank you. (ghost stories at last minute) 
• girl wanted to stay in my business class 
• funny video of BBC Guy - hilarity 
• riddles with business class 
• wonderful atmosphere in intermediate class 
• Riddles - great excitement 
• English Powerpoints with great images 
• Anat changed back to my class 
• Max: "Best teacher ever had" 
• ten fingers - Pauline 
• Anat - this is excellent (twice) 
• Elementaries - you're such a good teacher. Best in Kaplan. 
• Michala and Mattheus very happy with my lessons - fun (Phi) 
• Upper Int students were saying they enjoy your lessons (Aparna) 
• Michala - we missed you on Tuesday 
• CELTA (my friend Russell) - it was so useful 
• Lauren: "Lauren is amazed" "This is amazing!" (blog) 
• Lauren: I'm blown away" (Teacher Trove) 
• Linda: "Graeme Myburgh! Your blog is amazing." 66 pages. Called Aparna in.   
• Principal: Your photos are fantastic. 
• Keeping going with my teaching (and stepping right up) when student left class 
• My triumphant lessons to CELTA students 
• My Halloween lesson 
• Melbourne Cup facts 
• My Twists English lesson 

Student gripes   

• First girl - it revolutionised my teaching 
• French girl (Int) - class too disruptive 
• Evan (thick glasses) - had for elective and main (more lively, more indiv attention) 
• Pre-Int girl - not show us enough attention 
• Ron - 2nd time I got him 
• Sweet girl (ele) - changed mind once class mill 
• 3 princesses in upper - stayed 
• Upper class from hell - 2 girls + guy complained in class (interview skills) 
• Last class - 3 wanted to do test to go up 
• "Fat face" 
• Girl upset not grammar (test coming!) - other girl said "great class" 
• Business class - some changed (doing it it morning too) 
• Happened to others all time (Ed, South African guy, Sam's feral class, Indian girl advanced class) 

What I did not enjoy   

• Stress of new class 
• Wake very early 
• Expensive purchases (coffee milk $8 plus train $6 plus bakery $5 = $80 per week)  $400 / month! 
• Low pay for high stress 
• Always risk of rejection 
• Repetition of lessons 
• ISR's - huge waste of time 
• Marking essays 
• Janice upset with me once at photocopier
• Student increasingly spoiled (able to afford $, Rosa soft touch, change class epidemic) 
• Photocopy lessons at 8 am - stress! 
• Work stopped - but Rosa did invite back, knew I was going away 
• Stress of what next class would be - scared elementary or upper int 
• Electives a lot of work 
• Paid by hour, not by day 

Kaplan Murder Mystery

All the Kaplan staff had a tremendously fun time last night acting out a murder mystery during a delicious three course dinner.  We all had to come in costume as our character.  The setting was a train in France in 1940.  I played the part of a posh, well travelled business person who is at home in the best restaurants and hotels who is actually a British double agent.  Then there was a duke and a princess, a journalist and a novelist, a gangster and an RAF pilot and various other juicy characters.  Needless to say, we all acted with gusto and really got into our roles.  There was a lot of laughter and joviality, helped by copious amounts of free wine.  What a fun evening!

Melbourne Cup

It was Melbourne Cup today and the annual hat competition attracted some interesting entries as always.  It was a great race this year, probably the closest finish in the history of the cup.  If it were not for cameras and photo-finishes, no-one would have been able to determine the winner.

Julie, our wonderful principal, was the belle of the ball in her own very colourful creation...

And here we have the winners...  

Phi looking fascinating in his fascinator...

Matt and Matt respectively

Jo in a pretty number

Students in their hats

Fellow teachers at the pub, namely Rachel, Sam, Melissa, Kim, Phi and Steve...

Special Agent Myburgh with his gangster sidekick

My Pre-Intermediate Class

Merry

I have just completed 10 weeks of one to one tuition with Merry, a lovely student from Korea. She wanted to do mostly conversation so we did about 50 hours of chatting.  That's a lot of talking!!  We covered many topics and got to know about each other's lives very well indeed!

My Elementary Class

I have just finished a stint with an elementary class. They were a wonderful group of people and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The great thing about elementary students is that they are not yet jaded with their English lessons and you, as there teacher, are their hero and they hang onto your every word. For those of us who are a little low on esteem at times, it's a special feeling.

Pre-Intermediate Student Class (January)

A wonderful, fun class. I really enjoy teaching this level of English.