It's been a hard day's night...

So Blogger and it's So!Exciting!Unavoidable!Updates! and the college internet restrictions have conspired against me and it's now impossible for me to update this PDJ from work when things are fresh in my mind. Oh well.

I definitely feel that my ability to plan- or at least to write a good plan- for a lesson has improved since I started this course. I've got a much clearer understanding of aims and objectives than I had before, which has been added to by observations and by teaching. I'm getting much better at being specific in my own mind about what I want students to learn, and how they are going to achieve it.

My classroom management, in the one class where it is really visibly needed, seems to be getting better. Being an FE establishment, there are some punishments which (though they might be effective) we can't mete out, like detention. But what it is in my power to do, I do. Last week, I instigated a new rule with a class some members of which take a mile when you give them an inch, and told them that if they were not back from break on time, i.e. after 20 minutes, those who were late back wouldn't get a break the week after. So this week, two of the students wrote lines instead of getting a break. One of them accepted it, the other one (who is, quite frankly, a right royal pain in the backside pretty much all the time), moaned but ended up following the other. I am waiting to see what effect it will have on them, though it certainly worked on the rest of the class, who were in the habit of coming back in dribs and drabs but now return, en masse, and bang on time. But they weren't the problem in the first place, it was the two who got lines. Which is why I shall wait and see before I declare the idea to have been a complete success.

ICT continues to bother me. I've mentioned the lack of streaming before, but not that in a busy class, one student whose abilities are markedly below that of the others can cause all kinds of problems. The student about whom I expressed surprise (I think) in this blog when I discovered that she had been to an IT college continues to make life difficult. I would love nothing more than to sit down with her and go through everything very slowly, but in a room full of other students with an equal claim on my time and attention, this isn't fair or possible. The issues she has with the computer are compounded by the fact that she is always late for the lesson, and subsequently misses the explanation and opportunity other students have to ask initial questions, and thus for me to get the group off to a good start- something I am ever more keen to do. Her excuses- I use this word because they never adequately explain her continual lack of punctuality- are invariably to do with the bus, despite the fact that I have pointed out to her on numerous occasions that the bus journey she takes is at least 25 minutes, and therefore getting on the bus at quarter to the hour when the lesson starts is not going to get her to college on time. If I press her on the subject she simply repeats "it's hard for me", which is the same thing she says when I try to help her with her work. I am trying desperately to be understanding, but there's being understanding and there's being a doormat. Further, it doesn't seem to have any beneficial effect, since this week she announced that she wasn't coming to the class anymore. I spoke to her tutor about the problems I have with her, which the lesson record tells me aren't a problem for other teachers, as she is only ever late to my class although she has other lessons that start at the same time- even earlier- in the day. I want so much to help her progress, but I don't see how she can with the impenetrable "it's hard for me" which seems to accompany a silent "therefore I'm not going to try". I would be a lot more understanding were it not for the fact that her excuse that she hasn't used a computer before doesn't hold up- there are others in other classes- in fact there are others in THAT class- who haven't used a computer before, but they put the effort in and are doing really well. For example a student who had problems even with using the mouse when I first saw her managed to complete almost all of the work on spreadsheets that I gave the class to do- in fact, she had got as far as the extension work by the end of the lesson. Now you could argue that this may just mean that some of the students have a more natural aptitude for the computer than others, but my belief is that the students who are doing best are the students who are making the effort, asking questions when they have a problem, rather than just sitting there looking lost. I do my best to keep on top of this last issue by monitoring the class, but I can't be in three places at once, and if one person wants help, I can't abandon them to rush over and goad and cajole another student until I've helped the first student with their problem.

I'm really at a loss as to what to do with her, but hope that the training will help me soon.

My highest-level class continues to be a pleasure to work with- lots of experimenting with new vocabulary and grammar forms means that they are really improving. One of them seems to pick up the most fascinating array of slang and expressions- this week his letter of complaint announced that the person he was writing to was "clipping our wings". I see fewer and fewer mistakes every time I mark their work- it's heartening, and a good end to the week, to work with them.