e-Compete Wales

Well.....where do I start? Have just come back from first night of course -bizarre! Course tutor was small, blonde (probably dyed - could see the roots) woman called Jen. Definitely not what I expected - her or the course. We all trooped into this room, which was clearly signposted, but thought we were in the wrong place. Nothing was ready - the chairs and tables were stacked against the wall, beamer and projector not connected, nowhere to put our coats - it was chaos. Remember thinking that HP would have a coronary if we were that disorganised in our centre. Anyway, we are all standing there like idiots and without so much as an introduction. Only person I knew was Lars. Thought of suggesting to him that we cut our losses and went off to the pub instead. Funny, I’d never noticed he looked like Homer Simpson before. Then her-with-the-roots says to us we are going to be working mainly in small groups of 4 or 5, with some input sessions for her and please will we organise the furniture and the room so that we feel comfortable in it. What a cop out, I thought, just because she didn’t get there early enough to do it herself. Well, we shuffled things about a bit, got chatting to a nice machine knitting lady who carried a table with me and we ended up with little clusters of chairs around a table a bit like a cafe. (Quite proud of this -this arrangement actually worked rather well. Maybe I’ll try it with my lot - make a change from having them in a circle.) So then she, Jen, (only we didn’t know her name at that point) says to us “How do you actually feel right now? What are you thinking? How have you been feeling since you got here?” Bit of a silence, which didn’t seem to bother her, but then people started calling things out and she wrote it all on a flipchart. People were saying stuff like “really nervous” “apprehensive” “worried” “excited” “curious” “wondering where I fit in - will the others be better than me or worse than me?” “who are all these people? Will I like them? Will they like me? Are they going to be really boring or a bit of fun?” Which is more or less what I was feeling really. Then she said “Well, guess what, that’s exactly how your students will be feeling at the beginning of your course.” I suppose they would really. Then the next question was about what we were worried about - could we identify the barriers? What was going to stop us learning? That was a bit harder but came up with quite a long list on the flipchart. “worrying whether I’m going to pass or fail” “my husband has just been made redundant and I might have to give up and look for an extra evening class to teach” “ it’s ages since I did any formal learning and I think I’ve forgottten how to” “my English might not let me keep up with the discussions - especially if people are too fast” (that from Lars - must remember not to be too fast....) more follows....

What the hell possessed me to sign up for this course. Am far to old to be sitting in lecture theatres. Spent 3 years at university managing to avoid it, why am I doing it again? Shit! Have just had awful thought....supposing there’s an exam. Aaagh! Have also realised that I will be in Italy for one weekend and don’t get back until the Monday evening so will miss one session. Wonder if they will take dim view of this. Should I tell HP? He can’t say much because trip to Italy is to finalise arrangements for my students going for optional weekend in Rome to look at Italian cuisine. Had a ball last year - took 10 students who came back astonished that there was more to Italian grub than spag bol and Chianti bottles existed outside of table lamps.

Life is looking up. Went to pub this evening after my class finished and the Mod Lang staff were all in there - Herr Heinemann is going on the Evalu-whotsit thing. Unfortunately so is Dr Professor Whatever-her-name -is from Romania. Why the hell is she going on a training course if she has so many letters after her name I ask myself. Bet I’ll be the stupidest one there. Maybe should take up yoga instead.

Done it. Told HP I’d go - he seemed pleased. I start next week. Aagh! What have I let myself in for. Wish I’d asked who else was going. He did mention that there had been a ‘positive response’ from Modern Languages. (does that mean ‘Yes’?). This is promising. Shit! Supposing it’s that very bright Romanian woman with a million degrees who teaches French. Worse...supposing they are all like that.

Spent weekend cleaning house, watching Omnibus East Enders, photocopying handouts on Creme Brulee and having lunch with my mother. Feel my life could do with an overhaul. Sod it - in the absence of Brad Pitt knocking on my door and whisking me off to the Bahamas, maybe I’ll go on this evaluation thingy. Will ring High Principals tomorrow.

New term started tonight. Have 18 students - pretty mixed bunch. Didn’t do much this evening, never do on first night. Sorted out registers, told them what equipment they needed - got all the boring stuff out of the way then told them they could go home early and we’ll start in earnest next week. They always seem so nervous - can’t think why. “European Cookery for Beginners” is hardly the most threatening subject. Some of the questions they ask make you wonder why the hell they bother.

One woman wanted to know if it was OK if she could miss half-term week when her kids were on holiday from school - what the hell did she think I was going to do? Felt like telling her she’d need a note from her mother or she’d have a row. Another guy asked if there was a phone in the building......Doh! But the best was the one who was obsessed by whether we were going to have a coffee break and would the canteen be open. Depressing - when I ask whether they have any questions, I rather hope that occasionally they might say something intelligent about the course not about the bloody tea and biscuits.

Am depressed. Just got home after staff meeting at Adult Education Centre. Principal is not happy. He has just had the report on the inspection last term. Some OK stuff but mainly bad. (Apart from the French classes which got rave reviews ). My cookery class didn’t get a mention (Phew! keeping head below parapet always a good idea). Apparently we got criticised for “inadequate and inappropriate evaluation practices” - whatever that means. Inspectors have got some daft idea that we “do not involve students sufficiently in the evaluation process”. This is unfair - I am really conscientious about handing out the end-of-year evaluation sheets AND I make sure that they fill them in (unlike some people who think this is a joke). Anyway, Mr High Principals has agreed that he is going to send some of us on a course about “Developing Self Evaluation Techniques for Adult Learners” (don’t think this will be a sell out at the box office). Worse, he has asked me to go. Why me? This is really unfair because I get a 100% returns on my forms which proves that all my students participate in the evaluation process. Will think about it.

Course is every Monday for about 13 weeks I think. Plus a residential weekend (definite plus point ). And Lars, the Conversational German teacher , is also going. (very definite plus point - wonder what he looks like in lederhosen...).